How do they make a profit?

Ultimates

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I was just in deep thought and thinking about something. How exactly does a comic book shop make a good profit? How much of a discount do they get? This has been really boggling my mind, and just wondering if someone knows the answer to this?
 
Ultimates said:
I was just in deep thought and thinking about something. How exactly does a comic book shop make a good profit? How much of a discount do they get? This has been really boggling my mind, and just wondering if someone knows the answer to this?

I think retailers pay a little less than half retail price. Bigger retailers could get bigger discounts.
 
Merchandise also helps cover the rent, as well as the resale of back issue stock. If I'm not mistaken, Roszanski of Mile High Comics has made it clear in many an essay that monthlies actually don't contribute that much to covering the rent.
 
ourchair said:
Merchandise also helps cover the rent, as well as the resale of back issue stock. If I'm not mistaken, Roszanski of Mile High Comics has made it clear in many an essay that monthlies actually don't contribute that much to covering the rent.

That makes a lot of sense, especially if those back issues were obtained first-hand from the shop, and especially if they are paying $1-$1.50 for a book, and selling it at $20.
 
UltimateE said:
That makes a lot of sense, especially if those back issues were obtained first-hand from the shop, and especially if they are paying $1-$1.50 for a book, and selling it at $20.
I think the fact that Filipinos are less willing to pay increased prices for back issues is precisely why most of the local comic stores don't do very well, unless they also deal in other product.

One of the biggest comic book chains here in Manila deals also in magazines and has a concessionaire in each of their branches that also sells pirated video CDs of Japanese and American cartoons and TV shows as a way to help cover the rent.
 
ourchair said:
I think the fact that Filipinos are less willing to pay increased prices for back issues is precisely why most of the local comic stores don't do very well, unless they also deal in other product.

One of the biggest comic book chains here in Manila deals also in magazines and has a concessionaire in each of their branches that also sells pirated video CDs of Japanese and American cartoons and TV shows as a way to help cover the rent.

How is that not considered copyright infringement?
 
DIrishB said:
How is that not considered copyright infringement?

If it is even against the law, it is barely enforced. The Philippines are a major piracy center in the world. I believe Singapore is another.
 
UltimateE said:
If it is even against the law, it is barely enforced. The Philippines are a major piracy center in the world. I believe Singapore is another.

I see, I mean I'm pretty sure there's no doubt it is indeed against the law, including international (see the FBI copyright warnings at the beginning of movies to see what I mean), but I guess its an issue of enforcement.
 
UltimateE said:
If it is even against the law, it is barely enforced. The Philippines are a major piracy center in the world. I believe Singapore is another.
E is correct.

In 1998, our piracy rate was 88%. It's down to 77% now. The Philippines is very dependent on pirated media, but its not exactly a manufacturing base like China or Malaysia, me thinks.

In any case, It IS against the law but its poorly enforced, although that is changing ever since local officials started making a banner campaign out of it. And even then, those efforts are directed towards protecting the local movie industry and licensed software more than anything else.

I think Singapore might have a much lower piracy rate, but that's because they're more reliable in enforcing their own laws. I suspect that Singapore is more a place where pirated CDs are made not sold.
 
Ok, so my next question.... how exactly do they get reseller status? Like where do they go to get it retail value?
 
Ultimates said:
Ok, so my next question.... how exactly do they get reseller status? Like where do they go to get it retail value?

You mean the comics themselves? For new books from the dristributor, as someone said for probably about 50% or less the cover price (what we pay for it), and for older back issue comics they usually buy up collections from people for a fraction what they're worth, then turn around and sell them for two to three times what they're worth. Thats how I've heard its done anyway.
 
The comic shop I buy from could survive based upon the amount of trades I buy. :D
 
if i remember right, and I've been in contact with Diamond Shipping many times and they still wont tell me (was going to start my own business by setting up racks in stores where a comic shop wasn't close by, had the a plan and everything....but then the gas crunch hit.....), i thinks its set at a certain margin amount. like when you go and buy a .99 pop the retailer cost would be .75 cents with a set margin of 25%. comics i belive are set up the same way in the united states i think at 30-35% not less then that, otherwise marvel wouldn't be able to make any money off of it.

edit: they told me the only way to find out was, if i sent in my paperwork.... (i hate hoops)
 
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You'd think the comic shop I buy from would make money just from the comics I buy, but there's others who literally spend over $100 a day there, getting 3-4 copies of each book.

They end up selling them on e-bay. So they get their money back, plus more.
 
See, I was thinking of maybe setting up a stand in the mall for comics, graphic novels, and maybe some other comic related stuff. I figured its not too expensive to rent one of those in the mall, and there is literally like ONE other comic book place in this town, and out of the way to boot. I think it would be a good idea, I guess the only problem I was thinking was that if you only make like 3-5 bucks per TPB, how many people are gonna come buy them, thus making profit? I figured the way to counter this on a level would be to open WED for new comics, and then sat and sun, so i could keep my full time job and do that on the side. Any advice?
 
Pandrio said:
Don't Comic Shops buy in bulk on new issues? They could get a discount for buying 50 copies of something other than 1.
Something like that.

The long and short of it is that you have to order a certain quantity of comics to be considered a 'retailer' and it is at that point that you receive the retailer discount.

If I'm not mistaken, these calculations aren't divided according to individual product, but rather the sum of all the comics you ordered from the catalog. So it doesn't matter if you order two copies or two hundred copies of the latest Brian Michael Bendis book, so long as the total books you order are at retailer levels and qualify you for that retailer discount.

There are exceptions of course, with regards to promotional deals for specific books, though.
 
ourchair said:
Something like that.

The long and short of it is that you have to order a certain quantity of comics to be considered a 'retailer' and it is at that point that you receive the retailer discount.

If I'm not mistaken, these calculations aren't divided according to individual product, but rather the sum of all the comics you ordered from the catalog. So it doesn't matter if you order two copies or two hundred copies of the latest Brian Michael Bendis book, so long as the total books you order are at retailer levels and qualify you for that retailer discount.

There are exceptions of course, with regards to promotional deals for specific books, though.

it doesn't matter how many of a 'title' you buy. You forecast before hand by the solits for a months comics and the total retail value ordered must be greater then $500 retail value. meaning its not your cost but the comic book cost of 2.99, equaling about 167 books a month. and again it must be greater then $500 retail value. (I'm pretty sure its 500....)
 
nigma said:
it doesn't matter how many of a 'title' you buy. You forecast before hand by the solits for a months comics and the total retail value ordered must be greater then $500 retail value. meaning its not your cost but the comic book cost of 2.99, equaling about 167 books a month. and again it must be greater then $500 retail value. (I'm pretty sure its 500....)
That's pretty much what I was saying.

You don't have to buy a certain dollar value of a specific book, you buy a dollar value of total books whether it's $100 of Marvel + $300 of DC + $100 of independents or $500 of Marvel. It's all about the sum total of stock you purchase from the distributor.

I was basically debunking Pandrio's belief that it was dependent on how much you ordered of a single item rather than of total stock. I didn't mention the dollar value, because while it was $500 last I checked, I thought the rates may have changed since then due to inflation or whatever.
 
ourchair said:
That's pretty much what I was saying.

You don't have to buy a certain dollar value of a specific book, you buy a dollar value of total books whether it's $100 of Marvel + $300 of DC + $100 of independents or $500 of Marvel. It's all about the sum total of stock you purchase from the distributor.

I was basically debunking Pandrio's belief that it was dependent on how much you ordered of a single item rather than of total stock. I didn't mention the dollar value, because while it was $500 last I checked, I thought the rates may have changed since then due to inflation or whatever.

i just gave pretty number :D

comic price should be going up here soon due to the 'ripple effect of gas'
coke just raised there prices on me due to the ripple effect, all my water was raised by 20 cents to offset the gas increase.
 

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