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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2015 19:13:24 GMT -5
Actually one of the few things Diamond does well is helping stores open. They offer POS software already programmed with a tracking program and a huge amounts of trades on a credit rather than cash basis for new or expanding shops, where if you buy their POS software and subscribe to their retailer program they send you the trades and you don't have to pay for them right away and at a discount, but it is usually backstock Star catalog stuff not current or recent releases. However the stuff does move more slowly than current or recent releases and a lot of shops don't have the space or the patience to take them up on the offer or don't want to use Diamond's POS software to be eligible. A shop like that could very well have taken up Diamond on that kind of offer if they were going to commit to having a wide variety of trades. However, such a store would need to be better capitalized at start up to have liquid assets to cover tying up so much in stock. A well capitalized store can do it. Most start ups aren't and most comic shops don't have high enough margins to become well capitalized if they don't start out with a sufficient reserve.
The point is most small business can shop around to find better prices or better service from their distributors, they can negotiate better deals because of competition. Diamond has no competition. If you don't want to deal with Diamond you cannot run a comic shop that carries new releases. Period. Many of the recourses that are open to small businesses to try to improve their bottom line just aren't there in the comic business. That's what monopolies do and why they are illegal in the US, but Diamond still operates as one nonetheless. Comics just aren't a big enough drop int he water for someone to challenge it and go through the legal maze to try to break that monopoly because it is not really worth it for a an up and comer to try to break off a piece of a tiny revenue pie to get in the distribution business. Prior to the 90s, when Capital and Heroes World and others were operating as well as Diamond, retailers had options. Those have gone away and not for the betterment of the industry.
-M
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Jun 1, 2015 15:07:29 GMT -5
And again because of the joys of Diamond and the distribution monopoly they have, Amazon can afford to sell a fair number of trades at a price below what the cost of that product is to shops. The end customer may not care and their only concern is price, but there is no way shops can match the price points of Amazon or sellers of that ilk who don't buy from Diamond and can work out better deals for high volume purchases because of it. -M I'm not saying that there are not people that don't appreciate store like wildfire and you operate. And I am not "blaming" you for other outlets having the capabilities of getting better pricing. It's why the grocery store that orders 500 gallons of milk can sell it at $3.50 and the convenience store that orders 50, sells at $5. I'm just making an observation that there may be nothing that can be done to get the local book stores to the level they were at. Comics aren't the only thing affected by the advent of the internet and debit cards. But when you have $5 to spend, you have $5 to spend. That's all I meant by the comment. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2015 18:45:15 GMT -5
Couldn't you limit your reliance on Diamond to only the new stock though? Why use them for trades or other merch?
Also, as far as taxes are concerned, do you have to pay taxes when you purchase a collection for cash? I sold a couple longboxes to a record store once and was given a vendor invoice. But if you're not paying taxes on that stuff, then why would it be any different for a store who stocks their TPB shelves with clearance and sale items from TFAW or whatever?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2015 21:19:24 GMT -5
Couldn't you limit your reliance on Diamond to only the new stock though? Why use them for trades or other merch? Also, as far as taxes are concerned, do you have to pay taxes when you purchase a collection for cash? I sold a couple longboxes to a record store once and was given a vendor invoice. But if you're not paying taxes on that stuff, then why would it be any different for a store who stocks their TPB shelves with clearance and sale items from TFAW or whatever? If you don't buy your trades through Diamond, your volume is lower form them and your discount less, so your profit margin goes down on the new stuff you bring in, which is the core of your business. If you can make up for it elsewhere, sure, but the new stock is the core of the business so it's a big risk. But if you are buying stuff at clearance prices from TFAW or some online dealer your customer has access to as well, why would they pay you more for it when they can buy it direct from TFAW at the clearance price? That clearance price is not wholesale available to vendors only, it's the out the door price to any customer that wants it. If they will go to Amazon for a better price, they will not pay you more than the clearance price for those items either since they can get the clearance price. As for sales tax, yes you are supposed to pay sales tax on everything purchased covered by the sales tax laws of your state or county unless you have a tax exempt status. Just as you are supposed to claim and pay sales tax to your state/county on everything you buy online in most states that have a sales tax laws on the books. You buy something from Amazon, you are supposed to claim and pay sales tax. E-bay-the same, etc. Enforcement is difficult though. States usually don't go after individuals (unless it is something like a car where they check the tax status when you register the vehicle). Businesses who have to file sale taxes and get a license anyways are easier to track down and enforce online and out of state purchases on. In some states, failure to pay sales tax can a) get you a fine b) cost you a license or tax exempt status in the state, c) get you shut down d) get you jail time and e) cause liens to be placed on your personal property until the tax debt is paid. If you are a gambler, go ahead and risk it, but if any of a-e happen, it won't improve your business, it will likely destroy it and your personal finances/credit rating for a good long time. But sure, you can do it. I know in my old home state, Connecticut, you cannot set up as a dealer at some of the conventions unless you prove tax exempt status by getting tax exempt paperwork from the state, and if you are an out of state dealer, you have to get CT tax exempt status before you buy or sell as a vendor at the show. The state takes it's cut form all the vendors. Some states may be more lax, depends where you are. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2015 21:57:03 GMT -5
But if you are buying stuff at clearance prices from TFAW or some online dealer your customer has access to as well, why would they pay you more for it when they can buy it direct from TFAW at the clearance price? That's kind of like asking why comic shops exist at all anymore, since just about everything can be bought online cheaper. The answer is people who buy comics in the shop likely don't do a whole lot of online shopping, and likely don't know about TFAW's Black Friday sale. Or they do shop online but also like to buy from a shop for certain things. Just because things are cheaper online doesn't mean that the effort to offer a better value to your customers is futile. Amazon has a 20% discount, you have a 10% discount, and the other shop in town has no discount at all. I'd say things are looking alright for your shop to the customers who choose to purchase from a brick and mortar. There are plenty of opportunities for a comics retailer to source from other retailers and buy for below their Diamond wholesale cost, and comics retailers (actual brick and mortar shop owners) on other sites have and do just that, regularly. I don't know if they pay taxes or not, but I assume paying tax on a $2 trade is going to be less than the $4 difference in price the trade would cost if it were purchased through Amazon. This isn't a strategy that can reliably stock the shelves every week with the exact variety you want, but it is a way to land some high dollar merchandise for pennies. Remember when Amazon went crazy and started selling all those Marvel Masterworks HC's for $40 each and free shipping? It had to have been mostly retailers that scooped that up, based on the order sizes they were talking about on the forums and the print runs of the books. Like I said, doesn't happen every day, but I've seen deals like that, opportunities for a retailer, happen maybe three or four times since I got back into collecting, and I'm sure plenty more I'm unaware of took place. So for a shop that operates on the Diamond weekly floppies to keep the lights on, and counts on the TPB, HC, and back issue bins for the added revenue to actually turn a profit, there are plenty of ways to be more competitive. And I have a feeling many shops are taking advantage of their own ways, because discounts for pull list customers/regulars/bulk buyers are pretty common these days. Maybe not the same as the Amazon discount, but it's a discount, and it does make the shop doing it just a bit more competitive than the one that isn't. |
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Post by dupersuper on Jun 1, 2015 23:51:17 GMT -5
What are those orgasm machines from Barbarella and Sleeper called? Just get some of those.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2015 6:24:12 GMT -5
What are those orgasm machines from Barbarella and Sleeper called? Just get some of those. In Barbarella - they are called - The Excessive Machine. In Sleeper - they are called - Orgasmatron. |
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Post by dupersuper on Jun 8, 2015 11:46:40 GMT -5
What are those orgasm machines from Barbarella and Sleeper called? Just get some of those. In Barbarella - they are called - The Excessive Machine. In Sleeper - they are called - Orgasmatron. A rose by any other name... |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 9, 2015 7:13:58 GMT -5
Re: Sales Tax -
Most internet transactions fall under one of the two categories, for which you DONT pay sales tax:
- Used items (this seems to be a bit of a sticky wicket these days, but most states for regular stuff there is no sales tax id a regular person sells something.. otherwise you'd have to report it if you sold your brother a book for a $1 and such)
-- Sales over state lines -- that is, for my book store in Massachusetts, when I sell a book to a person in Minnesota, there is no state sales tax applicable. That's how Amazon for YEARS got away with not charging any tax... they'd send you things from their warehouse in a different state, even though they have them in just about every state... that's the part that recently changed. I'm not sure specifically how it's worded, but I'd imagine it mostly only is revelant if you're a national company with lots of offices.
RE: non-new comics -
As a book store, I can get just about anything in print from a wholesaler (we use Ingram, but there's also Baker and Taylor and a couple others) for 40% off retail and no shipping.. a bit more for quantity (41% for 5+ 42% for 10+. 43% for 100+) I'd imagine even a small comic book store goes through enough trades to do that. Of course, buying directly from the publishers can be slightly better, and now that DC and Marvel are owned by big conglomerates, that might make it so you can get 48-52% (which alot of the mass market guys give).
If Diamond gives less than that, then a smart store owner would need to sit down and do some math to see what's worth it.. anytime there are discount tiers, it's often worthwhile to buy a bit more that you wanted to get the better rate (which is why they HAVE tiers...to move more store)... If you can buy 50 more single issues to get to the level you need and thus get an extra 10-15% off you trade (just for instance, I have no idea what Diamond does), it's probably worth it.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 9, 2015 16:43:12 GMT -5
Re: Sales Tax - Most internet transactions fall under one of the two categories, for which you DONT pay sales tax: - Used items (this seems to be a bit of a sticky wicket these days, but most states for regular stuff there is no sales tax id a regular person sells something.. otherwise you'd have to report it if you sold your brother a book for a $1 and such) -- Sales over state lines -- that is, for my book store in Massachusetts, when I sell a book to a person in Minnesota, there is no state sales tax applicable. That's how Amazon for YEARS got away with not charging any tax... they'd send you things from their warehouse in a different state, even though they have them in just about every state... that's the part that recently changed. I'm not sure specifically how it's worded, but I'd imagine it mostly only is revelant if you're a national company with lots of offices. RE: non-new comics - As a book store, I can get just about anything in print from a wholesaler (we use Ingram, but there's also Baker and Taylor and a couple others) for 40% off retail and no shipping.. a bit more for quantity (41% for 5+ 42% for 10+. 43% for 100+) I'd imagine even a small comic book store goes through enough trades to do that. Of course, buying directly from the publishers can be slightly better, and now that DC and Marvel are owned by big conglomerates, that might make it so you can get 48-52% (which alot of the mass market guys give). If Diamond gives less than that, then a smart store owner would need to sit down and do some math to see what's worth it.. anytime there are discount tiers, it's often worthwhile to buy a bit more that you wanted to get the better rate (which is why they HAVE tiers...to move more store)... If you can buy 50 more single issues to get to the level you need and thus get an extra 10-15% off you trade (just for instance, I have no idea what Diamond does), it's probably worth it. Off topic, but where in Mass is your book store if you don't mind me asking? |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 9, 2015 18:13:37 GMT -5
Newton... it's just Psychiatry and other Professional stuff though... We don't actually SELL fun stuff.. I just tack things for myself onto orders now and then  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 9, 2015 21:10:23 GMT -5
Newton... it's just Psychiatry and other Professional stuff though... We don't actually SELL fun stuff.. I just tack things for myself onto orders now and then Ha, hey if you're the boss why not have a little fun? |
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Post by marvelmaniac on Jun 9, 2015 22:31:33 GMT -5
A Rarity.. A new comic shop just opened a few miles from me, probably will not have any books I am looking for but if time permits I may stop in just to look around. instagram.com/rivercitycomics/ |
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