Watchmen and the Genius of DC Sales Team

Several weeks ago, before the trailer of Watchmen was out, DC ran a promotion for Comic Book shops where we could order as many copies of the Watchmen graphic novel as I want and at a date in future I can return the unsold copies and only pay for what I don't return. I found out that 18 fit in a box, so, what the heck, I ordered 18. The promo stuff was gearing up. The action figures and mini busts were being ordered. What could it hurt.

I am now down to 2 copies left. In the 1 week since the trailer went up, I have now sold 16 of the 18 copies (including 1 copy while I was typing this). I am sure that the other 2 will be gone by the end of the day. This is incredible. And I have to commend DC for doing it right.

There is no way I would have ever ordered that many copies. Ever. Even if I knew the trailer was going to be there. But I had nothing to lose. And I will be ordering 18 more to arrive Wednesday. The best part is that I am sure that the book stores were caught unaware, even Amazon. And I am sure many comic books stores did not take advantage of the offer like I did.

Here's why I think that it worked so well. Comic readers have long loved Watchmen and non-comic people have most likely at least heard of it. The trailer is on one of the biggest opening movies ever. Comic book people are giddy about the trailer (well at least I am). And it stirs that interest to read it again. "Where's my copy? I lent it to someone and never got it back. I need to read it now!" So the people that know it want it again. And their friends who are sitting with them at Batman go "What's that about?" and the comic reading friend gushes about it. So they also want a copy. And the people who have no comic friends, but see the trailer think it looks interesting and POW, its on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and other places. Its all over the internet. "If this many people say its good, I'll give it a shot."

Hence 16 copies of a $20 book sold in 1 week. And its only going to grow.

Thank you for being proactive DC, and making sure I had the opportunity to stock the shelves to take advantage of this. It is a win-win-win situation for all involved.

Now to pull out my battered copy to re-read it. Or maybe I'll get that fancy new hardcover that is coming out...

EDIT: Just a quick update. I just sold my last copy of Watchmen at 6:45pm.

Infrequent Customers

I just want to express my love of the infrequent customer, that guy who you see maybe monthly, but usually not even that often. Now, this is not to say anything bad about my regulars, the guys who come in every Wednesday or whatever day they always come in on. Those are the guys who keep the doors open. I look forward to talking with them every week.

However, the infrequent customer is like finding money in a jacket pocket. I count on the weekly guys, but the random guys are real treat. They come in and get months worth of books at a time. Or they clear out a overgrown subscriber folder.

Yet another name change

Well, I decided to go with a name that made more sense. This name actually goes back to the beginning. This was my original name that I filed with the state of PA, way back in 1993, when I started doing conventions in anticipation of opening an actual store. It only took me 13 years, but I did it!

I know blogging about blogging is a sin, per Mike Sterling, so I will not belabor the point. My wife was looking at a customers blog and asked me if I had one. I said yes, but I don't do much. My customer does his much more and she said I had no reason not to throw something up every day. So, now, with no excuses, I will.

More to come later when I get some stuff finished around the store.

Sorry For the Distraction

I apologize to anyone coming into the store the next couple weeks, well, and last week. I am trying to do some stuff and my head is not where it should be.

It all started Wednesday when the books showed up 3 hours late. Never a good thing and kills the rest of the day for me as it is a scramble to get the books out and sorted with customers standing there as every book comes out of the box. And I didn't have time to get the bar codes into the system. Very frustrating.

Thursday morning, I ran to Ikea to get 6 more bookshelves. I have run out of space for trades and the last few weeks worth are just stacked on top of the back issue rack. My initial plan was to have a rack for new DC, Marvel and Other Publisher trades, so that the new ones would be displayed face out and be seen and sell better. Well, those racks are full. And the new ones just get dumped in front of the other ones. Good for the new, bad for the old. The indy rack is now 5-6 trades deep, which makes it impossible to find anything. And there is no organization at all. Frustrating to the customer and to me. I have 4 books cases for the trades when they move off of the racks, but that was full as well, so things just began to stack up. I bought 6 more with the hope of making more of a display in the front of the store. All of the big sellers, like Vertigo, in one place. Plus a rack just for the new arrivals, like at the big books stores. And then I can use the racks to spotlight titles, like Batman or Spider-Man. I am mostly looking for a better way to merchandise. A big part it was the Marvel Essentials. I love them. I keep them all in stock. But I only sell 1 or 2 a month. They used to have a whole big rack. Then I moved them to the book cases, but they took up the whole book case. When I got the new bigger kids rack, I moved the Essntials to the old kids rack. But I was still spending a whole lot of floor space on something that really doesn't move well. That was part of the reason for making the change as well. Now they have their own out of the way book case.

So all day Thursday was spent trying to get these new bookcases built. I was only able to get 3 of the 6 made. It didn't help that I forgot a screwdriver and was using the Swiss Army knife.

Friday was 4th of July and I was closed.

Saturday morning I finished getting the books cases built. I then spent quite a bit of time finding a place for them. The fact that the store is not square, makes thing like this a little challenging. I like the odd shape, but it does create problems. So I finally got them where they will work. Rather than a square, they are a rectangle. I was hoping for a square with the side of the one on the left next to the book case you were facing, so I could put a little sign as to what was in the book case or whatever.

The other thing I did was replace the 4 foot front display table with a 5 footer. The two 8 foot tables with some of the back issues on them are 5 feet back to back, so this just made sense. I also replace the back 8 foot table with a 5 foot one. This table was only there while I sorted a collections, but it soon became part of the store. But it also stuck out 3 feet, so it never really fit. Replacing it with the 5 foot looks better. But it also cost me 4 boxes on display and the storage underneath. I kind of got everything tidied up Saturday night. We'll see how tidy tomorrow morning.

Oh, and in the midst of having the store disorganized, a customer brought in 2 life size stuffed Spider-Men. He won them at a fair or something and had no room at home. With no back room, I don't have any place for them either. For fun and to get them out of the way, now have them hanging from the ceiling. I will take pictures when I get everything straightened up.

Then I got busy the rest of the day, so I didn't even fill the book cases up. Then I was off Sunday and closed Monday. I just feel very disconnected from the store right now. Which may not be a bad thing only because of the changes, it feels different to me right now. I need to freshen it up.

This week, I will have Tuesday and Wednesday to get everything organized. Hopefully, I can get it all done. New books won't be here until Thursday, so I get an extra day to get ready.

But then more disconnect for me. We are taking a family vacation Friday through Tuesday. So, not only will I not be at the store, but I will be getting back on Wednesday morning, just in time for the new order. Getting the store ready for new books is about a 2 hour process. Moving the new books around to make space for new titles and replacing and adding the new signs. Not rocket science, but time consuming. Maybe I can leave the task for Matt on Sunday. But Wednesday is still going to feel a little odd.

So, please cut me a little bit of slack these next two weeks. I may forget that you asked for a specific book or forget to track down something. Don't take it personally. I just have a lot going on.