Hello everyone. Hope everyone had a happy holiday. 

I just received an email from my local comic book shop. Each month it's the same. The email showcases the comics that are coming out soon. 

But for each book they showcase, they have a 5-star rating system. Some books are rated high, some low. There is also mini-reviews about why the books are good, great, or bad.

Why would you do this? Why say that the product you want to sell is not all that good? What you think is a lousy comic could be the greatest comic to the next guy. 

Comic shops are in the business of selling comics, not bad mouth them.

Why would I even want to come into their shop when they tell me this months comics are crap?  

I don't get it. Thoughts?

I don't get it, either, William... And I am a comic book dealer who has owned a comic book shop.

When I was a youngster, the then-only comic shop in my town had a paper on the wall where the new comics were placed. The paper had a list of the new comics that were out that week, and beside most titles was a comment about the book. The person writing these lists was a DC fan, and so usually had some snarky comment about Marvel's titles. I liked both Marvel and DC, but leaned more toward Marvel. I actually got a kick out of his comments, yet I recognized it wasn't good business. People more sensitive than me might be offeneded, and newcomers might be put off entirely.

For the record, I never make any negative remarks about anything my customers purchased. Not only is it bad business (and that should be common sense to any seller), but I also respect that we all have our own tastes. I also would not allow anyone associated with my shop to badmouth any product around customers.

The very height of professionalism.

After the falling out I had with them, I went back a few years later, having exhausted all other avenues to find a particular back issue. I wanted to see if it were possible for me to simply go in, buy a comic, and leave without all of the attendant drama. The owner shadowed me through the store, criss-crossing my path, and when I said hello and asked how he was doing, he wanted to share some elaborate tale of how his life had gone to hell. While I was glad that it had (couldn't happen to a nicer guy,) I did not pursue the conversation, simply saying I was sorry to hear that and moving on. 

Apparently, the only way the staff could bring themselves to ring me up at all was for the ones I knew to leave the front room and retreat unseen to the stockroom while a new kid ran the register. I would imagine there was much discussion after I left.

I walked around him and was subsequently shoved out of the store and out onto the sidewalk where he publicly tried to pick a fight with me, shouting now about how fair his prices were. I think he saw it as an advertising opportunity. 

Yeah, call me crazy, but I haven't been back. Dunno why.

Contrast that with another local store, that I no longer give business to, which wouldn't even bother to check if they had JB's Amazing Spider-Man run because "It wasn't any good" and "He's sucked since he left Fantastic Four". This was around 2001 when I got back into comics after quitting them around 1995. A customer comes off the street and wants to buy a book and the owner (?!?!?!) can't be bothered to sell it due to his personal opinion.

So I work at a friend's shop a couple of nights a week some 15+ years ago. (Lab Rats was coming out, if that helps date it.) Anyway, one of my jobs was to write reviews for the comics we would put on the shelves. I couldn't do this for every book. But it was just a short paragraph that I would tape to the front of the shelf.

For the most part, I can't remember putting out any bad reviews. I think I stuck with good reviews to help drive sales. Though, if someone asked me about disliking something (and only if they asked) I would always be honest with why something wasn't for me. Much of that came from my first job in retail clothing.  I would not want someone walking out of my shop with a purchase that they may later regret. 

Comics are a tough business because ordering involves a lot of guess work. But, the more we get to know our customers, and their likes and dislikes, the more I could help steer them to things they would enjoy, and the happier they would be to come back.

"then the clerk pulls out a copy of Overstreet to price out each and every book while you stand at the counter."

Once or twice a year, I had to go through all of our bins and price EVERYTHING.  My god, I wish we had thought of that practice. Or just put a store copy of the book out that we would use so anyone could check for themselves before they got to the counter. Really though, I get what you are saying and about wanting to know the price up front.  It is a fair request and if the act made customers happier, then I am glad we did it.  After all, I am sure nobody complained because they were there.

In retrospect, we really didn't make money off of back issues.  At least we weren't making enough on the volume moved each month to the real estate the books took up in the store. It got to the point that the goal was zero overstock. Any extra stock we had after about four months automatically moved to the dollar bin where the price dropped to a dollar. If we were short on a book, we would call around to other stores in the area and make trades, or just buy something for our customer so we could meet their needs.