Projections — 6/20/2014

Welcome back everyone. Things are humming along.
Some good news for toy collectors. Hasbro is allowing us to order individual figures from their various lines. So instead of ordering a whole case to get that one figure you want we can just order the one figure. I have already ordered Boba Fetts from their Star Wars line along with Jabba the Hutt and Biker Scout with speedster for the store. Some AIM figures from their Captain America series and the Superior Spiderman from their Marvel Legends Spiderman line. If there are any single figures you are interested in just let us know.
Before I opened Rodman Comics I used to hunt for action figures. The G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary figures were very popular. I liked them sense they were updates of the G.I. Joes I had as a kid. Star Wars action figures along with the various superhero actions figures were quite sought after. I used to drive to Pella even hunting down action figures. Currently the big retailers seem to hardly carry any action figures surprisingly enough. The G.I. Joe line turned to making figures from the movie which really hurt its popularity. Stopping by a big retailer for action figures now is mostly a big waste of time.
Though as one of my customers pointed out the figures that Hasbro is offering individually to comic stores currently have been out awhile already.
Marvel’s Original Sin event crossover is actually picking up more readers. Issue 0 sold out for us. Marvel has actually had issues available for reordering of the main title along with the various crossover issue which is usually rare when it comes to Marvel.
Next week Superman 32 arrives! The start of the new story arc Man of Tomorrow by Geoff Johns and John Romita Jr. Geoff Johns Action Comics run is one of my favorite storylines. Looking forward to seeing how he does on the main title. Hats off to DC for not starting Superman over with a first issue. Marvel would have done a renumbering faster than the Thing can say it’s Clobbering Time. I keep stressing I need customers to want to pick up comics issue to issue not just first issues.
DC’s two weekly titles Batman Eternal and Future’s End does a great job of getting customers into the habit of coming in weekly.
In the biggest surprise this week I have had various people suggest I should run the store solo. No employees just me. Even suggestions of reducing hours at the store so I can just do it myself. Not sure what is going on. Granted it would be an expense eliminated. If there is a legit issue please let me know. I say legit because no the customer is not always right. Some times when ringing up customers at the cash register and there are a lot of products being scanned in someone (and I mean just one person in all years I have been open) will complain about the beeping it makes when it scans and they aren’t even in line. That beeping is music to my ears since that means sales. So that customer will have to put up with it or shop elsewhere.
Or the customer who thinks everything should be discounted. Or even better the customer who thinks I should match any price. Even online prices. I just roll my eyes and think yeah so if I sell everything for a dollar do you think there is a store out there that will match it?
Again if there is a legit issue let me know. I am usually at the store after 6 on the weekdays if you want to talk. Or feel free to send an email since I am the only one with access to it. Sadly I can not play Undercover Boss. The biggest drawback to truly being solo would be new comics on Wednesdays. Would people actually wait till 5:30 to pick them up? That might be pushing it to much. And though I have never missed working here when sick therecould be a point when I might not be able to make it in. I have been late due to being sick but never missed a shift I was suppose to work.
And if I was solo I would do away with all the gaming. Yes, all of it. Sales wise it makes more sense not to have it. When I was at the summit in Vegas and talking with other retailers they agreed with me. Having gaming at the store did not lead to an increase in sales. One store said he simply stopped doing any gaming and made more money by not having to deal with running games. Another said he has never ran any heroclix games since he would have to buy the prize support and sees no advantages to running heroclix games. Magic he says he has toyed with the idea since their prize support is free. But still sees it as a drain on manpower if he would go through with it. Of all the stores there that I talked to all but one have been open years longer than I have.
People will either buy the product because they want it or won’t. Prizes teaches people to come to stores for just the prizes.
So yes business wise I debate about keeping the gaming.
The War of Light Heroclix event starts off this Saturday for Heroclixs. In true heroclix fashion I was told I can not get anymore in till month three and then this tuesday I was told I can order more. Now get this. The reorders are tied into how much prize support a store received. For instance if a store only received one prize kit they are pretty much shafted. But since I ordered a lot of prize support I can get cases of War of Light in. So the poor stores who had no idea there would be future offerings of boosters that would be tied into how much prize support they bought get the shaft if they only bought one or two kits.
Wizkids who makes heroclixs needs to pick a direction and stick with it. The Fear Itself Event was much to different than the AVX event. War of Light is much closer to Fear Itself but Wizkids keeps hyping order more we most likely will not have any for months five and six so make sure to have boosters on hand! Most likely? So you don’t really know? Such as when Fear Itself was over and stores were not suppose to sell left over stock of it because the thought of unsold Fear Itself boosters never crossed Wizkids mind? Then months later it was ok.
Part of the problem is Wizkids never talks directly to the retailers who carry their product. Granted after they shafted the stores with prize support that was canceled on the day of release they most likely didn’t want to here how angry retailers were. Meaning stores have to order x amount to get one prize kit. Higher x amount for two prize kits. And higher x amount for three prize kids. And then the day we received our orders no kits. There is no way Wizkids didn’t know there would be no prize kids beforehand.
Now that the business part of me has gotten that out of my system let us get to the fanboy part.
War of Light is starts this Saturday at 4! Who will win? How many Power Batteries will I have left? Who will pull a chase? Who all will win Larfleeze? Who will be the points leader for the march for Nekron?
With all the fuss about the upcoming Ant Man movie being able to hit its release date after its original director left….. who remembers that Marvel moved it up to Superman vs Batman’s original release date was announced just to thumb their noses at Warner? Whoops.
Rodman Comics, we are here for all you comic collecting needs!