Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics in Concord, CA saw Steve Bennett's recent column in which he speculated that he may have seen a speculator (based on purchase patterns), and shares his techniques for dealing with speculator purchases:

Steve wrote in his column, 'And while I don't like what speculators once did to this industry, I've absolutely no objection to taking their money.'

While in this instance, the 'taking their money' is about an elderly
customer asking for ten copies of each Mouse Guard issue to date, this doesn't necessarily mean the man was a 'speculator.'  He could've been a man trying to buy copies for his grandchildren or nephews and nieces.  Unless we know the reasons for the purchase, we can't really slap the scarlet letter-like 'speculator' title on the guy.

Now, if confirmed that he was a speculator, what policies are in place in
your store for circumventing this problem?  Look, most retailers buy what they believe they can sell through to ALL of their customers and order to have enough in stock for a certain sales 'window.'  For some (and I'd actively advocate against this practice), it might mean only having enough of any title in stock for the first week of release.  For many others, that sales window could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

So what do you do when someone tries to buy everything you have in stock of a particular item when you know it hasn't been on the racks for a full sales cycle?  One of the things that kept Flying Colors healthy through the speculation bubble of the '90s was to limit the number of copies sold off the rack to any single buyer.  If someone wanted to speculate on 10 copies of this or 50 copies of that, they had to order in advance and give us a non-refundable down payment on the total purchase.

This practice allowed us to manage our inventory better, while also allowing a full sales' cycle to satisfy all of our regular clientele---whether they shop here three times a week or only once every month or so.  Speculators come and go, but we have to do everything we can to take care of the customers who will be with us through thick and thin.

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