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So you love comics’ right, and you own a comic book store, but sometimes what you are looking for is just not in stock. That is where we wanted to come in. Over the last couple of months we have been talking to a lot of publishers about opening up a wholesale site for comic book stores, and today we are getting closer to having it completed. While Dead Tree Comics does print comic books and novels, we decided that we really wanted to support the industry more by offering an alternative choice for comic book stores that might not be able to get what they were looking for.
That is where Dead Tree Comics comes in, we have been working on this since the start of the year, and as the new quarter begins, we are seriously happy over what we have been able to do. Earlier we talked about how comic book buyers, especially retail buyers have a lack of information about what they are getting. While there are great blurbs, cover art, and other information about a book, it has been impossible to find sales data on those comic books you are buying for your store.
That to us was the biggest detriment to understanding what was popular and had a short shelf life, or what was not popular and would hang out on the store shelves longer. We have visited many comic book stores and bought out their entire backroom stock because of that simple not knowing.
Plus there are changes happening in the comic book market. The weekly comic book is digital now, and while collectors might still want their weekly comic book, the reality is that many comic book readers are moving over to digital comics. This leaves the average comic book store out of the sales loop. But publishers always have limited edition comics, which is one of the reasons for us working with Zenescope since the first of the year. We see the market breaking into two distinct segments, the digital market, and a much smaller more dedicated special edition market.
Realistically you cannot sell or trade your digital comic book. Collectors are a different breed, and to buy sell and trade your physical comic book is going to become increasingly important. Those limited edition 500 print run comics are going to be the future collectors market. With such a limited supply of truly collectable comics, we do expect the price of them to increase dramatically as the average comic book moves to digital. Collectors need to have a choice, and they will most likely start collecting limited edition, limited runs, and rarer comic books.
That is going to put the pressure on retailers, because the print runs are limited, there is only a small supply of those kinds of comics to go around. And that is where we are going to focus our wholesale side on, limited smaller print run comics. There will be a heavy emphasis on independent comics and groups like Slave Labor Graphics, Prism, Moonstone, and other independents that might not even be listed online, there will be no sales data on them, and there is a risk here. Retailers cannot afford to be out of the sales loop, digital and online sales are changing how people purchase comics. Hybrid stores, those with both an effective in person and online presence will do the best in the coming market.
This is where we want to help; we have years of sales data on tap, we can tell you the probability of a title selling to take some of the guesswork out of retail buying. Of course we are not going to be perfect, the data might not be perfect, but at least we are taking a look at doing a more data driven buying experience to reduce risk for comic book stores. That is the important part; because limited runs, good data, and an amazing experience is what comic book buying should be about.
Check out the site; let us know what you think. You do need to register and if you purchase anything we do need to have your states reseller certificate on file. But feel free to move around, and let us know what you think; this is the important part, because this site is for retailers everywhere.
