
Why are comics shops closing as superheroes make a mint? - ilamont
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/26/why-are-comics-shops-closing-superheroes-avengers-endgame
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Cheyana
There are too many comics, all the stories have been done, it could be any
number of reasons. Price is also probably a consideration for a consumer. When
I started collecting as a kid in the 70s, I could get a pile of comics with my
weekly allowance. A pile of comics now (each of which have less pages) will
run you anywhere from 20 to 30 dollars or more, and I don't know of too many
10 year olds that have that kind of weekly disposable income.

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gnat
> One of the unique challenges in comics is the monthly gamble on what will
> sell. Comics released every few weeks, as opposed to the collected editions
> available in bookshops or on Amazon, aren’t returnable; with 600 to 1,000
> such items published every month, stores must make educated guesses or be
> stuck with their mistakes. At OK Comics, 90% of what Myland gets in are pre-
> orders, with the rest put on shelves for casual customers. “Smart retailers
> would rather under- than over-order,” he says

Ouch. Returns make things hard for the publishers, so I understand removing
them for a diverse catalog of small cheap publications which will be replaced
by a collection in a known period of time. But yeah, that really does make
them very unattractive for retailers.

