Just like any other business, comic shops have to stay in business and they must mark up the stuff they sell. But I always pay cover price for my books. Then I got to wondering… I wonder what percentage they pay on the dollar for their inventory.
Does anybody have any idea?
It depends. They get deeper discounts if they order more books from the distributor (for some very sordid reasons involving Marvel Comics acting like assholes,* this is Diamond Comics Distributors).
IIRC, the percentage is about 25% of the cover price. That may seem a big markup, but the comics are not returnable, so if there are any left in inventory when they go off sale, the comic store is stuck with them. Thus, if they buy two copies of a $4 comic, and sell only one, they’ve paid $2 and made $4 for a 50% markup – which is not unreasonable for a retail business.
*Briefly, Marvel decided to act as their own distributor, using a small distributor named Hero’s World. Marvel comics were only distributed through Hero’s World. DC was forced to name an exclusive distributor (Diamond) to keep up. That left other distributors with no product (well, independent comics, but they went to Diamond). The other big distributor (Capital) went out of business. Hero’s World couldn’t handle the volume of orders and Marvel had to give up and go back to Diamond.
About 4 or 5 years ago, I sometimes helped out a friend that owned a small bookstore/comic shop on return days. Comic cost was 70% of cover price. However, this was a small store and I don’t know if those prices hold true for a store that would move a lot more product.
Sorry, but math is not my first language. Are you saying that the store is paying $1 or $3 for a $4 cover price book?
Sounds like RealityChuck is saying the store pays $1, but Hup is saying the store would pay closer to $3.
This site claims 50% of the cover price, while this one goes back to 70% (i.e. the comic book store only pays 30% of the cover price, or around $1 for a $4 book).
The 70% discount quoted on that site is the distributor discount, what a company like Diamond Comic Distributors pays to the comic publisher.
Then Diamond sells the comics to the local comic shop. Retailer discounts are based on purchase volume. Last time I looked, the largest discount was 55% for huge orders. So a comic book store would pay 45 cents for a one dollar comic.
Now might be a good time to mention the difference between “book store” comics and “comic shop” comics.
Comics are distributed in two ways, comic distributors like Diamond (the only real major one) and magazine distributors like Ingram .
Comics sold in any place other than a comic shop most likely came from a magazine distributor. Comics sold in comic shops most likely came from a comic distributors. There are exceptions in both cases.
The big differences, from a reatiler’s cost perspective, are the price paid for the comics and returnability. Magazine distibutors allow unsold product to be returned for credit, usually by removing the cover or part of it and sending it (the cover) back to the distributor (which is why you sometimes see stacks of magazines in stores with part of the cover cut out - those magazines are supposed to be thrown away). The downside to the returnability is the discount given to the retailer is much less, maybe 30%. Also, magazine distibutors don’t really care about what condition the comics are in when they arrive at the store and bundle them with those stupid plastic straps that ruin the things before they even get to the store.
Comic distributors offer retailers larger discounts, but do not allow unsold product to be returned. Once a comic shop owner buys a comic, he’s stuck with it if he can’t sell it. For the most part, that’s not such a bad thing, as a comic shop will like to have a few back issues in stock for awhile anyway. However, on those occaisions when a highly-anticipated issue turns out to be a flop, it can lead to a bunch of unreturnable, paid-for comics that end up in discount boxes just to try to get something out of them.
cstamets qutotes the 55% discount. I think that’s right, but most comics shops don’t get that much – more like in the 40% range (or even the high 30’s for smaller shops). I believe that the discount plateau for Marvel is calculated separately than the rest of the order. Or maybe it’s DC that’s calculated separately. Or both, or neither.
–Cliffy
Yes, the 55% was the max discount. Only the larger stores would get that much of a discount.
My shop was so small, I think I barely got a 30% discount. Then I had to pay for shipping on top of that.