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Dealing Cool #1: A Retailer Perspective from Pittsburgh Comics

Published Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:00:12 -0600

Last updated Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:18:43 -0600

Welcome to Dealing Cool, a new feature that we plan to host here at BleedingCool.com on a regular basis. Our aim is to share retailer perspectives on how the comics market is performing where it counts most — among the racks and at the register. We've invited a diverse group of retailers to participate, representing different clientele, geographic areas and nationalities, and product focus, and we can keep tabs on the changes in their stores over the coming months. And, after a time, we'll switch out and meet a new batch of retailers, sharing more experiences from behind the counter.

We're proud to kick off the new Dealing Cool feature with Colin McMahon of Pittsburgh Comics. Enjoy!

MY SHOP, DEFINED

Set the stage for the Bleeding Cool viewer — what's the core of your business? Where are you located, and what's your primary clientele? Would you consider yourself and/or your store as a specialist in a particular product genre or era?

My goal opening the store was to carry as broad a selection as possible. I opened in September 2006 in the middle of 52 and Civil War. My store is 2,100 square feet. It was originally 1,000, but expanded two-and-a-half years ago when my neighbor moved out. Ironically, the two sides of the store were originally two buildings, so they are quite different. The original side is now the graphic novel side, while the new side is New Comics and Back Issues. I make a point to order as much from the back of Previews as I can. A quick inventory check shows that I have 9,057 different titles of graphic novels in stock. I have room on my New Comic shelves for 630 titles, not including my All Ages section that is separated from the main comic section. I don't want to have Lady Death next to Looney Tunes, no offense.

The core of my business is the weekly/monthly comic buyer. About 75% of my sales are from New Comics (50%) and Graphic Novels. Statues do okay for me, but not as well as they used to, and I blame price for that. When I opened, most busts were $5.00 and full size were $150.00. Now it's up to $90.00 and $250.00, and it is no longer an impulse item. One category that does hugely well for me is the Eaglemoss lead figures. Most months, I sell more of them dollar-wise than back issues.

I am located in a little shopping center in a southern suburb of Pittsburgh. My primary clientele is all over the place, from kids working at Sonic to lawyers and doctors. It's fun to sell and talk to all of them. I am a marketer's worst nightmare.

As far as a specialist in any product area or genre, I can't really say. Every week, I am restocking Preacher, Y the Last Man, The Boys, Spider-Man, Batman, and The Smurfs. I take a flier on most anything, because I never know what may sell. Sure, I've been burned on stuff, but it's been good to have plenty of the new Image stuff that people are looking for. I totally missed on Adventure Time, though — I thought that I had ordered strong, but I could have added a zero to the end and still have been low.

It does always make me feel good when someone tells me that they drove past another store to come to me because they knew I'd have the item they were looking for. The last time was a copy of the Chuck trade paperback. Now, this is not to say that I try to keep everything made in stock, but I do have a better selection than most stores do.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

What are the hot items in your store this month? Even more interesting, what would be an item (or items) that surprised you?

One of the joys of having a P.O.S. system is that I can just punch up the top sellers and actually see. Quite often, what I think is selling well isn't selling as well as one would think. DC Comics is still very, very strong here. Fourteen of my top fifteen comics are DC titles. If you told me that Suicide Squad, Nightwing, Animal Man, and Aquaman would all outsell every Marvel book, I would have laughed in your face!

Just for fun, here are my top 25. I wonder how I'll match up with the rest of the country!

Batman #6
Detective Comics #6
Batman and Robin #6
Green Lantern #6
Action Comics #6
Batman: The Dark Knight #6
Swamp Thing #6
Superman #6
Batwoman #6
Batgirl #6
Suicide Squad #6
Nightwing #6
Animal Man #6
Aquaman #6
Uncanny X-Men #6
Amazing Spider-Man #679
Justice League #6
Wolverine and X-Men #5
Avengers: X-Sanction #3
Green Lantern: New Guardians #6
Flash #6
Wonder Woman #6
Avengers #22
Uncanny X-Force #21
Winter Soldier #1

Justice League is a little low because that's only two days of sales so far (as of Friday, 3/2).

One of the things that I got out of the ComicsPRO meeting in February was to look at adding some of the little knick-knack stuff. Paying attention to it has really made me realize the potential. I got the Han Solo in Carbonite ice cube trays and sold out the day they came in, and the same thing happened with the Thor key chains. It is an area that I am going to be taking a much closer look at.

As far as the big surprise book, I'd have to say Adventure Time. I had zero people ask me for it before it shipped and I sold out the day it came out. It's really hard to tell with stuff that is based on other media. Most don't transfer over their fan base. Even something like Game of Thrones isn't selling as well as I thought it would when considering the size of its fan base.

Another area that is a huge hit for me has been kids' products. Strawberry Shortcake and Spongebob don't stay on the shelves long. I was joking with a customer the other day about how well it was selling and said it might be outselling some Avengers and X-Men books. And I actually looked, and yes — Spongebob is outselling Avengers Academy, X-Men, and X-Men: Legacy for me.

Another surprise for me is the continued sales of Walking Dead trades. I figured the boom would have ended at the end of the first television season, or by the beginning of the second season. However, it's still selling stronger than any other line right now. I am restocking with multiple copies of most volumes every week.

SHOWING INITIATIVE

Was there any particular sales program or push in the past month, and how did it go over? What would you do differently? Any tips for other retailers on strategies they can duplicate elsewhere?

There hasn't been too much this month. Knowing I was going to be out of the store for ComicsPRO, the beginning of the month was getting ready to be out of town, while the rest was kind of damage control.

The one promotion that I did in February 2011 and duplicated this year was what we call the "Temperature Sale." On an unseasonably warm February day, I will have a temperature sale where the discount on back issues is whatever the outside temperature is at the time of purchase. Luckily, the iMac that is my P.O.S. has it right on the dashboard. It makes people excited for something in the usually dreary February. I realize that this won't work for all, but it does here in Pennsylvania. We just had one this past Wednesday. I decided to do something because of the woefully low amount of product that shipped, plus to celebrate Leap Day and Superman's Birthday. It was also 64 degrees here, which isn't a normal February day in Pittsburgh.

I do try to have spot sales every once in a while, and more often than not, on odd occasions. If nothing else, it keeps people checking the website to see what's going on. Last Saturday, I was going through a collection and came across a full run of Marvel's Age of Apocalypse in order. Rather than pricing it and breaking it up, I threw it up on my website as a "Sale of the Day" and promoted it on Twitter and Facebook. It was gone before I closed.

Other advice: make the sales fun. Every once in a while, I'll have a "Try Something New Sale" and give a discount if the customers buy a title that's not on the sub list. Also, a "Buy One Get One" (at some discount) sale can encourage the purchase of multiple items. This works well to get people to pick up the first two volumes of a series, and then they're hooked. I like to have fun with stuff! On St. Patrick's Day, it will be a "Green Sale." Anything green, or somehow related to green, will be on sale, but it is up to the customer to convince me that it should be included. Simply having the color green in the book is not enough. It's almost like audience participation.

HYPE VS. REALITY

Considering sales and customer feedback, how did a particular big-ticket series or event perform at your store?

Fear Itself was more of a miss than a hit, so people are a little hesitant on their optimism for Avengers Vs. X-Men. They want it to be good, but Marvel's track record, as of late, hasn't been good. Now, I say this as a store that, because of ordering incentives and to have stuff for the AVX party on April 3rd, has ordered a boatload of the book — double (and probably what I should have ordered of) my Justice League #1 order. I wanted to make sure I had the buttons, posters, and everything to make it an event, and I also figured if I totally blew it, I would have more stuff to hand out on Free Comic Book Day.

DC Comics really hasn't had a recent event, but the New 52 launch was a huge success for me. I offered bundles of all of the #1 issues at a big discount to get people to try them, as well as discounts for pre-ordering even just a #1 so I would have an idea on how to order it. As you can see from the above list, people have liked the DC titles and stuck with some of the books that never would have sold as well with just bring out a new #1 in a random month. Keeping the issues in print was a huge factor in being able to keep the momentum going, and I applaud DC for keeping the train rolling.

GUILTY PLEASURE

What's a favorite pick for your store, something you wholeheartedly endorse as a high quality and entertaining product?

All of my customers know that The Boys is my biggest guilty pleasure. It's my favorite book out there and the first thing that I read every month when it comes out. The sales of Boys trades are second only to Walking Dead here. It's fun, sick, twisted, and different than really anything else out there. Anytime someone wants something different, I point them to The Boys Volume 1, and the next day they are back getting Volumes 2 and 3.

And not to suck up, but Crossed is a personal favorite, as well, as a solid performer here in the store. No one had to twist my arm to participate in the upcoming C-Day event on March 14^th. Three customers e-mailed me the link when it was advertised on Bleeding Cool that first time. It's definitely not a book for everyone, and many times, I have felt like showering after reading it, but it's one of those "Where is this going? What's going to happen next?" kind of books, which is all I can ask for. My only factor in deciding if a book is good or bad is, "Do I want to read the next one?" If the answer is "Yes," the book succeeded. Crossed always does.

Another personal favorite is X-Factor, which really should be selling much better than it does. Peter David is making some relatively uninteresting characters into a really fun group and consistently putting out a really good book.

THE DOWNRIGHT STRANGE

Any humorous observations from behind the counter from the past few weeks?

The show Comic Book Men has once again brought people in with the boxes of treasures from their attics and basement. Lots of really bad stuff is showing up. "Bad" in the sense of beat-up, cover-less, and frequently books from the 1990s, which people think are worth a fortune. They really could have done us all a big favor by having someone come in with a big box of this stuff and have them explain why they aren't worth a lot.

The only really humorous thing lately (well, not for the customer) was a guy came in telling me that he had a book that was worth $2,500.00 and asking if this is where he should pick up his money. I was a bit confused and asked to see the book. He went back to his car and got the issue. It was a Marvel book from 1980 that had the big "THIS MARVEL COMIC COULD BE WORTH $2500 TO YOU!" in a two-inch strip on the cover. The guy who sold it to him said he could redeem it at any comic store. I sadly had to explain it to him. I didn't ask what he paid for it.

Colin McMahon
Pittsburgh Comics
113 E. McMurray Road
McMurray, PA 15317 USA
Phone: 724-941-5445
E-Mail: colin@pittsburghcomics.com
Website: www.pittsburghcomics.com
Twitter: @pghcomics