SALES TO ASTONISH #24 - AUGUST 2024
Momentum.
Hard to achieve. Easy to lose.
July had been great and I’d gone into August thinking that things had finally turned a corner and I could begin to put the constant worry that comes with running a small/niche business behind me and concentrate on growing the business itself and dare I say it, look at taking a holiday for the first time in a few years.
Now before this begins to sound like a lament, this August saw the number of monthly sessions on the website smash the 10,000 barrier for the first time, I reached 850 5* Star Reviews on Trustpilot, appeared on local BBC Radio and picked up a couple of small collections too. So not bad!
There‘s always a sense that things can be improved on and whilst August wasn’t the worst month of 2024, and it far surpassed the same period of 2023, there are two hard lessons I learned:
1. There’s no point in doing Comic Cons in the Summer
The general slow down of attendees and therefore takings at comic cons that I first experienced at Banbury in late July continued on into August. I attended Northampton and Nottingham and both, as far as comic sales for me were terrible, Nottingham being a complete waste of time. My sister does a number of craft fairs and has experienced a similar drop off in trade over the summer months. In her experience people like the ‘day out’ and will spend money on food and drink but are more than likely going to save their spending on other items for fairs closer to Christmas. My experience is slightly more nuanced - there doesn’t seem to be many comic buyers that attend the conventions I am exhibiting at, coupled with a lack of casual purchases at certain times of the year, or month, can ultimately result in the perfect storm of nothingness like I had at Nottingham. Note to self - when planning 2025 dates, don’t travel more than an hour there and back from home, don’t do any shows mid-month and take the summer off!!
2. Don’t lead the weekly launch with second tier DC or Marvel titles
I always felt that one of the advantages of The Unreality Store was that I would be able to offer a wide range of stock to suit all tastes and budgets. Having gone to numerous comic shops and conventions over the decades one thing is certain, back issue comics (and magazines) take up an awful lot of retail space. Over the years comic shops have generally reduced their back issue offering in favour of other faster selling items like Funkos and tended to offer only the most recognisable and saleable titles. The same goes for conventions, especially as the back issues cannot be left in situ and have to be moved around from event to event. So, having an online store, open 24 hours, 365 days a year means as long as I have adequate storage, I can list whatever I want in order to provide a cornucopia of comics.
The fact of the matter is for 50 people who visit the website and buy Spider-Man, Batman, Superman or X-Men back issues, there’s probably only a couple who want titles like Justice League, Wonder Woman, Ghost Rider, Defenders and probably only 1 in 50 want any Green Lantern issues and if they do, it’s likely to be a specific key or something from the Silver or Bronze Age rather than some 80’s issues. I don’t want to always default to the comics that I know have the widest appeal, but at the same time there’s bills to pay.
Sooooooo this is a long winded way of saying I would probably release secondary titles, Image, Dark Horse and Indies on a Saturday rather than the main Thursday launch going forward.
A couple things I did notice from August is Hellblazer sells (whenever I have a run of issues from 1-50 they tend to go straight away) and the demand for DC Bronze Age Horror continues to astound me (books like Unexpected in mid-grade sell fast at the £9-£10 mark)
Some of the key sales in August were
Web of Spider-man 118 NM- @ £45
Hellblazer 1 VFN @ £40
Hulk 440 VFN @ £45 reduced from £60
Heavy Metal magazines Vol.1 from 1977 at £10 each
The Goon #1-22
The benefit of finishing this column in the first week of the month is that I can report on any significant activity in the outlets where I have stock. Clearly both Vintage Guru in Northampton and the Antiques Cellar in Brackley benefited from holiday footfall and as a result I had my best month in both outlets for a while. Both venues have £1 boxes which I regularly re-stock so it’s great to see people picking up titles like X-Factor, X-Force, Legends of the Dark Knight, Shadow of the Bat and loads more finding new homes. Conversely I have decided to close shop at The Antiques Centre in Kibworth. It’s a great place but probably just a little too far away from HQ to restock regularly and I never cracked the conundrum of trying to get people down from Leicester who are starved of back issues boxes in any great number. The upside is that a large proportion of the stock (and more) now resides in Market Harborough Market at the Vinyl Culture store run by Peter Williams. He’s a great guy and sells a wide range of Geeky, Film & TV and pop culture stuff as well as organising the excellent Market Harborough Comic Con. Drop by the indoor market and check his unit out! Plus if anyone wants me to drop stuff off to Peter so you can collect ask!
So bizarrely when all the numbers were in August wasn’t such a bad month. Largely saved by those passive income streams from the outlets and provided I keep learning from lessons of running a small business the Unreality Store will continue to evolve and grow. Let’s see what happens when September Ends
(With apologies to Green Day 😆😆)
Hard to achieve. Easy to lose.
July had been great and I’d gone into August thinking that things had finally turned a corner and I could begin to put the constant worry that comes with running a small/niche business behind me and concentrate on growing the business itself and dare I say it, look at taking a holiday for the first time in a few years.
Now before this begins to sound like a lament, this August saw the number of monthly sessions on the website smash the 10,000 barrier for the first time, I reached 850 5* Star Reviews on Trustpilot, appeared on local BBC Radio and picked up a couple of small collections too. So not bad!
There‘s always a sense that things can be improved on and whilst August wasn’t the worst month of 2024, and it far surpassed the same period of 2023, there are two hard lessons I learned:
1. There’s no point in doing Comic Cons in the Summer
The general slow down of attendees and therefore takings at comic cons that I first experienced at Banbury in late July continued on into August. I attended Northampton and Nottingham and both, as far as comic sales for me were terrible, Nottingham being a complete waste of time. My sister does a number of craft fairs and has experienced a similar drop off in trade over the summer months. In her experience people like the ‘day out’ and will spend money on food and drink but are more than likely going to save their spending on other items for fairs closer to Christmas. My experience is slightly more nuanced - there doesn’t seem to be many comic buyers that attend the conventions I am exhibiting at, coupled with a lack of casual purchases at certain times of the year, or month, can ultimately result in the perfect storm of nothingness like I had at Nottingham. Note to self - when planning 2025 dates, don’t travel more than an hour there and back from home, don’t do any shows mid-month and take the summer off!!
2. Don’t lead the weekly launch with second tier DC or Marvel titles
I always felt that one of the advantages of The Unreality Store was that I would be able to offer a wide range of stock to suit all tastes and budgets. Having gone to numerous comic shops and conventions over the decades one thing is certain, back issue comics (and magazines) take up an awful lot of retail space. Over the years comic shops have generally reduced their back issue offering in favour of other faster selling items like Funkos and tended to offer only the most recognisable and saleable titles. The same goes for conventions, especially as the back issues cannot be left in situ and have to be moved around from event to event. So, having an online store, open 24 hours, 365 days a year means as long as I have adequate storage, I can list whatever I want in order to provide a cornucopia of comics.
The fact of the matter is for 50 people who visit the website and buy Spider-Man, Batman, Superman or X-Men back issues, there’s probably only a couple who want titles like Justice League, Wonder Woman, Ghost Rider, Defenders and probably only 1 in 50 want any Green Lantern issues and if they do, it’s likely to be a specific key or something from the Silver or Bronze Age rather than some 80’s issues. I don’t want to always default to the comics that I know have the widest appeal, but at the same time there’s bills to pay.
Sooooooo this is a long winded way of saying I would probably release secondary titles, Image, Dark Horse and Indies on a Saturday rather than the main Thursday launch going forward.
A couple things I did notice from August is Hellblazer sells (whenever I have a run of issues from 1-50 they tend to go straight away) and the demand for DC Bronze Age Horror continues to astound me (books like Unexpected in mid-grade sell fast at the £9-£10 mark)
Some of the key sales in August were
Web of Spider-man 118 NM- @ £45
Hellblazer 1 VFN @ £40
Hulk 440 VFN @ £45 reduced from £60
Heavy Metal magazines Vol.1 from 1977 at £10 each
The Goon #1-22
The benefit of finishing this column in the first week of the month is that I can report on any significant activity in the outlets where I have stock. Clearly both Vintage Guru in Northampton and the Antiques Cellar in Brackley benefited from holiday footfall and as a result I had my best month in both outlets for a while. Both venues have £1 boxes which I regularly re-stock so it’s great to see people picking up titles like X-Factor, X-Force, Legends of the Dark Knight, Shadow of the Bat and loads more finding new homes. Conversely I have decided to close shop at The Antiques Centre in Kibworth. It’s a great place but probably just a little too far away from HQ to restock regularly and I never cracked the conundrum of trying to get people down from Leicester who are starved of back issues boxes in any great number. The upside is that a large proportion of the stock (and more) now resides in Market Harborough Market at the Vinyl Culture store run by Peter Williams. He’s a great guy and sells a wide range of Geeky, Film & TV and pop culture stuff as well as organising the excellent Market Harborough Comic Con. Drop by the indoor market and check his unit out! Plus if anyone wants me to drop stuff off to Peter so you can collect ask!
So bizarrely when all the numbers were in August wasn’t such a bad month. Largely saved by those passive income streams from the outlets and provided I keep learning from lessons of running a small business the Unreality Store will continue to evolve and grow. Let’s see what happens when September Ends
(With apologies to Green Day 😆😆)
