The Goosing Of Marvel NOW With Variants And Discount

[Peter J Poole]

What a thoroughly and colossally ignorant summation of Shooter's contribution to the comic book industry

And yeah, I'll take the informed opinions of pros, backed by decades of experience, over most

In a static system, so will I.

Not in an industry which has seen as many internal changes and external challenges as this one, and where anyone is only ever as good as their last miracle.

And that's not slamming Shooter, or anyone else.

Cheers

[barbabravo]

Still have 35 out of 100. Doing the math is idiocy. Had I reached the threshold, I'd be staring at probably 60+ and I love the fact that all of you non-experienced retail geniuses assume every variant goes on Ebay and makes a fortune to pay for the extra books and a yacht or two. Obviously, we did the math and it wasn't worth the risk and, even more obviously, we were exactly right since the big event launch of MARVEL NOW undersold AVX by around 65 copies and only outsold a normal Avengers by about 20.

Again, when you have to order too many copies to qualify to get more variant copies and you're paying for every one of them knowing that most people are no longer buying multiple copies, you are taking a huge risk. The math only holds if the book actually sells at retail in much higher numbers than you expect when the qualifying amount is too high. My order number total originally was 75 regular priced copies, so if the owner hadn't gotten paranoid at the last minute, I'd be sitting on 10 and be very happy. It's all about knowing your customer base and knowing there were going to be tons of extra copies everywhere. I don't ever want to have to gamble on Ebay to break even.

(12 characters)

[QCCBob]

I suspect you run a store that smells like rotting paper and overpriced merch.

No, I run a store that works like a comic book shop, not a collectibles and pop culture store. The whole point of not wanting to deal with variants is we don't want 'rotting paper and overpriced merch'.

[QCCBob]

If you line up a buyer of a variant before placing the order, and
If he agrees to front the cost of the variant at a level that will cover the cost of the extra copies you have to order, and
If you give away those copies, and
If you advertise in your local media (newspaper/radio/TV) that on Saturday, your store will give away one copy of Book Y to the first X hundred that come in, and
If you do this each week of Marvel Now...

Fundamental flaw #1 - I haven't got anyone left who buys expensive variants, so no guarantee there.

Fundamental flaw #2 - I base my order on a number of file customers, so how can I give away copies without LOSING money on my file customers AND how many file customers are going to be ticked that we gave away copies, but charged them?

Fundamental flaw #3 - Adding ad money to the lost money from giving stuff away means I'd better see a huge response followed by enough people buying the next issues to pay off the debt incurred. Is there even ONE Marvel Now title that is a better theoretical lock to sell than the Uncanny Avengers and it certainly didn't set the world on fire.

Taking your advice would bankrupt a shop in three months. You're talking thousands of real dollars (Have you priced a multimedia ad campaign lately?) gambled on the fact that Marvel can put out books that attract new readers and we already know they can't do that. If money grew on trees and I could walk out back and pull 6 grand a week to pay for ads without expecting any return, great. You want to spend thousands to make hundreds. That's not practical, especially given that the numbers you'd need to generate would require selling more copies in my store than probably ship to the entire DM community in town.

[QCCBob]

And yeah, I'll take the informed opinions of pros, backed by decades of experience, over most

Now, you're doomed. The opinions of random comic fans on BC trump ANY professional's opinion and usually most rational facts. And now you've branded yourself a heretic!

[DarthEwok]

Now, you're doomed. The opinions of random comic fans on BC trump ANY professional's opinion and usually most rational facts. And now you've branded yourself a heretic!

Yes. I see that now. That is why I just did a facepalm, instead of replying to the reply

[D Bell]

Fundamental flaw #1 - I haven't got anyone left who buys expensive variants, so no guarantee there.

Fundamental flaw #2 - I base my order on a number of file customers, so how can I give away copies without LOSING money on my file customers AND how many file customers are going to be ticked that we gave away copies, but charged them?

Fundamental flaw #3 - Adding ad money to the lost money from giving stuff away means I'd better see a huge response followed by enough people buying the next issues to pay off the debt incurred. Is there even ONE Marvel Now title that is a better theoretical lock to sell than the Uncanny Avengers and it certainly didn't set the world on fire.

Taking your advice would bankrupt a shop in three months. You're talking thousands of real dollars (Have you priced a multimedia ad campaign lately?) gambled on the fact that Marvel can put out books that attract new readers and we already know they can't do that. If money grew on trees and I could walk out back and pull 6 grand a week to pay for ads without expecting any return, great. You want to spend thousands to make hundreds. That's not practical, especially given that the numbers you'd need to generate would require selling more copies in my store than probably ship to the entire DM community in town.

Bob, your post is exactly why the DM as currently run is bad for comics.

First you ignore the part where I said IF you had a customer that would commit to purchase and pay up front for the variant.
That means that all those extra copies are now free to you. You net zero, sure, but your cost is also zero (of course, you could charge enough for the variant to see a profit as well, though I'd think that wouldn't be wise for long term customer retention).
So why would you charge your pull customers and give away to walk-ins?

Granted advertising does cost money, though not as much as you think. Radio and newspaper are certainly your cheapest options and buying on local cable is not out of the price range for a healthy store.
But there are other options - are you near a college? Does it have a school newspaper? If so that is a very cheap ad buy and targets the same demographic you want.
Do you trade advertising space in your shop (i.e., posters/ counter cards, etc.) with other small shops that might share your pool of potential customers? Like mom & pop coffee shops or wireless cafes.

And finally, you can't hope to grow any business simply by opening the door. You need to let people know you exist, that you have something they might want and you have to give them a reason to come in. A small give away can certainly help.

Bob, you and I can both argue about content all day (and on that we have always agreed) but shops have to market themselves. I merely offered one potential way to do it. You said you have no customers that buy variants. Fair enough, then this wouldn't work... for you. But that doesn't make it an unworkable idea.

[DarthEwok]

Bob, your post is exactly why the DM as currently run is bad for comics.

First you ignore the part where I said IF you had a customer that would commit to purchase and pay up front for the variant.
That means that all those extra copies are now free to you. You net zero, sure, but your cost is also zero (of course, you could charge enough for the variant to see a profit as well, though I'd think that wouldn't be wise for long term customer retention).
So why would you charge your pull customers and give away to walk-ins?

Granted advertising does cost money, though not as much as you think. Radio and newspaper are certainly your cheapest options and buying on local cable is not out of the price range for a healthy store.
But there are other options - are you near a college? Does it have a school newspaper? If so that is a very cheap ad buy and targets the same demographic you want.
Do you trade advertising space in your shop (i.e., posters/ counter cards, etc.) with other small shops that might share your pool of potential customers? Like mom & pop coffee shops or wireless cafes.

And finally, you can't hope to grow any business simply by opening the door. You need to let people know you exist, that you have something they might want and you have to give them a reason to come in. A small give away can certainly help.

Bob, you and I can both argue about content all day (and on that we have always agreed) but shops have to market themselves. I merely offered one potential way to do it. You said you have no customers that buy variants. Fair enough, then this wouldn't work... for you. But that doesn't make it an unworkable idea.

Man there sure are a lot of people who are experts at how to run a successful comic shop - in their head, hypothetically, on the Internet, that is

I wonder if these folks also wander into a college lecture hall and correct the PhD professor about his/her area of expertise

[Comicsfan101]

Man there sure are a lot of people who are experts at how to run a successful comic shop - in their head, hypothetically, on the Internet, that is

I wonder if these folks also wander into a college lecture hall and correct the PhD professor about his/her area of expertise

D Bell and I disagree a lot, but everything he said here is perfectly reasonable. I have to wonder if you're even capable of having a thought that wasn't handed to you by authority. Also a pretty big assumption to assume that the people disagreeing have no business running experience. Quite a few of us, in fact, do have such experience. Imagine that. Professionals can still disagree with each other on how to run a business.

[Dusty]

NuMarvel still being run by clueless liars with no respect for anybody, and over inflated opinions of their boys club? I am not surprised they keep going down in sales and creativity.

Speaking of numarvel lies that need exposed, here are two:

1. Why is Mark Millar still publishes his books through ICON when Marvel repeated claimed it was an incentive imprint to keep exclusive creators, and not a sandbox reserved for Joey's drinking buddies?

2. Where is the upcoming Ralph Macchio comic work that Marvel claimed was the reason he left a 30 year position at the company to do?