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Take a look at the above promotion my comic shop sent me this week. I think the increase in single issue prices (even with the reductions from DC and Marvel last week) has hit the shops hard. My shop seems to be moving more and more toward becoming a graphic novel shop, with which I really don't have a problem. What do you think?
Replies
1) a desire to *commit* people to buying the trades they're "waiting for." (And also, to make sure they buy them in-house, rather than from Amazon or DCBS.)
and
2) a desire to get some data on how many of specific trade series to order. These aren't necessarily numbers that can be derived by numbers of subs to the regular comic, since the trade audience is largely people who *haven't* bought the single issues.
I don't know if their intention is to get people to shift from singles to trades, but the incentive program might have that affect for some customers.It's an interesting tactic. Do you plan on taking advantage of it? Keep us posted on how it works!
I think a subscription for GNs is a little problematic, timing-wise. GN customers aren't necessarily weekly customers. How long will they have to buy the books, when they might only come in once a month (or less)?
Part of the fun of going to comics shops for me is finding those back issues I don't have, or finding cheap back issues that might pique my interest enough to seek the rest of the story arc, if not a lengthy run on a title. Buying trades -- getting the whole story at once in one book -- feels like cheating.
That said, more of the comics shops I frequent are turning into graphic novel shops. One store I used to go to had a pretty extensive 50-cent bin right up front, and I would estimate the mix of books on the shelves was 70 percent comics vs. 30 percent trades. I'd say it's now 20 percent comics and 80 percent trades, and that 50-cent bin disappeared one day. I asked the clerk what happened and he told me they shipped them all off to a store in Texas. ("The Internet is a wonderful thing," he said.)
In the snow?
The single issues I buy now all leave my house...if I can't shelve it, it goes.
Of course, in the snow! (I tell you, those six years I spent in Florida -- immediately after two years in Upstate New York, when the first snowfall came in October and it didn't melt away until May -- were the happiest years of my life.)
Jeff: Thanks for the info. I never go to Titan, but with a sale like this I might have to make my way out there.
Clark: To an extent I feel the same way you do, but I do get tired of having 50 unfinished storylines, and being able to read a complete story is a lot more fun than spending years trying to get a missing issue. Not everything gets the trade treatment, so a lot of dealers at shows around here collect storylines which is awesome. I hate finding a mini I wanted to read and getting all but one issue. It is so defeating. Like I told my L:CS one time,"You should change your name to 'Every Other Issue Comics'."