Hey, Folks!
Another week, another EDitorial!
Honestly I wish I had more to report, but while things are in motion around the store and we are getting closer to Free Comic Book Day there isn’t much to say in a newsletter.
Most of the comics that Brian and I have picked over the last couple of months are ready to go out or have already been put out in the back issue boxes, but I’ve kind of discussed that to death. I haven’t stuck my nose in the couple of long boxes that Brian finished bagging and pricing this week, but I do believe that they contain a bunch of the Avengers material that needs to go out. I’m generally pretty happy with the amount of back issue sales that we have garnered over the last year. I mean, when Steve and I were running the show we sort of de-emphasized our back issue stock and mostly concentrated on the new comics and the trade paperbacks. I decided early on, especially after moving the back issue stock first to the back room and then to the back corner of the front room, that it had been a slight miscalculation not to focus on such sales more than the store had been. Hiring Brian really brought the oversight into sharp focus because, frankly, he is some kind of savant with his ability to evaluate collections that come in the door, process them remarkably efficiently, and the display them in the back issues boxes or the showcases. I’ve spent a couple of thousand dollars in the last year picking up back issues and while some mistakes were made in some of my offers (almost exclusively to offering too much, I might add), I do believe that Brian and I have a working system between the two of us that is both fair and profitable. Honestly, it is the biggest mark of my entry into “middle age”. I have often said that I will be an Overstreet Man until the day I die and one cannot successfully run a back issue stock in a comic book store without at least a basic grasp of all of the app-based comic book sales information out there on the internet. So while I am working hard to bring Brian up to speed on the nuts and bolts of running a comic book shop I am also pleased to realize that he is teaching me some important skills when it comes to buying comics. It’s pleasantly surprising to find out there are still new skills to be learned in your career after a lifetime of working it.
Monarch Comics, partnered with Card Advertising, will be filming a new television commercial for the store next week. Honestly, I would have preferred to use some sort of pre-produced television material created by one of the big publishers similar to the D.C. Comics NEW 52 commercial from a decade ago, but there just isn’t that kind of thing available to the comic market. This seems bizarre to me as more and more promotion has been moving to things like streaming services and the like, but I guess it isn’t worth it to the big companies to produce such things for a relatively small market. Luckily I have a great team of cosplayers to make very special appearances in the commercial for a bit of fun and color. I’ll be working today to get the rest of my art up on the walls for the filming and Brian and I will be focusing on a good clean up of the store next week. I was just at Walmart this morning picking up some more picture frames to hang up on the wall and I want to take this moment to thank everyone who contributed the wooden art pictures that will also be going up. I’ve decided that I will probably be waiting until next year to put in a new floor in the store, but there will be some more new displays and shelves going up. I was hoping to have some more changes initiated before FCBD, but it doesn’t look like the actual materials (new slat wall, shelves, brackets) will make it in before then because of <all together now> supply chain issues. In any case, the commercial will be filing next Thursday (3/31) between 1:30-3:30pm. I haven’t decided yet whether to actually lock up the store while we are filming, but I’m currently planning on having Brian here to handle crowd control so if you come by and Brian is at the door you might have to wait a minute or two before being let in. I’ve never done this sort of thing before so I am not quite sure what to expect, but Thursday afternoon between those times is usually pretty slow anyway, so I’m not too worried.
Apologies go out to all of our regular subscription/special order customers! If there are any mistakes with your pull and hold service it can mostly be traced back to my mistakes as I struggle to implement a major upgrade to my back end record keeping. I mean, I had a great system in place for 20 years until the table was upended by the industries sudden split from one distributor to three and I have been spending the last 12 months trying to figure out the best way to manage inventory and orders. I quickly ascertained that my old system was not going to work anymore. It was clunky and extremely labor intensive and things that I kinda sorta had the time for when I was the #2 Man quickly became untenable once I was the one running everything behind the scenes. I naively believed that a fully computerized POS system would be the answer to many of the problems I’ve always had behind the scenes, but I quicky realized that due to the quick fracturing of the distribution system that it was not the easy answer I was looking for and indeed might be even more complicated and time consuming than my old system. At this point, however, I do believe I have a handle on what kind of information that I need to properly track inventory and orders and things should smooth out considerably once the system has been put in place and has been running for 2 or 3 months. Next up will be an overhaul of the subscription list, but I don’t want to change too many things all at once…lol.
That’s everything for me this week. I am actually surprised I had this much to say, but it always a gamble getting me chatting as I don’t really have an “off” switch. I hope everyone is enjoying the coming of Spring! Have a great weekend!
Eddie