Mayo Report

[fudd71]

We do turn people away, because we simply can't tie up so much money in speculative sales, and one thing is for certain - the amount of time spent trying to figure these things out can be maddening every month.

Do you have any kind of template set up or standard equation you use to make these decisions? Or do you actually do these case by case and have to do like you showed for each and every title every month? If it is done case by case each month, how much extra time do think this cost you either in personal hours or employee man-hours?

[drew]

I wondering if the retailers who do order the superfluous number of copies of Iron Man already have a customer committed to the variant? The risk seems extremely high for small businesses.

As a small comic shop owner, in most cases, yes we will have a buyer lined up ahead of time. There are a few small exceptions where we will go out of our way to order something (Alex Ross SW #1 variant) that we know will indeed be purchased with strong sales of the excess number we wouldn't normally order.

That being said, pricing variants is an extremely tough area when you get to the multiple tiers of ordering. For example, if you have the following variants ordering:
Standard Cover
Order 150% or more of your order on number 7 of god knows what title here - get this variant all you can order
1:15 A
1:15 B
1:25
1:50
1:100

For the sake of math, let's say we get 50% off the cover through Diamond, and our title is a $4.99 cover price (our copy costs $1.99). One of our regulars, Joe Buyer, comes and says he wants the 1:100, what's it going to cost him? First we tell him to give us a day to get out our slide-rule, abacus, Jack Daniels, and Advil, and we will call him back. After looking at the variants, we feel we might as well get all of the 1:X variants along the way, as we stand a chance to cover their cost to us more easily than the regular covers.

First step - how many books are we talking total (before the 150% of X malarky)? Guaranteed 100, plus:
(1) 1:100 var
(2) 1:50 var
(4) 1:25 var
(6) 1:15A var
(6) 1:15B var

That brings us to 119 books. Our normal sell thru on this title is 20. That means I have 80 books left before counting variants. 80 * 1.99 = $159.20 for me to break even by just selling the 1:100 to cover the cost of the other 80 that will likely sit on the shelf or be banished to a long box in the basement destined for a Con at $1 a piece.

Now I have the other variants, what the hell am I going to do with those, and how am I going to not screw Joe Buyer, but make sure I make money? This is where it gets tough. Do I play the game where I sell to Joe Buyer and aim to break even, and hope that I make my money out on the other variants? He is a regular, and a good guy. So, I suppose we can take a chance.

That means:
1:100 = $150 (we are really nice, we ate $9.20)

So, I have to make up another $150 to make my normal sell thru profit margin. Noticing that the variants are decently printed, I can't get carried away with pricing (and in all likelihood I consult DCBS to see what they have the price set at). I settle on the following:

(2) 1:50 = $40 ea
(4) 1:25 = $15 ea
(12) 1:15 = $8 ea

That gives me a total potential profit of $236 (not likely that I will make that, but potential is there).

So, now that I worked out my pricing, I am set to order the books, my normal cash outlay for this title is $39.80 per month (20 books @ $1.99). My new cash outlay is $236.81. Seems small, when you look at it like that. But if you factor in that this book is 1% or less of my order, and is now 6x more. Not too mention I have not even thought of the order 150% of XX, it only goes up. Then multiply it by the amount of other variants, and the number of other Joe Buyers that come in.

We do turn people away, because we simply can't tie up so much money in speculative sales, and one thing is for certain - the amount of time spent trying to figure these things out can be maddening every month.

thanks for sharing this, it is very enlightening, glad to see there are still some good comic retailers out there, and I wish the big two made your life easier instead of harder with all these shenanigans

[erickowabunga]

Do you have any kind of template set up or standard equation you use to make these decisions? Or do you actually do these case by case and have to do like you showed for each and every title every month? If it is done case by case each month, how much extra time do think this cost you either in personal hours or employee man-hours?

Sadly it is a case by case each month/title. It can take anywhere from 10 minutes (1 variant tier to consider) to hours. On an average month we may lose 4-8 hours planning out what we intend to buy. In effect, we tend to look for a few certain things:

- What is the title? If it is a major title, we give it a look, if not, we pass unless a customer comes in
- What is the tier? If it is over 1:200, we are almost always automatically out. We are a small store, emphasis on small. We sell 15 Batman each month . . . and that is one of our top sellers. So buying 200 of anything is suicide, unless we have a buyer lined up
- What am I comfortable laying out? If we have a month with a lot of good books/HCs/TPBs hitting, we will scale back to make sure we bring them in. The likelihood that someone comes in to buy the new Deadpool HC is higher than 100 people coming in to buy Invincible Iron Man.

If we were to seriously consider each and every variant, our effort would easily double. Now, for a Midtown or DCBS, they very well may have a threshold of "If it is under 500, just order as many as we can" but for us little guys it can be a bit strangling.

[erickowabunga]

thanks for sharing this, it is very enlightening, glad to see there are still some good comic retailers out there, and I wish the big two made your life easier instead of harder with all these shenanigans

My pleasure. Yes, it can be exhausting, but honestly, seeing people come in and getting the variant they want is totally worth it. Some just sell them on eBay, but for most it is a prized possession, and you really can't take away the excitement it holds for them. At the end of the day, we live and die on our customer service, and will do whatever it takes, within reason, to make our customers (or potential customers) happy.

[fudd71]

Sadly it is a case by case each month/title. It can take anywhere from 10 minutes (1 variant tier to consider) to hours. On an average month we may lose 4-8 hours planning out what we intend to buy.

Thanks for answering, wow that is a lot of work.

[SpideySavestheDay]

Yes, it can be exhausting, but honestly, seeing people come in and getting the variant they want is totally worth it. Some just sell them on eBay, but for most it is a prized possession, and you really can't take away the excitement it holds for them. At the end of the day, we live and die on our customer service, and will do whatever it takes, within reason, to make our customers (or potential customers) happy.

Thank you for answering my question. I remember reading articles by Brian Hibbs about this very same dilemma. Also to let you know, living and dying on customer service is the key reason why I chose a neighborhood store rather than an online competitor. There's something about a store that bends backwards for their customers; it's honorable and worth my money.

[NDHorse]

In the Trades edition of the Mayo Report, you seemed to take notice of the Harbinger Vol 1 trade by Valiant with sales of around 2900 copies. That one was part of the Comic Bento last month. When a Comic Bento item shows up on the list, it is usually in the 2500-2600 copies level. Therefore, the Harbinger Vol 1 sales were only a few hundred to stores.

FYI, another Comic Bento's from last month were Mark Waid's Green Hornet at rank #22. Another from last month's Comic Bento was Captain Marvel Vol 1, which oddly was higher up on the trades list in September and not October. Comic Bento must of bought early for that one.

[JohnMayo]

Those 2500 to 2600 units from Comic Bento can certainly make a big different for most publishers.

How often do Marvel or DC trades show up in Comic Bento?

[NDHorse]

Those 2500 to 2600 units from Comic Bento can certainly make a big different for most publishers.

How often do Marvel or DC trades show up in Comic Bento?

Out of the 6 boxes I have gotten, Marvel was in 5 of them and DC was only in 1. Of the smaller ones, the most usual is Dynamite (heck they had a whole box one month). Valiant was in 4. Dark Horse and IDW are pretty regular also.

[drew]

on latest Mayo report after you and sam chastised me for not citing your top 300 comic sales list on this thread, i cried myself to sleep but then i looked for it here on the forum and even over here
http://www.comicbookpage.com/MayoReport ... 5&Month=10 with no luck...

so help a brother out where do you keep your damn top 300 lists?

[erickowabunga]

so help a brother out where do you keep your damn top 300 lists?

Right under the big images there are a series of blue links. You want the 'Top Comics List' and 'Top Trades List'

[JohnMayo]

so help a brother out where do you keep your damn top 300 lists?

Right under the big images there are a series of blue links. You want the 'Top Comics List' and 'Top Trades List'

The blue links are the correct answer. Are the links not obvious enough? Would more button looking links help?

[erickowabunga]

The blue links are the correct answer. Are the links not obvious enough? Would more button looking links help?

I think it would help. I had to search for a while the first time I figured it out. Either buttons or underlined, to indicate a link.

[JohnMayo]

The blue links are the correct answer. Are the links not obvious enough? Would more button looking links help?

I think it would help. I had to search for a while the first time I figured it out. Either buttons or underlined, to indicate a link.

I've made the change.

[erickowabunga]

I've made the change.

Looks good!