Marcus King of Titan Games & Music in Kalamazoo, Michigan read Joe Crocker's recent comments regarding the minimums for DC's upcoming The Flash and Green Lantern ring promotions (see "Jim Crocker of Modern Myths, LLC on Promotion Minimums") and had this to say:
 
I would have to agree with Jim Crocker in his response about promotions needing to have a reasonable minimum number for retailers to qualify.

The recent "rings" promotions from DC offered retailers the opportunity to pay for promotional items--as long as those retailers hit minimum order quantities ranging from 25 to 50 copies of a given comics issue.  Our bestselling title during this promotion was able to move just 16 copies--this was the Green Lantern title.  Because many of our titles sell in the 6 to 10 range, we did not participate in this promotion at all--and so, neither did our customers.

I guess that doesn't make me a "real" comic shop owner, but I go through the motions like others--doing weekly FOC (Final Order Cutoff), monthly Previews orders, weekly inventory counts, reorders and pulls when the comics come in.  Every year we participate in FCBD in a big way and every month we add new customers.  But it is an uphill battle here in Michigan.  We have lost our three best comic subscribers this past year to online discounters offering 20% OFF on comic pulls.

At some point, perhaps, we will pull the plug on our new comics.  Currently we look at them as loss leaders for our massive selection of back issue comics (we have over 50,000 back issues at $1 each).  IMO, that makes my stores comic shops.

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.