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Eric White
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 October 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1072
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 11:11am | IP Logged | 1
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I though X-Men #1 sold a 800k to a million copies. Does anyone have the sales chart from back then to confirm?
+++++
With all the variant covers, I think it did add up to 7 million sales or so.
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Martin Redmond
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 June 2006
Posts: 3882
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 11:28am | IP Logged | 2
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The only store in my town would keep longboxes full of X-Men #1 and various Image comics for "investment". None of the customers were allowed to buy any. They'd lie to us that the distributor didn't ship them enough because we were too far up north.
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Eric White
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 October 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1072
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 11:32am | IP Logged | 3
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During the whole Doomsday/Death of Superman thing, there were a couple of shops in my area that lied and said they didn't get any of those books in when they did....... and a few weeks later selling those issues for 10-20 times cover price.
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Jim Muir
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Joined: 26 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1387
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 11:41am | IP Logged | 4
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<<and a few weeks later selling those issues for 10-20 times cover
price.>>
Let's hope these were the stores that went under then.
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Donald Pfeffer
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Joined: 14 March 2009
Posts: 194
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 11:51am | IP Logged | 5
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I'm not a business expert, but I don't think anybody can point to any single event or trend that led to the downfall of the comic book market. It certainly wasn't Image's late (often to the point of being nonexistent) books, though I'm sure that didn't help much. I'm sure it was all the points previously mentioned in combination that led to a true Kobayashi Maru for the comic book industry.
However, I believe that the main reason so many comic book stores went under was because, frankly, they weren't any good. In the mid 90s it seemed like comic book stores were popping up all over American, some because short-sighted business types thought there would be money in it and some because comic book fans thought it would be fun to run one. A store run by a great business man who doesn't love (or at least understand) comics won't survive any longer than a store by a fanboy with zero business sense.
These days, it's hard to find a truly terrible comic book store. They still exist to be sure, but they are far more rare than they were a decade or so ago. I remember back in the day when you'd walk into an unfamiliar comic store and just... hope for the best. Sometimes "the best" would have to be settling for a bunch of comics dumped on a table while a few foul-smelling employees in dirty clothes sit behind the counter ignoring the customers.
So when people talk about how sad it was that so many comic book stores were forced out of business, well, I agree and disagree. It was bad for the industry to lose so many markets for selling comics and bringing customers, but I think that the worst of those stores cost the industry far more by driving people away. Most of those stores that went out of business deserved to go out of business.
Edited by Donald Pfeffer on 19 June 2009 at 11:52am
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Brad Danson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 May 2007
Posts: 1440
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 11:54am | IP Logged | 6
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QUOTE:
I though X-Men #1 sold a 800k to a million copies. Does anyone have the sales chart from back then to confirm?
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With all the variant covers, I think it did add up to 7 million sales or so. |
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7 Million was always the number I heard too.
I also heard 2 million for Spider-Man #1.
Over a million for X-Force #1.
I also think I heard that Spawn #1 was 1.8 million
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William Lukash
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 May 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1404
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 11:55am | IP Logged | 7
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I think what drove some of the comic shops out of business was that they got a giant wad of cash due to the speculator boom, blew it expecitng the slop trough to be full from here on out, or worse yet spent what they didn't have, and then got caught short of funds and had to fold. I can think of several local examples now that I think back on it.
Edited by William Lukash on 19 June 2009 at 11:57am
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Brad Danson
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Joined: 02 May 2007
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | 8
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QUOTE:
| However, I believe that the main reason so many comic book stores went under was because, frankly, they weren't any good. |
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C'mon now...the main reason so many stores went under is because the number of comics sold dropped. If overall sales dropped 50%, then it is a pretty good guess that half the stores would go out of business and that would have to include some good stores.
Now who or what caused the sales to inflate or drop is a different argument.
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Donald Pfeffer
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Joined: 14 March 2009
Posts: 194
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | 9
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The best comic shop I ever went to -- or at least the most pleasant -- was a place called Legends in Charlottesville, VA. The owner always remembered my name and greeted me with it when I came in, and would often recommend new books for me based on my past purchases. Also, and this is what I remember most, the employees all wore uniform green shirts with the store's logo and name tags. If more comic book stores had been like Legends, more would've stayed in business.
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Monte Gruhlke
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Joined: 03 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3299
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 12:02pm | IP Logged | 10
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I, for one, feel that while deadline discipline plays a big factor, the real decline of the comic book industry can be blamed on the rampant use of variant, holographic and foil covers of the early nineties.
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Donald Pfeffer
Byrne Robotics Member
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Posts: 194
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | 11
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QUOTE:
| C'mon now...the main reason so many stores went under is because the number of comics sold dropped. |
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And I'm arguing that one of the reasons why sales dropped was because so many stores sucked and drove customers away. Therefor, if so many stories hadn't been either unpleasant or poorly run, sales wouldn't have dropped as drastically as they did.
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Robert Oren
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Joined: 23 March 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1209
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| Posted: 19 June 2009 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | 12
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Image already has a history of not delivering the books
the retailers ordered.
++++++++++++
Wasn't it all those Image late books that caused so many comic shops to
go under in the 90's?
==
Not that I'm aware of.
your kidding me right?
Image was as big of a player in the downfall as anyone!!
you guys were the kings of the Diecut ,super foil pinup covers as anyone!!
The problem was you guys were treated like rockstars and loved it ...who wouldn't
But while you were posing for pictures you guys forgot one thing !!...you have to produce and you did not! plain and simple!
you guys spent half your time making pinups and posing for wizard! cause you sold there mag for them in the 90's..and they sold you to the public but when crap came out and the stuff was late or unreadable the person who fell for it was the comicshop owner and he paid the heavy cost!! he lost his store!!
Edited by Robert Oren on 19 June 2009 at 12:41pm
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Topic Closed)
