John Jelley of Pyrimid Comics & Games in Sierra Vista, Arizona saw our story on Topps shutting down WizKids (see “Topps Shuts Down WizKids”) and had these comments on the economy and its impact on sales in comics and game stores. 

As we all tighten our belts and look to what tomorrow will bring to our market, the carnage begins.

As the mergers and buyouts of the 90s have shown us, the corporate talking heads have started to drop the axe upon what they feel are their less profitable ventures.  Who will be next?  What does the future hold for the gaming industry? What company will be the next to chop its own foot off just to save its legs.  Rumors of Hasbro doing the same have been floating around since the cuts in staff at WotC and TSR.

These are the times that we live in and the next year will be the test for most businesses.  I have already seen the market harm many a business and even shut the doors of others.  Those of us who survive will be the stronger for it.  As with the fall of comics in the 90s, I witnessed many comic shops and studios close their doors due to poor management, bad decisions, over-extended credit, and just bad luck.

We now have decisions to make, to move forward and to be here in another ten years.  We do not need to stock everything that comes out, buy deeply in to new products, hold on to bad products hoping someone will eventually come through the doors looking for that item covered in a half inch of dust that has been sitting on the same shelf for the past 5 years.

Now is the time to make sure we do the right thing, and here is my proposal for what lies ahead.

Never order hoping the items will sell, order what you know will sell and when that happens order more if you have a need for more.  My first rule in ordering, "you can always reorder, you can never return."

Only order what you can afford, never buy on credit or terms, eventually it will bite you in the butt.

Do not be afraid to have a sale to make money for upcoming product releases.  If you have product sitting on the shelves and no money to pay for the next wave of new products you will lose sales to the guy down the street who has that new product.  Every year we have our anniversary sale at the end of October, 50% off everything in the store. "That’s crazy," everyone always tells me.  Well this year we made 11K in one day, and got rid of a whole bunch of stuff that has been sitting around that probably would have been here for the next couple of years.  Yes we take a loss on some things, but I have 11K in the bank to make sure I have plenty of money for all the products that will be coming out before Xmas. 

So here we have it, our livelihood is threatened and the government is not coming to help us.  Most likely they will becoming to pick our pockets some more, and we will have to take it and keep trying to make a living.

I see only opportunities in this market, it keeps me lean and on my toes.  Unlike most others in business I see this as a chance to shine, to make my customers realize that we have more to offer than the big box stores, to make them want to do business with us now and in the future.

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