retailing

Or maybe it’s just a edgier version of Pixie, Dixie, and Mr. Jinks.

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So I had a copy of this on the shelf at the shop, Massimo Mattioli’s complete Squeak the Mouse hardcover published by Fantagraphics a year or three back.

Have you read this? I don’t know just how far these comics seeped into the awareness of comic fans. But, as you can see from the delightful cover pictured above, this is a knockoff on the dynamic between the classic Hanna Barbera cat and mouse characters Tom and Jerry. It basically answers the age-old question “what if Jerry could rip open Tom’s intestines with a chainsaw, and then go [EXPLETIVE DELETED] Tom’s girlfriend and all her buddies?”

What I am saying is that there is a whole lot of explicit violence and, shockingly, explicit sex in these Squeak the Mouse comics. I first read these in a couple of paperback volumes from the late ’80s/early ’90s, which gave me a real sense of “…should I be reading this? I mean, is it allowed?” It was expertly done and lovingly drawn, with the occasional weird insert of a photo panel that is invariably disturbing in context.

Anyway, I said I “had” a copy because someone bought it on Sunday. This person is a Simpsons fan, and was seeking out my, alas, very few available back issues from the franchise. Very quickly, though, his eyes fell upon my Squeak the Mouse book and snapped it up, saying it reminded him of the Simpsons’ own in-universe violent Tom and Jerry parody, “Itchy and Scratchy.”


I explained to this customer 1) Squeak the Mouse actually preceded The Simpsons by a few years, and 2) this is really really really really really more violent and adult than its TV follow-up. It was literally stopped by U.S. Customs at one point for “obscenity.”

I told this person several times, surely to the point of annoyance, that one of these things is not like the other, but the purchase was nevertheless completed. (And this customer also gave me a 5-star review online, so I presume he hadn’t read the book yet.)

I mean, as I said on Bluesky talking about this, I did my part. I gave him sufficient warning! But I also wondered if Squeak the Mouse was in fact an inspiration for “Itchy and Scratchy.”

A little researching (i.e. Googling about) doesn’t seem to see any explicit admission that Squeak the Mouse was a direct influence, and after all the idea of “Tom and Jerry but super-violent” isn’t really a hugely unique stretch. But it’s also likely Simpsons creator Matt Groening knew of its existence, given his early involvement in cartooning, so who’s to say.

Diamond would also have traveling sales reps who’d come to your store…PICK UP THE SLACK, LUNAR.

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So the other night, as I was working on my Final ’90s Countdown post about Strange Attractors, I did what I usually do when prepping these and tried to log into the old Diamond Comics retailer portal. While that version of Diamond was no longer an operative business, having since become “Diamond Select Brands,” a division of Enesco, the product database was still (mostly) functioning on the old site and I would use it for research.

When I tried to log in last night, and received an error message (503 Service Unvailable”), which I figured wasn’t a good sign. Then I checked the page on Wednesday afternoon, and I got this:


I don’t know how long the page has been this way — I think I logged in last week, but that’s a thing of the past now. All that information, shipping dates, cancellation notices, production descriptions, all gone. I’d hoped there would have been some kind of bulk download of this info, or a back-up on the Internet Archive, but no dice. But if anyone from Diamond is reading this and needs to offload a copy of that product database, you know how to get a hold of me.

I pointed this out here and there online, and “end of an era” has been a common refrain. Not a 100% good era, not a 100% bad era, but it was definitely an era, and it was very easy to see a possible path to its end bringing about the end of the comics retail business as we know it.

Thankfully, there were companies…um, optimistic enough to pick up comics distribution, though some small press items have been lost in the shuffle. And aside from some early glitches here and there, it’s been a relatively smooth transition and as things stand now, my ordering from these new companies has become a regular and trouble-free routine, at least for me. (I know other retailers’ mileage may vary.) I’ve even picked up a toy and merchandise distributor to cover that end of the market, and am currently in the process of signing up with another such company.

I’ve even ordered a couple of things from The New Diamond…actually, one item I got in was a carryover from an order placed with Old Diamond before it fell. However I’ve since ordered a couple of figures from this latest iteration, which is now primarily toys, statues, game items, and other related products.

It’s sad to see that old website go…I can still remember logging into the Diamond BBS (that’s “Bulletin Board System,” for the terminally young amongst you) to enter and upload orders. And of course, prior to that, stores had to fill out order sheets and mail ’em off. I’m not sure what the next version of “Comics Ordering” is going to be, if it’ll be like “please submit your numbers via TikTok video,” but whatever it is, I’m sure I’ll be doing that too.

Just don’t ask me how that new Ultimate comic is selling.

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Wayne queries

“[Another store] will keep as many back issues as they can, I can’t travel anymore, but I know this from THE WALKING DEAD and a few others back in the day.

“But keeping copies of ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1 in its tenth printing mean anything at all to a collector? Though I’d bet you only go back to maybe #15 now.

“Or is it that you’ll still get new customers.Buying the trade and then finding more recent issues on the racks for them to buy means you continue to get more people buying the book and possible other Absolute books?”

Believe it or not, Wayne, whatever issues in whatever current printings I can get of any of DC’s Absolute line go on the new comics rack. As of right now, especially after the restock I received earlier in the week, I have nearly every issue of Absolute Batman on the shelf, from the eleventh printing of #1 all the way to the most recent issue, the “hideously mangled” #20, plus the Ark-M special the and the annual. Note that’s not every issue, as I’m currently out of one of the issues in the teens, can’t remember which at the moment, but as soon as it’s reprinted, I’ll have it in!

And it’s a good sales tool to have ’em all on the shelf like that, as it attracts folks who have heard of these comics but don’t want to dig deep into their pocketbooks to splurge for the trade paperbacks. They sample a first issue, maybe a second, then come roarin’ back for all the rest. Having them all up and on display makes for an impressive sight, and certainly encourages sales from the curious.

Mostly, this is working for the main three, the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman titles, which probably isn’t a surprise, and those seem to be the titles that get the most reprintings. Absolute Martian Manhunter is probably the next in demand, followed by the relatively low (but still present) demand for Absolute Green Lantern and Absolute Flash. (And for anyone wondering, the newly-released first issue of Absolute Green Arrow is selling quite well for me, thank you.)

I’ve said multiple times I’ve never back issued any of the Absolute line, but strictly speaking, that’s not true. I did have a copy of Absolute Batman #1, first printing, that had a color-breaking corner fold on the front cover that I’d set aside and completely forgotten about until well after the book was determined by the comics-noscenti to be a Hot Item, when I found it again. Priced it up (probably well too cheaply in retrospect), put it in the New Arrivals back issue bins, and watched it get purchased and carried away by a grateful customer, holding it aloft upon a silken pillow.

Are these taking up space on my new comics rack? Well, yes. Even with the Gigant-o-Rack that I have taking up an enormous amout of wallspace in my store, the Absolute comics consume a lot of real estate. However, in terms of space used vs. dollars made, it’s well worth it. And given this is one of the few Big Hits the American direct comics market has, actually bringing in new readers excited about picking up monthly single issues, I happily will devote the space to them.

Is this something I can keep up forever? Or is this something DC Comics can keep up forever, maintaining the backlist of single issues of the Absolute books in print in perpetuity? Honestly, I don’t know which will give first…my shelf space, DC’s continuing willingness to go back to press, or trees. Right now it is in DC’s best interest to keep printing these comics so long as there’s this sort of demand, and it’s in my best interest to keep them displayed and available, so long as they’re getting new customers and making money.

Realistically, I can’t keep ’em all on display forever. I’m already overlapping the issues on the shelves so that I can still make room for other new comics. Or else I just devote the entire rack to nothing but Absolute books, and put all the other releases in a short box by the register witih a sign that reads “MISC. NEW COMICS.” But I haven’t quite hit that day yet.

Now Wayne, funny you mention the “does a tenth printing of Absolute Batman #1 mean anything to a collector” thing, as I was just talking about that with a customer the other day. I mean, technically, the later printings do generally have smaller print runs than the first printings. Thus, they are in shorter supply, which could mean, I guess, higher prices should demand arise. Now, it’s not likely now that the printings are in the double digits, but who knows?

This does happen in the real world on occasion. I forget which issue exactly, but there’s like a second or third print of an issue of Ms. Marvel that goes for dumb money, and those later printings of The Killing Joke with the differently colored embossed logos tend to be pricey since they’re not always easy to find. I don’t remember the last time I saw the blue-embossed eight printing, for example. And I haven’t really checked, but I’m sure the earlier reprintings of some of the Absolute books, especially the Batman one, are gaining some pricing traction.

Those are the exceptions rather than the rule, as decades of comics collecting and pricing have told folks that “reprints aren’t as expensive as first prints.” So no, that tenth, or even eleventh, printing of Absolute Batman #1 is unlikely (but not outside the realm of possibility) to get collector demand and go for premium prices. Its real value is in getting new readers to try out comics.

Unless everyone’s speculating on the reprints.

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Thanks, pals, for being patient as my blogging batteries recharge. I plan to have another “My Fantastic Four-ay” post this week, and should have another installment of the Final ’90s Countdown coming along in short order.

In the meantime, let me address a question that came up in the last post, about the supposedly-damaged Absolute Batman #20s, from D:

“So are people buying 2 copies of AbBat every month, one to read & one to slab at 9.8 to flip? Or is no one actually reading the book at all and just having their issues encased?”

I’m reminded of that one creator, during the height of the pandemic-inspired comic speculation frenzy where every first appearance of anything was snapped up in desparation for making that big eBay killing, who was so excited at the huge jump in demand for their comic. “Wow! Sales are through the roof! Thanks everyone for your support!” and I just didn’t have the heart to tell ’em that this was only a speculation-fueled bump, that sales were going to drop right back down to where they were previously. And the book ended shortly thereafter (it was a Marvel book, so “ending shortly thereafter” is pretty much a given, what with current publishing stragegies).

I think the point I’m trying to make here is that if Absolute Batman was purely a title supported by speculators, I don’t think it would have lasted this long and at its current high sales volume. That said, speculation is part of the formula here, as most issues have something to generate that sort of interest (1st Absolute Catwoman! 1st Absolute Bane! 1st Absolute Robin(s)!), so that sort of investment behavior is certainly subsidizing the sales.

In general I order around the same numbers for each new issue of Absolute Batman, and I can tell the difference between the issues that have something Hot and Investable in them and those that do not, given on how many I have left over after the initial sales week. However, the amount of demand from people who seem to be actually interested in reading the comic is enough that even if the issue has extra remaining copies, they will continue to sell through the following weeks.

Here’s the thing…I haven’t back-issued any Absolute Batman. (Or any of the Absolute books, for that matter.) I keep every available issue up on the rack and for sale. DC seems intent on keeping the periodicals in print, even if they’ve been reprinted in hardcovers/trade paperbacks, which is unusual. But DC seems to recognize the strong continuing sales of the individual comics and their appeal to new readers, and keeping them in print is money in the bank for themselves and the retailers. I just placed a reorder for more reprints of the entire run, and expect to sell through those again. We’re up to an 11th printing on #1, if you can believe it.

I’m not a mind-reader, so I can’t say for certain that the majority of sales for Absolute Batman is by readers, and not by people immediately shipping them off to CGC to be slabbed and graded. But the general vibe that I’m getting is that they are being bought by readers, and said readers find the comics exciting and compelling. Nearly all my sales in the shop are single copies to customers. Only occasionally do I have someone picking up two or three copies for themselves.

Now, this is just my store. Maybe other stores that are more CGC-oriented than mine (which ain’t hard to achieve) are seeing people buy Absolute Batman by the handful for immediate flipping. I can’t deny that speculation isn’t rampant with this comic, because otherwise this recent controversy over the “damaged” copies of #20 wouldn’t have happened if a significant number of people weren’t upset about not being able to get their coveted “9.8s.” But my sense is that, given the continuing reprinting of the individual issues, given the sales patterns I see at the store, given the general buzz around the actual contents of the stories, this book is getting more reader-driven demand than speculator-driven.

If we had any sense, we wouldn’t be comic book retailers.

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So the new hot book of the week is Dynamite’s Ben 10 #1, based on the cartoon from some years back and apparently in short supply in these here parts. Notably, this wasn’t an item that flew off the shelves to the normal New Comics Wednesday crowd, but rather primarily moved to new customers who came in the next day…presumably fans who heard about the book online via whatever fan channels exist for the property.

Apparently it had relatively high orders for an indie book, though as that article breaks it down, actual regular copies available to all stores (outside the “blind bags” and the retailer exclusives) were only about two-thirds of the print run. And like every book from Dynamite, there were multiple free-to-order variants, and multiple ratio variants, and the pricier foil covers, and so on.

I got multiple calls to the store looking for copies of this, from, as I noted on the Blooskees, increasingly more distant area codes, so it very much appears that demand far outsripped the available supply. And when something like that happens, the speculators start to get involved, further diminishing available copies for anyone actually interested in reading the comic.

Though I have to admit, my comics-retailer sense (in that if any of us have any sense) was telling me that most of my inquiries were coming from the fans, not the folks looking for eBay-flipping opportunities. So realistically, I don’t know how many Ben 10 #1 were immediately packed away into Gemini cardboard mailers addressed to CGC, but I’m sure it’s a non-zero percentage.

And that being the case, the big question is…what to order on #2? The Final Order Cutoff date on the second issue is next Monday, which gives me a few days to gauge actual demand. Now, I could probably have sold two to three times the copies of #1 over what I initially ordered, which wasn’t a huge amount (more on that in a moment), but it could be a mistake to drastically raise my orders on the next installment.

One, it’s a first issue, where demand is generally highest. Two, a lot of the folks weren’t regular comic buyers, which isn’t a bad thing, of course, but they’re just not in the habit of returning to a comic shop once a month to get the latest issue, and many may not return having had their interest slated with a single comic. And Three, there’s the speculator factor, who are only interested in comics were demand outstrips supply, and certainly won’t pick up any copies of a reasonably ordered second issue.

That’s not all cut ‘n’ dried, of course, but that’s just a basic distillation of what I have to consider. And then there’s the reason I didn’t order overly high in the first place, and that’s the gradually diminishing returns on Dynamite’s cartoon nostalgia comics.

Most of them started strong: Thundercats, Gargoyles, Space Ghost, Thundarr, and so on. But as time and series and spin-offs wore on, sales on the first two shrank to a very small core audience, and Thundarr‘s sales collapsed almost immediately. Space Ghost remains a relatively strong seller, but even that is only moving about half the copies it did when it first arrived on my racks.

That’s perfectly normal…most comic book series see attrition over time (with the possible exception of the perpetual motion machine that is Absolute Batman, but even that may see its time eventually). It’s no comment on their quality, it’s just a thing that happens. But when it came time to order on a Ben 10, I had to consider the apparent diminishing returns on these sorts of comics, and the fact that previous Ben 10 releases, like graphic novels, barely moved at all for me.

And I had to consider, “who was going to buy this?” I get a lot of kids who pass through the shop, but in general they don’t pay any attention to the Old TV Cartoons That Are Back in Comic Form genre. I mean, there’s always one or two, but usually they’re more interested in manga or Dog Man or the like. But I account for those sales too. Then I had to think “how many of the adults who come in here are going to care about a Ben 10 comic?” and I figured “probably the same number that still care about Thundercats and Gargoyles,” so that went into the ol’ brainpan for some thinkin’.

What I usually don’t consider (and this may be a bit of a broken record for you longtime readers here) is The Secret Other Thing, which is “people who don’t normally buy comics coming in to buy comics.” You can’t depend on that. There are plenty of comic books that come out every month were you can say “well, the general public may decide they need This Comic, so I better order lots!” but 99% of the time, they won’t.

But this 1% of the time, they did. And, that’s just what happens I guess. It’s nice when it does, and even nicer if I’m prepared for it, which is almost impossible to be so. But I did have copies on the shelves for the few lucky people who popped by and called early enough on Thursday to grab some copies, so I at least made some people happy.

What to order on #2? Probably more than I ordered on #1, but I’m not going to go buckwild. This could be a case where the demand normalizes right away, or drops almost entirely, like an Image Comics second issue, and I’m stuck with a few issues and need to drop numbers on #3. Or demand will meet my educated guess and I’ll be able to satisfy a larger number of new customers. I’ll find out in about a month or so.

No idea why Diamond went away.

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So as I may have mentioned once or thrice, I inherited a number of items from my previous place of funnybook-sellin’ employment, following that location’s final closing. Like, boxes of old promotional material, this sign, and lots of old invoices. “You might find some use from the data there,” my former boss Ralph said, and I agreed, with intentions of going through all those pages to see what I can glean.

Well, it had been a while, and I finally pulled those boxes out to poke through them. Didn’t have any real plan in mind, aside from flipping open one or two here and there for the occasional twinge of nostalgia (“we ordered *that* many of that comic?”). As far as I can tell, I have access to invoices ranging from September 1986 (exactly two years before I started working for that store), running up to sometime in 1996. I don’t know if it’s a complete run, but it’s a significant amount of information of what Ralph had ordered, and what was available, from Bud Plant, Capital Comics, and Diamond Comics, and maybe one or two others in there.

By happenstance — yes, really — I found the invoice for the week when we received Superman #75, the nigh-infamous “Death of Superman” issue, dated “11-20-92.” (That’s the Friday of the week, though I’m pretty sure the comic went on sale on Thursday the 19th.) My memory over the years was that we ordered “ten times what we normally ordered on Superman comics” for this special issue, and thus, now that I have the exact numbers, I can pin down that assumption to a more specific amount.

Now, I don’t feel comfortable giving exact order numbers, as it feels a little bit to me like giving away trade secrets or something. Every once in a while I’ll have someone at the shop ask me “so, how many copies of [title] did you order?” and I’ll answer either “enough” or (usually, because they usually only ask if I’m out) “not enough.”

As such, I’ll be telling you that, combining both the deluxe black-bagged #75 and the unbagged “newsstand” version, we got in just a little over 7 times our normal Superman comic order. I will say that number is a few hundred copies, which, under all normal circumstances, would have been plenty to meet demand.

But then, as discussed on this site plenty of times (click the category link to see), and as you likely know already, the “Death” broke in the real world news just prior to release. Which is why when we were prepping to open, we were taken by surprise by the enormous line stretching down the street waiting to get in. Even by limiting sales to one per customer (which just delighted some folks, I’ll tell you what), we were out in short order. Had we ordered 20 or 30 times our regular order of Superman, we might have had enough, though given the number of people who wanted multiple copies, maybe even more would have been necessary.

Looking at this invoice, I was reminded of a particularly aggravating problem, in that Diamond shorted us our multiple cases of boxes of Doomsday: The Death of Superman trading cards. Just the total cost of the cards alone was about equal to, like, one of my weekly Marvel invoices now. Geez louise. Anyway, I barely recall there was some kind of issue with those cards at the distribution level, in that we never got replacements on them. (Eventually, the folks at the shop would get a full set of the cards for me for a birthday or Christmas or something, since I was a longtime Superman fan. Yes, I still have that set.)

Also interesting is that this week was also the debut of Doom 2099, and you’d think its foil-enhanced first issue would be overlooked in the rush for that guy in the cape what died. But, even though we ordered about 5 times what we would normally order on Superman (to continue using that comparison point), we would — eventually — sell out of it. At this late date, I can’t recall if sales on its initial release was hindered by the Superman rush, but I do remember running out of it.

Also shipped this week: Robin III #2 (both the collectors edition and the regular version), X-Factor #86, G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero #132, and, yes, Horny Biker Sluts #5.

What was amazing was the number of shortages we had, on top of not receiving the Death of Superman cards. We didn’t get our orders on Guardians of the Galaxy #32, Dracula: The Suicide Club #4, Kimagure Orange Road: A Retuirn to That Day VHS, Laundryland #4, Loco Vs. Pulverine #1 (may have been a restock, noted by Diamond as having shipped 10/31 on the invoice), the Marvel Super Heroes 1992 Holiday Special, Meatface: The Amazing Flesh #1 (um, what), Merlin #1, Night of the Living Dead: Aftermath, Nightbreed #33, Personality Presents #15 (with Michelle Pfeiffer), Rock Classics: The Doors #1, Savage Henry #23, Saved by the Bell #4, Scooby-Doo Giant Size #2, Screw Comics #1, Sherlock Holmes: Return of he Devil #2, Southern Knights #36, Stunt Dawgs #1, Tales of Screaming Horror #1, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Sourcebook #1, Trailer Trash #3, UFOs Alien Contact #1 (both the regular and Deluxe Editions), Urusei Yatsura Movie: Only You VHS, XXX-Women: A Woman’s Work… #1, Yogi Bear Big Book #2, and Zoot #1. Oh, and a copy of Kitchen Sink Pipeline #70, a freebie newsletter to retailers.

And yet somehow we still had lots of comics other than Superman #75 to sell that week. Good gravy, what we put up with. Probably around this time I told our Diamond rep, after dealing with another slew of shortages, “if Diamond was a plane, I wouldn’t fly it” (a gag stolen from David Letterman). May not have been nice of me, no, but boy was I frustrated. But looking at the invoice, it looks like, for example, none of our Fantagraphics books showed up (which includes that Meatface mag), so maybe there was a problem with their books getting to Diamond on time, or something. I don’t know. Still, c’mon guys, that’s a lot of missing books. And cards. And videotapes.

Anyway, that’s a peek back at a notable shipping week from over thirty years ago. Now to find the invoice with the white-bagged Adventures of Superman #500 to see how many of those we shouldn’t have ordered.

Nature is healing…

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…as speculation on Image Comics first issues is beginning to ramp up again. A few years back, my general sense of the Image speculation then was people hoping to twig onto whatever will be the new Walking Dead, a comic that expanded into other popular media and drove back issue prices into the stratosphere.

Now the speculation appears to be leaning towards first issues that are perhaps lower ordered, or otherwise under the radar. Titles that when they’re announced, and when it comes time for me to do my ordering, I don’t hear a peep about from anyone. And then, when it’s the day before the comic goes on sale, I start to get the requests.

From what I hear on the social medias, when I noted this, was that the comics folks on the YouTubes and the TikToks started to hype up these particular comics as “investable collectibles” within the last week or two. Of course, this is well past the time I’m able to get more copies, so even if I saw any of these videos (which I wouldn’t since I avoid most comics content on those platforms) what good was that going to do.

I haven’t noted the titles of the comics in question if only because the onus is not on them; they’re by creators doing books with stories they want to tell. And while I’m sure they’re pleased with the sales (and the attendant reprints), I’m not sure how happy they’d be to know that the primary push for sales is as a commodity, not as a storytelling medium. Look, I’m sure a bushel of twenties is a healing balm, but there must be some disappointment.

It reminds me of a creator at Marvel during initial COVID times, when speculators were desperate for anything to invest in, getting excited that an issue of their book suddenly shot through the roof in demand and sales. They seemed to think it portended future success, not realizing it was a one-off fluke as that issue featured an “invesetable” first appearance, and sales went right back to normal levels with the next issue.

So we have high demand for these new first issues, but no real indication of how many of those sales are to people looking to actually read it, and no indication as to what the sales will eventually settle down to once the investment opportunity is over. I’m just sorry that it may take two or three cycles of printings before the books can find their audiences. Unless they want to go on eBay and pick up the $20 or more copies of the first printings that were listed as such even before the release dates.

Collection and investment has always been part and parcel of the comics hobby — the phrase “must-have double-bag item” obviously came from somewhere. But in these days when comic orders are hewn close to the bone as it is, the surprise last-second demand for a low-ordered book is a frustration.

Too hip, gotta go.

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First, let me assure you, the ProgRuin readers, that the Big Sidewalk Sale I mentioned last week was a success! I cleared out lots of comics from the backroom, giving me the space I needed to start revising/expanding my back issue section. That…will be lots of work, but at least now I can do it!

Also, I didn’t realize my passing reference to the online comic selling portal Hipcomic last week would generate commentary, but let me try to address a point or two you folks brought up.

adrian asked

“Is hipcomic disappointing because of the pricing, or the traffic? or the completed sales? or is it just too obscure a site to make it useful?”

To be fair, it may have been one of those “it’s not you, baby, it’s me” situations, as I was primarily using Hipcomic to sell leftover stock from the new comics shelf that I didn’t put into the back issue bins. It wasn’t necessarily High Demand Items, it was just largely low demand recent back issues. (Though every once in a while some random back issue would suddenly sell out from my listings and I’d discover the property had just been optioned as a movie or something.)

I suspect sales on the platform seem to lean toward the CGC-graded items, which as regular readers of this site know I prefer to avoid. That said, I haven’t given up on Hipcomic entirely, but I think I’m going to be a little more judicious in what I list there.

I don’t know how much traffic they get, but I think they’re doing plenty of sales on there. As to how obscure they are, I will say that whenever I mention “Hipcomic,” the response is invariably “what’s that?” I should note that when I search out specific comics on Google, I do get Hipcomic listings as results most of the time, so its footprint may be expanding at least a little.

And just to wrap up this particular set of inquiries, I’ve never had any problem with completed sales. Everyone there who purchased items from me paid up quickly, and I can’t recall having any problems with any transactions. At least, no problems that weren’t my fault (some kind of listing error that I didn’t catch, for example).

• • •

John relates…well, his experiences on Hipcomic, which to sum up, were disappointing.

I was pulled into Hipcomic with the offer of a free iPad and a free table-with-an-easel-bit that you can use to quickly take photos of comics for sale. The caveat is that in exchange for these goodies, I had to list thousands of books on the platform in a short period of time. I forget exactly how many, but it was a lot, which required spending an hour or two a day just plowing through stacks of back issues and getting them uploaded. The end result is that I had to list a lot of, like I said before, recent back issues that would not be fast movers.

It sounds like it would be an oppressive process, but it was actually fairly easy, especially once you got into the groove. You’d use the iPad, logged into the Hipcomic site, to take a picture of the comic (conveniently placed on the easel for easy photographin’), the Hipcomic database would, usually, identify the comic and fill in several of the particulars for the listing, you add in your quantities and prices, and submit the info to start selling. Prices and quantities can carry over from entry to entry, so you can list a bunch in short order without having to change those options, as long as the database recognizes the book.

And that was the issue that would slow me up, unfortunately. When I started on Hipcomic, the only covers in the database would be the main “A” cover, and variants wouldn’t be identified. Which would be a problem, since most publishers are heavily leaning on variants nowadays. If I wanted to list a variant, I’d have to enter all the information myself, which would take me a little extra time slowly typing out the letters on the iPad screen keyboard.

As time wore on, more variants started being entered in the database, so the autofill function would kick in, but still, not every variant. And not every comic, even from the big publishers, at least not right away. My process was, after pulling old issues off the shelf, attempting to list my extras on the service, but the month sales window I guess wasn’t long enough for these newer comics to get into their system. I’d have to enter those details manually, which isn’t a huge inconvenience but doesn’t facilite a quick and smooth stream of listings.

Plus, there’s the occasional qlitch where Hipcomic’s comic identifying software would misidentify the photo you took and enter the wrong informtion into the listing. And if you’re going a little too quickly processing these comics, it can be easy to miss, resulting in the listing errors I mentioned above.

And there were plenty of comics just not in the database at all, mostly the smaller indie titles. I would try specifically to enter those manually in the hopes that I’d be one of the few retailers on there selling those comics, which…worked occasionally.

Like John, I didn’t have a lot of sales, but again, I was trying to blow out extra recent stock, not offering items of more note. I had a few sales a month, usually at low price points, sometimes enough to pay the monthly fee but not always. Occasionally I’d get a good-sized sale but this wasn’t a major source of income, sadly.

I’m not giving up on Hipcomic…I do think their fee structure is a little better than eBay’s, and their listing function does, for the most part, makes things pretty easy. I’ve got a project or two to finish at the store first, but I’m going to try listing slightly higher-end and older comics, and see if that improves my listings-to-sales ratio. We’ll see how it goes. I think it’s a good platform overall, but I have to see if I can exploit it properly.

So anyway…

by

…getting ready for a Big Sidewalk Sale at the shop this weekend, with the admittedly odd timing of doing it at the same time the Super Bowl is running. Ah, that’s okay, who watches the Super Bowl any more, anyway?

But as time goes on, and collections get dumped on me that I don’t really have any immediately use for, the stock in the backroom builds up to uncomfortable levels and suddenly I find myself stuck with excess boxes of comics. Thus, my need for space necessitates the clearing out of these boxes of books.

On top of that, selling excess books on Hipcomic.com wasn’t going quite as well as I was hoping. I’m not giving up on that platform yet, but I’m going to rethink my strategy there. In the meantime, the many comics I had listed there have been removed, and all those will go out into the sale. I suspect I’ll make more money there with these books than I ever did on Hipcomic.

Not that money is the issue. I mean, sure, I’ll take it, but the primary goal is to lighten the load of excess material so I can repurpose part of the backroom into back issue overflow from the shelving and tables in the front sales area. Sigh. I really should knock down a wall and just make more front of the store, but I’m not quite ready to do that yet.

Either that or move to a larger location, and I’m not really up to doing that either. Sigh.

Anyway, the last time I did a Sidewalk Sale I did indeed shed several boxes out of the backroom, so here’s hoping it happens again. And if you find yourself in the location of my store this weekend…drop on by! Get a ton of comics! Help your pal Mike out!