Inspirational Comics Retailers 2006, Part 1

Remember when I wrote about Delusional Comic Book Retailers? Well, as opposed to buying comics from that guy and his card table, there's still definitely some bargains to be found in expensive, expensive Manhattan for a little stuffed bull who loves comics but only gets a small handful of dimes each week for his allowance. And here's the best part: I learned a business lesson that was worth much, much more than even the best comic book (even one at full price).

I stepped into Forbidden Planet down off Union Square earlier this month to get my week's worth of comic books, and was very pleasantly surprised to find that in addition to their usual shelf of very-well-worn but frequently great-priced hurt bargain books they also were stocking several shelves of recent comic books, each stickered 25¢. Twenty-five cents! You should have seen me perk up and get all excited at that bargain. Why, I don't know if I could ever imagine a comic book only costing 25¢! These were all very recent books too that it looked like they had overstocked: Marvels including House of M, Hulk, Marvel Knights 4, Daredevil, Exiles, Araña and more, lots of DCs with many of the Infinite Crisis crossover miniseries, Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Detective, Flash, Catwoman, Hawkman, plus a whole lotta independents: all from within the past few months, every floppy four-colored one of 'em two bits.

I gathered up a big stack of 'em and carted them off to the front register to pay for them with my weekly comics, where the very helpful guy at the counter pointed out to me I'd missed the sign above the comics: these were twenty for two dollars: so 20¢ each, not a quarter! He very kindly counted mine out and found I was one short of getting twenty, so I ran back, grabbed one more issue, and got out my two bucks to pay for 'em.

Now, I'm jus' a little stuffed bull filled with fluff, but even I know that Forbidden Planet isn't doing this just out of the goodness of their Doctor Who-lovin' hearts. As I think I have said before, I have helped John a lot with his job selling books to trade bookstores, and that's an industry where the books are returnable: if the bookstores don't sell 'em they can return them to the warehouse for credit, so there's very little risk in trying out a new title or a stack of 'em except that you tie up your capital for a while. The comic book industry is not like this.

(Bear with me here, folks: this is going to be kinda Comics Retailing 101--I know many of the people who read and write comics blogs already know this stuff, but I also know it's new to some Bully-fans out there.)

I repeat: The comic book industry is not like this. And I have to admit, I'm astonished that comic book stores stand for it sometimes. They must deal with one distributor: Diamond Comics, which is a monopoly in the comics industry. If Diamond doesn't ship what they need then there's no other place the comic book store can go to (unlike a trade book store, which can try the publisher or several different wholesalers in an attempt to get the books they want). Diamond sells their product non-returnable, so there's a lot greater risk on behalf of the comic book store owners and managers, especially on monthly products that they may have to have pre-bought the first several months before the first issue ever hits the stores. Why not order cautiously and re-order later? Because Diamond runs out of stock, the comic book companies seldom reprint, and Diamond charges 2% more for re-orders after your initial buy.

What does this mean for you and me, the comics fans and consumers? In a market that's not as large as New York, it could mean you're not seeing certain comics at all, especially small-press ones, because while the comic book shop might have customers for a small-press comic, they're much more likely to have copies leftover after that new comics week is over. Unsold, non-returnable comics means money lost for comic book stores, so they are less likely to order something different or unusual.

How does Diamond respond to this? In the trade book industry, you've got all sorts of incentives to buy and keep stock up, including backlist and frontlist discounted offers, extended dating (a longer period of time before you have to pay your bill), and marketing and co-op money made available for stores to promote or publicize books they like or feel they can sell. I'm not certain if Diamond has those options open, but I do know this: if Diamond does not receive pre-orders for a certain number of a comic book, they will not carry that book or make it available to comic book stores. Yikes! Talk about killing off small publishers in one swell foop! Not only is a small publisher lumbered with a wholesaler that makes it difficult and potentially dangerous for a store to risk trying their product, now Diamond actually makes it impossible for stores to buy certain small-press items, even if the store wants them!

So (you're asking) in what way, shape, 'n' form can this possibly qualify as an "inspirational comics retailer," as I titled this post. No, I'm not talking about Diamond (the Galactic Empire of book distributors), but about shops like Forbidden Planet that make lemons out of lemonade:

I told the clerk as he rang up my twenty comics for two buck that it was a great bargain, and thanks, but that I realized the section was made up on comic books Forbidden Planet had overordered on and were now stuck with (non-returnable, remember?) and that they could hardly make back their money sellin' 'em twenty for two bucks.

The clerk smiled and laughed, and said that sure, they were loss leaders...but better to get back a few bucks on a stack of comics than have them be worthless and not sell at all. And anyway, lots of people pick up the twenty cent comics, get hooked on the series, and come back to buy the regular, monthly series. We can convert some dead stock into potential future repeat business...

(And then he said...wait for it...)

Everybody wins.

"Everybody wins." Wow...that is an approach I would not have considered a comic book store to be considering when marking down useless stock and taking a loss on it. "Everybody wins." In a business where Diamond pretty much serves lemons with each and every shipment of comics, this store has taken them and not only made lemonade, they've made lemon Slushees and lemon meringue pie and lemondrops all in one.

"Everybody wins." Now, I realize this may have been a clerk talkin' through his hat--maybe in the back room the owner and manager are wringing their hands over the red ink in their balance books when they had to mark down their inventory to twenty cents an issue--but wow, that's a brilliant way to think about a deep-discount sale. Because I certainly do win: look at my stack of twenty cent comics! They win too, 'coz I'm certainly going to continue to shop there, spending my money on four dollar as well as twenty cent comics. And in that batch of twenty cent comics there were a few titles that I said to myself, "Self? This is a fun comic. You ought to read more issues of it." So I'll go back and spend more money. Next week. Week after that. Week after that.

I hope that game plan works out well for Forbidden Planet. I know all across the country there's some great comic book stores that are struggling to make ends meet in a tough market dealing with a tough distributor. Selling comics at a loss is no easy fix. You can even be cynical and say, sure, that’s easy for a big city store like Forbidden Planet to do: take the loss and smile about it, but it’s not so easy for a store in Topeka or Wayzata or Grover’s Mills. But my point is (and I do have one), that the good will and enthusiasm of that clerk, his helpfulness and cheer, make me wanna go back to Forbidden Planet week after week.

And that, folks, is an Inspirational Comics Retailer.