SALES TO ASTONISH #40 - DECEMBER 2025 & YEAR IN REVIEW SPECIAL!
Sales To Astonish #40 December 2025 & Year In Review Double-Sized Special!!
December 2025
“A long December and there’s reason to believe maybe next year will be better than the last”
I still occasionally listen to The Counting Crows and whilst August and Everything After is my favourite album of theirs, my favourite song, A Long December, appears on their second album, the traditionally harder one to write. It’s in equal measure a retrospective lament on the year coupled with the hope of things being different in the future. At times sad but strangely uplifting and positive. It’s a song rarely play any other time apart from December 😆 but it does have the effect of making me consider the past year and look forward in anticipation to the next.
This December was certainly more challenging than many of the last decade or so due to a fractured ankle. If there’s one thing we all tend to take for granted it’s our health. There’s always a feeling that no matter what stresses or strains we place in our bodies and minds, no matter how old we get, the injuries and health conditions that have affected our parents and elders won’t ever happen to us and that we can continue on in the same fashion as it we were Connor McLeod of the Clan McLeod.
I couldn’t believe how limiting sporting a moon boot and being on crutches was. Everything becomes harder to do with reduced mobility and driving was also out of the question. The upshot was that at the busiest time of the year, when people hit the site to grab a few bits for Christmas, I’m hobbling around packing orders and trying desperately to keep on top of things. And learning that crucial lesson of being self-employed: always look after yourself first.
I’ve talked in previous years about how online retail in December differs to bricks and mortar as we approach the 25th so I’m not going to go over old ground. Suffice it to say that the expected drop off in sales occurred far earlier this year than the last few. A sign of the times for the economy and people’s disposable income? An article on the BBC website pretty much reaffirmed my thoughts saying that most companies had endured flat trading conditions in the run up to Christmas and that the Boxing Day Sales hadn’t performed as well as hoped. This was pretty much the case for The Unreality Store’s annual Boxing Day Sale. In comparison to 2024 I had around the same number of orders but the overall takings were £2,000 less. I had another run at dropping the prices on everything related to roleplaying ahead of New Years Eve and was pleased to sell a few higher value items and a stack of Dungeon Magazines
Overall December was a reasonable month and if every month was like it I would be happy. There is a ‘but’ here…
And that’s in the shape of the fact that 50% of December’s takings were derived from a half price sale. There have been other months where a sale has enabled me to reach my monthly revenue target so whether this is a long term trend of people collecting fewer titles, spending less or other socio-economic factors remains to be seen but it’s a nice segue into the Review Of The Year part of this double-header
2025 Year In Review
(IF YOU HAVE READ OR SCROLLED DOWN LOOKING FOR THE DISCOUNT CODE FOR 35% OFF YOUR NEXT ORDER IT IS - YIR35, IT EXPIRES WHEN THE NEXT SALES TO ASTONISH IS RELEASED IN FEBRUARY 2016)
If I was writing this is the style of a companies Annual Report & Accounts there would be lots of references to tough trading conditions, pipelines of stock, new initiatives tried etc etc but it’s not so I’ve decided to break the review down into the constituent parts of the store and then finish up with a look ahead to 2026
Marvel Comics
Whilst DC may have dominated the new comics sales charts in 2025, Marvel back issues continue to be the number one pick of choice for shopper of older issues. The usual suspects like Amazing Spider-man, Uncanny X-Men and Avengers always sell when I get them in stock. But 2025 saw regular and repeated sales of New Mutants (all issues), Daredevil (#100-#300) and Hulk (#350-#450). Punisher and Ghost Rider issues from the 90’s sell well, conversely Star Wars sales have dipped as have the first iteration of the Ultimate Marvel titles.
Marvel Age continues to be a title that always sells as well, probably because there’s a wealth of nostalgia in what was ostensibly a news & ad magazine for Marvel and there are some great covers too!
DC Comics
Batman and Superman battle it out for top place, with Bruce just about taking down Clark at the finish. Looking back over the year and beyond I have definitely sold a lot of what I used to consider ‘filler’ issues - Batman & Superman titles from the late 80’s and early 90’s. These had reasonable print runs at the time so it’s not as if they are in short supply but they sell regularly and steadily.
Wally West Flash issues always perform well as does anything DC horror related from the 1970’s & 80’s. The surprise of the year was the interest in Hellblazer back issues. I’ve probably sold 100-150 issues over the space of the year which goes to show The Trenchcoat Brigade is still going strong. Bronze Age Justice League of America sell well as do the first 20 or so issues of the classic Giffen, De Matteis, Maguire Justice League. Surprisingly the Adam Hughes issues in the 30’s & 40’s are criminally overlooked.
Image & Dark Horse Comics
Aliens and some Star Wars issues for Dark Horse with Spawn and Walking Dead for Image but beyond that these back issue boxes have remained pretty much untouched throughout 2025. However it’s worth saying that in the past I had sold lots of Dark Horse Conan and Hellboy/Mignolaverse titles but I’ve not been able to secure any of these in collections acquired in 2025 so I can’t gauge whether the interest is still there.
Independents
Sporadic sales at best and largely at times when there’s a half price sale. Miracleman, Simpsons and Transformers do ok. One surprise was selling a few Scout sets and issues as soon as they were put up. Timothy Truman’s post-apocalyptic tale is a personal favourite so it was nice to see someone else getting some issues. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did.
Roleplaying Games
I picked up an absolutely huge collection of Roleplaying items in 2025, 7 car loads in fact with items spanning 50 years from 1970’s to 2020 including lots of TSR Dungeons & Dragons items, vintage magazines, boxed sets, hardcovers and fanzines. To be fair the size of the collection was a little overwhelming and difficult to know where to start in terms of listing items for sale or whether to put them into Vintage Guru or Brackley Antiques Cellar. And that’s before I got to stuff like a whole box of Steve Jackson’s Illuminati cards - does anyone even play that anymore?
I had (naively) expected most of the items to be snapped up as and when they were listed based on nothing other than years back I bought and sold Roleplaying items on eBay and over the course of a 7 day auction most seemed to sell and fetch a decent price.
Perhaps the shot in the arm Tabletop Roleplaying got from Stranger Things and lockdown has long since dissipated or perhaps I’m not connecting with the correct audience just yet, but despite some of the older Dungeons and Dragons material moving, and White Dwarf back issues which do sell regularly, I didn’t sell as much Roleplaying stuff as I thought I would. Improving the visibility of that area of the website is on the 2026 To Do List.
Other stuff
Social media is dead. Long live????
I’m not sure whether anyone reading this has noticed anything similar in relation to their personal or business social media posts, but this year saw a huge drop in engagement across all platforms. On Instagram it’s beginning to look like unless you are blessed with unlimited advertising funds or already have a huge amount of followers, then it’s probably not worthwhile posting as your content won’t be seen. I’m not sure how small businesses (or indeed individuals) deal with this in 2026. I’ve yet to fully embrace TikTok as a platform but I suspect it’s the same there and Reddit is just confusing so the coming twelve months will be interesting in trying to engage with an existing and new audience.
Sales at Vintage Guru and Brackley Antiques Cellar continue to go well. At Brackley I’m trying a few new things but also I’ve put in a few boxes of back issues to sit along side the 10-15 boxes of £1 comics. I’m intending on expanding the back issue section there in 2026 and as always on the lookout for new venues.
It’s worth saying again that I had a great time at the Lake District International Comic Art Festival in September and hope to do it again in 2026. Conversely I’m unlikely to do any of the more localised ‘Comic Cons’ as generally people don’t go to those to buy comics.
A Quick Look Ahead To 2026
I’m toying with the idea of transitioning from a Thursday & Saturday release schedule to trying to get stock up on a daily basis. This may mean sending out a preview email on Monday of the coming attractions and then a reminder or two during the week. I’m conscious I don’t want to bombard people with emails though. The reason for this is my sales over the last few years have tended to be concentrated on those days where there’s new stock and whilst this is ok at times it can create bit of an issue with cash flow so this is an attempt to make that side of the business a bit more efficient
Also I’m hoping that The Unreality Store HQ may move in 2026. Logistically this may prove a mammoth task but once done I’m sure the move will open up some exciting opportunities
To finish I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported The Unreality Store in 2025 whether that’s through buying something, reading this column, dropping an email to say thanks, providing advice when times get tough and so on. It’s been invaluable and helped immensely throughout the last year
Thanks!
Matthew
Key Sales 2025
Comics
ASM #238 (with Tatooz) VFN- @£175
ASM #252 FN @£125
ASM #300 FN @£185
Wizard Magazine #1 NM- @ £70
Uncanny X-Men #98 FN- @ £50
Spectacular Spider-man #1 FN+ @ £40
Spectacular Spider-man #101 FN+ @ £40
Saga #1 NM- @ £135
Hellblazer #1 VFN- @ £40
Iron Man #282 VFN- @ £50
Giant Size Spider-man #1 VFN- @ £35
Tomb of Dracula #10 (First Blade) VG+ @£285
Marvel Premiere #28 FN- @£60
Amazing Spider-man Annual #6 FN @£75
Captain Britain #8 FN @ £150
Captain Britain #9 FN @ £40
Detective Comics #880 VFN @ £85
Green Lantern Vol.2 #87 GD @ £40
Hulk Vol.2 #1 VFN @ £40
Wolverine #8 NM- @ £75
Uncanny X-Men #130 VFN- @ £90
Amazing Spider-man #91 FN @ £40
Amazing Spider-man #100 VFN- @ £185
Walking Dead #19 NM- @ £135
Walking Dead #27 NM- @ £50
Batman #609 VFN+ @ £35
Something Is Killing The Children #1 NM- @ £185
RPGS
AD&D GDQ1-7 - Queen of the Spiders (no map booklet) £60
AD&D Kara-Tur Boxed Set £125
AD&D S1 - Expedition To The Barrier Peaks VG+ £35
MERP - Sea Lords of Gondor VG £37.50
MERP Nazgûl’s Citadel VFN- £60
MERP River Running VFN- £80
