How Do Comic Book Stores Make Money

Author Discussion lookpoor
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• Posted: February 27, 2013 4:25:30 pm
• So I was running some rough numbers based on total assumption, and I can't figure out how shops can stay a float.

  Let's say for example:

  On average 30 titles release a week
  Shop pays $2 an issue with a minimum order of 12/issue
  Weekly cost of Stock: $720

  Rough estimate of rent + overhead/utilities/repairs/whatever - $2000/mo
  Hire 1 employee at CA minimum Wage $8/hr

  $720 @ 52 weeks/year = $37440
  $8/hr @ 40/hr week @ 52wk/yr = $16640
  $2000/mo @ 12mo/year = $24000

  Total rough estimate of yearly operational expenses: $78080

  If a shop sells its ENTIRE stock for a week @ $4 they will net: $1440/wk
  $1440/wk @ 52wk/year = $74880

  Expenses: $78080
  Profits: $74880
  Net Value: -$3200/yr

  Based on this super rough estimate shops lose roughly $266.66 a month, and that is saying that they sell every copy on their shelf every week.

  With these calculations,a store would have to sell 396 comicbooks/wk @ $4 just to break even.

  How does your LCS stay afloat?
  Mine does a bunch of MTG tournaments and has started branching into tabletop games, which the markup is supposedly pretty high.

  Last edited February 27, 2013 7:19:14 pm

djrat
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• Posted: February 27, 2013 5:22:33 pm
• shops pay $2 foreach new issue?? wow, that strikes me as high. I would've thought $1.50-$1.75 Granted not a huge difference, but i thought they'd be paying less than 50% for each new issue.

  Other considerations are comic items with significantly higher profit margins like TPBs, HC novels, etc. And depending on the locale and store size, there's back issues.

  But in general I think you're right - except for the big comic book stores like Midtown, many stores in NY have other higher profit products like Magic, sports and all sorts of different card games.

lookpoor
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• Posted: February 27, 2013 7:10:22 pm
• I'm not sure exactly what the diamond direct discount is, but I'm sure it's volume based.
  The small shop scenario I listed was just based on the retail ideology of taking your wholesale cost and doubling it for retail. Since books are around $4 I just used $2 as a general starting place.

  Either way, those numbers are pretty dire for a small business. I can't picture foot traffic equaling out to 396 total weekly sales for most little shops to break even, let alone make any kind of profit.

  Now it's kind of clear to me why so many shops start and go under within a couple of months.

  Last edited February 27, 2013 7:19:24 pm

dough boy
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• Posted: February 27, 2013 8:20:40 pm
• Discount for new issues is volume based but most stores will be at the maximum of 55%. So a $3.99 book costs the shop $1.80.

  So based upon your scenario it would cost $648 for one week. If they sold out at retail (they usually have discounts for pulls, etc) it would gross $1,436, and they would net $788 for the week.

  But you also have to remember that they likely order more than 12 copies on average. Also there are TPB's, GN's, HC's, SC's, etc. They have the same discount, but have much more profit per item.

  A shop generally makes most of their money on back issue sales. My LCS one time bought a collection of 50 long boxes for $1,000. Just one of the books in the collection was a Incredible Hulk 181. They buy a comic for $.05 and sell it for $1+.

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nectarsis
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• Posted: February 27, 2013 8:35:23 pm
• What about this newer breed of comic shop (seems a mite rare, but they exist) that has a very small (if any) back issue selection?

  My LCS (2 stores) is about it around here...and they have 1-2 8 foot tables with some back issues (mostly they just couldn't move)...they don't buy collections, etc.

dough boy
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• Posted: February 27, 2013 8:51:03 pm
• Most of the time smaller shops do not have full time employees. They will have part time only (i.e. new comic day, weekends, etc). Even if the shop owner took off the weekends and had help on NCD that would be say 24 hours. Chances are they are paying the person under the table so it doesn't have to be $8/hour. It could be $5/hour and $x free comics. Or they could get their comics for cost, etc.

  For these other shops that don't have a big backstock they will have to make up for it on volume. My guess is they sell a lot more than just 12 per issue. Also this doesn't take into consideration variant covers. They get 1 for each of the 12 that they can sell for $10. If each of the 30 titles had 1 1:10 variant and they sold it for $10 each they would profit an extra $1,000/month.

  Ultimately it is a volume based business...and without customers shops will fold.

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comics&books1977
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• Posted: February 28, 2013 7:15:26 am
• Dont forget about the 1:25 variants or whatever. People like us have to buy them or order them online for a fairly high price. Comic shops get them for free if they order enough of a comic and then put a nice price tag on them and sit them behind the counter until someone buys them or they list them on ebay

  Some shops also sell action figures or charge people money to send their comics to CGC for grading. Dont forget about all the other stuff they sell as well, boards, bags, cards, trinkets etc etc

  Last edited February 28, 2013 7:16:24 am

dough boy
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• Posted: February 28, 2013 7:28:31 am
• Yeah...I didn't get into the higher variant ratios as the example provided was 12 copies of each book.

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fsjeter
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• Posted: February 28, 2013 9:44:30 am

• comics&books1977 said:
  Dont forget about the 1:25 variants or whatever. People like us have to buy them or order them online for a fairly high price. Comic shops get them for free if they order enough of a comic and then put a nice price tag on them and sit them behind the counter until someone buys them or they list them on ebay
  

  Not that it makes too much of a difference but I thought they still paid their regular discounted price for these variants. I didn't think they were free. I do believe the "Appreciation" type variants are free. At any rate there would still be a much larger profit margin on the variants, assuming the mark-up.

  

dough boy
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• Posted: February 28, 2013 10:07:32 am
• Yes they would pay their discounted rate for the variant. On my 1:10 example I took that into consideration (just rounded to $.

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SilentAssassin
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• Posted: February 28, 2013 11:44:15 am
• IF the person owns the building or runs it out of a house they own (Rent) factor is a big cost. That could be a significant difference.

rpenny88
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• Posted: March 1, 2013 9:13:22 pm
• The shops around my area also buy and sell used trades, some bring in action figures, manga, magazines, magic and magic-like cards, t-shirts, and so much more. My point is that most shops don't rely on just comics to make money.

Tex75455
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• Posted: March 2, 2013 8:41:09 am
• Another wrinkle is if you have the shop bag and board your comics. Most shops charge for that, something in the area of 10-20c per comic (one bag and one board per). If you do the math on that, its a lot more than even you would pay buying your own packages of bags/boards by the hundred, and im sure shops get a further discount on the bag/board packages, so theres quite a bit of money right there

captaincaveman00
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• Posted: March 3, 2013 12:04:24 pm
• In this day and age many of these shops are not only bricks and mortar but also do a lot of online sales. reaching a much wider customer base.

labria4
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• Posted: March 3, 2013 1:54:16 pm
• My LCS does quite a bit of online sales and they are always traveling to shows. Staying current on what's hot and knowing all of your keys is important too. They are constantly buying collections from peolpe and turning a profit just by knowing all of the issues.

  Last edited March 3, 2013 1:54:29 pm

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turtle_island
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• Posted: April 16, 2013 10:37:27 am
• One LSC indicated that Diamond shipping fees kills him every delivery. Most Comic distributors in my end, are Comic & Book Stores or they sells comics, cards, collectible figures. There is only one small store that sells exclusively comics, like if 4-5 people were browsing it would be packed; but he flips his stock so fast it's constantly in rotation having sales every 4-5 months. He must do well because he closes shop on Mondays now and shut downs for extended periods for holidays.

ChristopherDeer
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• Posted: April 29, 2013 7:31:06 am

• rpenny88 said:
  The shops around my area also buy and sell used trades, some bring in action figures, manga, magazines, magic and magic-like cards, t-shirts, and so much more. My point is that most shops don't rely on just comics to make money.

  Indeed! I recently met a fellow who owns a small shop, he said that he keeps his business going with all kinds of comic-themed merchandise.

Stendek7
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• Posted: May 3, 2013 4:56:33 pm
• 

lookpoor
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• Posted: May 3, 2013 5:00:05 pm
• Love you too old man.

riding ghost
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• Posted: May 14, 2013 8:48:47 pm
• My LCS guy said that he makes the money that keeps the shop open traveling to various cons and selling stuff. Said he makes more money selling there than at the shop..

dough boy
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• Posted: May 14, 2013 8:59:42 pm
• I went to my LCS on FCBD. He had 1-12, 19, 27 and several other Walking Dead's on his shelf. I asked him how much he paid for the "box" and guessed $50...he said $100. Talk about ROI...

  Favorite Quote: "You're not just some guy in a bat costume are you? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! - Justice League #1, 2011"

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21 posts • Page 1 of 3

How Do Comic Book Stores Make Money

Source: https://comicbookrealm.com/topic/8/17719/how-do-shops-stay-in-business/all

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