Comic Book Store Resurgence7882
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 Captain Corrector
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CaptainCanuck private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I’ve noticed a lot of new comic book stores popping up in my area lately. Interested to hear some thoughts on this. The increasing popularity could be a positive sign for the hobby or it could also signify a repeat of the 90’s crash. | ||
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 You do know that the new guy brings the donuts, right?
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DWeeB1967 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Just my opinion, but I'm betting that, after the comic movie craze dies out, most of these stores will close. Just like so many closed in the mid-1990s after the gimmick cover craze died out. | ||
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 Beaten by boat oars
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Studley_Dudley private msg quote post Address this user | |
| The stores in my area have branched out to selling toys, games, sports memorabilia, maybe porno and coke out of the back room. None are strictly comics anymore. I don't recall too many new ones opening and one got out of comics years ago to focus on sports memorabilia and coins. | ||
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 Collector
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Drugs out of the backroom? That's extreme. | ||
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 Collector
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bythegram private msg quote post Address this user | |
| My favourite local shop for new comics is actually more of a coffee shop that sells comics. It’s great on Wednesday morning to walk in grab my coffee and pull list. I think more and more brick and motor stores will have to do similar mashups in order to succeed. |
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 Collector
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Drogio private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @CaptainCanuck where's your "area"? Canada? | ||
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Captain Corrector
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CaptainCanuck private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Drogio It’s the Greater Toronto Area (a.k.a. GTA). |
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 It was a one trick pony show but always hilarious.
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GAC private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Toronto is the greatest city on the planet! I used to live there. |
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 Suck it up, buttercup!!
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KatKomics private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by GAC ha!!! everyone used to live there!! Now they are all in the Niagara Peninsula!!! |
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It was a one trick pony show but always hilarious.
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GAC private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by KatKomics Very true!! but I moved north east to our nations capital...keeping an eye on JT  |
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 Ima gonna steal this and look for some occasion to use it!
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IronMan private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by DWeeB1967 I think history offers a slightly different take on the mid 1990's crash. It was not so much that a bunch of new comic book stores opened in the early 90's and then closed when the new comic market crashed. But instead it was publishers cranking out massive quantities of new books and a lot of comic book stores - that had been open for many years - found themselves in a liquidity bind trying to keep up. When the speculator market on these new releases started drying up, comic shops found themselves cash poor and holding a mountain of worthless inventory. Most successful comic book stores today are careful with their new comic orders. |
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 Collector
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Dshel61 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Studley_DudleyYou must be in Atlanta |
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 Collector
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antoniofett private msg quote post Address this user | |
| http://comixconnection.tumblr.com My LCS has been around since 1988. They sell a few shirts and the occasional toys and what not. But 99% of this store is Comics. Just the way I like it! |
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 Collector
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Oxbladder private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by IronMan You right that there was more to the crash of the 90's. It had little to do with gimmick covers and everything to do with and increase and decrease in new collectors from outside that drove the market nuts. While most would like to blame publishers the fact remains that they were not the problem just part of it. Most of the blame falls on the lower levels (customers and store owners). I haven't noticed any upswing in brick and mortars in my neck of the woods (Winnipeg). Considering the size of the city I shop in there are quite a few options but not nearly as many as in the heyday when there were 22 stores you could have visited. |
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 Collector
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Darkseid_of_town private msg quote post Address this user | |
| the crash in the nineties was most memorable for me as one when the sports card industry was also doing a major expansion....prior to 1991 you could buy from maybe three or four football sets however by the end of 1991 there were at least 31...the following year saw a similar expansion in basetball card sets with addition of both topps and upper deck as well. shaq and mutumbo were the top rookies those years further driving the frenzy. Sports cards shops sprung up every two blocks here and all of them were side dealing each new comic as 'sure fire cant miss' ......every sports card shop had a huge wall of books up Usually no one there had a clue how to grade or any real understanding of comics but it was all new stuff bagged and boarded and as long as it was the right comic...that was all they needed. When BOTH markets collapsed you can guess what happened. A year later there were maybe two comic and two sports card places left for a city of several hundred thousand people. for me up close speculation coupled with all the gimmick books caused most of the damage. All of the publishers from valiant to marvel and image to DC piled onto the problem . Today is not so different...new gimmcks and some new faces....sports card places aren't such a factor ..but how long will the market bear stunts ala the new fantastic four with 22 regular covers plus shop specific variants | ||
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Collector
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Oxbladder private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Darkseid_of_town As long as collectors/stores buy in and there is even a brief aftermarket on them variants will continue. If people don't buy or order (enough) publishers tend to not do anything that doesn't help their bottom line. BTW the sports card market crashed before the comic market. There were a number of those sports card guys that crossed over to try the comic market and that puffed up the numbers. Since they knew diddly they got out pretty fast and, because it takes time to adjust numbers, it hit the comic market pretty hard. There was crazy overstock for 6 months to a year. The only way you would get a crash from variants is if the entire collector base just stopped buying them all at the same time suddenly. Even then I doubt you would have the same problem because the original crash happened because a large number of people left the hobby. If collectors stopped buying variants it doesn't mean that they have stopped buying a certain title. So all that would be cut is excess and that would actually save store owners money. variants will likely never disappear completely though. |
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Collector
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Darkseid_of_town private msg quote post Address this user | |
| the concept that publishers don't do things unless they help the bottom line is proven patently false time and again .....hence the crash of the 90's for instance ....failed titles or concepts and so forth. perhaps a more accurate statement might be they don't PURPOSELY do things that hurt the bottom line. Understanding that concept helps you to understand not everything done is best for them nor will tomorrows good be the same as todays variants may never disappear depending how you define variant but it will glut and fall as does any other gimmick that is overpriced and/or overdone.....the obvious question being followed by what next.... |
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Collector
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Publishers only think short term. They are only interested in the bottom line, but they don't factor that people like me are sick of their BS and will probably never buy their product again because of it. They might've coaxed me into buying a variant cover 20 years ago and achieved a one time sales spike. Now I won't buy their comics at all and they've lost 20 years worth of comic purchases from me. Which was smarter? The variant cover or actually caring about the content, the characters , and the stories? | ||
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 I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
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kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| if a comic book store is still around after 2 years then it's a big deal, otherwise, they come and go with high turn over rates due to unpaid preorders, overordering unpopular titles, and underordering popular titles. Same song and dance every few years.... | ||
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Collector
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Oxbladder private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Darkseid_of_town The crash of the 90's was NOT solely the publisher's fault. You can try and fault gimmick covers all you want but it all came down to numbers. A large influx came into the market from the failing sports cards hobby. Fluffed the numbers and they bailed within a few seasons. When you are ordering two months in advance it takes a long time to catch up. Publishers don't randomly say, "Lets print 1 million of these books because people will like it." They get orders from the direct market and determine the run plus a certain small percentage over run. Now if a store has 100 people subscribed to a book and 75 walk away from it they are left with 75 copies (and potentially a large portion of their shelf stock) that they are going to be sitting on it. It was literally like that. I had a small store at the time and it was very difficult to manage stock because numbers would change. I didn't even have the "problem" of people buying multiple copies like some stores but coming in on the back end of it made it hard to balance my orders properly. There were other stores in town at the time that got hit way harder. They brought in loads of stock and a month or two later they were discounting it. Many of us were not happy about the amount of fancy covers but people did buy it. What was a pain though is that they printed both fancy and regular covers and it could be hard to determine just how much stock of each to carry. The fancy cover were really popular but they were not very well "regulated". Only a few companies would ration them and that ultimately became the appeal of variants. That rationing created demand which created more money. Are there too many variants? I would say yes BUT because they continue fairly strongly then obviously the market like them in general. It could all end but it is more than likely to be a petering out than a mass exodus of people buying them. Even if everyone stopped buying them it would be caught fairly quickly and it isn't necessarily going to translate to a huge drop in the subscriber numbers and that is markedly different than what happened in the 90's. |
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Collector
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| My guess is that a bigger risk these days is for the stores that order store branded variants. They are investing a lot of money into large orders up front and it ties up capital that could go towards ordering a more diverse mix of comics. | ||
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Collector
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Darkseid_of_town private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Analogy time. My mother spent years buying each new Barbie doll as they came ..because why yes..each had different variations or gimmicks and was a new limited edition! Yay that means they will all be worth more someday and since it works now it should always work...right? Only thing is eventually logic and intelligence begins to step in and people ask..why should I shell out loads of cash for this limited edition when another is coming out tomorrow? As the glut deepens people begin to get tired or fatigued is the new hot term . I never said cover variants caused the 90s crash..that is a straw.man argument I said gimmicks..insert.redemptions...holograms. Die cuts. Laser.embossed polybag card inserted drove a speculators market that fueled rampant speculation similar to what is happening now with variants.I also then obviously never stated the crash was the publishers fault entirely either. I did state speculation by sports card based collectors was largely responsible. I respect you operated a store. I spent that time period working in at least three of them in my area handling back stock and working mail order myself directly with store owners . The gimmicks were.an experiment in how to wreck a hobby...i.e buy fanatically the first four issues of something for redemption coupons to get a zero then somehow know the fifth would either drop it into a new game or lets make an x force comic and polybag it with five different cards or print x men 1 with so many cover versions that only now thirty years later are they starting to gain value...nevermind how do you order that precisely..do you buy even numbers of all or go heavy on gatefold covers? It went on and on and i am sorry but yes those types of gimmicks hurt the small comic shops . Now look at today where many variants are dictated by how many copies a shop orders..that translates as lots of copies ordered unnecessarily to get the retail variants and yes that does and will affect the market sooner or later . |
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