Sales Numbers or the Greatest Con by Comic Companies

Those that follow the drama that is Brand New Day knows that people point to sales number to either say, “It is doing great,” or ,” It is going downhill fast.” That is the real drama here, sales number that is posted by sites that follow that sort of thing. The truth of the matter these mean nothing. Absolutely nothing, in regards, to the Local Comic Shops, readers, and many other outlets these numbers are just a pipe dream. These numbers are just for the companies to fool themselves with to believe that they are doing well.

The so-call “sale numbers” are not sales at all. They are distribution number that tell us how many issue are being sent out to stores. These numbers show how confident the outlets are about selling an issue of comic. As an example, a store orders 20 copies of a book expecting to sell 10 to regular customer and 5 to new customers leaving 5 for back issues. If a store over order or an issue doesn’t sell well, they could end up with 15 in back issue bin. This causes those outlets to lose money because they now have to sell those issues at a discount to break even, they hope. In truth, these outlets lose money on a lot of issues because they have to sell them at a greater discounted price they the pay for. In turn, they lose the money they put out for the book and lost of any chance of a profit.

If you look at these numbers as future sales, you are partly correct. These future sales decrease in value as time goes on because of the actions of the companies. To put this in way that makes thing clear, variant covers are killing the industry because it floods the market because they want a quick buck. The reasons for comics like Amazing Fantasy 15 being high valued and treasured is because how rare they are in the market place. The only way to fix this type of thing is to fix how the companies treat outlets for their products.

The comic industry is the only industry that doesn’t allow stores to return unsold products. Why are Local Comic Shops losing money? That is reason number one right they because they are stuck with product they have to move at a lost to them and not the companies. You want to see an example of greed that is out of control, Comic Companies are the best example of this type of thing. They keep all the money from LCS and basically stick them with bill of the cost of printing material that doesn’t sell.

How to fix this whole thing? One, companies must be allow to return product that doesn’t sell. This would be a benefit to both the companies and the outlets. One, the company would get a very clear idea what is working and what isn’t. Secondly the outlets would not be stuck with an overstock of product that they will have sell at a lost. Two, create a real sales number chart for people to follow. BND is being distributed typically at the 60,000 mark, but the real question is how many of those are going into customer’s hands? It isn’t 60,000 that is for sure because you can find ten to twenty issues of ASM on the racks, in back stock bins, and in the fifty cent bins. This is causing shops to lose money. Allowing shops to return the majority of unsold product would help bring a greater sense of what is needed to keep the industry moving forward, and, more importantly, what the readers like. Marvel is really guilty of this because they were once in touch with the readers, but they have lost that touch due to the enormous egos and plain pig headiness of the people working there.

These companies say they stand behind their products. They need to prove that to everyone by allowing shops to return unsold product at the price that was paid for. Then they can say they are listening to the shop because this is one thing that has been requested by many LCS. It will also tell the companies if the moves they have done to create readers have been worth it. Many people working at these companies are living in a dream world and need to wake up. They need to wake up not just for the good of the business, but they need to come to realize they could be hurting this industry more than helping it. Trades are nice to get a complete arc, but the single issue is the life blood of this industry because it is their hype machine. Reader talks to friends and other readers, which in turn, increases the sales of Trades. It is time for these companies to realize that the readers are in control and own the sandbox…lock, stock, and barrel.

Coming Soon

The following will be posted soon:

Sale number or the greatest con by comic company

Mary Jane Watson the most writer abused character

Conservatives are right(So are the libs)

Think Before You Act