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DjJoe's Rants

Comics and Cards

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by
djjoe227
, 12/30/2011 at 05:58 AM (2255 Views)
I'm a comic book reader. I read comics every week, and I look forward to Wednesdays. This is what I do on my spare time.

Don't believe me? I'm going to even be in a podcast. As soon as we get it up, I'm the "Joe" you'll hear in the the comics section of the Geek Asylum Podcast. You should check it out anyway!


Anyway; I also play Pokemon. I've played Yugioh, Magic The Gathering, VS System, Battle Spirits, Bloodbowl, Munchkin, and a few other games that it's been so long I can not recall correctly.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, they were all in the same store. On top of that, it wasn't just one store- several stores.


Cards and comics go together. Like Peanut Butter and Jelly. Bonnie and Clyde. Jaws and the Jaws theme. It just works.

I say this because I had a lengthy discussion with one of my Comicshops and it's been on my mind.

Comics to me do two things for a store.

1) They're periodicals. They have no tax. Most places deal with the cards in cash, and to collect taxes on everything is going to be an utter pain. There's no way to tell how much you sold in Comics, so any extra unexpected income could just be written off to the periodicals.

2) They keep people in the store. If you have a wall of comics, or even an eye-catching stand, people will look at them. They'll pick them up, maybe thumb through one or two, or hopefully give you money for one. It's one of those things that parents of kids read, the bored friend or girlfriend look at, or the thing nerds like me talk about while in the store. It keeps people in the store, and naturally, while customers are inside a store, the likelihood of them making a purchase increases dramatically.


Cards and Games to me also do two things for a store.

1) They help keep a variety of interests throughout a store. They give that mysterious factor. While you can pick up a Comic book and thumb through, you have to buy and open a booster park to know what cards are inside. You have to sit down and play a game to know how it is. It generates an interest in the form of curiousity.


2) They get people in the store. Let's say there are three tables within view from the main entrance. There are two sets of two people at each. More than likely, someone who is walking by will get curious. They might walk in and ask ?What are they doing?". They might walk in and over and watch for a few moments.


So let's review- Games get people in the store, Comics keep them in the store. That's not to say it could be the other way around, but that's just usually how it goes.

Also, most people that I've noticed, do purchase both. Myself included.

To me, a Comic shop without cards or a Card store without the comics....it just doesn't seem right!
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  1. Prime's Avatar
    I was talking to my mom today how I felt by the time I have children, they won't know what a comic book is.

    I feel like the current generation has little interest in comics and it's mainly the last few generations buying them. The new comics have very little value and all the comic book stores have huge boxes of old comics that just sit in the store and don't sell.

    Kids are getting their entertainment from Video Games and Card Games and may only know of superheroes from Cartoons, Movies, or games.

    It's quite sad, because I'm a huge comic book fan.
  2. djjoe227's Avatar
    You know what was really saddening to me?

    I went to the store yesterday, but it was more of a sports store- sports cards, jerseys, signed balls....you know that material.

    Anyway, the thing that struck out the most? They're all old people. Not to knock them, I respect them, but out of the 9-10 guys there, only 2 seemed to be under 60, and even then those two were over 40.

    Where will this genre go in the coming years? Who's going to take the mantle?

    It's really scary that as kids and young adults, we know who Spider-man and Superman are from comic book pages. I was watching "The Challenge", which is a local high school Jeopardy-style game show. The question was asked "Which comic book production company is responsible for the creation of Superman, Batman...." and the kid said "Uh....Uh......Marvel?" and I wanted to die on the inside. It wasn't til after that it hit me- DC's movie just show the Logo. It's a small flash of the logo, and if you didn't know you could easily mistake them for another production company along the lines of Lionsgate, MGM, or 21stCenturyFOX. Marvel's movies, however, all start with a small animation of the Marvel logo, over a flipbook of Marvel comics pages; it makes it a little tougher to make such a mistake.
  3. Prime's Avatar
    I play Heroclix at a comic book store every Friday. I've noticed the customers coming in each week to pick up their weekly picks. It's all 30-45 year old men. It's 20-30 years ago, during the 80-90s when comics were blowing up, that these people were teens reading them. Now, they are still diehard fans. I was reading during the 90s but it was on the decline and publishers were trying to manufacture excitement with events like Superman's death and the Breaking of the Bat. Still, I'm a big fan now.
  4. djjoe227's Avatar
    I actually went to a different store later that evening and was talking about Heroclix. I got two boosters of the Hulk set, and I'm going to go back Friday/Saturday for open play. I don't know how to play at all at the moment though.
  5. Prime's Avatar
    I love Heroclix. It's cool to see some of the current or recently past storylines made into Heroclix figures. It plays like chess with a bunch of abilities. Hope you like it.
  6. djjoe227's Avatar
    Sounds like it. Do you have any older figures for trade? I was hoping to jump in when there's a regular Spider-man or Captain America figure I could easily get my hands on.

    Out of the two boosters I got, the rares were Doc Samson and Red Hulk, and I also got the AI Marine Hulk in one of them.