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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132234
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 4:19am | IP Logged | 1
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One of the reasons I stopped doing SDCC, before I quit cons altogether, was the uncomfortable feeling, while sitting at my table, that at any moment armed security forces were going to sweep thru the hall and drive out anyone connected with comics.
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 8841
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 7:11am | IP Logged | 2
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The lack of people buying back issues at SDCC is nothing new. Heck, even at C2E2 there weren't many people buying back issues. Most people were looking either for toys, statues, or trades. Personally speaking, I was looking for trades. And those that had them cheap, had them stored in comic boxes in any ol' order. I am not going to waste my time looking for one trade if the dealer is too lazy to put things in somewhat of an alphabetical order.
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Brennan Voboril
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 January 2011
Posts: 1734
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 9:25am | IP Logged | 3
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Used to go to a comic shop in Los Angeles where the owner would not even put out some new comics (variant covers usually) during the heyday of the speculator go-go years but bag them and board them with an inflated price.
I much prefer the old days when the drug store clerk would tell me "move along kid, this ain't no library".
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Steve De Young
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 April 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 3488
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 11:12am | IP Logged | 4
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Its not just a question of the back issue bins. Back in the day, SDCC was preceded by a several day retailer expo where the comic companies pitched their wares to the stores and they had retailer seminars to help struggling stores. Then they had the con for comics fans.
Do they even have the Expo anymore? I mean, what do they do, sit down all the comic store owners and preview the next season of Sons of Anarchy for them?
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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4067
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 3:45pm | IP Logged | 5
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SDCC hasn't been a comic book trade show for more than a decade now.
Strip away all of the other media stuff, and SDCC is still one of the biggest comic book shows in the world. I spent three days there oblivious to anything but comic book-related content, and didn't get to see half of the people and publishers I wanted to. The movie studios get the lion's share of the hype and attention, but the comics side of things is still there in full force. I saw guys as diverse as Drew Friedman and Kevin Eastman sign books nonstop for hours at a time as people lined up to meet them, buy stuff, and talk shop with them.
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Robert Shepherd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 1268
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | 6
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I'd sympathize with Mile High more if I thought they were more fair to folks who want to sell back to them. My personal story was I had a collection theoretically worth well over 10K, was hoping to sell for 4K, but at the time they didn't want anything in the collection except....wait for it... my JB X-men.
But I can understand their POV regarding Marvel and DC competing directly with them. I, 100% believe these two will go all digital the first chance they get and cut out printing costs and retailers. They already sell digital comics at full print comics prices (which is the reason I will never buy digital). I'm pretty confident they are, as we speak, looking into technology or acquisition so to sell direct and not use digital retailers. They do not care about their retailers. They, like all large companies, look to control the ENTIRE distribution chain. It's all about the greed of publicly owned companies, always looking for more cash with less investment. They pat themselves on the back for their business genius and never look back at the trail of devastation they left in their wake.
For what its worth, I don't go to SDCC anymore (and I live in SD). It's simply too big of a beast. It has sold out within minutes the past few years (decade?). There is a 4-year waiting list (4-feaking-years!!!!!!) to get a small press table. And the facilities simply can't accommodate the crowds - walking the floor is like being crammed into a herd of cattle. It's the worse trade show I can think of, when to comes to walking the floor.
Edited by Robert Shepherd on 28 July 2014 at 4:03pm
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Stephen Robinson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5835
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | 7
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ROBERT: But I can understand their POV regarding Marvel
and DC competing directly with them. I, 100% believe
these two will go all digital the first chance they get
and cut out printing costs and retailers. They already
sell digital comics at full print comics prices (which is
the reason I will never buy digital). I'm pretty
confident they are, as we speak, looking into technology
or acquisition so to sell direct and not use digital
retailers. They do not care about their retailers. They,
like all large companies, look to control the ENTIRE
distribution chain. It's all about the greed of publicly
owned companies, always looking for more cash with less
investment. They pat themselves on the back for their
business genius and never look back at the trail of
devastation they left in their wake.
SER: I don't meant this confrontationally --I'm really
curious: Why should the publishers care about the
retailers? Or rather, if the publishers see an advantage
in controlling the entire distribution chain and have the
technology to achieve this, why is moving toward
exclusively digital a sign of greed?
Newspaper vendors, booksellers, etc are all feeling the
impact of online. I'm surprised that comic book stores
are relatively speaking doing as well as they are.
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Paul Greer
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 18 August 2004
Posts: 14186
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | 8
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I just came back from my first ever SDCC. It is an interesting animal.
One side is artist alley, another side is a dealers/small press area.
However, in the center, the majority of space is the major comic book
publishers, toy companies and tv/ movie studio themed booths.
Upstairs is half celebrity autographs and panel rooms. Then there is the
monster Hall H where fans basically sleep like the homeless outside to
get into "the" panel room. Outside the convention center are carnival
style attractions like the Gotham city zip line rides or 4D interactive
attractions for a variety of tv/movie properties. They even had an
obstacle course for the Walking Dead and Assassin's Creed.
When you bring 130k through the door and more just hanging around
for the free stuff outside it is hard to tell how many actual comic
collectors attend. Art collectors are well represented as a full artist's
alley showed. Comic fans are there to get autographs at the publisher
booths. But people who actively buy back issues seem even smaller
than the already small group of comic fans who attend. What is very
clear at the publisher booths is that variants, digital and trade
collections are their primary focus. Which in the end, is my long winded
way of saying Chuck is right that this show is not the best venue to sell
back issues.
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Robert Shepherd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 1268
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | 9
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QUOTE:
I don't meant this confrontationally --I'm really curious: Why should the publishers care about the retailers? Or rather, if the publishers see an advantage in controlling the entire distribution chain and have the technology to achieve this, why is moving toward exclusively digital a sign of greed?
Newspaper vendors, booksellers, etc are all feeling the impact of online. I'm surprised that comic book stores are relatively speaking doing as well as they are. |
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I've written many answers and erased them. I don't feel like defending my opinions with massive paragraphs....too lazy.
But I'll sum it up:
1. I'm not a fan of cutting out the middle man. That ruins jobs. 2. I'm not a fan of selling a digital product for the same cost that you would need for a product with printing and physical distribution costs. That's being greedy. 3. Retailers should be considered partners, not competition. If it weren't for the Direct Market Retailers there wouldn't be an industry. I'd much rather companies find a process which allows retailers to resell the digital products. That way everyone wins. It'll never happen though because large public traded companies don't give a crap about the middle man.
Edited by Robert Shepherd on 28 July 2014 at 7:13pm
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | 10
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The sad part is, Marvel and DC are there own worst enemy when it
comes to publishing costs, especially Marvel. Correct me if I'm wrong,
but ts my understanding that the biggest chunk of publishing costs are
in the set up not the number of issues.
In April, Marvel released 86 different issues (some titles are twice
monthly) Only two broke 100,000 with Diamond orders. Just think how
much money could be saved on set up costs, as well as bring up the
numbers of every book if they turned 86 different issues into 25 or 30.
Hell, you might actually get a good chunk of Marvel fans buying the
entire line instead of 11 different X-Men titles and 8 different Avengers
titles.
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Robert Shepherd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 1268
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | 11
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Before the big presses went all digital, set-up was a lot more costly.
Nowadays, for the size of print runs that Marvel sees, paper and shipping costs would far exceed set-up costs. Paper and trucking fuel have gone through higher than normal price increases multiple times over the past ten years.
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14812
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| Posted: 28 July 2014 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | 12
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If it weren't for the Direct Market Retailers there wouldn't be an industry.
-----
The 1930s-1960s didn't happen?
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Topic Closed)
