That sucks, but they wouldn’t do it if people didn’t buy. They’re playing the eBay pre-order game without having to pay eBay.
Retailers selling at ridiculous prices, before the flood comes.
Be patient and just wait…
4 Likes
It’s a reason I don’t even go-to golden apple’s website…
It’s like shopping at The Domain here in Austin. The premier yuppy rich people’s shopping outlet mall. The outfit you find at the Macy’s for $1200 at the Domain you can find the same exact one at Barton Creek Square Mall Macy’s in South Austin for $600.
2 Likes
I’ve been to Golden Apple when I was living in LA. It was always a cool shop being run by pretty cool people. I’m surprised this is how they conduct business online. Granted, it was years ago, so a lot could have changed,
I’m sure once upon a time they didn’t practice what they do now… times have changed. A lot of shops want to play secondary market right out of the gate… instead of being the “buy wholesale, move newly released inventory”…
4 Likes
All I know is, they can do what they want. But if consumers keep saying it’s “okay” and keep shopping there, it will never end. You’re just rewarding bad behavior and they’ll just keep on raising the prices on you… until one day when you realize it’s too late and you were overcharged for years… that’s now on you.
3 Likes
Since this topic has been raised and this thread organically turns into general discussion. I’d like to pose a business question. What if a shop jacked up the prices on hot books out the gate for the speculators/flippers but then countered that by selling everything else for $1 for true readers/collectors. Intentionally take a loss on the bulk of their orders and make up for it by sticking it to the rabid secondary flippers. Any thoughts?
1 Like
That would be an AMAZING strategy that no comic shop would risk taking. I love the idea though.
But how do they determine who’s a spec/flipper and regular customer?
Unless you tell them at checkout… “Man, can’t wait to list this on eBay to double my money”…
The problem I have is, shops should not care what the customers do with the product after it leaves their hands. You went into a business buying at cheap wholesale prices and you’re goal is to move inventory, lots of it since we’re talking low dollar cover price inventory… If you want to get rich, pick a new profession or business I say… cause there’s no getting rich selling modern day new release comic books.
6 Likes
Yes I see what you mean. I guess in this instance the reader of the ‘hot’ book would be SOL on getting an afforadable copy from said store. I’m developing a site and just toying with some alternative ideas. Appreciate the feedback
Thinking about the industry moving forward, I can’t imagine anyone opening a brick and mortar in the current state of things, and pretty hard for an online shop starting out with no innovative strategy to bring to the table like exclusive store variants or something. With the surge in popularity more shops should be opening but theyre not because theyre not sustainable with the current business model. The only reason my lcs has survived this year after 40+ years is because a rich crazy person spends $1200 a week there.
Brick shops are not widespread with openings but since 2013, since I’ve gotten back into the game, the number of online only shops has probably gone up by 100x… At one point years ago I could only really order new books (pre-order with a decent online order system) at a handful of online shops like Midtown, TFAW, Grahams and just a few others.
Now one can spit in any direction on the internet and hit an online shop that accepts pre-orders.
Anyone with space or a garage and internet connection can setup up an online shop in seconds compared to a brick store. Would I dare open up a online shop? Heck no, too much competition now… You have to really stand out from the others.
1 Like
As mentioned above, biggest tool for fighting the nonsense is simply not buying. Fight the FOMO. More times than not I see these inflated books sitting there weeks and months later. Especially variants. These greedy places choke on enough product, they start seeing the light.
2 Likes
Yup… it’s a reason I don’t bother shopping at Austin Books anymore. I got tired of the “hot book of the week” and they’re lame excuse of it being… “shorted” or “allocated”… yet they got every other book. That excuse works once before one has to realize, oh, it’s just them yanking and it magically appears on the “Newly Acquired” wall a few days later at the eBay price… once it sells, they just pull the next one out to replace it… until they’re all gone.
4 Likes
When the shops lie that’s an issue. I don’t really care when they raise the prices on the books they ordered for the shelf that are worth more, but if you shorted your customers on their orders to do this that’s awful.
You might not care but like I said, when you pay for bad behavior, it’s only rewarding them to continue raising the prices.
Now, I am only talking release day. I have no issues if shops start to raise their older back stock to meet what the market prices are. But new books, on release day have a cover price and those should be such price for at least a week to give consumers a chance at their copy without paying secondary market prices. If they truly want it that bad and a week or two has gone by, then that’s on them and they can pay premium. But to me, jacking up the price on release day is just punishing your customers out of greed. I don’t care how they excuse such behavior… it’s simply greed.
If shops want to play the secondary market game, they can drop their wholesale account, stand in line like the rest of us, pay full retail price and chance it when eBay is flooded with the books…
4 Likes
If you are a comic reader or speculator and you rely on the shelf to get your books this is the risk you take. There are so many ways to make sure you get your books at regular price or discounted prices.
It has to be frustrating as a shop owner though when you know people you have never seen before are coming in to grab a book and flip it for profit when you could have just done that yourself.
I tend to agree. Shops are under no obligation to sell books at cover price except to the customers that preordered them for that price. Its unreasonable to expect a shop to sell a book at $4 when it is going for $20 online.
I dont think its always a good idea to do that, a lot of times they are best served by getting these books into the hands of locals for the best price possible. But to say they are somehow unethical for doing so is wrong. Now if they are shorting customers to sell online that is a different issue.
If you want a hot book to flip, preorder it or hunt it down. Dont expect shops to take a money hit just so you can make a big profit. They are the ones having to pay rent.
1 Like
So you would have been fine with Walmart, target, Amazon selling ps5s for $1,000 right out the gate? Since that was the going rate on eBay.
1 Like
No I wouldn’t.
Edit: I would be fine with them selling at $1000. Eventually the market will sort out the pricing and they may lose customers for doing it, just like an LCS might lose customers for jacking up prices.
I understand people’s objections to this but I expect it and it doesn’t bother me. I just plan for it.