Wednesday Open Forum

Wednesday

Wednesday, the best day of the week, new comic book day. It is like your birthday in the middle of each week (well, one where you buy your own presents.)

We open things up to hear from you. A free for all.

The 247th edition of the open forum!

Did you know we have the forum up and running, you can check it out at the official CHU Forum site, go over and sign up.

As always we also want to hear about your weekly pickups.
So, What were your pick ups?

171 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Forum”

  1. tomorrow is my Christmas and his name is…..OVERSTREET!!!!!
    immortal hulk ending at issue 25 im hearing. Boo.

    1. from what i see they are doing a cosmic story, where hulk has lived for a billion years. It wouldnt make sense to end the comic yet when its so beloved.

        1. My favorite is a comment on another site regarding the inevitable reboot after issue 25:

          “Coming soon – Immortaler Hulk #1.”

  2. Midtown currently has WD #193 up for $10 limit 1 if anyone is interested. I just grabbed a copy.

    1. Awesome!…At least people have a chance to get them at a reasonable price if they missed out.

  3. Just sent my second batch of Eternals into CGC. Three more of issue #1, three more of #3, two of #11 and singles of #2, #4, #5 & 7. All pretty high grade…Hopefully “very” high grade, but we’ll see. Just want them to get to CGC before all the SDCC drop offs make their way back. Do not want to be behind that line!

  5. Two really interesting developments in Invaders 7. fortunately there should be a lot of those around with all the stores getting double what they ordered.

  6. Does anybody have any batman spoilers? I heard they were introducing a new robin?

  8. “June 2019 had 6,271,535 units in the top 300 comics list, a decrease of 315,293 units from last month. The average for the top 300 comics is 6,612,772 units and the month isn’t too far below that average.

    This is the eighth month in a row of below average sales for the top 300 comics. This is the longest range of sales for the top 300 comics below the running average since the 23 month range from October 2009 to August 2011.”

    1. “This period included the all time low for the top final order sales for the top 300 of 4,402,736 units in January 2011.”

    2. Interesting stat. Especially given all the MCU hype going on, how well the economy is perceived to be doing.

      Here’s my follow up inquiry:

      What was the average cover price of the top 300 Comics across the last 8 months?

      What was the average units and average price of the top 300 comics in the 8 months prior?

      Basically I’m theorizing the decrease in units might be related to the increase in cost to acquire.

      Or maybe shops are just a little smarter with their money and not buying what they think they may not sell.

      @BJ or any other shop owner here, have you cut back on units over the past 8 months on average?

        1. If I find time in my life this evening or next that I just want to throw away, I’ll look into this and see if I can calculate some numbers.

      2. Cover Price escalation is part of the issue, sure .. $3.99 and up for maybe a 20 minute read .. ?? Three comics pays for a month of Netflix ..

        I can’t speak for any shop but my own, however, the tightening of “Buy to Sell Out” is generally my way these days .. I maintain about 300 pull and hold customers, so racking books is not super essential .. I also pretty much know, over the many years I’ve done this, what rack books will move ..

        I don’t play the “Book of the Week” game, stopped that back in the 1990’s during the Total Meltdown Phase ..

        My advice to any Customer is buy what you enjoy and if it goes up it’s a Bonus .. yet, with the proliferation of Spec Sites, it’s common when a book hits that people I have never seen call or come in looking for just that book .. but, I am not gifted with ESP, so it’s unlikely I’ll have that “Book of the Week” a day or two after delivery .. if I was gifted with ESP, I’d be sipping a Pina Colada in Tuscany ..

          1. You know, Anthony, regardless of my commentary, I support and enjoy what you and the Gang here at CHU do .. I am not against Spec for Profit .. after all, I’m a Capitalist as well ..

            If it can help bolster the Market, create Excitement and perhaps bring new Members into the Fold, it’s all good .. 🙂

            1. Hey, even if they’re not regular customers and a spec site landed you an extra sell, can’t beat that right?

              I wish I lived near you’re shop Willie, you would totally be my shop of choice.

        2. “the tightening of “Buy to Sell Out” is generally my way these days .’
          I just lost a sale about 30 minutes ago on Batman Who Laughs 1 to 3 and maybe 4 to 7 at the same time because #2 is sold out. DC did a Final Printing of #2 which is gone also. It makes it hard to move new books when an issue is missing for any reason. He’s not willing to chase #2 elsewhere and says he’s going to wait for the book to collect it. We’ll just have to see if he shows back up in September. At least his friend grabbed all 3 DCeased B covers. His other friend grabbed a Daredevil Pop and said he’s going to read his friends copies so between the two I expect at least one of them excited enough to show up for #4.

          Heat wave in progress so it’s been packed with new faces taking a break from the heat to wander the store in the AC today. 95 to 98 and humid outside, 74 inside. Not really loving the thought of what the electric bill will look like next month but we need to keep the books safe. At least a couple Deadpool and Avenger car window sunshades sold this afternoon to put towards it.

      3. We haven’t really cut back on units of individual titles, but there is an ebb and flow with title launches. Order volumes were necessarily higher last summer as Marvel was relaunching so many titles (some with great results like Immortal Hulk and Venom, some with terrible results like Tony Stark). Since then a few titles have relaunched but to less buzz (Daredevil, etc). On the DC side, We had relaunches of JLA, GL, etc.

        The “event books” have been largely underwhelming this year. War of the Realms was a decent story but was spread too thin. I suspect the same will be true of Absolute Carnage, but I have a little more faith in that creative team. DC absolutely wrecked any future interest in Black Label titles with their mishandling of Damned. The decisions they made on that title probably cost them 20-30 copies of every future Black Label book at my shop alone, multiplied many times over across the continent.

        At my shop we have a more diverse reader base than most, so we sell 30-40 copies of Rick and Morty every month, Firefly is a top 10 title for us, the new Transformers launch is a top 25 title, etc. Heck, we sell 15-20 shelf copies of the new Sonic series every month. Yes, we are still selling 70 copies of Venom, but the curve isn’t as steep as it probably is in most shops.

        And yes, we occasionally get stuck with overorders on some overhyped book from DC or Marvel, but for the most part when a title is 12 weeks out, we are down to either 1 or 2 copies to head to the back issue boxes. And that’s how we like it.

      4. From what I understand, the year to year is down about 1% from this time last year. Not bad, imo, considering the state of print media overall, and the economic landscape.

  9. New to the boards and just getting back into the industry after 25 years off.

    In regards to the decline is there a seasonality impact happening? Curious if there is a similar decline month to month in prior years.

    1. The one I pasted says it the biggest since the 2009 time frame so that doesn’t sound like a seasonal thing. I posted the link above so you can dig around yourself some.

  10. Was able to sneak away to the shop this morning. Snagged two Captain Marvel #8, which were the last two on the shelf. This shop never ordered heavy for this series.

    Picked up Road of Bones #3 which is one of my new favorite reads lately. I usually wait now for the trades to pick up after the first 2 issues but I really want to read the next issue so I couldn’t resist.

    Been wanting to watch Orville cause I hear it’s good, so I picked up Orville #1 as well. I won’t read until I watch so I’m hoping it’s a good read.

    Also snagged the only copy they had of the new Vampirella #1 Hughes Variant. I don’t usually buy these, maybe a future CHU giveaway? 🙂

  11. On the Vampirella #1 Reboot .. retailers were offered a life size Vampirella standee display that included 5 Jose Gonzales variants allegedly only available with the display order .. I have no idea how many Retailers took advantage or even noticed this, although it still shows in stock at Diamond .. I ordered a few, mainly because I’m a long term Vampi fan and the standee is taken from the classic very large Vampirella poster Gonzales did many years ago, of which I have on display in my Man Cave .. and I wanted the standee (and a few extras) .. so I could put one next to the Poster ..

    Those old posters are quite rare these days in top shape .. they are about six feet tall ..

      1. Back in the early ’90’s, when Diamond actually had competition from Capital .. at a Capital Retailers Summit, I had the opportunity to purchase the last quantity of that Iconic poster .. I acquired maybe 40 of them, some were damaged beyond selling, since the thing was so damn big .. I sold about half of the good ones in the shop for around $20ish each, I think, back then ..

        Held on to the rest .. they have been in the Storage Catacombs for all these years, had a Chicago shop owner call me this week who knew I had them and offered $60 each if NM .. I had 10 I was willing to part with that, in fact, were NM .. ka-ching .. + shipping in a PVC plumbing tube .. 😉

        I don’t know what they are worth these days, but I do know they are tough to find in NM .. heck, I think I paid like $2.00 each for them ..

        That’s my Spec of the Week .. of course, it was a 25 year or so spec ..

    2. “retailers were offered a life size Vampirella standee display that included 5 Jose Gonzales variants allegedly only available with the display order .. “

      I love José González. Got a few of his albums/cds. Also liked his team up with Zero 7 with Sia!

      https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjSq-2S57zjAhViT98KHXtyDPsQjhx6BAgBEAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com%2Fsearch%3Ftbm%3Disch%26q%3DJos%25C3%25A9%2BGonz%25C3%25A1lez&psig=AOvVaw05s910_2GBHFEQcdJK23ly&ust=1563482157737674

        1. Have you heard his Collaboration with Zero 7? I wish he had done more with that group, that’s where I first came across his music. Sia’s Collaboration with Z7 was somewhat of a launching for her too.

  12. Road trip today. Highlight of the the day was finding a Transformers #80 (Marvel) in NM+ shape for $20. May pass as 9.8 with a press and on a good day.

          1. Unfortunately not a newsstand, or else I’d be sitting in a potentially $200 comic in a slab.

            I have a 9.6 cgc already which fetch north of $100. This one has at least that potential. So I’m debating on putting it up raw or sending it in for a press and grade. Upon closer inspection I don’t think it’ll reach 9.8.

            Regardless of what I do, it was jammed in a long box in a bag/board that look to be 7-10 years old as it is…so I saved it from further deterioration.

  13. JayClue, Transformers # 80 was the last issue of the Marvel Series (1st one). I’d say that the comic was losing steam at that point. End of series, with a low print run. Awesome cover, with a disclaimer at the top that said ” # 80 in a four issue limited series” – which was pretty cool. For $20 bucks, wow! Nice score D-Rog!!!

  14. Picked up:

    Blade Runner 1 Artgerm cover
    Deadpool 15 Skottie Young cover
    Love & Rockets 7
    Vampi 1 Replica
    GS X-Men 1 Facsimile
    Loki 1 (for my daughter)

    Notes:

    Although I was there when the door opened, no CM 8 on the shelf. Only 1 copy of Vampi 1 AH! cover on the shelf but it was mangled. As I was standing there, an employee came over a grabbed it to put in another customer’s box.

    1. I picked up:
      A ton of new comics
      Leatherface 2&3
      Gore Shreik Vol2 #1 Ltd variant
      Zombie Fairytales Little Mermaid (Antarctic Press from a few years back)
      Walking Dead #2 (Aircel series)
      Back Cat 13 Magazine #1 (cool indie horror mag)
      And some $1 Nova Bronze Age books.

  15. Walked into the LCS this morning to find 3 issues of CM #8, all priced at $15.. I don’t have a problem with their copies of last week’s TWD for $25, or other books from recent weeks that have had the price bumped up, but jacking up the price of a non ratio book that came out today is ridiculous. Very disappointed.

      2. That’s an asinine thing to say. There is NOTHING to be ASHAMED of for asking fair market pricing for comics and trying to keep enough inventory on hand to supply all the people who will want the book and be expecting you to have it when they come in. There’s too much of this sense of entitlement that people think they can procrastinate and not make commitments to order the comics ahead of time to have them. That’s exactly what stores have to do. This issue in particular caters to 3 different collector groups that will be looking for it leaving all 3 of them with incomplete collections if you’re out and they’re not willing to run off to E-bay!!!.

        When someone wanting to read the story next week comes in for the series she shouldn’t have to skip the series entirely just because you got raided for the book by people who didn’t pick up the 1st 7 issues and don’t plan to come back for issues 9 and 10 you’ve already committed to ordering. She shouldn’t have to skip the series entirely, pay E-Bay prices plus shipping, wait days or weeks for something to show up in the mail, hope it isn’t damaged when it arrives, that she didn’t just support some drug dealer or crook moving stolen goods and she definitely shouldn’t have to skip the series entirely maybe to come back in a few months when the trade is out if she remembers then she was interested at one time.

        Pricing a comic so that your copies stay in the building but cheap enough to be less than what they’re going for with shipping is a smart, sensible and responsible thing to do. You read the same Previews we did. You KNEW Star was coming as advertised in the Previews for #9 and 10 so you should have ALREADY been subscribed and had #8 in your pull list at a great price!!!

        If you have a store that can afford not to or doesn’t try to keep inventory on hand for others that’s your blessing but NOT all stores can afford to do things like that and should not be ashamed for not catering to a few resellers that are too cheap to commit prior to knowing they can make an easy sale on it!!!

        Just in the last year I’ve turned the extra $$ from higher prices and sales for keys that are jumping into additional perks and benefits for my walk-in customers. That little bit of extra goes a long way!!!!! Additional sales paid off the PayPal Working Capital Loan fast and lead to a much larger new one. That huge one paid off two credit cards entirely, paid down a couple others, allowed for some additional inventory ordering which increased the overall selection available for walk-ins and with empty credit cards the ability to even cater to people and offer them great prices for LATE PRESALES of Walking Dead 193. The book was selling for $25 to $30, it was preselling here for cover for a day and a half and at HALF of E-Bay’s price for another week all because those credit cards paid off allowed the safety net to order a bunch of copies of the issue before Diamond sold out. Win-win for the customers, inventory purchased with a safety net purchased with the INTENTION of selling them above cover!!!!

        Hopefully one day we’ll look back and the entire industry is marking books up to keep them on hand for people who will want them and at LESS than E-bay prices. It doesn’t make sense NOT to!!! You are FAILING your customers by NOT marking them up. You’re only going to satisfy the 1st couple people showing up to resell them for you anyway!!!! After the 1st couple your out, made nothing of significance selling at cover and the resellers showing up later are going to bad mouth you anyway saying you ran them off to elsewhere to sell while the customers who would have purchased the entire series and subscribed have nothing. There is no happy solution other than making a little extra and keeping them on hand. A $20 sale for #8 at least recovers the money you spent on the other 7 issues that are sitting on the shelf unsellable waiting for dumping into the cheap boxes.

        Do your research, order ahead of time so you don’t miss out, this was not a secret that she was coming. At the very least grab the 1st 7 issues to take to the counter with you and ask for a subscription sheet for signing up for the rest. Those FREE Previews, read them!!. Check out Anthony’s FOC weekly if nothing else to catch a few more you might have missed. You’ve known STAR was coming since at least June 1st if not sooner!!!!
        “A STAR RISES, ANOTHER FALLS!
        Being Captain Marvel has been the greatest joy of Carol Danvers’ life. But a new hero is rising to the limelight – just as Carol’s own powers begin to fail her. With everyone now believing she’s a Kree traitor, Carol can’t help but wonder…does the world even need Captain Marvel?”

        You’ve known the Carnage-ized Trade Dresses would be mixed in and a One Page story would be added. I’ve been saying that myself here multiple times since the beginning of June!!!!!

        I’d have to go look but I’m pretty sure the someone mentioned how nice the Carnage-ized Variant looked around FOC time also!!!

        Multiple reasons way ahead of time to give you no excuse for having not already signed up!!!!!!

        1. And what happens when the heat dies and books that could have sold are now left sitting on your shelf. I listed my Walking Dead 193 late, listed them lower than going rate, and still sitting on 2 copies. No big deal in the scheme of things but at one point i was buying every issue of the walking dead I could get at $1 each and still cannot move the excess stock. My LCS buying program doesn’t even buy walking dead issues at this time. Same thing happens with a ton of quick sale books that fizzle out. I do not like it support ships that jack up prices on the day of release (or in Mycomicshop.com’s case the night before) people should be able to walk into a store and grab a hot new book at cover. Limit purchases. That’s the best way.

          1. I agree with the limit per customer as the valid solution on new books that are heating up prior or on release day to give consumers a chance at buying them.

            The word you’re looking for though is likely “absurd”, not “asinine” because there’s nothing foolish or stupid about consumers calling out shops who jack up retail price on release day. And even then, what I stated isn’t even absurd as it’s not entirely unreasonable or inappropriate.

            Not everyone that walks into a shop is there to buy to flip. You have readers, you have 1st appearance collectors, perhaps they read about the new character in the news and want to check it out.

            To me, a shop that jacks up their prices on release day, essentially playing the secondary market game is a horrible approach and they deserve to lose potential customers. This is a reason I’ll call them out, each and every time. Like it don’t, it’s our rights as consumers.

            Jack the price up a few days later after people got the chance to buy, hold a few copies for the rainy day if you want. Limit copies to 1 or 2 per customer on hot books.

            Agree or disagree, I’m going to call out shops and I hope all other CHU readers who are consumers call them out as well. If you don’t like it as a retailer yourself BJ, then skip over it here on CHU.

            1. One shop I called held back all copies (for now) only giving them to their pull list customers (for cover).

              Another had them all priced at $14.99 on the shelf.

              My LCS that I have a regular pull list with did not respond to my inquiry if they could set aside a copy for me.

              One LCS I frequent (but do not have a pull list with) held a copy for me at
              My request (I walked in Tuesday evening before closing as they were sorting the next day releases). They only had two copies. Ironically they asked me if I wanted both…I said “no thanks” as I thought that at cover price I shouldn’t clear the rack. Let someone else experience the thrill of the find.

              In the end my advice is stop whining about shops policies, but rather build a relationship. If you have a good one, then you’ll be treated with respect and given perks to keep you around if it’s a reputable owner…regardless of what’s is put on the shelf and the asking price. It’s all relationships and negotiations.

              It would be helpful, I think, if a shop had a very transparent stated/written policy so that their customers and even transient walk ins knew what to expect from them…that should at least set expectations and if you have questions about what is fair then open up constructive dialogue. I think feathers get ruffled when there’s a perceived inconsistency or unfairness immediately when one walks through the door because of what they’ve experienced before with that shop.

              Don’t hate the players, hate the game.

            2. “Jack the price up a few days later after people got the chance to buy, hold a few copies for the rainy day if you want. Limit copies to 1 or 2 per customer on hot books.”
              A lot of customers don’t come in a few days later. They show up a week or more out. Now you’re saying it’s okay to penalize them for procrastinating? Make up your mind. You don’t get a reward for racing to the store while telling us to put a limit on books we know we’re selling to strangers while telling us that if we don’t sell out we can charge our regulars more. If the pricing point is viable on Day 65 it was just as viable on DAY 63. You had maybe 45 DAYS or more to let the store know you wanted it.

              If it doesn’t say WHOLESALE on the sign they’re not in the business to cater to resellers.

              “Agree or disagree, I’m going to call out shops and I hope all other CHU readers who are consumers call them out as well. If you don’t like it as a retailer yourself BJ, then skip over it here on CHU.”

              I choose to disagree. The only people that should be getting publicly SHAMED are the one’s who chose to pass on every possible chance they had to acquire the book while it was still reasonable!!! These are hard working people all over the country in a tough business to make a living with families and children and employees counting them. I’m sure most of them give back to the community in a variety of ways.

              It’s hypocritical and insulting for a site designed to encourage people to make the most they can for something to publicly chastise other people for doing the SAME THING!!!!!

              Skipping over it would be just as wrong!!!! Someone has to speak the truth and speak up for those who may not even know to defend themselves. Are you e-mailing all these stores to let them know they have the opportunity and now a NEED to come speak up for themselves? Wrong is wrong. Shame on CHU.

              1. “Skipping over it would be just as wrong!!!! Someone has to speak the truth and speak up for those who may not even know to defend themselves. Are you e-mailing all these stores to let them know they have the opportunity and now a NEED to come speak up for themselves? Wrong is wrong. Shame on CHU.”

                Every shop should educate themselves as you would say and by all means, let them come defend themselves if they feel they need to if they’re called out. CHU is a popular site, they can do google searches to see who and where people are talking about them or mentioning them. It’s not like our comments are hidden.

                Like Willie stated, if you depend on jacking up the prices to stay in business when you buy at wholesale prices, then you’re in the wrong business.

              2. We have always advocated for fairness. We do not encourage shelf clearing (I could have done it yesterday with Captain Marvel but grabbed one of each cover at a shop that doesn’t limit sales) in the same way we don’t advocate stores from jacking up prices the day of release or the day before (mycomicshop) and the same way we don’t advocate stores to have stock out priced yet still check recent eBay sales and change the price at the register.

                1. With that said, CHU is designed for speculators, readers, collectors and such. We really don’t cater to retailers. By all means we don’t exclude retailers as all are welcome but you’re in a very small minority BJ if you’re going to jump on a comic book speculators and readers site where probably 99% or more of the readers are not diamond account holders and then try to persuade us consumers in why we should be okay in buying comic books that have a retail price tag of $4 on release day for $15 or potentially more.

          2. As the price comes down, if it does then the shelf prices should be coming back down also. Even if they don’t, the one copy that sold at $20 pays for itself and maybe 9 others that didn’t. If you don’t have nine others then the one sale pays for 9 other comics that aren’t going to be picked up from that title or others that didn’t have anything spec happen. I go out of my way to INTENTIONNALY have at least one complete set of everything left over to bundle into complete sets. People will come in next week wanting it. People may show up 6 months from now wanting to read the series.

            Noone should ever being ashamed of asking ANY PRICE for ANYTHING!!! That’s just wrong. I could even quote you as having said something along the lines of listing things at the “make Me Sell it to You Price!! If you let your HOT books run out the door, you are hurting you regulars and potential future customers while once again giving people that didn’t make a commitment a reward they don’t deserve!!!!!! Every single item I can possibly bring in the door is going to sold somewhere at some time cheaper. That’s the nature of the business. Some we can’t even get until months after the other HOT sources and some of them have them for sale at higher than the MSRP we put them out at when they finally arrive.

            This issue in particular it’s just sickening to think you had every opportunity to KNOW STAR was coming.

            You knew it a month and half ago she was coming in #9.

            We paid shipping on FREE catalogs Marvel provided for you to know!!!!!

            You know the industry has a habit of dropping one page cameo’s and splashes in the book’s ahead of time!!

            This week’s new list of Top Ten Sales Last Week has Walking Dead 190 up in price. It’s nothing new for issues leading in to big events to get elevated. MCP #5 is still on the list also.

            You knew the Carnage-ized trade dresses would be mixed in most likely and pre FOC the early issues were selling at elevated prices!!!

            You knew the Carnage-ized variant was a HOT cover coming in right ahead of a a HUGE event it ties directly to that would have new fans possibly wanting it in addition to those collecting them all and needing a copy!!!!!

            We don’t need 1 or 2 people to buy them all yesterday. If we’re stuck with some leftovers a month or two from now then who cares so long as we kept our copies around long enough to take care of our regulars and potential new subscribers!!!!! Every copy sold pays for one that didn’t at cover for most stores. Every one sold at anything above cover helps to pay for the others that didn’t and to help keep the doors open in a highly competitive business. Make a little more today and stay around a little longer to service our needs next year!!!!!

            Save new customers from walking out empty handed or being forced to pay jacked up e-bay prices!!!!

            Click CHU’s FOC links and PREORDER!!! You keep CHU around with click thru money and help to grow Dark Horse at the same time!!!!

            I’d bet some of the people whining about #8 NEVER bothered to order 9 either!!!!!!

            The bigger CHU gets, the bigger the audience it has, the more stores it will clue in on what should be marked up a bit to keep it around for the regulars. This one wasn’t even really that much of a surprise!!!!! Get out in front of these things!!!!! You snooze, you lose!!

            Subscribe and SAVE!!!!!
            PREORDER and GAURANTEE availability!!!!

            There’s plenty of money to be made in this hobby a variety of different ways and one of the easiest is by just paying attention to your Previews and CHU’s FOC list weekly.

            1. You seem to not like the fact we use affiliate links. It is a necessary evil. We do provide options for where people can order from or they can order from wherever but in order for there to be a Chu we need to be able to pay the costs of running the site, which have become massive with the amount of traffic we get. On a side note, we are not getting rich off it. I do drive a car whose name has three letters in it but those letters are not BMW, they are KIA.

              1. Ask yourself one thing BJ, do you get hundreds of thousands of walk-ins a month to your shop? Running a site is different from running a brick store. CHU sells nothing but instead provides free information to it’s readers and visitors. The cost of running a site that gets a lot of traffic costs money, not only in hosting fees but our own time.

                The work I do on the backend for CHU is what I do for my daytime job so I can just say one thing, if I were to die right now or tell Anthony to bugger off (don’t worry Anthony, I’ll try to do neither), Anthony would have to find someone willing to do it for very little pay or incentives or pay an extremely large amount of money per month in the ongoing maintenance of running a website like this one.

                1. Let me clarify “The work I do on the backend for CHU is what I do for my daytime job so I can just say one thing,”.. that makes it sounds like I do CHU full time. I don’t. I’m a Devops/IT guy for my day job. The work I do to help Anthony run CHU is the same technology I do in my daytime job. I can just say, the hourly rate one would charge to run a site like this would cost a lot of money. So yes, unless people want to pay to access CHU, we got ads and affiliate links to help cover the costs.

                2. I am a Social Worker Supervisor. Not a tech guy. No one has to click or click and buy through the links but it pays for hosting and other fees it costs to run Chu. We couldn’t keep it on the free hosting any more as we had maxed out our space and bandwidth was massive. Needless to say I am not going to go into debt to run a site that doesn’t sell anything and has no revenue stream. I do CHU for fun.

                3. Exactly.. if CHU had no type of income to pay the bills for hosting costs, time involved, etc.. then yeah, this would a really expensive hobby to continue doing. I love CHU, I love writing, I love doing the backend stuff but if I didn’t get anything out of it (small kickbacks from Anthony), I’m not going to go into debt either.

                  Heck, I’ve been giving away more comic books I spend my own money on to give away than sell..

                4. “Ask yourself one thing BJ, do you get hundreds of thousands of walk-ins a month to your shop? Running a site is different from running a brick store. CHU sells nothing but instead provides free information to it’s readers and visitors.”

                  I want you to make money to support the site. I want the site to grow. One of the steps to making it grow is getting more traffic. One of the limitations to getting more traffic is those links. Stores spend a lot of time and money on advertising. You might here it referred to on Shark tank and such as cost of customer acquisition or something like that.

                  One of the hinderances to getting retails stores to openly accept, promote and help you grow is those links. Who want’s to drag all their customers over to a place that gives one click access to purchasing the items somewhere else?

                  I’ve mentioned it before, a simple list of preferred CHU shopping choices accomplishes the mission statement without the direct hinderance to rapid expansion thru retail locations heavily endorsing the place and dragging their customers over.
                  ——————-
                  That place you use a lot is basically attached to Dark Horse. They should have pricing advantages for their own products other stores can’t compete fairly with and anything from another publisher, especially if it’s an item getting lowballed, questionable reasons behind that pricing choice.
                  ——————–
                  I see it advertised on the side now which I wasn’t aware of in the beginning.

                5. Many stores do use the site. Uncle Willie is a prime example. He comes to the site, is not a speculator, but still comes. We do have paid advertising on the site by shops. They are over on the left side. They contacted and bought space. But I don’t think Uncle Willie is offended by the ads or the links. Sad to say but the links are a necessary evil. If people want to donate to make the links go away, that’s fine. We can charge for the site, but I would think the traffic would drop greatly contradicting the reason for doing it. Tuesday nights are our biggest night for traffic and costs the most to host. System resources drag and we have to take on a second server to handle it. As it is, the site gets 3,000,000 plus views a year and that is more traffic than a majority of websites.

                6. “I’ve mentioned it before, a simple list of preferred CHU shopping choices accomplishes the mission statement without the direct hinderance to rapid expansion thru retail locations heavily endorsing the place and dragging their customers over.”

                  TFAW is one of them. We link to pre-sales that are usually 20% to 30% off cover price. We will point anyone in the direction of buying low and selling high. That’s one of the many points of this website. Yes it’s evolved to more than just speculation to flip on the secondary market but why would we tell our readers to go buy Captain Marvel #8 from BJ’s Shop for $15 when they can get it at another shop for cover price on release day? Am I missing something about our approach here? CHU isn’t designed to make you, the retailer with a Diamond Account and the power to buy comics at wholesale prices more money, that’s solely up to you and how you run your business. So don’t walk into my house trying to shame me for trying to save our readers a few bucks and pointing out bad businesses who are trying to screw customers for more profits on a book that would be $4 on every other day nobody wanted it. If I ran a shop, week one, everything is cover price. After the next weeks books hit the shelves, all of last weeks are back issues and up to my discretion to price accordingly to market value. You don’t want or like speculators clearing our shops to list online? Then do you’re part and limit per customer on hot books before release but don’t punish your customers so you squeeze out more profits for yourself.

                  Simply put, if you don’t like me or anyone else on CHU calling out shops that raise the prices on release day, then maybe CHU isn’t the place for YOU!

              2. I don’t like the links myself but I do prefer people using them over whining later. Help keep CHU around but I feel there are a number of other ways to bring in income without tying directly to one retail source.

                1. “I don’t like the links myself but I do prefer people using them over whining later. Help keep CHU around but I feel there are a number of other ways to bring in income without tying directly to one retail source.”

                  If you don’t like the links, don’t click on them.

                  We link to Midtown and others when we find them but there are very few comic related affiliates out there, so we are pretty limited. If any retailer that sells comic books has an affiliate program or wants to buy ad space to help out this site while also boosting their own traffic, by all means, we would love to spread out the love.

            2. “Noone should ever being ashamed of asking ANY PRICE for ANYTHING!!!”

              And no one should ever be ashamed of calling out shops that jack up retail prices to secondary and eBay prices. Whatever you say will never justify what you’re trying to defend to a consumer. Yes, you can ask whatever price you want for anything you sell and the consumers have every right to call out shops like you to avoid. You’ll find yourself with no customers and a lot of product sitting, gathering dust with your approach, eventually might find yourself out of business.

              CHU is here to educate and part of that education is calling out where to not only shop but where to NOT SHOP if they’re doing their customers a disservice.

            3. Why is there an assumption that every single comic buyer reads or even knows what Previews is? If etiquette states we shouldn’t clear shelves then it should also say non ratio books stay at cover price om release day. “Bad form” as Hook would say. Don’t be a codfish.

        2. “Do your research, order ahead of time so you don’t miss out, this was not a secret that she was coming.”

          That’s actually an asinine thing to say.. This book was already well past FOC when most learned of the new character that made this book pop ahead of release. From the solicitations, no one could have been sure about Star being a new character on a definitive level to my knowledge. But I also feel even if we did know, you’re point is still moot.

          I feel you’re flat out wrong on other things you’ve mentioned and as a shop owner, you seem to run a shop that I would avoid if you are playing the secondary market game on release day for books..

          Let’s just end it on that note though. I don’t need to get into a pissing match with you. If you want to keep debating it, just email me..

          1. I find some amusement in this topic. It seems to be as polarizing as statements made by our Commander-in-Tweet!

    2. The Comic Warehouse in Brampton, Ontario did the same thing today. First time Ive seen it happen there. They had zero shelf copies and marked up all their copies and had them behind the counter. $20 for cover A, $25 for secret cover A and I didnt get to the Carnagized variant price because I had already walked away. No sale today, gents.

    3. Mycomicshop.com had copies of the variant up for pre-sale last night at$15. That’s sad the day before the book comes out to Jack prices up to secondary market prices.

  16. I walked into my usual shop at 12:05 and captain marvel 8 never even made it to the shelves. All went into other people’s pull boxes.

    1. I called a shop about copies of #1 and they asked me if I had a pull list with them and I said no…then they promptly said they had no copies for sale….they all went to pull list customers. So obviously they are holding any extra copies and only giving them to regulars…maybe next week they’ll show up behind the counter for $25.

      Another shop had their shelf copies marked at $15 already…had about 6-7 copies.

      I kinda get holding back copies for regulars if the shop did not order a lot and they know it’s a hot book…reward your regulars…give them the opportunity to buy it at cover first.

      And yeah it looks bad selling it at $15 on day 1, but the shop owns the book until you buy it….and if you’re a regular I say ask the. If you can have it for cover…a reputable shop who knows their loyal customers and wants their future business gets it for cover….everyone else that’s stopping in just to make a buck at their expense…? Well, that’ll be $15, bub.

      I don’t really have a problem with that approach. The $15 keeps the transient flippers from cleaning the shelves and gives your loyal customers (who. Ore likely will read it) a chance to own it.

  17. Some of my other non-CM8 (non-pill list) pickups today, cover price.

    Immortal Hulk 19, 2nd prt (I like the Red Harpy cover…First Full as well…reprints of first appearances with cover appearance seem to do well these days. Compliments the Abomination 1sr print well too)

    Hulk (Red) #30.1 (1st Reginald Fortean….you may have seen him in this weeks Immortal Hulk)

    52 Week 48 x2 (1st Renee Montoya as the Question…I grab these when see them in anticipation of the Birds of Prey movie).

    Collapser #1 (I’ll give it a shot).

    Spider-Man Life Story #2A (1st Black Goblin)

  18. Spiderman Life Story #2 is a good one. Just got my copy in the mail today. Went to 4 shops and got Captain Marvel #8A , Blood Splatter, and Carnagized variant all for cover. Going to flip one and pay for all of my comics today and possibly some next week.

  19. Shops that jack up prices on material Fresh out of the Box were one of the contributing factors to the major 1990’s meltdown .. not the entire reason, but part .. if your shop can’t make it financially without resorting to this practice, you’re in the wrong business and will eventually, fail ..

    In other News :: I had a call this morning from a major collector of Anime / Manga figurines that date from 1999 to 2007 .. he estimated 20,000 pieces .. wife / kids now, wants to sell, typical story .. at any rate, I’ve bought very large collections before but I am really out of my depth as it relates to Anime / Manga figures .. he claims most all of these came direct from Japan ..

    It’s just impossible to go thru each and every piece and determine value .. so, my question to the Collective :: Is this stuff popular .. ?? Worth the time to try and make a deal .. ?? Advice on how to proceed .. ??

    Maybe I should start a Thread on the Forum ..

    1. “Shops that jack up prices on material Fresh out of the Box were one of the contributing factors to the major 1990’s meltdown .. not the entire reason, but part .. if your shop can’t make it financially without resorting to this practice, you’re in the wrong business and will eventually, fail ..”

      Perfect response for all the shop owners out there who read CHU and want to keep customers coming back happy.

      1. How much of a contributing factor was this in the 90s collapse? More factual data please?

        Also, is the situation back then even the same or similar where buyers and sellers have information and alternatives available to them at the few swipes along a touch screen?

        Not saying there isn’t a lesson from back then to draw from, I just don’t know how relevant it is in todays world.

    3. Gundam models not put together and even some put together are. Depends really on what he has. Honestly if you are not familiar with or don’t have the clientele base, i don’t know if i would mess with them. Still, I would take a look at what he has.

    4. We’re experiencing the exact opposite of that.

      It encourages subscriptions. Put what you know you want on order ahead of time to make sure you can have a copy and at a great price.

      It gives newcomers the opportunity to know that what they’re buying can become valuable.

      It keeps inventory around so they can read the entire story and not be a victim to higher prices elsewhere trying to find the missing issue that’s being held hostage by resellers.

      If it’s a back issue we make announcements like with Walking Dead 190 so they know they have the option to pull their copy and put it on the market now while prices are elevated unlike the leave them in the box forever to end up selling in mass for pennies ways of the old days.

      It saves them money!!!!! Pay a little more here because we marked it up to keep it out of the hands of resellers or pay a more buying it online or wasting gas running from store to store hoping it’s there.

      The extra money directly goes back into the store in additional product selection or qty one way or another.

      It encourages people to actually pick up and read thru their Preview Books which exposes them to even more items they may not have known about in time to order, assuming we would have ordered it at all if they hadn’t.

      Increased sales!!!! When they subscribe, we buy an extra for the shelf so at least one additional customer has a shot at enjoying it increasing sales long term/over time.

      Many books I select intentionally BECAUSE I think there’s a chance I can get more than cover for them. That’s me gambling with my own money which I have a right to do. If it wasn’t for that the books wouldn’t have been ordered in the 1st place!!!!

      Because I order books I’m gambling on it gets my Diamond Discount based on the total cover price invoiced higher which passes on even more savings to subscribers!!!!

      I understand you have a right to give them away and charge what did you say, maybe 3 times as much up front for a subscription as I do. That would be a dream come true but at a subscription level that high you almost have to assume a good % of customers wouldn’t be subscribing when they know you will give them it for cover if they beat the herds of resellers in the door. As mentioned here every week someone showed up to buy the HOT book somewhere and they didn’t have it so they’re getting bad mouthed for selling elsewhere even if they’d given it away.

      Every week someone walks out buying nothing because an issue was missing. Some weeks it feels like every day. It’s not hard to stay abreast of what needs to be marked up a little each week.

      I’ve been giving long term subscribers an extra copy of Walking Dead 193 for FREE this week as they pick up books. A reward for being long time subscribers!!!!! You reward people who commit. Lower prices, special sales, extra freebies at different events.

        1. You know, I knew day one I’m the enemy here. The hobby actually truly died here when spin racks disappeared. I’m in an area where there are no other physical shopping choices. Customers riding the circuit may travel several hundred miles trying to get to a few stores and I already know the stores I used to shop at in the nearest major city would have the keys under the counter marked up when I was one of the flock years ago. I’m operating every day on the assumption that if the series is missing an issue, any issue, the odds of me talking a new face into it or them wanting it on their own are next to none. The best shot at that point is hoping they’ll drop down a deposit for and come back to pick up a trade if available.

          I’m a reader. I got back into this to read comics. It’s what I should be doing every time I’m here typing is sitting in the other room reading my back issues plus I get to sell them as I finish them.

          To some it might come across as self righteous or whatever but it’s simply me trying to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. To someone who sells thru almost every issue and has plenty of traffic and other revenue, running out of a single issue snatched up by speculators is no big deal but in my case it might be the one issue making a hole in the set that keeps me from offering it as a set on E-bay and too walk-ins down the road. I can’t afford every comic that’s offered by Diamond. I get one of those I can plus what subscriptions I get. If the title doesn’t sell like everything Archie that’s stacked up falling off the shelves then the publisher gets dropped. I saw people raising hell about DC dropping Mad Magazine but not one single time in the last several years has someone come in and asked for or ordered a new issue. Where were you for the last 7 years that you feel outrage now?

          I’ve been on the fence about doing something like Mike and going to online only but for now I’m going to stick it out. I started as a Secondary market seller. New comics are just that, new to us. I got hundreds of thousands of back issues $25 a box from various sellers. I’ve been dumb enough to ship 80 Spawn #9’s for free priced 45 to 60 cent each before finding out about the Angela thing. I’ve been burnt thousands of times for who knows how much lost potential income. My goal now is to make a little of that back while trying to cater to people in my area who want to read and generally don’t care one way or the other what the price of a book they’re never going to resell is. I do have a few others now I’m encouraging to empty as they go to prevent accumulation. they can get top dollar when the key is peak themselves instead of sitting on boxes of stuff for decades just to have to unload it all for pennies on the dollar so some reseller feels they have enough meat on the bone to price it low and move it fast. I make it a point to try and have what you want when the other stores have been raided and are empty. I probably read a set myself and would love to talk to you about it.

          I’ve been on both sides of the fence. I chose to cater to those who want to read and chose to lose traffic to raiders and resellers. If worse comes to worse I’ll keep the set for myself and read it. I would guess I have around 3,500 complete sets around including many older sets with the annuals and whatever specials or crossovers you need just so when you get to that crossover point you didn’t know about on Sunday night, you aren’t caught surprised and held up waiting days or weeks to find out what happens next.

          1. You are not the enemy at all. Prime example is Uncle Willie. He is very much against speculation and speculators. However, he is still here commenting and contributing. This is a difference of opinion. It’s as simple as that. It’s a debate. In the end, there are no hard feelings it’s two sides arguing out their points.

          2. “You know, I knew day one I’m the enemy here.”

            Uncle Willie is a shop owner and I can’t recall how many times I’ve mentioned I wish he was my local goto shop, he’s not an enemy. There are other shop owners that visit here who aren’t the enemy. Thinking you’re the enemy is all upon you, what you do, say and how you run your business. Mike that runs an online shop has openly stated that all new books he ordered ahead of release stay at his discounted price or cover price online. Any new books he was able to order after release and they likely heated up are sold on eBay (or something like that), which he’s likely getting days later or a week later.

            What’s Emmett say in the LEGO movie to Lord Business? “You don’t have to be the bad guy!”

          3. “I’ve been burnt thousands of times for who knows how much lost potential income.”

            So because you felt you’ve been burned in the past justifies jacking up the prices on new comics, on release day, so it’s all okay? I fail to see the logic. Seems you hold a lot of grudge on your own misfortunes and bad business decisions with that statement. You are basically admitting that you are now punishing your potential customers now to make back money you lost in the past.. Do you see or hear your own words when typing this nonsense out?

            Seriously, I’ve dropped off books at half price that I likely made pennies from the donation only then to find out a book I know I dropped off heated up and I could of made $50 or $100 from them. Boo hoo… time to get over it I say! You win some, you lose some. Seems like you want to keep on losing with the business plans you keep laying out for all to read.

  20. D-Rog ::

    “In the end my advice is stop whining about shops policies, but rather build a relationship. If you have a good one, then you’ll be treated with respect and given perks to keep you around if it’s a reputable owner…regardless of what’s is put on the shelf and the asking price. It’s all relationships and negotiations. ”

    Well said .. longevity in this Business is built on Relationships that cut both ways .. I have Customers that are the Kids of Customers from years ago .. I could not look them in the eye and say, “Sorry, I know it just came out today, but it’s still $20 bucks, take it or leave it ..”

    1. ” I could not look them in the eye and say, “Sorry, I know it just came out today, but it’s still $20 bucks, take it or leave it ..”

      If it’s a $20 book that’s selling for $30 everywhere else you aren’t hurting them. you’re SAVING them money!!!! The fact that you have it in your hand to offer to them saves them from having to waste time and money to go elsewhere while saving you having to stand there and tell the “Sorry, I SOLD OUT!!” You leave them disappointed and force them to shop elsewhere!!! Some will even be bad mouthing you not believing you sold them all!!!!

      If you’re 100% sure they’re a long time regular you can always cut them some type of loyalty discount as long as you did your part to even make sure you still had a copy for them since they didn’t bother to subscribe, drop down the cost of maybe 3 books and make sure you did.

      1. Sorry, BJ .. but after 40+ years in this Business, I must be doing something right and I sure don’t need advice .. like I said before, these things are all shades of the 1990’s .. a period of time I would just as soon not go thru again .. and, BTW, no one bad mouths me, I have “ears” that would report that to me .. 😉 .. the Comic Industry Customer Base is pretty tight knit ..

        You can rationalize it any way you like ..

        Although I do hear plenty of Bad Mouthing about “other” Retailers ..

      2. “If it’s a $20 book that’s selling for $30 everywhere else you aren’t hurting them. you’re SAVING them money!!!!”

        Customer: “I saw in the news a new cool character debuting, did you get that book in today, it says it was released today?”
        Shop Owner: “Yes I did, it’s a hot book. It’s right here for $15.”
        Customer: “Why is it $15, the price on it says it’s $3.99? All your other new releases are cover price.”
        Shop Owner: “Because it’s selling for $30 on eBay, so I’m saving you money by selling it for $15.”

        You’re not saving customers money with your rationale if this is the approach you take. You’re just losing customers I say.

        Like I preach, if you’re a shop owner and you want to play the secondary market game with the rest of us speculators, drop your Diamond Account, close up shop and come stand in line like the rest of us.

        I’m done now with this subject. And because BJ likes to do a disservice to potential customers, I’m gonna give away my other copy of Captain Marvel #8 I was fortunate enough to grab since most are saying they had no chance at grabbing this book at release day cover prices..

        1. If you’re hearing it in news (TV? Newspaper?) and it’s FMV is already at $15 I would say it’s highly more probable that flippers and speculators have grabbed every copy off the shelves and listed them on ebay for $15 if the shop owner took no action.

          So how does that help the dude that just came in looking for it or the shop owner who sold every copy he had at cover?

          Not sure I see the point there. Especially when it’s something that was not ordered in mass quantities where limiting 1 per customer would stop the hemorrhaging.

          Good back and forth. Let’s keep it civil. Take deep breaths and keep the emotions to a minimum.

          Or if it’s too much bow out respectfully.

          I love you all!!!!

          1. Hearing that it’s out of stock over “It’s $15 because people are selling them on eBay for $20” is probably more accepting to most consumers.

            Could you imagine filling up your gas tank and you go inside to pay and the cashier says hold on a second, I need to check crude prices before finalizing the price..

            1. I don’t think we’ve come across anyone that’s checking prices at the counter. It’s on the shelf with a price sticker.

              Gasoline is a commodity, traded in high volumes each day of the week. The price can fluctuate with each trade so in effect the price changes daily. Not sure that’s the best analogy to support your argument…

              1. Probably is a bad analogy but I’m in a don’t care mood right now..

                Stop changing your name D-Rog, all your comments think it’s a new person so they’re getting flagged as spam or needs approval. 😉

  21. While I agree with BJ in theory, I do know our shop has picked up customer files by selling a hot issue we had extras of at cover price to a new customer, instead of raising the price up to secondary markets. It is a delicate balance though. We quickly figure out if someone is going to become a relational customer instead of staying a transactional customer, but you do have to give them a chance. We’d rather sell someone one comic a week, making $2 off of it each time, than selling them just one comic making $13.

    That said, when we figure out someone is coming in just to pick up the hot issues and only the hot issues, we feel no need to give them any type of deal. Those customers have no loyalty to your shop and those relationship will inevitably end with the store getting burned. Shop owners do talk around here and they know when someone is keeping a file with 1 or 2 comics at each shop to try to hide their flipping behind a relationship.

    You take care of your regulars, you give new customers a chance to become regulars and you deal fairly with everyone else. Fair, in this case, being fair for everyone, including the shop.

    1. I don’t mind a store keeping one or two behind to sell online. There is a store i go to that had Canto on the day of released bagged and boarded at $15. I go there and buy back issues but not a lot of new releases. The reason I don’t buy new releases from them is the act of marking up books that morning.

      1. I use to do that for one shop. The shop owner didn’t have time to read CHU or other sites of what’s hot, what’s not. If I knew a book was hot, at checkout I’d hand him a few off the shelf and tell him to hold a few, they’re selling for double or triple cover, etc.

        What he didn’t do was pull all the issues and mark them at double or triple the price. As a shop owner, he wanted to keep customers, not alienate them and lose business.

        I think most customers expect if a book is in the back issues, the price is not retail or cover price. But to walk into a shop and see the latest release not at the cover price, it’s just a little disheartening.

    2. It’s not a heavy traffic area here. We see the same regular customers over and over again. When a book gets HOT we see a small number of the same resellers over and over again showing up just to take all the HOT book and usually almost nothing else. They apparently drive a circuit Wed-Thursday hitting all the stores. If they buy anything else it’s frequently something we only had 1 copy of and expected Bob the regular might want if it was still on the shelf Saturday. Sometimes I just go ahead and slide the one copy under the counter even if it’s not up in price. Another method that helps is the Presale Bundle. Image in particular gets this for all #1’s. They go in a Presale Bundle so if you buy it, you’re paying for the 1st four issues all at once. For the last year or so I also drop an extra #1 on the shelf for the resellers to grab but if I find out it’s up first it’s going to fund additional needs or getting put in my own collection for offering later when the property is developed and the item might be in demand again.

      Just today I’ve had people picking up Walking Dead 193’s that wouldn’t even have had the opportunity to get them here if I hadn’t gambled on the spec side and ordered more. They get a great price even showing up late to the game.

  22. It’s tough. Because I fully understand every point that BJ is making here.

    The challenge, of course, is that the primary market ceases to exist the moment Diamond sells out. Until that point in time, the books are available to the retailer at wholesale prices and they charge a markup that the public considers fair.

    But the moment Diamond sells out, the primary market has ended. Every copy, whether in the hands of a brick and mortar shop, an internet reseller, or a collector is now a part of the secondary market. The only way the retailer is going to get more copies is to purchase them from the people who own them.

    I remember when Ultimate Spider-Man first came out. It was a dead time for Spidey. His title simply didn’t sell. I had enjoyed Bendis’ work on other titles, and we gambled and ordered 50 copies of #1 even though we only had 2 subs for it (and only 5 subs for Amazing). Wizard was still the price guide of the day and was always behind (as any print price guide will be). Before issue 2 was even out, we were selling #1 for $20 each, but we also had a prominent sign next to the one on the wall offering $12 each for any copies anyone would like to sell to us. We got so much less grief because we were defending our selling price with a fair buying price.

    When it comes to collectibles, you have two choices, you can be sold out of what people are looking for, or you can charge a fair market price for those items.

    Calling out a shop for charging a fair market price on books no longer available at wholesale seems odd to me. If anything, that’s an indication that the shop is run by people who understand business.

    But I will say… the shops who see a book is hot and yank it out of customer’s pull boxes and pretend it never came in? Those folks deserve to be put out of business as quickly as possible before they poison the well and convince thousands of collectors to quit the hobby altogether. I get calls all the time from folks up to 100 miles away telling me they went into their local shop and Hot Book X or Hot Book Y was missing from their pull. And it kills me. Because those store owners are removing people from the hobby who might have wound up lifelong collectors.

    1. “telling me they went into their local shop and Hot Book X or Hot Book Y was missing from their pull. And it kills me. Because those store owners are removing people from the hobby who might have wound up lifelong collectors.”

      A good portion of my Pull and Holds were acquired from Other Shops screwing them over .. they did not leave the Hobby, they simply went to a more scrupulous Retailer ..

      1. Exactly! There are only 2 shops in my town and one (the one I use) offers 10% off and free bags and boards to subscribers while putting any/all new releases out at cover price. I’d like to call out The Pop Culture Company in Houston as a store everyone in that area should visit. The owner is very cool and, the first time I walked in (Tuesday night) he said “we open at 12pm and all the new releases will be on this wall. Any variants we get will be out at cover price as well”. I was only in Houston for a month, but I was there every Wednesday at 12pm!

  23. 100%, pulling a comic from your customers file is just the scummiest thing to do. The customer order it 3+ months ago, and the store is making their $2 off of it. Who cares if it’s going for $20 or even $40. That customer is a long term pay off.

    As I said in my previous posts, we have picked up customers from other shops based on that behavior.

    1. “As I said in my previous posts, we have picked up customers from other shops based on that behavior.”

      Yup. What I’m saying when I say “call out shops” that jack up the price on release day, as CHU is a source of people buying comics, call these shops out as a way to warn people not to shop for that comic at that shop. If someone wants to spend $15 on a new release because they can’t drive across town to another shop that might have them at cover still, then so be it.

      Saying you’re selling a new book for $15 because it’s selling for $20 or $25 on eBay to a customer is just slapping them in the face again I say. Telling a customer they should have went and reviewed FOC orders and had this in their pull list to save themselves $10 on release day is a load of crap! That’s not a good way to keep the customers happy and coming back. Shame on the shops who resort to such tactics.

      1. So should i call the shop out for marking up a ratio variant? And if not, why? The cover price says $3.99.

        And if your answer is because everyone does it (or vast majority) and it’s accepted as standard practice, was it always seen that way? Or have times just changed?

        1. Why you changing your name D-Rog?

          Ratio variants are different ballgame entirely. If a shop has to order X amount to get a variant because there are restrictions on how to obtain, then it’s not a book they’re buying at wholesale in a sense. This is usually widely accepted practice.

          But a book that is open order and consumers expect the prices are cover price on release day, find it selling at secondary prices at the shop is just a bummer.

          1. I’m just bringing up counter points that I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with just to keep perspective on the bigger picture on the behavior of shops and their mark up habits. Figured since I was playing the part, why not change the name to make it clear what my intention was! Didn’t mean any harm or trying to hide. Just having fun.

            I also am running under the alias of The Voice of Reason too for this thread in the interest of full disclosure.

            I can have multiple Personalities here, right? (As long as I’m not arguing with myself…)

              1. And that’s when they lose all credibility… It’s a pretty sad thing if one tries to comment as a different user to make it appear more support them.

                1. Not my intent…just having some fun; I like to amuse myself.

                  Hulk go back to puny Banner now…

        2. Honestly I don’t buy inflated prices ratio variants but it is a different animal. Apples and oranges. Stores ordering 25 copies of a book already are going to get the ratio (1:25) anyway. But if they bought more copies, say 100 of a book they only sell 25 copies of to get a 1:100, than yes, they should raise the price to offset the increased cost. No one is arguing that. But the two things are very different issues.

    2. Your Hold/Pull setup should have it in writing how long the prices are locked down and how long the books will be left in the boxes. It should also include stuff like how much advance notice to cancel or switch a title. We only ask one month deposit because with one months notice I can use Diamonds online FOC list to cancel or change almost anything prior to FOC. You never mess with a pull if it’s picked up in the time of the contract. That would be a scummy thing to do. The same thing with presales. it’s not yours, it’s someone else’s copy their money paid for.

      One month is plenty of deposit. At worst case and you go say 120 days without picking up and the box gets emptied, that’s still a buck or a book for the four going out on the shelf discounted by that much. Then even if you show up late and no one else has grabbed them yet, you still get your buck back in the discount applied to those copies.

  24. I have no issue with BJs decisions, because in the end, it’s his shop, and in his area, that may be the prevailing attitude shops have in his area.

    Around here, when DC started with their B covers, several stores only ordered a few and sold them at an upcharge. Others, including us, ordered heavy, and sold them at cover. That became standard. I don’t blame the other shops for that, because at the time, who knew what was going to be standard for our area.

    You can’t control the way a customer’s going to enjoy the hobby. If the customer enjoys buying a $4 and flipping it for $20, we got our $2. Sure we could flip it ourselves, but that just adds an extra layer of work on top of the already mountain of work we’re doing. But we’re also not trying to chase the dragon. We just want to make sure our regulars are happy, and a few extra for the new guy walking through the door without turning them away. The best way to do that is to limit the # we let customers have and keep it at cover. I can only think of one customer who complained.

    But on the other side, shops around here to talk. And we know customers who have files both here and other shops and regular visit multiple shops to try to snatch up multiple copies of hot issue to flip. I certainly have a personal view of those who do it, but lie about why they want something (“my son really loves that character” “I just want to try the series out”), versus those that tell the truth. I know is someone tells me the truth “This is hot, and I want to sell it.” I’m more willing to consider their request than I am if someone actively lies to my face about why they want what they want. Hell, if you feel the need to lie, don’t even give me a reason. I don’t really care, I already know why you called me 10 minutes after I got the same alert you did.

    1. “I have no issue with BJs decisions, because in the end, it’s his shop, and in his area, that may be the prevailing attitude shops have in his area.”

      Honestly, I don’t care how BJ runs his shop either. Jack the prices up, lower them below.. doesn’t matter. What really irritates me is he comes into our shop (CHU) and tells me I’m being “asinine” in calling out shops that do jack up their prices.

      There are consumer watch groups all over the internet for the best prices. Calling out a shop that’s selling a new book for $15 while most other sold or might be selling theirs for cover price is just doing the people trying to grab a copy for themselves a service to save money by not wasting their time at the shop that raised it’s prices before the doors opened.

      1. I think they might be an app for that!

        Actually, there’s not but maybe there should be…;)

      2. They’re not doing anything to be ashamed off!! That’s the part I have a problem with. You don’t have to like it but they don’t deserve to feel shamed. If anything it should be the other way around.

        1. So if they’re not doing anything wrong, then why so defensive for us to call them out that they’re selling new books at secondary prices on release day? Think of it as us warning others to not waste their time at Shop X if they’re selling above cover the day of release.

          What’s the actual problem then?

          You’re just spewing double standards at this point.

  26. Owning a shop is complicated. And comic book customers are moody.

    That’s what I’ve learned today. ?

    1. Yaaayyy!!!!! Someone learned something today!!!! Amen to that!!

      There’s many different ways to go about doing almost anything and whatever you feel you have to do to keep the door open and your customers satisfied, there’s nothing you need to apologize for or feel ashamed of!!!!!

    3. What I’ve learned from BJ’s ramblings..

      1. He jacks up the prices now because he’s been burned in the past, he’s making up lost income.
      2. He’s punishing his customers for not putting these hot books on their pull or subscribe list before FOC, “they had their chance”
      3. He’s not only slapping his customers once by jacking up release day prices but slapping them again by actually telling them he’s saving them money cause his price is still “cheaper than eBay prices”.

      Call me moody or say I’m looking out for the CHU consumers out there hunting books… either way, I don’t think what I’ve said in calling out shops who hijack prices is as bad as what BJ has openly admitted to.

  27. I’m not helping none of my LCS. I tried to build a relationship, even gifted a particular shop with a hot book for free while the price was still high on eBay, just to show my appreciation & they did me dirty a few weeks later by jacking up the price of MCP6 on the first day, when I gave them the heads-up on the book. They shady, so they gets no love from me. I wipe them out whenever I get the chance now, honestly. It is what it is.

    1. Just out of curiosity, did you deal with the same employee both times? Did they know the gift you gave them was up in price and that you were making a gift to them? If so they sound shifty to me. Are you a regular spending $50 to hundreds of dollars every time you come in every month? Had you ever picked up issues 1 thru 5? Were you preordering or subscribing to 7?

      1. It’s funny, I am a very loyal customer to one store. I have a subscription box with them. I have one title I subscribe to. But I buy $75-$100 a week in books plus back issues. They are cool with it. I send over my pulls on Monday. They pull for me. I go in Tuesday night and pull more books. The are cool with it. But I don’t always subscribe to a book until issue 7 because I may try a book and lose interest after an issue or two.

        1. Yup, not everyone wants to commit to books until they’re sure they want to keep reading for the long haul.

          The last time I had a subscribe and pull was with Capstone. Doing so got me the 20%-30% off my comics for being a subscriber and loyal customer. All other shops do not have such a program setup to entice people to subscribe or create pulls.

      2. The price jackup job was with a different employee. They knew the gift was up in price, and I told them I was gifting it to the store to show my appreciation & love they was showing me. The book was going for about 50 to 60 dollars at that time on eBay. I am a regular with an active pull list that runs me 60 to 70 dollars a month when I take my books out. When it comes to MCP, I never picked up issues 1-5 but I did preorder 7. They have also gone back into my pull and marked up certain books since all of this happened. Smh. So frustrating but it is what it is. Hope you all are having a great day.

        2. If you have an active pull box you need to shed them if you’ve been picking up every 30 days or more often. That’s not right and should have been in some type of contract that they can’t do that. Always get the paperwork copied so you know what you’re signing up for.

          I bundled all my 6’s with 5’s and sold early on the low end of where the book went in price. A couple sets of 1 to 5 went out also and I had stocked heavy on #5 since it was a Venom issue that got ignored on the shelf for a full month like the other 4 issues in front of it. Overall it made enough to offset the cost of all those reprints of the Marvels issues flooding the shelf right beside them.

          #6 Second Printing and the Ratio arrive Wednesday!!! Hopefully the ratio sells high and allows me to discount the others so more people can try out Blonde Stabby cheap. If not it’s not a huge gamble. It’d be nice to get her out there into more hands though.

        3. Marking up books in your pull would be grounds for severing that relationship. That’s a dirty deed, done dirt cheap.

  28. Not uncommon for customers disappointed at being unable to buy another hot comic. Impossible for everyone to buy every comic at the price that they want especially when demand exceeds supply. There would not be a hot comic if publishers provide enough advance warning so that stores over order excess quantities.

    1. That’s one of the points for CM#8. They did and still none preordered or subscribed. They made it obvious June1st that she would be in 9. They have a history of dropping one page cameo’s and surprises into the issue ahead for things like that. The industry itself tends to make the earlier issues go up if 9’s HOT so readers can chase down the story from the start. That is the end target audience, readers who want to read the book. Those readers need #8 even if she’s not in it until 9.

      1. They rang the dinner bell this time as loud as they could short of directly saying she’d be in 8 and then there would have been a chance she’d show up in 7. I may have 17 copies arrive by the time the dust settles from me listening to that bell and intentionally buying extra copies hoping the Carnage-ized Trade dresses would go up in price and that the carnage variant would as well. by the time the dust settles I’m hoping I have at least two CTD secrets and 2 Carnage variants leftover for bundling with those themed sets and at least one regular a cover to bundle with the other issues assuming they stop at 12 like normal again or somewhere close.

        1. Remember when those two issues of Moon Girl jumped? I bundled up the entire series up until that point and it only took a couple weeks to find 1 customer who wanted to read the entire series now that they were all together with the two keys and all sold at cover plus 20 cent each for board and bag and a little extra for the keys. Without the two keys I still have 4 years worth on Moon Girls on the shelf right now most likely. I’m very happy about that and there’s one person out there that got a complete read that sounded happy as well. No need to place 5 different orders with 5 different shipping charges trying to put it together.

            1. When are they gonna develop the damn cartoon?! I was picking them up since issue 28 but stopped around 40….Ben back filling when I find them discounted.

              I haven’t been reading but want too. Mainly been grabbing them for my daughter in case the cartoon came around and she liked it.

          2. I’m gonna pull a Tony Stark and respond with a.. . “I would have just pointed her to the trade paperback!”

            But good for you. That’s great you made one customers day with a complete set of a title. But buying extra inventory (or just holding inventory) to create sets that may or never sell is honestly, a horrible business plan of action if you ask me. If I was buying inventory at wholesale, my whole goal is to move inventory. Pre-order what’s being asked by customers ahead of time, buy a few extra for the shelves for the walk-in customers. Never look back.

            1. Sets do well for us also. If we buy collections, we’ll peel off comics in that set for sets and mark them at a discount. People appropriate it and since we already have those issues, we don’t need to stock the trade.

              Since we’re ordering extras of earlier issues of mini-series and they don’t always sell, it’s easy enough to buy an extra issue or two of the last issue of the series, package it, and sell it that way as oppose to throwing those issues into our back issues, eventually moving them into a dollar bin.

              Generally with ongoing, we only package them if, they also make it down the wall.

              1. I’ve seen some older sets sell at my local shops but I see the same sets that are newer sit for months or longer at my shops, eventually get broken back out or thrown in the bargain bins where they still cant sell them. Unless your collecting the individual issues…. I think most who want to read it go for the trade. Why buy 5 issues at $20 to $25 when a lot of the first trades of a series are $15 or less…

                1. The long term spec game for one thing. You never know what’s going to jump and when but the one thing you can be sure of is it’s not going to be the trade of it. I’m old school and enjoy having an actual comic to read. A trade and even those prestige like the Black Labels require effort and hands on to keep them open. The comics generally open all the way up on my reading lap board so they stay nice and flat and leave the hands free for other needs like chewing when I should be reading. I also tend to discount bundled sets after the series ends for a while so they become cheaper than new copies of the trades. Sometimes the trades don’t have everything included like that 1st Spider-man Deadpool trade that skipped an issue in the trade.

                  Overall I prefer trades and such for expensive older series. Marvel Masterworks. Omnibus as long as the individual books can be sold to replace them for more than the cost of the trade. I’m emptying my private collection of all but the most special to me issues. Starting to get a nice book shelf filled in the tv room now with actual books on it.

                2. For us it comes down to a consideration choice. We spend $8 on the first four issues, we can spend $2 on the remaining issue, and sell those at a discount, so the price is comparable to the trade or we can spend $10 on the trade, sell that, and still sit on those 4 issues until someone might come in to buy one of them. The rest end up in a dollar bin.

                  If we start getting too many sets, we can cull out the stuff we’ve had a while, or the stuff we’ve got multiple sets of (because of collections), and discount them further, donate them to a schools or hospitals, take them to one of the local comic book events they do for kids. Sets are one of our best sellers last FCBD since we had an overstock do to various reasons in the last few months. We sold a ton of them to people that came in.

                3. I know my shops only bundle up (new titles, not older collections) sets on the books that just aren’t selling. That’s the only reason I would put together sets myself, usually at a discount. I guess at some point I’d probably split them up into arcs that the trades to and price lower than the trade. If someone buys the trade and I got the equivalent set, that’s when I’d offer it up at a slightly cheaper price.

                  I just find it odd for a shop to claim they buy extras or hold books back just to create sets. I guess I’d first take the approach of, buy only what I can sell + a few extra for the walk in customers, if I run out, I run out. If I end up not selling those extras, they go into back bins. And if they then sit there for X amount of days, months or years without any movement, then attempt complete sets to sell off at a discount.

            2. It surprised me how long Moon Girl went on. Everything else from that time came and went but there she was still shelving issues. She just keeps going and going and going.

              I just realized Deapool is finished again at 15. No more Skottie Young!!!!

              “I would have just pointed her to the trade paperback!”

              That’s usually meant to be a last resort since Trades have no chance at increasing in value normally and I already have most of the issues around those. The idea is to provide the sets and hopefully for series that haven’t been cancelled already so they have a reason to subscribe and become regulars even if it’s just a single discounted book picked up once a month.

              “But buying extra inventory (or just holding inventory) to create sets that may or never sell is honestly, a horrible business plan of action if you ask me.”

              I don’t buy hoping to have them left unsold. The idea is to have them intact until a subscriber shows up. If an issue sells along the way to whatever the finish is hopefully I can replace it. Many times I can’t if it’s a purchase from a non regular driving through, spec or not. At least for the last year Marvel’s been on the rapid fire the second printings out with new covers binge so that helps some but frequently even those are sold out fast so if someone starts 1 to 4 and never comes back for 5 thru 10 I frequently can’t reassemble the missing 4. That usually forces me to drop a trade down but then 5 and sometimes 6 becomes unsellable since they’re probably thrown in the trade with the other 4. If it doesn’t sell and there’s only one of each left then that’s a bundled set and most likely that will eventually sell. I get a lot of people travelling from longer distances irregularly just for the back issue sets or to window shop for something different they may have missed or not heard of. I’m starting to get a healthy dose of Image 4 issue bundles accumulated. Those since they aren’t complete since no one subscribed and I didn’t buy #5 up without a subscriber for the last year+ will get listed single and discounted if there are no more issues coming out. As long as the series is active Diamond usually has plenty of back stock from #5 up if nothings a key that got a run on it so even 6 months later they’re likely to have a full years worth listed on the Excel sheet orderable or thru the website if someone shows up and wants 1 thru 4 later on.

              They may also end up on E-Bay eventually as long as the 4 of them can still be listed for $10 or more. If they spec out before then then they go to the bay sooner. even then I get in on the front end of the pricing trying to park somewhere that keeps the price one of the better deals on e-bay if you select free pick-up and come get it, or better yet, just come get it. it can’t be too cheap or it gets snatched up on E-bay too fast like all those Naomi #1A’s. It’s not my place to try and wait hoping to be one of those $200 raw sales but it sure would have been nice not to run out at the $25 point. I had a feeling #1 might be a hot book after reading the Preview and watching Jessica Jones a couple months earlier so I ordered heavy for me extra copies after FOC with the sole intention of having them to list if the book took off. The original shelf order was maybe one for a single subscriber and 1 shelf Cover A.

              1. Crazy is I just sold my last Venom Space Knight #1 yesterday off the shelf!!!!! That one I will have to order a trade or something for if he wants to read the rest. I had someone a few hours ago asking if we had the next Darth Vader. He’s only gotten around to picking up one and two so far. I had to break it to him the series ended at 25 or something like that.

              2. I can’t remember if I mentioned already, All my Walking Dead subscribers that pick up in the next 30 days or so are a getting a Free Extra Copy of 193!!!! I got a great deal on a large # of them and I feel good rewarding those who came along for the ride the last 7 years or less. A thank you so to speak made possible by spec. Spec made possible by people contributing to CHU. If sales go good I may talk about some for CHU giveaways in a few weeks. We’ll have to see how the market swings. It’s starting to look like it’s heading to park at $10 while 190’s heading the opposite way!! I’ve got that Venom Space Knight #1 as a back up plan!!!

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