morriscroy

Offhand I can only think of one semi-plausible reason, as to why some comic stores were able to pull this ^ off back in the early-mid 1980s. There were enough young naive collectors who had an incorrect perception that direct market versions of Marvel and DC issues were more "valuable" than the newstand versions. (In practice, this was not the case). It was easier to get "pristine mint" copies of direct market issues, while newstand versions were harder to find in mint condition.

In my then-social circles of other collectors, this was the naive perception we had at the time. None of us were old enough to really understand and appreciate how "supply and demand" functioned in the real world.

Josh-da-man

I remember in back in the 90s when most stores didn't price their back issues, and would just whip out the current copy of Wizard or Overstreet to see what to charge.

I can sort of understand why the store in the photograph would do that; it seems like it would be a herculean effort to constantly go through back issue inventory and reprice it. And I'd hate to sell some eBay flipper the first appearance of Squirrel Girl for fifty cents.

Though since Wizard isn't around anymore -- is there any kind of weekly/monthly price guide that keeps up with current trends? -- I'm not sure how current market value is determined. eBay would seem to reflect current pricing trends, though selling and asking prices are two different animals. And Mile High Comics' prices are completey out of touch with reality (though they remain in business, so Chuck must know what he's doing.)

stingermck

There's a store about an hour from here that does that. Takes the time to look up every issue on ebay and hike the prices.

I had a big stack of random ASM the last time I was there and they tripled the price of McFarlane issues. I declined and haven't been back.

To answer some question Josh, there is an app called Key Collector Comics, that when you subscribe to, gives daily updates on issues that are rising cause of a movie announcement, a weekly top 10, dollar bin diving etc etc.

My LCS which I keep saying is amazing, uses the app, and say all it takes is 5 mins in the morning to see if they have anything that the app sent a notification for. No need for bullshit signs like that. But they are young owners who aren't typical shop owners terrified of change.

fujishig

I remember seeing some stores do this in the 90s but I think it was more of a way to get people to pick up current books faster (and it wasn’t as drastic of a markup or such a short timeframe… basically when the next issue came out the old one would raise a little and go in the bins). Back issues are kind of a weird thing for comic shops, especially now… either comic shops order really close to the bone and don’t get a lot of extras or the vast majority of them have to be clearanced or just take up a ton of space. And unlike the old days where the only way to read the story was to get those back issues, stuff gets reprinted and is available digitally all the time.

Red Hood

Like stingermck mentioned, there's apps like Key Collectors, plus sites like comicbookinvest and ebay that let people know what's hot. There's also online channels on Youtube and Twitch with people talking about books. But if a store owner/manager has Key Collector, they can keep up with the market pretty easily.


I'm guessing you are talking about the infamous store in Jacksonville, run by a pawn shop owner. The guy is a complete asshole and I hope they go out of business. People hate him that much that in the past several months I've heard of people going to the store, randomly grabbing stacks of books (in one case, close to 100 books), and letting the asshole search all of them on ebay only for the customer to tell them "no thanks". They guy has 0 knowledge of books and has bought collections because people would go to his pawn shop and sell them. Fuck him and his shitty store.

Red Hood

This is the type of bullshit that’s indefensible. It’s also why many have told LCS to go fuck themselves

Josh-da-man

^ What's the deal with those two books? eBay flippers?

While it's chickenshit to require a $25 minimum purchase for each book, it's really reprehensible that they won't even let their customers with subs get them without an additional purchase. I know that Stray Dogs is an Image title, and Enter the House of Slaughter is, I think, a spin-off of Something is Killing the Children. They could at least let their customers who sub to those books get them.

But, yeah, it really kills the spirit of FCBD when they're pulling stunts like that.

Red Hood

Image Comics workers have unionized

fujishig

This is the publishing side workers, right, not the actual creators?

Red Hood

I believe so, since the creators are for the most part independent contractors

mwynn

Image has declined, I wonder what their next steps will be.

Red Hood

Next step is an employee vote.

Josh-da-man

Image seems like an odd company to unionize.

They aren't like a traditional, for-profit publisher. The way understand them is that the creators of the books pay a small fee to get their books published there that covers things like overhead and printing, and then keep all of the profits for themselves, in addition to all of the media and licensing rights.

I wouldn't think there would be a lot of actual employees at Image itself -- the creators probably do a lot of non-creative legwork themselves, or hire it out to independent contractors. And, on top of that, a lot of Image titles probably aren't that profitable, so increasing the salaries and benefits of the employees will cut into the profitability of the lower-selling books. It's my understanding that a lot of the lower-tier Image titles don't make a lot of money, and they're either barely breaking even or even losing the creators money. Not everything over there is pulling in Walking Dead cash.

Adam Tyner

Apparently Image has 21 employees, 12 are eligible for union membership, and 10 voted to form the union. (source)

Their goals generally sound reasonable, although I can imagine Image shrugging off the "hire more people!" request, and the "cancel any books we vote against!" seems like it could be problematic, given Image's business model.

Red Hood

The book cancellation is more specific

I can understand why this is happening given the things we have seen over the past several years with people like Brian Wood, Joe Bennett and Jason Latour for example. In most cases, these creators are usually let go/fired by the big 2 (mostly Marvel as DC seems to overlook some shit) but when it comes to indies, which includes Image, it gets a little muddier. At one point earlier this year, Image was going to allow the revival of Fell by Warren Ellis until it got so much backlash, including from the co-creator Ben Templesmith, that Image was forced to release a statement saying that Ellis wasn't welcomed back in the company.

Then there's the issue about CG members. Many of them have released stuff through Image and then later publicly announce that they are part of CG. DC continues to employ some CG people.

And then there's the stuff about content. Going through back issues at my LCS I stumbled into a book called the Big Lie by Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine. It was released almost 10 years after 9/11 and I was more than surprise that this shit made it to print back then because I'm sure as shit this won't be released today at all by Image. In a nutshell, the book is a 9/11 Truther book and very stupid at that. Why did Image released this back then? I have no idea, but the book is just bullshit conspiracy theories that are just insulting to the people who perished that day. I'm guessing that's the type of stuff that would generate debate between the union and the company.

Adam Tyner

Me too. But even though that’s something I would take a lot of comfort in if I were an Image employee, I can imagine that being the point that Image pushes back on more than any other.

John Pannozzi

As an aside, and you guys are probably gonna kill me for this, but I kinda agree with this review of the Big Lie:

On The Big Lie, by Rich Veitch and Gary Erskine | Sequart Organization

Red Hood

The paper and raw material shortage is taking a hit on the comic book industry. The past several weeks have been what retailers call "short weeks", in which not many new titles are released. All of this is happening due to the shortage of paper to the point that Marvel has been using an even shittier paper stock as of late that absorbs humidity from the inks like a sponge. The problem at the LCS side is that if they don't have new stuff to sell, customers don't come in and the overhead still the same for most. This is another shot on the already fragile retailer industry

Trevor

Yeah, I’ve been a Wednesday morning regular for like two years now, and most of the last month or two have been super light weeks. My shop owner is pretty diversified with a lot of ebay sales and also gaming, but he fears for the shops that rely on those new books.

fujishig

I wonder how inflation affects comic book purchasing as well. Not that the comics themselves are drastically raising in price (yet) but that everything else is and might be squeezing out budgets. Heck, even with this slowdown if people get out of the habit of spending their budget on comics, sometimes it's hard to go back.

stingermck

I picked up 13 new books last Wednesday, and have 15 more over the next two weeks. I haven't noticed any slow down at my shop, full racks every week.

Red Hood

Both Marvel and DC has silently, but consistently increased the pricing of books to $4.99-$7.99, some even higher. Even Archie books, which tend to be priced at $2.99 are now being priced at $3.99

Red Hood

A store in Colorado Springs put this sign on their door. And from what was posted online, they don’t want you checking to see if the books are correctly graded and priced accordingly. Fuck stores like this

stingermck

Sounds like the next shop to go out of business