Noah Broessel of Pop Culture Paradise in Tempe, Arizona read the various comments on the down comic sales for May (see "Comic Sales Crash in May") and offers some suggestions on how to boost sales during slower sales months.
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I read some of the other views about why sales were bad in May, I know for me it's tough to make orders during the summer because A) we are next to a major college which dies off during the summer and B) all of the hottest comic events happen during my slowest months!

Here are four steps that some store owners should consider:

1)  If you don't offer subscriptions and/or subscriber discounts now is the time to re-evaluate.  I know I don't want to order 10 copies of $4.00 Marvel Apes #1 that may not sell but if I have five subscribers that want it ordering eight copies won't hurt me as much.  If you don't offer any discounts as a trade off for customers telling you what they want ahead a time (giving you a sure sale) then in this economy you could easily lose that customer.  Even a 10% off discount for a guaranteed pre-order is a good deal for you... you still make $1.60 on a $4 book (if cover was $3 you would only make $1.50).  My advice is to offer a further discount for cash also, we lose about 2% on credit card transactions so if they pay you cash pass the savings on to your loyal customer (if you have more cash you can buy collections easier too).  Some stores go too far with discounts giving around 25% (factor in freight people and why should they save more than you make) and mail order can be even more but if you do a good middle ground discount or a tier discount to reward big money customers it will keep your best customers loyal.

2)  Offer pre-order discounts on graphic novels.  One of my high points is customer service, luckily for me most of my customers seem to dig what I like to read and I'm very friendly and helpful so for 10-15% off a $20-30 trade/hardcover a lot of my customers are willing to take my advice and also buy it from me.  Amazon and other e-tailers can be a real kick in the nuts offering 30-45% for the same thing and even with my excellent customer service I hear about people buying large runs of trades online compared to getting them from me for 15% off.  Imagine how much this happens if you want full cover price?  Making $5-8 on a $20 TP is better than making nothing... especially if you can lock in pre/reorders.  I don't stock a lot of the hit or miss TPs but I offer 15-20% off if people don't mind waiting a week or two.

3)  Focus on Back Issues!  Right now you can easily buy back issue collections (yeah I know most of it is 90's kack) for only 5 to 25 cents a book depending on the quality of the collection.  Also, the bigger the collection the less you pay per book.  If your like me you have boxes of collections you bought six months ago sitting around... now is the time to break them out and price them.  Also if you're smart about how much you pay you can have a killer $1 section... these are great for getting parents to get kids into comics as most of the older stuff is kid friendly + Marvel often has Marvel Adventure type books in their 50 cent sale lists which usually gets you something free so these are great for breathing life into the $1 stock with more current stuff.

Also it's a good idea to randomly throw in newer overstock that's three months old.  You know the deal on most new books... if you don't sell it within the first two weeks your probably never going to get cover price for it.  I had a pretty good system in mind that I didn't fully utilize but it went something like this... new books on one table; the two week old books on a second table; and then a third table for books 3-4 weeks old that were not regular titles or new titles, a long strip of pegboard holding comics that are 5-8 months old in mylars with tabs/hooks on the front of the counter (or on wall) which was very colorful and people could see the full cover (books that if people don't see they won't buy or ask about).  Everything keeps rotating to the right on a weekly basis, once the books get pushed off the pegboard they go right into a 50% off box or the $1 bin.  This keeps constant exposure for newer books and eventually/worse case scenario you get all or half your money back.

4)  To lessen losses on new books find a retailer trading buddy!  Of course if your a store like Comic World in Dubuque, IA this is hard to do because you are the only place in town.  All you need to do is promise to trade cover price for cover price and if you have 12 copies of Deadpool #1 and your trading friend needs some give him three copies and you have $12 store credit.  If you sell out of a lame comic like Robin and he unfortunately has three in stock you can get it promptly for a customer who wants it instead of ordering it from Diamond.  This also works good for filling back issue requests and filling wholes in sets.  Having issues #1, 3 and 4 of a 4-issue miniseries is hard to sell.  If you have all four you can bag them as a set or put the set on eBay.  You would be surprised how many times I went to another store to trade and they had 4-10 copies of the only issue I'm sold out of three weeks after it's out.  Of course he's more than happy to trade me 1-2 of them!  All you need is a spreadsheet with a running total and email it after a trade or make paper copies with signatures... it's not hard to figure out.  You can also keep a spreadsheet of customer want lists.  If you don't have a computer at your store that you work on constantly your doomed anyways.  Sure it's work but this can grow your business and cut losses, you want to do that right?

Hey, what can I say I like to waste my time at 3am -- typical comic dealer.  I hope some of you newer stores can find a little inspiration in this.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.