Phil Prasco of Towards 2112 Comic Books in Channelview, Texas has been following the ongoing debate on Previews (see 'Marvel Adds Previews Supplement') and has this to add:

Again, more thoughts on Previews.

The idea of charging a fee for a catalog actually puzzles me.  Why would I want to charge a fee for the advertising that brings business into my doors???  Why?  Because someone will pay for it.  It will help defray my overhead (i.e. it will put more money on the bottom line).  Net profit is the bottom line.

I run an auto parts store by day, lurking in the bowels of comic book world after 5pm daily and ALL weekend long.  Running the parts store has actually helped me figure out why I never made more money than I have selling comic books, my life's love, next of course to my family.  I understand P&L statements, I argue with my superiors over controllable expenses, inventory, payroll, etc.  If it has a penny attached to it in some way or other, I've haggled over it.  This year my dinky little company auto parts in a one horse Texas town will pull in $2 million in sales.

I've applied that knowledge to my activity in the comic book business with a modicum of success.  NO, I'm not very well known in the big terms of Wizard, Comics Buyers Guide, Previews, or any other of the 'big time' venues, but I've been able to make a nice subsidiary living of late selling smarter, not harder.

BUT, if I could figure out a way for my customers to pick up my advertising costs without their actually knowing it, after all, I'm not hiding the common sense factor that my catalog IS defacto, advertising.  And what if I could get the manufactures of the products or services in my catalog to PAY for special placement or a 'SPOTLIGHT' in the catalog.  If you want the front inside cover for a special promo, it will cost you $X.XX, back cover, $X.XX.  I have absolutely no idea what a 200 page catalog costs to produce, it would appear judging by recent prices of comic books at around 30 pages, that a 200 page catalog costs about the same to produce.  That is, some comic books cost around $4, and Previews costs around $4, hmmm...  I just noticed that Wizard cost around $5.....hmmmm .  Gareb must be pretty good at selling advertising space.

The way I see it, if your customers want to pay for the Previews, keep supplying it to them, at their cost, with a smile on your face.  If they don't wish to pay for a copy, supply a counter copy to peruse.  I wouldn't discount it at all, as it is a form of your advertising, that is it advertises the products coming into your shop.  If your customers want a home copy...  charge appropriately.  Giving free copies to subscribers is a bit murkier from the business standpoint.  We'll discuss profit margins in a little while...