It’s that time again, where I tell you what’s really grinding my gears for the week of August 14th, 2019.
Some weeks it’s mostly likes, other weeks it’s dislikes.
So what’s grinding my gears this week?
This weeks Likes and Dislikes include some likes or dislikes from Anthony. He told me to throw in this weeks column. Can you guess which one(s) are his?
MyComicShop Playing Secondary Market Games
Dead End Kids was the hot book from last week. I did not like how they bumped the prices up to $15 the night before Wednesday when they first listed what they had available for sale.
Boo on them! These are the tactics that destroy this industry and drive away customers. Yes, there are those who buy to flip but there’s a lot who just want a copy to read.
But this also leads me back to, read our Indie Picks and Spotlight reviews and previews we put out. You might find interesting picks to pre-order at cover price instead of having to deal with retailers who jack their prices up on the harder to get books.
It’s still no excuse though when a retailer, who is our first option to buy new books at retail prices, bumps their prices to take advantage of their customers. They’ll lose more customers with such tactics than gain.
It’s already past FOC for issue #2 but you can still order Dead End Kids #3.
MyComicShop Again – Trade-In Woes
Nothing worse than ordering what is classified as NM books from MyComicShop at cover price for a few books and left them unopened in the package they sent them in.
Then before they’re cracked opened, find out MyComicShop is accepting the same books with trade-in value at a much higher price than paid. So the books are shipped back how they were shipped.
After they arrive, some time passes and they come back to claim the books are VF and they’re not doing a trade-in value of NM, plus they say there’s only 3 books and not 4. WTF? So the books they sell at NM are only VF when you trade them back in? What’s your problem MyComicShop? Seems pretty shady.
I guess it’s not a total surprise. Anyone ever notice most if not all their new release books on eBay are almost always classified as F/VF grade? Just a listing gimmick that gets them out of returns if they arrive damaged or have other issues.
Shout Out To Mel V.
A huge shout out to Mel V (yes, our Mel V who does the weekly variant picks) for doing a pretty awesome Drunken Chat Son episode to bring most of the major speculator sites all into the same chat to talk about comics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOlNIggEE9k
Lots of F bombs mixed with lots of comic talk. Check it out if you got about 6 hours to watch some of the best talk comics and other shit!
I think Mel’s main point in last nights episode is, we’re all doing spec for the same reasons. There shouldn’t be any hate between anyone. Instead, allow each spec site or group do it their own way and style.
We speculate to share the info we gather to help flippers flip comics. We speculate to give the readers and collectors the upcoming hot new books so they know where to get them cheap to avoid breaking the bank and we also do it to keep our favorite retailers in business to continue serving the comic book industry.
To all the other spec sites and groups who might be reading this, keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. There is no right or wrong way to speculating. To each their own and their own style of spreading the information to those who visit these sites and groups. There is no right or wrong way to speculate.
You can watch Mel V’s Drunken Chat Son every Friday Night on YouTube.
Spawn Covers
What the ass McFarlane… ? All the covers have been revealed except the Cover A for Spawn #300. Okay so there’s Cover B as well but it’s just slated to be a BW version of the regular.
FOC is upon us and you’re making retailers order these blindly for the most part.
This better be the best Spawn cover in the history of Spawn for making people wonder what it’s going to look like and so close to FOC.
You can still pre-order most of the Spawn #300 here.
My closest shop was not carrying Dead End. On a whim I traveled about 20 miles to visit a couple others. Unbeknownst to me, one of them had the Dead End writer Frank Gogol coming for a signing 20 minutes after I got there! He was a really chill guy and happy to answer all my questions. The shop had 25 copies on hand and let me and another guy buy two at COVER, plus Frank signed them. I had already ordered the hiphopf cover online, but figured I’d never get my hands on the regular cover. Shout out to Escapist Comics in Berkeley!
I just pre-ordered the J parody cover which is basically a swipe of ASM 300.
Just upset issue 300 won’t have a black and white and virgin like they had for 298 and 299.
Will #11 ever see any spec?
Spawn #11?
Sorry I meant venom 12 from your ‘venom spec’ post, not #11.
oh.. wrong article then.. 😛
I have no problem with Mycomicshop, or any other site, marking up prices on hot new comics releases that are not already reserved for subscribers and preorders. A purpose of a business is to make $$ and selling a book for $4 that you could get $15 is just leaving $$ on the table. Everybody had a chance to preorder Dead End Kids. It appears mycomicshop sold those copies of $15 Dead End Kids as they are now out of stock. If someone just wants to read and not flip it, likely a second printing will be available.
Not everybody wants to commit to a book before checking it out though. Day of release allows those who want to possibly check out the book before committing to buy it.
Agree to disagree, it’s just bad for business. Can you imagine if Apple told retailers to sell their iPhone for $699 but retailers turned around and sold them for $999 for those who didn’t pre-order? It’s just business right? It’s bad business and it’s punishing customers who don’t always pre-order who expect cover price on books, not secondary prices the day of release. It’s all fair game after the weekend or a week has passed. I’m all for comic shops to make money as well but in a moral and ethical way.
The whole argument that “they should have pre-ordered” is nonsense in my opinion.
I agree it makes me want to quit collecting comics. Comic shop up the street from me marks there books up soon as they see what they are going for on ebay. I agree with you about when they release wednsday it should be cover after that then jack the prices up if you want. I dont even fool with the comic shop up the street from me bc of this foolishness.
“Agree to disagree, it’s just bad for business. Can you imagine if Apple told retailers to sell their iPhone for $699 but retailers turned around and sold them for $999 for those who didn’t pre-order?”
Not really a relevant comparison. If all the other retailers were charging $999 you’d be a fool not to do the same.
Its relevant… Imagine consumers seeing the new model from Apple commercials advertised at $699…. The box has a $699 price tag on it and then they walk into a store after staning in line on release day and its being sold for $999…. Thats what I meant by that. Just talking in a generic sense. Apply it to just about any product with a set retail price.
Comic shops take the risk on any book by preordering it – they are “flippers” also. If you want a book at or below cover, preorder it – you take the risk. Otherwise, it may not be available at your local shop.
If you don’t want to preorder/subscribe to a title, don’t be shocked it the aftermarket value has increased. Cover prices and the sheer volume of books have increased to the point that many shops don’t order many extras of anything.
With speculative sites such as this, more and more shops are marking up speculation books or funneling them to ebay – bleeding cool had a story about this last week. Comic shops aren’t charities to sell comics at 25% of value.
The Apple example above is not a relative comparison – Apple are selling phones that are mass produced and Apple will keep making them until demand catches up with supply. Everybody knows that if you wait a month or two, you will be able to get a phone. Comics are different – there are no more first printing copies of Dead End Kids being made.
Pre-ordering is great if you actually have the information at hand when you need to pre-order by. Previews is not much help when the majority of covers aren’t available, books aren’t available, etc, etc.
The Frison cover to “Something is Killing the Children” is a perfect example. Yes, I understand that those of us who follows these sites/news had a heads up (although not much), but for your general fan or perhaps someone who loves Frison’s art but doesn’t have the time to be glued to instagram and forums…they could miss out.
The system is pretty poor outside of the average Joe/Jane who just wants any copy/cover of “Spiderman, etc” every time an issue comes out.
The system is pretty poor throughout, but yet it’s the comic shop that is taking the risk. Not the Customer, the retailer. They’re paying for this stuff, with very little return. People who don’t pre-order, because they don’t want to take the risk, are expecting the shops to take the risk, and then not reap the reward when the risk pays off.
I don’t agree with idea that shops shouldn’t benefit when a comic they pay $2 goes from being worth $4 to being worth $15. That you want to read the comic, but didn’t want to take the chance on ordering the book, but expect to get it for MSRP is entitlement. There is nothing immoral or unethical about a shop charging what fair market value for their property.
Certainly the Frison Cover is an annoyance, but as a shop, we know who are Frison fans on. We can easily predict how many Frison covers we’re going to safely sell. But in the end, if 0 people order “Something Isf Killing Children” because it’s too big of a risk for the customer, why should I, as a retailer, take the risk and not reap the benefit?
Long term it’s a bad idea to sell higher than MSRP in your shop. But I’m don’t feel bad when I see the same customer come into the store only to pick up the HOT NEW ISSUE and not get it. Let them go to another shop. I’ll keep my regulars happy as I can and keep those hot new issues back for them, and sell the rest at this weekend convention for $12 a pop and no shipping.
Want me to consider you for those HOT NEW ISSUE. Open a file, take the free previews, put in an order on a regular basis, pick up regularly, don’t put issue’s back on the wall, don’t lie to me about how “my son loves the turtles” when you’ve never picked up an issue before hand.
“There is nothing immoral or unethical about a shop charging what (is) fair market value for their property.”
Dispaminite – Agreed (and with the rest of your post). You are taking care of your regular customers and that is how it should be. Great job.
Have to agree with you poyo, was really surprised to see that price hike. I’m not a flipper and didn’t get a chance to order it so was looking to MCS as a last resort (none of my LCS carry these kinds of books). When I saw the price jump, was REALLY disappointed. For the most part I have no problem with MCS but didn’t really like that experience.
Plus 1 Poyo. I’ve been back collecting for a short time but I’ve already heard more stories like this than I can count. By not having cover price books available at cover price prices on release day pisses off all types of collectors. Guess what many flippers do with the $8 they make off a book? They go buy more books! Sorry Scott but I think in the long run you are actually leaving money on the table by turning comic lovers off to your shop.
There is a comic shop here that I used to do a lot of business with. I stopped doing business with them for the same reason. They jack there prices up to secondary prices even if you pre-order the book. There was a book that I pre-order from them that was $25 for the pre-order cuz of the variant. The night before, I called and they said yes $25. The morning when I was going to pick it up, they jumped the price to $85 cuz that was the price EBay wanted. Now if I get the book, great if not then I don’t bother looking around for it any more cuz I know the comic shops here already know to jack the prices.
Thats bad business. If you have an agreement with a shop, even a handshake/phone agreement, they should honor it. They likely lost more money in future sales from you than they made off that book…likely still have the damn book or maybe they sold it on eBay.
Shops need to cater to their regulars. It’s just common sense. Those that don’t will lose then, for sure. Too many options out there.
IMO you can’t call yourself a good flipper if you don’t preorder books. Discounts of 15%-50% off through midtown comics, which is where I do mine. If a synopsis of the book and pics of the covers are available when you preorder what’s the need to peruse through a store copy likely faking it with fingerprint smudges and spine stress? If a shop wants to sell a hot book that everyone else is getting $15 for why shouldn’t they? Or I guess you’d like them to close shop and it’s one less shop to visit? If preordering isn’t you’re thing do a pull list online or at LCS’s. Just my two cents.
My Comic Shop I no longer order from. Their books are always over graded. They make you actually return them for refunds or exchanges. On the other hand Midtown has never made me return a book for credit or exchange. I’m also not a fan of their packaging of books or customer service.
What grinds my gears are people selling books on eBay who can’t be bothered to take a picture of the entire book. They give you pics of 2/3’s of the books and don’t think you want to see the entire thing. Another thing are those idiots who don’t know how to package books for safe and secure shipping. I’ve recently had several bad packaging experiences on eBay. You can’t throw the comics in a Manila folder and tape it up and address it. You also can’t just put another backing board on it and throw it in a paper envelope. Also please don’t take the time to do a good packaging job only to not secure the books to the cardboard it’s sandwiched between because those are going to bounce around and goodbye square sharp corners.
This site caters to more than flippers. We have readers, collectors and retailers visit.
But even someone who’s planning on picking up a book on release day deserves to get that book at its set retail cover price initially.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/secondarymarket.asp
“Transactions that occur on the secondary market are termed secondary simply because they are one step removed from the transaction that originally created the securities in question.”
The creator in the case of comics would be the publisher. All retail stores sales are Secondary Market Sales.
“Secondary Market Pricing
Primary market prices are often set beforehand, while prices in the secondary market are determined by the basic forces of supply and demand. If the majority of investors believe a stock will increase in value and rush to buy it, the stock’s price will typically rise. If a company loses favor with investors or fails to post sufficient earnings, its stock price declines as demand for that security dwindles.”
In the case of comics, the prices are set beforehand from Diamond to the stores and that’s assuming you want to classify Diamond as acting on the Publishers behalf even though they are technically the only one’s making a Primary Market purchase other than those subscribing directly from the Publisher.
Any comic sold from Diamond to any store has no guarantee or identifier with it to say it has to be sold thru any particular venue. You can sell them in the store directly, you can sell them online, you can keep them, you can even give them away. You don’t even have to actually have a physical store.
You’ve had 60 to 90 days to either Preorder or commit to wanting it added to your Pull Box so you can have the price locked in and probably even discounted. If you procrastinate and choose to gamble that it will be there and it isn’t, that’s your fault. The industry provides tons of free catalogs and spec sights to let you know what is available and when it needs to be ordered by and most items you can still get signed up for after FOC from store ordered extras prior to arrival and price escalations just by asking.
This isn’t new, you already know it’s a possibility that it’s going to happen and you chose to gamble that it wouldn’t. For every person mad that they can’t run in and grab every copy to immediately flip, another is just thrilled that you even have it without the shipping delays and costs and two others that took the time to preorder are thrilled that their investment is showing early potential dividends.
Until ALL Secondary Market Sellers are required to be forced to stick to a specific price, then continuing to harp on a single source, and the one who has made the largest financial investment and has the largest risk is hypocritical. We’re all Secondary Sellers!!!
I just got another $3,800 credit card Saturday and a $3,000 bump to an existing one this morning. If I choose to gamble and order items I hope will go up in value then that’s a risk I’m making. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t but either way I can’t CANCEL my order with Diamond whereas any person who hasn’t committed to a preorder or pullbox HAS that option by just NOT SHOWING UP to pick up the book if it doesn’t INCREASE IN PRICE IMMEDIATELY.
If you want the reward, assume some of the same risk we do.
Did you really try to justify by quoting investopedia? Nice try BJ…. You already lost all credit the last time you debated this topic. Just tell us you hike up prices at your shop to keep up with those PayPal loans thats keeping your business afloat… 😉
But he is saving his customers money by charging slightly less than eBay prices. Plus he doesn’t charge them shipping.
I don’t buy into this 60-90 day preorder/you had your chance diatribe. In some cases, sure….if I am just someone who always wants a copy of Spiderman/Batman, etc that works great.
How many books/covers aren’t given any sort of preview in “Previews”? Covers, variants, etc.
How about this whole Jenny Frison “Something is Killing the Children” nonsense. One of the hottest names in the industry and you pull a “surprise” variant? Watch..that damn book will still have people saying “I didn’t know about it” (rightly so) and more than likely the price will be jacked up the day of release.
I find it funny that the same people screaming “you should have done your homework/or preordered” when it comes to getting a copy of a spec book/hot book on the day of release are often the same people who want to charge me for the varied hot $1 bin books I dig and find that they then look up on ebay and say “I don’t have time to constantly update the prices on my books/research what is hot..I can’t let you have these for $1”
Yeah, the whole “you should have pre-ordered it” is not valid to me either.
I mentioned Dead End Kids back in May myself, with pre-order links. I wanted to check the book out myself but that doesn’t mean I should pre-order every book I might want to read.. I didn’t pre-order this book cause I didn’t know if I truly wanted to spend the money on it until I could check it out first hand.
Shops will lose my business and many others if they play these secondary market games on release day.. it’s just that simply put.
Justify it all you want, we’ll keep justifying why we’ll stop shopping at your shop as well.
So Bj, under your logic, Best Buy, who gets all their products from a distributor, has the right to charge secondary market prices on everything. Same with grocery stores, they have the right to charge secondary market prices on everything (and to an extent they do on meats, dairy, produce, and fish). So they can do it on everything else too? Can you imagine your grocery bill?
This is why I used the Apple iPhone as a generic type of example.. could you imagine this type of logic of price hikes on a larger scale? The same principle applies to the comic industry. Comic shops (brick or online) are the first stop for for consumers. When they start hiking the prices on what we consumers are not the expected price we found in Previews on initial release day.. then we have every right to be upset, call them out, etc.
A shop can try and justify such actions all the want. We the people can tell people where to not shop due to such tactics.
Since when did retailers start buying comic at cover price? Diamond is a wholesale distributor! They buy comics from the publisher/manufacturer, again at a discounted price, and then distribute to various retailers in pieces. That way you retailers can buy the amount you want vs. by the case lot. Retail is the Primary market. Retail is the end of the supply chain. Otherwise, we’d all buy straight from the publishers.
I get the “shops may lose a potential new regular customer” if they mark up new books. That’s the shop’s loss.
But I don’t get those who complain they can’t get the book for cover solely for the purpose flip it for a profit. That’s hypocritical.
If I see a shelf book marked up that I was only going to buy to flip, I just walk away and don’t get upset about it.
Most books I want to buy to read I have in my pull anyway. So this issue doesn’t really effect me as I’m already a reoccurring customer.
And I doubt it’s going to effect the new market any more than it has for the past 20 years. I think multiple covers, shop variants and manufactured scarcity are more concerning in my mind and hate the battle to fight if there is one.
For every flipper there’s also a likely reader. Not everyone walks into a shop expecting to pay secondary priced books on release day. That’s the gripe. A few days later, a week later, it’s fair game.
And just for the record, this gripe was Anthony’s.. none of his shops got Dead End Kids. MCS hiked their prices on Tuesday when they listed them at secondary market prices.
It’s not really complaining, it’s just disappointing rather. And yes, that’s the purpose of the gripe though, as consumers, whether you flip, read, collect, most are gonna walk away without purchasing. I think shops who hike prices on release day are doing themselves a bigger disservice, it’s a sure fire way to lose business and they can only blame themselves.
The argument that retailers shouldn’t sell hot books at secondary market prices doesn’t hold water for me, because, with very few exceptions, those books have second printings. And as someone who does just get books to read, I’m perfectly fine ordering the second printing of a hot book I didn’t pre-order to read it.
That’s fine for you but not for all others. What if the second printing heats up? You gonna wait for the 3rd? or 4th?
Pre-orders shouldn’t have their prices touched. If you pre-order the 2nd printing, then you should get the 2nd printing at cover price. Just like if you pre-order the 1st printing, you should get it at cover price.
Not everyone pre-orders.. some would like to check the book out before committing. Why is this so hard to understand?
It’s not hard to understand. But again this comes back to what’s right for the customer vs whats right for the store. As a store, jacking up the price of a hot book, isn’t what causes us issues. New books (not counting special ratio covers) are cover price. The problem is when you have 5 copies of a new title because maybe 1 person ordered it, but now, it’s suddenly hot, and you have 12 people that want it.
Who gets those 5 issues? Who do you piss off? Who do you keep happy. Obviously that 1 who pre-ordered it gets a copy.
We offer second printings, since it’s already listed and comes out in three weeks, in time for issue #2, but no, they only want the first printing tells us a lot.
If no one claims it in a pull for a hot comic, first come, first serve is what should be applied.
What’s right for the store isn’t always right to stay in business either. Jack your prices up, when you start to wonder why you lose customers, you can only blame yourself. Like I said, shops who jack their prices up on release day it’s either another deep rooted issue within that shop or simply just greed, taking advantage of customers.
If a shop told me I should have just pre-ordered it, a valid response from a customer could ask them why they didn’t tell me about it? Not everyone who goes to shops spend hours reading previews or online spec/comic relate websites to know what to buy. And even then, from the solicitation alone might not convince everyone to pre-order.
So that shit can bite a shop in the ass in justifying a price hike if they told me I should have pre-ordered it. Why didn’t they tell me then about the book? Hopefully you can see the illogical approach even with that stance.. simply put, books on release day should not be marked up by the ones buying at wholesale.
Pull a copy or two aside to sell later if you provided all the customers with pulls with their copies. Limit the remaining you ordered for the shelves for walk-ins at 1 per if you have to.. but don’t jack up the price? At least wait a few days or a week, give your customers a chance at the books they might not want until they see first hand before making the decision.
We’re just going to have to agree to disagree. I don’t consider comics shops wholesalers. Diamond is the wholesalers. And shops have the right to sell their property for what they consider appropriate.
If we’re going to argue that the MSRP is the price, and it’s unethical for shops to sell their product for higher than the MSRP, then by that same token it’s unethical for the customer expect a discount on the MSRP of new books, and every customer that goes into a shop simply to get their 10% is ripping off the shop.
That doesn’t hold weight. If a shop wants to discount books, that’s not the customer ripping them off at all, that’s up to the shop and their decision. None of my shops in my area now offer any discounts on pulls or subscribe lists. I don’t expect any shop to discount from the cover price either, it’s just a nice thank you to loyal customers if they do.
What I simply expect is a fair chance at buying books that the publisher sets as the expected cover price. If it was truly an open market, then the publishers should do away with a price on the cover and just let shops set the price they feel they can get.
But shops can set the price, they can plaster a sticker over the cover price all they want at any time they want. All I’m saying is, they’re not going to get my business and I hope most follow suit.
Back to my ongoing example of this B.S Jenny Frison “Something is Killing the Children” variant.
What do you tell the customer who comes in and wants it because they like Frison/that cover but was never in Previews and was essentially a last minute FOC surprise?
-You should have pre-ordered sure doesn’t hold water if that heats up..
The entire situation relative to that cover and book is what is completely wrong with the hobby and the pre-order argument.
How about all these Marvel 80th Border cover books? Never a whiff of those in Previews? I personally love them and want each one…now I have to mess around looking at FOC, tracking them all down.
Certainly, customers need to be proactive but I think Diamond/comic creators need to get their act together with this Previews nonsense. Other than a pretty book to look through it’s pretty damn worthless anymore.
I think shops are on the hook. If they want to save me money by telling me I should have pre-ordered the books to lock in the price, then they need to tell me about them as soon as they know about them. 😉
I think we agree on principle, that a shop should go with MSRP. I think in the long term, increasing the price of books is going to hurt the business more than the short term gains. I have anecdotal evidence from our customer base, having picked up new files based on other shops doing that.
I will say, from a shop stand point, first come first serve is not a viable strategy for the long term either. If you’re a shop, and you suddenly have a book that is blowing up, and the demand if higher than the supply, you don’t give it to the people that ask for it first. You give it to you loyal customers first, those that come in every week, that don’t give you a hassle and that you never have to worry about. You reward their loyalty, because that loyalty is paying off.
I also think that the flipping market is going to hurt the industry over long term, but thats a completely different thread.
As a consumer, walking in a shop and being told the book is in high demand and everyone already beat me in buying it is a whole lot more valid than telling me, well, everyone wants it so if you want it, it’s $50 now.. or whatever it’s priced at..
I’d rather lose out than get my wallet raped.
That’s the moral of the story. Gas is a buck cheaper per gallon across the street, I’m going there instead. You can set the price whatever you want, you’re going to lose more customers than gain.
“I also think that the flipping market is going to hurt the industry over long term, but thats a completely different thread.”
It very well could. So imagine now with shops hiking their prices it’s starting at the retailer level now..
I’m curious about what the shop situation looks like in BJs area. I know, in our area, we have a glut within an 1 1/2 drive (and we’re at the far edge of it), that he can increase the price of new comics and have success with them. I know, for our area, that it has backfired for shops.
The DC B covers situation comes to mind, as one example.
Are books that are “new” to the ordering set up/new to the FOC something that is easily found or printed?
What I think would be absolutely perfect, is for a shop to make a list of what is on the FOC for each week and have that for customers. Maybe this is so cumbersome it isn’t realistic?
Yes, I know that the general books are listed in Previews as to cut off dates but there are so many books that this doesn’t cover.
A perfect example (in my mind)..is this 3rd printing of “Once and Future”. I really like Dan Mora’s artwork. I also love this cover. Had I not seen a post I would have never known about it. I really don’t care if it becomes hot/valuable..makes no difference. I just want it.
How does your typical customer who doesn’t spend waaaaayyy too much time on these sites even know about this book?
Are there times that shops actually use this to their advantage? Maybe they don’t want the general populace to know about that 3rd printing? It goes hot and they are also “speculating” on that and don’t want anyone to preorder it?
Devildog
For the Frison cover, since it’s an FOC cover, we adjust our order to order more Frison covers than the others, since she sells.
For the Marvel 80s covers. I don’t even want to think about them. I hate hate hate hate hate Marvel and their 50 different Covers for issues, and each one haven’t different qualifications and ratios and oh so special nonsense 1 per store variants and midnight subscriber covers.
Just give me Cover A on anything.
Devildog
FOC list isn’t finalized until Friday, and we have until Monday to lock it in. It’s already tough enough to get the FOC done. For those customers that care about covers, we’ve tried to get them to get us their cover preferences and it works out maybe 5% of the time and add in that you can’t predict emergencies, conventions preparation, ect.
We get the FOC on Friday, we want to have it done on Saturday so, if there’s a problem, at least the FOC is done.
Dispaminite-
Thanks for the insight! I assumed it was a nightmare process. I’m very fortunate personally as I have an amazing LCS that I’ve established a great relationship with. They really are great and I tell them time and time again how much I appreciate them. I also throw a ton of money their way and also give them good insight into spec/tends, etc so I like tho think it is a win win.
It’s easy to see the situation from my perspective and not a retailers. I like seeing all angles.
I’m a huge spec type buyer but the thing is…I’ve never sold a spec type current book. I sell older graded CGC books occasionally. For me, it is completely the thrill of the hunt. I love getting a hot key book because I see it as a challenge. I’m very upfront about the reasons I’m buying books and I honestly believe my shop appreciates my candor (versus the dude trying to be shady about why he wants 5 copies of the House of X #1 connecting variant off the shelf that’s for his 5 kids).
Devildog,
The way the FOC is, is it’s a list on the computer, of whats coming out, and how many you ordered the previous issue, plus how many you currently have ordered of the current issue. We have a database of how many we’ve sold of anything in the store. Basically a spreadsheet based on our Cycle Sheets. Their also in publisher order, based on the order in Diamond. So Image first, than Dark Horse, DC, ect.
So the easiest way to do them if one at a time, starting at the top, and working your way to the bottom.
For existing series, you look at what you sold of previous issues, and try to predict a trend, for every issue. Is the trend up, is it down. Is there a price increase? Is there a new creative team? Is there a special incentive? Anniversary issue?
Then you get to Marvel……Fucking Marvel (pardon my language). Is it regular price? Is it a $1 more. Is it a random $10 issue, or it’s a $10 Deadpool issue for no reason, well, last time that happen, half the customers dropped that, so we better read the blurb, see if it’s going to do it again.
Or there’s 20 covers, #1, how many of those covers are order as many as you want, but you have to look at each blub, because it doesn’t say. So 10 out of the 20 are order as many as you want, I better write them down, since they’re mixed in with the ratios. Now how many of each of these 10 covers to I want to get. Well, this is a Scottie Young Cover, so I need at least X amount because of the Scottie Young Fans. But it also has Cyclops on the cover, so I need to order an extra, because of that one guy who wants all the Cyclops covers.
Well, now i’m only 5 issues away from the “order 150% and order as many as you want of this cover.” Now I can order those 5 more of the regular order covers and then how many of those special covers should I order? I’m already ordering 5 more than I think I can sell, so I can get those covers, so should I order heavy or only a few?
Well, with all those, I’m only 3 issues away from the 1 in 100 ratio, so now which cover should I get those extra 3 issues in.
Oh, good, now that big events miniseries, let order those 5. Oh, look Issue #1 hasn’t come out, but I have to order #2, since it’s coming out every two weeks. Trends say that #2s sell around 25% less than #1 for us, but it has Gwenpool in it, and and those girls that come in will probably want to pick up issue #1 and #2 when they come in a month, and since Marvel’s reorders are nearly impossible, should I order those extra issues now, just in case?
Oh, hey, their selling Spider-Man Variants for this months variants….why does Spider-Man being on a Doctor Strange Cover make sense? Doctor Strange isn’t even on the cover? Why am I ordering this stupid cover again…..I’m just going to order the regular covers, and maybe 1 of those, just in case.
Oh, look I’ve only 5 issues into Marvel’s FOC. I need a break…..
“Not everyone pre-orders..some would like to check the book out before committing. Why is this so hard to understand?”
Every month there’s this big catalog called previews that’s released. It includes synopsis’s of the books available, writers, artists and pics of the main covers at least. What part of that is hard to understand? I can’t talk any slower online so.
If you have a LCS that marks up new books to FMV, complaining isn’t going to help. Isn’t the point to flipping is getting the book at the lowest price and selling for as much as possible? So it’s ok for us to make a profit but not the actual store? So you can buy a book at cover and turn around and sell it for several times than what you paid but stores can’t? Give me a break. Einstein defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Not everyone has the time to browse previews to pick what books they want a month or months in advance. Not everyone is a flipper. If comic shops cant make profit by selling new comics at retail cover price, they likely shouldn’t be in business in the first place. Not everyone wants to commit to a book before seeing it firsthand.
I never said stores cant mark up prices on books, I’m talking day of release price hikes.
I can’t talk any slower either or make my points any clearer… Perhaps you should reread what I’ve stated here and in the past on this subject before twisting it around on talking points I’ve never claimed or said.
You’re right Poyo. Not every one is a flipper. But it gets pretty easy to figure out who the flippers are after a couple weeks, when they continually want the hot books and only the hot books.
There are those flippers you don’t care that are flippers on hot new books because they have a file and are great customers. They might not even be flippers. You do have the people who read these boards who want the hot book, read it, and then sit on it until they die, only because it’s hot and new. They spend their $40+ a week and never give you any problems. You’re happy sell them their extra $12 a week in speculation books.
Then there are those flippers who only want the hot new book and so rarely buy anything else, and when they do they try to beat you down on the price because they’re not interested in a relationship with the store. They’re only interested in maximizing their profits. Those customers you don’t worry about, you never cut a deal and when the disappear, you don’t stress out about it.
Then you have the people who call you’ve never heard from before. Their locale store doesn’t have the issue, so you take a chance, if you can without screwing over your regulars, and tell them you have an issue for them to buy. Sometimes it works out and you pick up a new relationship customer who transfers their file to you and sometimes you never hear from them again.
Why do shops care so much what the customers do with the product after it leaves the store? I thought the whole purpose of a shop is to move inventory?
If you want every customer to have a chance, limit to 1 per. My preferred shop limits all books to 3 per (that includes multiple covers for the same book). All books are all cover price, even ratio variants. All books remain cover price until they remove them from the shelves to put into the dollar bins. They keep about 6 months worth of books on the shelves, usually until the trade hits the shelf.
If you’re a shop that wants to play the secondary market game, by all means, drop your diamond account and come stand in line with all the rest of the flippers..
I want my comic shops to be successful. I am loyal to shops. There will always be repeat customers who are loyal then there will be the customer you see only once, that’s in any business.
But shops who jack their prices up on release day for their own gain lose my business and respect, period.
I’m done beating the dead horse now..
Why do shops care what customers do with their property after they buy it? I don’t. I do care about if building a relationship with them is worth it and this is one of the ways to find out.
And if you want to make money from comics by flipping them, then open a shop, put your own money on the line and take the same chance as everyone else who owns a shop does.
“And if you want to make money from comics by flipping them, then open a shop, put your own money on the line and take the same chance as everyone else who owns a shop does.”
What? Please do explain? Shops don’t flip new books, they sell new books. If you’re referring to back issues, that’s a totally different topic.
Maybe we have a different definitions of what a flipper is. I define a flipper as someone who buys a comic not to read it but to sell for profit. This doesn’t mean they don’t ready any comics, but their motivation for buying a comic is not for the reading the comic.
The difference between a store and a flipper is that a flipper doesn’t take risk. They want all the benefit with none of the risk. You say the stores that want to play the secondary market should take the same risk as the flippers and stand in line at the stores. I’m saying flippers take zero risk. If they don’t get the HOT NEW BOOK, there’s no risk there. The flipper spent zero money in the game.
Stores on the other hand take all the risk. They’re putting money, ordering between three weeks and three months out with a contractual obligation to buy, and there’s no safety net. Thousands of dollars every week betting it that enough of their loyal customers stay loyal to make a profit and a few new people want to open files.
You open the door on Wednesday, and the first one in the door is the flipper. Immediately to small press section, hoping to find that HOT NEW BOOK that they can buy for $4 and flip for $20. It’s not on the wall, because you already have 20 emails from various people and maybe another 10 calls about people wanting to reserve that book at you had 3 people pre-order three months ago and ordered 6 because you’ll break even.
I have had flippers walk in and all the issues of a hot new book off the wall and then get pissed at me for only selling them one. They were there when we opened the door, why shouldn’t they reap the benefit. Who cares most people have jobs where they can’t just go from shop to shop to clear hem out.
I have had flippers open sets to pull out the one good issue, and then not get why I won’t sell them just that one good issue at 1/4 the price I’m asking for the set instead of just buying the entire set. I’m selling it at 25% off already.
I have had flippers get upset with me because they just spend an hour digging through boxes that I told them BEFORE they starting digging through them that those aren’t priced yet and so I’m going to have to price anything you bring up to the register and I actually priced them at the register. I told you I was going to price them, and you digging through boxes for an hour is not you putting in time to find those books.
You cannot say flippers aren’t taking risks at all, that’s the most bullshit response I’ve seen yet in this discussion. Anyone who buys any product to turn around and sell is taking a risk with every purchase. Period. There’s no safety net with anything you buy to sell.
Like I mentioned before, who cares what they do with the book after you sell it. You say you don’t care but your responses tell us another story. By all means, take this counter challenge, drop your diamond account and become a flipper to make money?
Let the flippers get pissy if you already sold your copies, that’s their problem, not yours.
If you consider flipping a risk because you know, waiting to the last minute, that a book is hot, and spending $4 on it to immediately make $20 is a risk, then you and I have very different definitions of risk.
As I also said. I don’t jack up prices. I just don’t sell them to known flippers day of. I only care about flippers because to do otherwise hurts my relationship customers, who i do care about.
If you want to have a challenge, then accept a real one. Open a diamond account. Risk your money three months out. Take risks on comics no one orders and then have flippers try to beat you down because it’s hot and your already deciding which of your 12 customers that are loyal and who now want the book get to have it. Hope that the economy doesn’t bottom out and think about that time when gas got to $4 a gallon in your area and everyone decided that they really don’t need to spend $40 a week on comics, they can spend $20.
We’re never going to agree. We fundamentally have different views of what the responsibility of a comic shop and it’s owner owes it’s customers. We both agree that Shops shouldn’t jack up new comic prices, but we completely disagree on why. You called it a moral and ethical decision. I see it as a purely business decision.
I can understand why you feel that way, but in the end, I think your feelings on the matter are wrong.
In the end, the important thing is we can agree to disagree and move on.
“If you consider flipping a risk because you know, waiting to the last minute, that a book is hot, and spending $4 on it to immediately make $20 is a risk, then you and I have very different definitions of risk.”
Because the reality is, just because you think you can sell at $20 at buying it for $4 doesn’t mean you will.. Bottom line, anything you buy to only sell, you take a risk. Saying otherwise just proves you have no idea what you’re talking about.
I’ve bought plenty of books that were selling at $20 for cover only to not end up selling them for $20, sometimes more, sometimes far less and sometimes never. Secondary market can get flooded real quick, so no sale is guaranteed. You’d have to be a moron to say otherwise.
I don’t know why you say you get beat down on deciding who gets the “hot book”.. pulls and subscribers get their first, first come first serve comes after. You can’t please everyone in any business. Spare us the “open a diamond account” challenge.. easier said than done. I’m fine with my day job (that pays more than just the bills), help running CHU (which is all in my spare time) and don’t want to own a shop! I can make more money doing other things.. 😉
Lol, digging through boxes for hours is not putting in time? That is just about the silliest thing I have heard come from your typing hands.
But that’s out of context. U say u told them that they weren’t priced. That’s on them for not listening. I have been to shops who just don’t care to price things up and will let you put in the work to find those gems and then yank it from you and price it via eBay
You shouldn’t challenge people to open accounts so they can flip, you might just get what you wish for. I did it, very very easily. No store front needed. It isn’t hard. I use this site among others for my FOC order and play the market. If items heat up after FOC I can generally get them from Diamond before other retailers catch on. The only one here who usually beats me to the punch is BJ.
Marking up books day of release for your customers who come in from the street is bad practice. It leads to them shopping elsewhere or even opening their own account. Have I mentioned how easy it is ?
Next argument please, your idiotic ideas tire me.
Oh yeah, you got tired of your local shops and just opened your own right?
Why yes i did Agentpoyo. I opened my own diamond account because I was tired of being a collector and going into my local shops only to find that the comics I had on a pull list weren’t available because of “dmg” from Diamond. Only to look online and see that same retailer selling it at eBay prices that same day.
The whole brick and mortar store arguement is a real issue. They are losing business because of flippers like me who get my product at thier cost without their overhead. Easy to sell from a garage and have a website for 5% of their operating cost. And not to mention I only have to work a few hours at night ? Yeah I don’t have a day job now ? yet B&M shops haven’t learned. They jack their prices up and screw their customers and look where it got them. Nuff said really.
I dont know how to comment on this. BJ, if you didnt read this or any other spec site, would ur prices be that high release day? I understand people need to make money, but there needs to be a line that we as retailers dont cross so we dont hurt the community. The concern for me : when do we as retailers start selling as secondary markets? When did we start playing the secondary speculation market? And more ethically, should we ?
Not only this but by BJ’s logic and reasoning (by quoting investopedia), Diamond has every right to start selling books above cover. They have the right to raise the prices to secondary market prices as well.. how would the shops handle that? Imagine going in thinking you get your books for $2 a pop and Diamond is selling them for $6?
Shops wouldn’t buy them. I would think Marvel would have something to say about that…Marvel probably has more influence in what diamond does since it directly effects their profit margins…Marvel would likely not care what the shops do as Marvel already has their money….until it effects Marvel’s bottom line, that is.
Shops have the right to do as they please with their Inventory .. however, I’ve repeatedly stated that I do not subscribe to the Mark It Up ASAP philosophy and I never will .. if your Shop is so thin on Cash Flow that you are doing this, you have deeper seated problems ..
Sometimes, I think the whole Market is simply devolving into a Ponzi scheme .. I pity the Customers that always end up at the bottom of the Pyramid ..
Let your voice be heard with your Wallet ..
Very well said.. even coming from a shop owner!
It’s a Free Market .. Retailers are allowed to charge what they like, Customers can choose to buy or not .. for me, it’s just as simple as that .. no need for a heavy Debate or a lesson from “Investopedia” ..
If no one bought at artificially high prices, there would be no Market for those books .. thus, they would not be Marked up ..
The Buying Consumer is just as Complicit as the Selling Retailer ..
Vote with your Wallet ..
And that’s what I’m trying to say here, we have every right to share the experience.
MCS hiked their prices, they lost my business by such tactics (actually they lost my business long ago).
We are sharing this to let others make the choice. If you want to buy a new book at $15 instead of $3 or $4, all the power to you. I’m not one of those people and I’m gonna call it out every time I see it happening.
But yes, I like that. Vote with your wallet. A business who hikes their prices will not get my money.. either agree or disagree, it’s your money. I think if more start to support such shops who practice this, it will become the norm and it won’t stop there and it’s going to be a really bad result for the entire industry.
Ok, new gripe (because the one above is just beating dead decaying horses):
My gripe is Ebay adding “or best offers” to my listing WITHOUT MY CONSENT!!!!
On Saturday ebay had a promotion to list 200 items w/out a listing fee…I listed about 50 items that I had previously terminated before the listings had ended so I didn’t get wacked with a 35 cent listing fee as everything is automatically renewed.
I meticulously REMOVED THE OBO OPTION from every single one (because eBay thinks this should be the default). That was Saturday….today I’m getting a bunch of low ball offers….sooooo annoying. WTF, EBAY?!
I haven’t bought or sold anything on ebay in years. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not.
It happens every fargin’ time i relist!
I’d be ok with it if they reposted it automatically….but when I modify the settings to remove it and hit send….it should reflect MY settings!!! Not theirs.
D-HULK aaaangggryyyyyy!!!! Smash eBay!!!!
(My apologizes to poyo in advance for having to aprons yet one more of my multiple personalities…)
*approve*…..not *aprons*
D-Hulk not wear silly apron.
POYO SMASH D-MULTIPLE PERSONALTIES…
Please .. ??
that is why a decent retailer not a clownshoe retailer does the following #testify buy extra copies .have enough or the rack and enough for ebay/conventions extra. e.g. tmnt #96,dead end kids ,absulote carnage e ct if you normally order 5 copies of tmnt #96 and the series got hot then start ordering 10 copies and put the extra five on ebay at the ebay or convention price lets imagine that the pimp down the street says you can have a hooker for ten dollars and you go to the atm and get the ten dollars and then according to b.j. s logic the pimp and the girl decide to charge $25 dollars and mess up a good time .well everytime a retailer like b.j. jacks up a new book on a wensday without giving customers a at least to the following Monday a chance they are messing up a readers good time and then they leave the hobby retailers like b.j. are worse then the street walking whores #testify love you all blind adam out
Order five copies of TMNT #96, and 12 people want it. Next Month, order 12 copies of TMNT #97 and back to selling five copies. Thats a terrible idea.
I mentioned this in Poyo’s thread, but then got yet another call, so it goes in my don’t like as well. I have now had several phone calls of people asking me to sell them the recalled Superman 14 and Supergirl 33 books this week. I get that many shops will do it (see Rabbit, Dead). But I didn’t sell Wolverine 131 two decades ago, I am not selling Superman 14 this week.
And the multiple completed ebay sales at $119+ for the set of 4, with one a staggering $199? It just boggles my mind that people think these books will be worth much of anything down the road.
My Comic Shop are greedy a-holes. I’ve spent literally thousands of dollars with them over the years, and kept running into problems with overgraded books from that nasty Beth. One time they promised to replace everything damaged in the mail, and then Beth got wind and reneged due to the books “still being in the same grade.” Another time, they made the shipping $15 for me specifically to discourage me from buying, even though I had auction item still to pay for. They wouldn’t lower it, and ended up relisting the item for auction again rather than let me pay normal shipping.
The last time I used them, I returned books that were not in the desired condition, only to have them chew me out and say they wouldn’t pay for returns anymore since I obviously am wrong. One comic has a tear in the cover. When I told them that was stupid and it only encourages someone to damage the book further since then the grade will be low enough for their purposes, they canceled my account without saying anything… but because they didn’t get in touch, they now have no leg to stand on.
So for the past few months I keep making a new account under a family member’s name, order the same books in good faith, and they cancel the account and the order, but can’t say they asked me not to shop there anymore… because they didn’t, and cannot ban family members at the same residence. They would literally rather lose my business and let the books be tied up because they hate me.
The definition of cutting off their nose to spite their face. I guess not everything is better in Texas after all!
As someone who spends more than $400 a month on comics I bet I would save money by opening a diamond account.
Maybe we should? CHU gets enough traffic.. we just start selling all books at cover price forever. Let’s take on Midtown! 🙂
At 3,000,000 plus hits a year I think we might get a sale or two.
We STealz All Thur CustoMerz by selling all books at a discount, we have nothing to lose. I bet I could do it keeping my daytime full time job as well.. 🙂
Sounds like the next step in the evolution of CHU.
Maybe.. but we tack on an additional 50% for people who support shops that hike up prices on release day, it’s only fair since they like paying more for their books. 😉
25%.
You can even hire your kids to package up the orders…supplement their allowances.
My kids got no allowance, I spent it on Dead End Kids at BJ’s shop for $25, but he saved me money by being $5 less than eBay!
https://images.app.goo.gl/kamdCbGJaENBGas2A
Absolutely you would. Go for it.
Oh there are definitely people in the B&M that give everyone a bad name. I would say, 85% to 90% of the time, this is the best job I’ve ever done. But oh, that 10%. Mostly just venting about flippers. If I ever get to the point where I’m miserable most of the time, then I’ll move on.
Building those relations is what matters to me. Keeping my regulars happy, regardless of their motivation for their purchase. Take care of them, encourage pre-orders so people don’t miss what they want, don’t worry about the rest. Since we agree on the fundamentals of not screwing your customers.I know I will never agree with you on the idea that stores can’t sell what they own for whatever price they want.
If you want to flip your book once you own it, more power to you. I just wish you’d give me the same courtesy.
As for Mike C having a diamond account. Good for him. I do think it hypocritical that it’s OK for him to use his inside access to sell books at higher than MSRP but it’s not OK for me to do the same.
“I just wish you’d give me the same courtesy.”
I do, just not on release day or the day prior like shops with bricks and online shops do from time to time.
Man, you’re getting the D-Hulk goin again.
If a book is hot, flippers will storm the store and buy out the issues that afternoon…even putting a limit of one copy won’t stop most hot books from lasting less than a day on the shelf.
So any argument that you need to keep the price at cover so the random new customer won’t be discouraged is flawed. New potential customers are not walking in when the store opens on Wednesday or shortly thereafter like flippers do. The book won’t be there one day later when he/she walks in if it’s sold at cover. So this argument is moo, like an f’n cow, man.
So pick your poison. The newb can walk in and find the book marked up, or not find the book at all. What’s the difference?
Now where did I put my purple pants…and that dead horse…?
I encounter readers picking up their books at opening all the time at one shop.
Raising your prices to keep the flippers away is a horrible idea because it’s going to also deter the non-flippers as well.. if you’re a business that buys a product at wholesale, the whole point is to move inventory. Who cares what they do with it after they leave. Flip it, use it as toilet paper.. why do shops care so much? Sounds to me it’s just greed.
Who is greedier, the flippers or the shop that gets ahead of the flippers?
Anyone who flips a book immediately after purchase is greedy on some level.
And my stance isn’t even arguing for the flipper per se. I’m mostly speaking on behalf of just the guy who wants to read it… it’s disheartening to walk into a shop to pick up a book that should be $3.99 or whatever and being asked to pay $25 or whatever it’s going for on eBay.
Yes, CHU is a spec site but it’s evolved further. It caters just about every aspect of the hobby. Seems there’s way more retailers using it to their own advantage. Maybe I should just start charging them for the free info or blocking them.. 😉
The question really is, how many “Hot Books of the Week” stay hot for any length of time .. ?? I know quite a few Retailers, and, some justify immediate markup by using that as a reason to help subsidize books they over ordered and end up marking down / $1.00 bin books .. that’s their problem, because they are simply not keeping a tight rein on Inventory ..
If a Retailer must use that tactic to support their Cash Flow, as I’ve already mentioned, what happens when the well runs dry .. ?? And, they are forced to subsist on regular price .. ??
If, instead, a Retailer sets their ordering levels appropriately, learns to run a shop by actually maintaining a Profit Margin / Cash Flow based on the real Retail / Cover price, that Retailer is set for the longer haul, IMO ..
Like I’ve said, a Retailer can do what they want with Inventory they have bought and paid for .. some of us that have been in the Business for many, many years prefer to run things on a Long Term perspective and ignore the possible short term gains afforded by Immediate Markup ..
I’ve personally lived thru the Ups and Downs of this Industry .. I prefer to maintain a solid, dedicated Customer Base over the years that does not think I’m a Scalper .. yes, that’s the word for it .. Scalping, like it or not ..
It’s the Internet that has created the current FOMO binge .. and, IMO, it’s a Ponzi Scheme .. you can’t build a Long Term Business by subscribing to those type tactics .. yes, I’m an Old Guy, that may be clinging to Old Ways, I don’t know ..
What I do know is, it’s worked for all these years .. and, I make a comfortable living .. that’s enough proof for me ..
Well said.. very well said.
Well, you know, Mr Poyo, I never have and never will disparage those that Speculate in the After-Market .. what happens to any Goods, whether it be a Comic or a Toy from the Walmart, after it passes thru to the Consumers hands is that Consumers Business .. that’s why it’s called the After-Market ..
Now, some time back, when I discovered CHU for the first time, I lurked for a goodly period prior to joining in .. during that time, I came to appreciate the informational content that both you, Anthony and the rest (even Blind Adam .. 😉 ) contributed and the time and love you fine folks clearly show ..
Although my Jam does not include New Out of the Box Books and how I can rake in a few extra shekels on those, CHU has helped me immensely by keeping me better informed on older material that I would likely have ignored .. until a Customer walked in and snagged a $60 book for $3.00 ..
I think you folks provide a great service to the Collecting Community at large .. I also believe that CHU does, in fact, help expand the Market, which is my Jam .. if just one in twenty Speculators become true Fans of the genre, then that’s one more we did not have before ..
I’ve been a Collector since the 1950’s .. I tell my Customers when I start to ramble that I’ve collected about everything except Cars and Women, because they are just too expensive ..
And, I appreciate those here that put up with the ramblings of an Old Man .. whether you Young Turks realize it or not, you are the people that will carry the Torch into the Future, and, hopefully, keep this wonderful Hobby alive and well ..
Because, first and foremost, we all rest on the shoulders of the Greats from the Past ..
Thanks Willie.
My personal goal of CHU (and the articles I write) is to not only spec on books that people can pick up to make a few extra bucks (cause we all know most of that money just buys them more books, a win for you comic shop owners) but also to just share hopefully great new books for readers and collectors. The next goal is yes, a resource to retailers on hot new books in the back issues. Sure I love walking into a shop and finding a gem for a fraction of the price but I also want my shops to stay in business. I’ll be the first to tell a shop owner of hot books.
I have no issues with shops holding onto a copy or two of a hot book to sell later on. I have no issues if shops limit books to 1 per customer. I have no problems if a shop tells me the book I’m looking for is in high demand and they sold out quickly.
What we’re now witnessing is shops just out right jacking the prices up on books the day of or yanking them entirely to list on their eBay stores at secondary, etc. This is my primary concern. Like you said, I’ll protest with my wallet, these shops will not get my business and with the internet, it’s my right to bring this up on CHU or any other platform. So you can say, I’m also protesting with my voice. If a retailer reads my opinion piece on the practice of playing the secondary market game on release day and gets offended, well, mission accomplished I say.
I think I’ve said this before but you run the type of shop I would love to come spend a lot of cash in Willie.