Sales are brisk at The Comic Cellar in Alhambra, CA, and they’d be even better if they could keep the hot titles in stock. “DC has had trouble keeping trades of the Absolute line in print,” owner Dan Loufek told ICv2. “This cost me a good chunk of sales during the holidays when I had almost none of them to sell.” Despite this challenge, sales are up overall and sales of new issues are up 50% compared to last year. “The reprints of the Absolute Batman issues outsold a large majority of new comics that came out last month,” Loufek said.
The Comic Cellar’s Current Vibe
Location: 135 W Main St., Alhambra, CA
Store Specialties: Comics, graphic novels, back issues. Some manga; no games or toys.
Buying Mood of Customers: Excited for new comics. Wednesday sales are almost double what they were a year ago.
The New Hotness in the Store: Absolute Batman, DC K.O., Marvel/DC crossovers. “Invincible is selling very well. The trades, the Battle Beast series, and back issues all move quickly. The facsimile editions of Invincible #1 and MTU #14 outsold almost every new issue on the shelves.”
What’s Bringing in New Customers: “The Invincible cartoon is bringing in people that want to find items related to the show. We sell a good number of the trades every week. Whenever there is an Invincible-related comic release it sells very well. I can’t keep the back issues in stock. I also can’t find the back issues since nobody wants to sell them. Comic related movies don’t seem to move the needle anymore. The new movies don’t convince newcomers to go out and buy the comics related to the movies. The shop is one block from the local theater. In decades past, a new movie release would bring in new customers.”
Biggest Challenge in the Last Month: Ordering inventory. “Part of the problem is availability. Something like an Image #1 that becomes hot overnight I can understand being sold out. But the main cover to Spider-man/Superman, or the first part of a big crossover, being out of stock before it ships is frustrating.”
“Another part of the problem is hassle of ordering from anyone other than PRH and Lunar. Most of the other book publishers/distributors do not have online ordering systems. If I want to order from anyone other than Lunar and PRH, I have to make an order list and send it to a rep and then wait for them to process the order. This is a huge inconvenience compared to going to the computer and instantly ordering what I need. I would most likely be selling 50% more of items from Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, etc. if they had an online ordering system.”
Pick Hits for Q2 into Q3: Absolute Green Arrow, Capes.
Additional Commentary: “There is excitement for #1 issues from Image. This appears to be because of D’Orc and White Sky becoming big hits in the back issue market. The problem is that I can’t predict which title is going to get hyped up, so I never have enough copies if a title becomes popular right before its release. It also makes ordering second issues hard, because most of the speculators do not come back for issue #2.”
“The Marvel/DC crossovers are really pulling customers in. Whenever one comes out, we see a large increase in new faces in the store. Hopefully the companies can find a way to continue to making the crossovers. Two events a year would probably work to keep the interest up, without overdoing it and making it boring to customers.”
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Source: ICV2
