I don’t care for the practice of shops raising prices abov cover the day of release…but it is their book until you buy it (unless it was a pre-order). Its their choice what price to charge…just like its my choice to pay it…or not give them that business…or any future business for that matter.
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Based on your relationship with that store it is ok. If I’ve shopped there for 20+ years I would feel disrespected to pay over cover for a new book the day it hits shelves. If it was the first time going to a new store and it was above cover the day it hit the racks it would motivate me to hit their back issue bins for anything mispriced in my favor. I get more upset over jacked price incentive variants. I’m a firm believer in 1:10 for cover, 1:25 for $20, 1:50 $25-$40, 1:100 $50. So if I go in to a store and ask for a day one on the racks 1:25 incentive variant and you tell me $50 I usually won’t go back to that store. My current reality is only one store that is always on the verge of going under and doesn’t order enough of anything anyway. Because they are so small sometimes what they ordered gets allocated elsewhere anyways. When Walking Dead #192 came out they got 6 copies with 13 subscriptions and 25extra copies ordered.
Jacking up prices of new releases is short sighted of the store owner. There is no better way to turn off almost every customer, regular or walk in, than to jack up prices on release day. I believe they should be sold at cover, at least until the following Saturday. Limit hot books to 1 per, and stash a copy or two to sell at a later date, if the shopkeeper truly believes in said hot book.
I was at a shop today, were the customer in front of me had a pull for TMNT. His pull box had issues #82 - #94 (it may not be those specific issues, it may have been some Batman/Tmnt books in it to, point being that he read all TMNT books). The shop keep didnt give him his #95, as I suspect the owner was trying to make a few extra bucks selling #95 on the secondary market. The regular customer was extremely pissed off and walked out having bought none of his pulls and left empty handed. Bad, bad, bad business practices.
The other point being which gets demonstrated so frequently here is that if the price wasn’t raised, then the book wouldn’t have been there for you in the 1st place since the 1st person in the door would now be selling them on E-Bay. I’m sure the raiders don’t like the thought but think how many people you don’t get to see that make special trips in just to get a copy and wouldn’t be able to. They’d waste their time and gas getting to a store that’s out while the stores made very little and one person is living high on the E-bay roller coaster. WD193 in particular was solicited at half the size. That means next week we’re paying higher than expected shipping charges, double actually or more if extra boxes were need to get the book in the door than was expected for those issues. Don’t make excuses, make a commitment by subscribing or at least preordering.
If you’re continually selling, then you’re a business. A store isn’t in business to stock your store. Any chance they can get to make a little or a lot extra on a comic, it offsets the loses from the one’s you aren’t going to take home at any price still sitting on the shelf or in cheap boxes at LESS than cost.
You should always CHU your books on FOC so you don’t find yourself in that situation often. I don’t think Anthony misses a lot. ( A little heads up on that zombie Cover E would have been nice 
)
Don’t forget, you can always put your money where your mouth is and get a Diamond account, start working 70-80 weeks, max out a half dozen credit cards and lines of credit, give up holiday plans to open the store for people to have a chance to buy a copy before the price gets any worse, skip movies, ruin relationships and then see how many copies you feel like handing out to people you’ve never seen or only show up to grab books you could get double or more for if you marked them up and kept them around. Threatening to never come cherry pick the underpriced stuff a store hasn’t identified yet isn’t a loss of business that’s going to be missed. It’s funny how if you gambled and bought 10 extra copies you wouldn’t think of giving people a window to take them from you at cover but others making the same choice are looked down on for doing the same thing you’d do.
I likely would have done the same. A loyal customer who has a pull and the store orders based on their pull should honor that pull at cover price.
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Couldn’t agree more.
If retailers want to play the secondary market game on release day/week like the rest of us, they should shut down their store, close their diamond account and stand in line like the rest of us.
Before Capstone closed, if I knew a book was hot on release day, I’d bring up a few extras and tell the owner to stash a few for himself. To me, stashing a few off the shelf for the sale a week or two later at secondary is “A” Okay to me but don’t pull them all and jack up the prices on release day. It’s fair game after most of your customers get a chance to pick up their copy. Some tend to forget, there are some out there that don’t give a rat’s ass about value, they’re in it to read them.
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@BJ…i spend anywhere from $500-$1000 per month at my LCS’. I had jumped around trying to find a shop that I could trust. During my search, several stores gained, and lost my business due too, what I perceive as poor business practice, ie: jacking up open order books on release day. I have found a good shop, who has been in business for over 25 years, and he will always have a copy of any open order book for me on release day, regardless of what its doing on eBay. He sells his ratios at ratio and is approx 25% cheaper (in Canada, most shops mark up cover price books by 25% - 50% to make up for currency exchange, ie $3.99 US cover is $4.99-$$6.00 CDN cover price) any other shop around, including the one across the street. His cover is 10% over US price, ie $3.99 = $4.40. So, he gets my annual business. I still visit the other shops, but I only buy what I know I can make money from. Im sure my monthly spending isn’t keeping any one shop open, but im also sure that these other shops have turned off lots of customers like me, leaving lots of money on the table. These disgruntled readers will add up eventually. M2c.
A store isnt in business to help speculators, but there a majority of comic readers who do not speculate. Some of the joy of collecting, for non speculators, is the fun of having a key book that you got for cover on release day. If a shop never lets it regulars have that enjoyment, Im sure it is detrimental l, long term, to the shop. Imo
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Anytime I walk in on a Wednesday at the one store here they know, they ask me what’s hot? I tell them and they tell me how many I can have. Sometimes they let me have the whole stack some times it’s 1 copy. Funny thing is they had 6 copies of Thanos #13 a week after and they knew what was in it and were like sure take them all same thing with TT #12.
I feel bad for store owners, a lot to compete with in the digital age. I find many sell there amazing personal collection over the years to keep their store a float, and still end up going out of business later, with nothing much of value left but some bulk to sell to the comic store down the way.
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@Alana… Diversify your selling platforms and product lines. There are lots of shops doing well. It is a tougher market, but there are also countless more opportunities for business owners if they embrace the changing demographics et al. Imo.
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L[quote=“jcLu, post:63, topic:313”]
I was at a shop today, were the customer in front of me had a pull for TMNT. His pull box had issues #82 - #94 (it may not be those specific issues, it may have been some Batman/Tmnt books in it to, point being that he read all TMNT books).
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One thing that isn’t cool is when a customer hasa pull list and doesn’t come in and pick it up for several months.,unless you arrange for something because you’ll be out of town for an extended period like deployment. If the guy hadn’t picked up,a,years worth of turtles comics and suddenly comes in because a particular issue is hot…well, I don’t blame the store keeper from thinking he had abandoned them. Coincidence that it was issue 95 though!
Without any prearrangement, how long should a store keeps customers pull list going if they are MIA?
Thats when a store should have a posted policy. One of my shops claims after two weeks unless prearranged with them they put back on the shelves for everyone else.
If a shop actually kept a years worth of books but then hold back the latest hot book… That person is still entitled to that book if they didn’t cancel their pull and the shop was still holding them… But of course thats under a lot of assumptions here stated.
I get that too. I walk in Tuesday night to pull copies for hold fro one store. They let me throw a reasonable amount into my box. So I walked in this tuesday and threw both ZT61 in my box and three Walking Dead 193 in my box. They were limit one per on Wednesday at the shop for everyone else. I got my three copies at cover still. I also tip them off to what is hot
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Absolutely feel like it is all about creating a relationship with your store. I could just as easily order all of my books via an online service, but I enjoy the interactions I have with my store owners. They are a great couple and I want them to succeed. They have done quite a bit to try to make their small store successful. I think that we (those of us here) spend quite a bit of time looking for tips, reading posts, examining possibilities, that sometimes others simply don’t have the time or inclination to do. It is “work” in a sense.
I think of some of the “biggest books” that have hit in the last couple of years and just about everyone took some “early info” to be aware of. I’m not saying the books couldn’t be had after the fact…but if you weren’t at your shop first, or making calls… you were likely out of luck. Batgirl 23, Batman Damned, TT12, MCP6, TAH 22 & others for example.
I tend to feel like I’m assisting my shop by letting them know the books that are hot, and in return they take very good care of me. They know me well enough now that if I’m buying a back issue, or an oddball book for me, that it is likely “hot” and they almost always ask me about it. They aren’t push or rude…they are just honestly interested. If they have plenty left, or others in their back issues, I tell them. Again, they appreciate it.
They are fully aware of the individuals who only show up to the shop when there is a hot big seller to be had. Who is going to get that hot book…the person who shows up once in a blue moon clamoring for it, or the person who is in every week spending $$$$$. Relationships…what it’s all about.
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This is exactly how I have been able to stay in business for 40+ years … I could have easily been swayed into the Immediate Markup Game many, many times … books stay on the rack for 60 days at cover … if the heat comes down later and I have copies left, It’s then my right to mark them as I see fit …
I’ve never screwed over a Pull and Hold customer … they are, in fact, what has kept me going thru the thin times … screwing them over would be business Suicide …
Shame on the Shops that play the Game, it’s what ruined the Hobby in the 1990’s and created the massive downturn in B&M shops …
Lastly, you can’t talk Comics with an On-Line Seller … 
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Being an online retailer i guess my goal is to play the game. So my tactics are: what I originally bought stays at cover on my websight. What i reorder through diamond i mark up and throw on ebay.
I just need to find time to put my entire collection on my sight. The LO keeps me occupied for about 14 hours a day lol.
I was at a shop today, were the customer in front of me had a pull for TMNT. His pull box had issues #82 - #94 (it may not be those specific issues, it may have been some Batman/Tmnt books in it to, point being that he read all TMNT books). The shop keep didnt give him his #95, as I suspect the owner was trying to make a few extra bucks selling #95 on the secondary market. The regular customer was extremely pissed off and walked out having bought none of his pulls and left empty handed. Bad, bad, bad business practices.
That’s two different situations. If they’re subscribers they’ve got 30 days at cover to pick up. After that it’s marked up. Going back to May of 2018 for issue 82 sitting on someone’s books in a box is crazy. We’re not a bank to sit here and finance things long term. After as few as 90 days a box may be emptied, the books reduced in price by the amount of the deposit and shelved for anyone who wants them.
If you can’t take the time to become a regular with a subscription box then the books not yours. The book is something I gambled my money on hoping someone might buy it and if it jumps, that’s my prerogative to decide what I want for it. Just like with all those Marvel Comics Presents last week. You didn’t want them for 6 months. You don’t get them now. The extra is offsetting the cost of all those Marvels reprints sitting right beside the empty slot MCP was filled with.
I’m sure there are some old school out there that still give things away but if you are, you’re a dying breed that are getting fewer and farther between. The only stores anywhere near me that I know used to do that are already out of business as regular people got forced to shop on the internet and pay E-bay prices plus shipping for comics they couldn’t get from the stores because they gave all the copies away to resellers instead of marking them up some to keep them around. If I have to go buy #7 on the internet, there’s a good chance I stay for 8 thru 40. That’s how I got a store in the first place by not being able to get what I wanted from the stores originally. You force me to shop elsewhere then I decided to stay elsewhere and eventually do it myself.
People who do not regularly buy on the internet, will not start a series if you don’t have #1. That’s a conversation I got real tired of having after a few years of watching all the #1’s run out the door for Image sticking me with issues 2 thru wherever they stopped at unsellable without #1. Now I buy 2 copies, one goes in PRESALE set where if you’re taking it, you’re paying for the first 4 issues. I’m already committed to having to by the time you came in. If you don’t tell me, #5 doesn’t get ordered at all. I do throw one extra copy of #1 on the shelf but if I find out it’s gone up before you get here, it’s getting a home elsewhere at a higher price.
The world is changing. You change and adapt with it or get left behind. If you want it, make a commitment. With Image, if you don’t by #5 there want even be a copy on the shelf unless someone else does. Then I will buy 1 extra for the shelf.
I take care of my pull box people and regulars. I never made a penny over cover on TT12. I bundled together sets of all the side series issues from the event so they could just grab the bundle and have the entire read. It saved them having to flip through 8 titles looking for each issue also while keeping the resellers hands off TT12 in the beginning since they’d have to buy a number of others to get it. I told one of my regulars to go ahead and read WD193 now since I was going to throw him two copies of it when I get restocked for free. The person walking in off the street I hadn’t seen in a year or ever got a chance to preorder at $15.
You can take care of your regulars and treat them fairly without giving stuff away to people who only show up for stuff to resell. I may get froggy and give all my regular Walking Dead subscribers an extra copy if the sales stay up on them long enough to sell enough copies not to have to use cash advances off those two credit cards to pay for those and the turtle books on the 24th.
I don’t know how high WD 193 will go by the time I get restocked but I can be sure everyone who’s gotten a copy so far or preordered got copies for less than E-bay’s average sale right now. If I can park it in the $10 to $15 range plus shipping releasing one copy at a time I’m more than happy with it. At the same time though, noone’s buying them for $3.99 for the next 6 months. That’s what the Second Printings meant for. You’d have a riot on your hands if the book keeps climbing. Has it even been 6 months since Naomi #1 came out? I used sales from Naomi and Immortal Hulk to qualify for a larger PayPal Working Capital Loan. I used the loan to pay off the two Capital One credit cards and knock down the line of credit at the bank a little. I’m using those as the parachute to allow the purchase of the WD193’s and turtle books along with other splurges for new inventory for the store. That extra sending power from not standing here giving the books away translated directly into more inventory on hand for the customers, more selection, more coming and better than E-Bay prices for the hot ones. WIN-WIN for the regular folk.
I have a goodly number of Deployed Military Pull and Holds … they do sometimes have a longer than I’d like to see Pick Up time … but, I’m ex-Military myself, so I’m pretty understanding with those folks … some of these guys are the sons and daughters of Customers I had years ago …
When a Pull and Hold Customer starts to lag on Pick Ups, I gently text them, because I have all their cell numbers … and, for the most part, they commit to Pick Up and abide by what they promise …
When I agree to a Pull and Hold, I estimate what 3 months of what they want will retail for … since Diamond is Pre-Order … I explain why that’s the Deposit … in return, they get Previews free, any and all promotional booklets I get as well as a regular free promo Poster of some sort during the month … no Discount on the Comics, sorry … each book is carefully Bagged and Boarded free and, if by chance it’s damaged with no re-stock available, I’ll then offer a Discount if they want it … or, they can pass, up to the Customer …
If I somehow miss a Book, I will apologize and I will buy the book for them On-Line, even though it’s coming out of my pocket …
Lastly, when taking the Info for a Pull and Hold New Customer, I also explain that if they don’t abide, I will eventually send out Guido to collect … (I’m personally too old to act as Guido these days)
I’ve had long time Customers die, divorce, loose their job, become badly injured and can’t work, had issues with their Children, got arrested, went to prison, etc …
It’s just the nature of the Business … Loyalty is what I want and it’s usually what I get … a few years ago, a long time Customer willed me his collection upon his Death … … (and, it was a Very Nice Collection to Boot) …
Do you ever get the not answering the phone thing? I just got stuck with all 7 BTS Pops by a girl who wouldn’t answer the phone for the last month. She slipped in last week thinking I wouldn’t notice. 3 times asking before her friend finally got her to give me an excuse about needing them sooner.
I wish I had the nerve to ask for 3 months deposit. I get one comics deposit per monthly title. People disappear all the time moving, not calling, jumping from store to store with boxes, etc. For larger subscribers it easily amounts to hundreds of dollars at cover price piled up before I get around to emptying even though the paperwork says I can after 3 months. Even then, it’s mostly books I don’t need extra copies of since I bought a shelf copy for general store display the same time I bought one for them so I’d have an extra if one comes in damaged. You don’t pick up for 6 months, I’m stuck for maybe 12 comics if the shelf copies didn’t sell and only have a deposit that will cover maybe 2 of them at cost or close.
Even the little ones annoy. I had a guy subscribe to a few titles after the last turtle blow up. He asked for Chewbacca. #1 arrives. #2 arrives (I’m paying COD at the time sometimes borrowing to cover the orders in time at high interest, the money’s on the way with cash net usa type things) #3 arrives. #4 is about to arrive in two days, I message him, he announces that he’d borrowed his friends copy of #1 to read, thought it was a money grab and didn’t want any of the others even though at that point I couldn’t unorder #5. He said he’d come get the rest including the turtle books but never did. if he’d just picked up #1 and not liked it, at that time I could have cancelled 4 and 5. What is it, about 5 years later, his 5 pack is still on the sales floor. no one else wants it either. I was on 35% level back then and paying freight + COD fee. At half Price I lose money on the books. At 25% I make nothing and have the joy of knowing that I paid interest for at least that amount of money the books cost for years.
People wonder how you end up alone living in a comic store working 70-80 weeks? Promises, excuses, bending over backwards and trying to satisfy everyone when it’s just not realistic. If you’ve been a regular you get taken care of in hard times and anyone who walks in the door can and frequently do get their ear talked off about what’s good, what to stay away from like those Heroes in Crisis books I still have hundreds of dollars left to sell from. just don’t expect me to hold them long term and discount them. That’s tying up my money that needs to be placed elsewhere. I skipped the internet bill Monday to make sure Diamond got covered in time without having to use a card/cash advance and made it by $8.32 plus what’s in the register for making change. Even though I saved the interest and cash advance fee’s, I’m still going to get hit by Century Link for $20 late fee. I understand things break down and need replacing, but don’t show up weeks or months late bragging about what you got at the convention or some great cover you found online while I’m borrowing to cover the cost of your goods you didn’t pick up so you could fund those purchases. Literally, how many people actually go to McDonald’s and brag about the Whopper they had at Burger King yesterday to the cashier? Every week it seems here.