Everyone's Ethics

You have probably heard all about the All Star Batman & Robin #10 scandal, but if you haven't I'll summarize. There were some bad words in the word balloons. The words were shaded out, but not well enough. Some of the misprinted comics were accidentally sent to comic book stores. Stores were to destroy them if they received them. But yet there were copies being sold on eBay, and for big money too. The picture is one page, and you can head here to LITG for some others. Rich also gives you the exact words in the panel.

In today's LITG Rich gives us some names of retailers who sold copies of this comic book: "Some put them on eBay, either obscuring exactly who the seller or was, or being totally blatant about it. Such as Comix Central in Canada, Warp 9 Comics in Michigan or Empyre Comics in Maryland." There are 85 currently listed on eBay right now. These are all being sold by comic book retailers, or from customers of those retailers who bought a book they shouldn't have been sold. Many of the retailers have disguised themselves so that Diamond and DC won't know who they are. However, I do think that Diamond should at least know who they sold copies to and who has not returned them or returned all of them, and I hope they take some action. This type of thing is unethical, and it disappoints me. Fellow retailer Brian Hibbs also shares is disappointment in these actions on his blog. Read it, it's quite good and spells out very clearly with some profanity just why this kind of behavior is bad news.

You know what else is unethical? That DC's editor for this comic book didn't have these words removed from the beginning. Also, that Frank Miller isn't clever enough to write the story without using excessive bad language. Why the word Cunt? He couldn't come up with anything else? This comic book story is filled with mysogoney anyway, but this just takes it to a whole new level.

This whole situation makes me mad because it makes the comic book industry look bad. The series isn't great and Millar shouldn't be allowed to use the language he did. They black it out anyway, right? Or at least try to. It shows the greed and opportunistic nature of retailers who, rather than doing what's right, go for the cash grab. And what about those that feel the need to spend excessive amounts of money to purchase the issue in question? What's wrong with you? Don't you have anything better to spend your money on? If that's the case how about donating some to the Neptune Comics moving-the-store fund. t least you'd be investing in something that makes money. And this isn't just some little thing that was kept within our comic book community. It's been a story across the country, thanks to the Drudge Report breaking it.

In light of this event and because of the actions of some unethical retailers, ComicsPRO has been discussing the establishment of a Code of Ethics for their members. I say it's about time. Although I do believe that most members are ethical and wouldn't participate in this, there are some that may have. Sure, it can be hard to resist making $50 + on one comic book, I get that. But those of us that agree that these kind of actions are not best practices should establish and agree upon a code of ethics that we can be proud of as retailers. If we want the general public, distributors, publishers, and the media to take us seriously we can't behave like used car salesmen! And those of us who want better for the comic book community shouldn't stand by and let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

An Empty Box

What would you pay for a box? Yes, an empty box

What if it was a Harry Potter Deathly Hallows box? Yes, still empty.

One person I found paid $13.50 + $7.99 shipping. And my guess is that this is the same person who had to buy their hard cover Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hard cover from Target or Wal-Mart or Amazon.com because they all had them for 50% off the cover price. Yet, they were willing to dish out $21.49 for an EMPTY Harry Potter shipment box. Of course I have no proof of this.

But, you could dumpster dive behind my store in our recycling bin and get yourself a couple for free.

Buyer Beware!

Another retailer discovered this guy's eBay scam and alerted eBay. The seller has since had his account shut down there.

Basically, it looks like he bought those "40-Years Of..." DVD's that are available for a variety of Marvel characters. Then he was printing them out "on super-white paper" he even admits, and was selling them as "reprints" of the issues. He even got one guy to bite - paying $28 + shipping. It's an interesting way to raise money to pay for the DVD, but it also violates copyrights. And WHO would actually buy this? Did the guy not realize it was just something the seller was printing out at home on his computer and putting into pocket pages and a binder??

WOW! This gets a big Buyer Beware in my book!

Ebay - friend or foe?

Sure, I’ve sold some things on EBay. And yes, I’ve gotten some great deals there too. But lately I’ve found myself feeling guilty about all of it. Why? Because I’m starting to see some things about EBay that I think hurt the comics industry.

Sometimes people put things on EBay and include misinformation in order to try to get people to spend more money on an item that what it’s really worth. They’ll use phrases like “ultra rare” or “sure to go up in value” to catch the eye. These phrases often get people to buy into a hype and myth that, for the most part, doesn’t exist in comics today. When I was a stock broker we would get fired in a second and banned from the industry if we EVER told anyone something was “sure to go up in value.” The only guarantee in life that I know of is that we’ll all die some day. Based on what happened in the 1990’s I would not recommend to anyone to spend $40 on a comic book primarily because someone told them that it was “sure to go up in value.” I’ll make a guarantee on that $40 book, there’s a better than 90% chance that it won’t. Buy it because you like it, or because it completes your collection. Don’t buy it because you want to retire on it some day. If you read my post from last week on worthless comics, you can see how modern comics best value is the entertainment they provide, not how much you can get for them later.

What gets me even madder is when these “padded” claims become bold-faced lies. Take this listing for example: http://cgi.ebay.com/HOUSE-OF-M-1-CONVENTION-VARIANT-JOE-MAD-1-300-NM_W0QQitemZ6552498135QQcategoryZ99946QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
If it doesn’t come up, go to EBay and search for: House of M Convention. Just about any of the high priced ones will make the claim that these are “one per store” or something similar. Well, it’s NOT true and all stores should know it by now. We were notified by Marvel yesterday and by the big distributor “Diamond today. Hopefully it will be on Newsarama.com and IC2V.com soon as well. Because I’ve seen these bids - $40 and up on some copies. But the truth is that every store can order up to 20 of these, we got one as a “teaser” for free and by the end of the month there could very well be 60 thousand more out there. That’s more than some regular comic print runs I think. Sure, it’s a “special” cover and so it might be more “valuable” than the regular cover, but sincerely, there’s no guarantee of that. And here are these Ebayers selling them under false pretense before the news hits regarding the actual amount of these that will show up at the end of the month. People bid trusting that this information is accurate. But it’s not. I know it, and now you do too. But these bidders are being misled. Sure, it’s buyer-beware. If you bid on something because you believe the “sure to go up in value” line then maybe you need to learn your lesson the hard way. But these people will have a bad experience with the comic book industry and they’ll remember it. They’ll tell others about it, and it makes us ALL look bad. I even considered putting our copy on eBay, but listing it with the TRUTH, knowing it probably won’t sell for much, but that hopefully it would get the word out to other bidders about this comic book.

EBay also damages values in the opposite direction. I can actually buy certain toys and games on EBay for less than my cost from the distributor. Either people have stolen them, somehow got them SUPER cheap, or don’t care that they’re actually loosing money on them. Truth is people will pay the SRP on many of these items. However, if they can find them for ½ of that, why not save the money right? Always include shipping in the costs though, because by the time you factor that in often you are paying more in total for the item than if you bought it for SRP in a local store. I can’t tell you how many people come in telling me about the great deal they got on something on EBay and then when they tell me the cost of shipping I politely point out that they’d have paid less if they bought it from me. For whatever reason people don’t look at shipping costs when they think about what they paid for an EBay item, even though it still came out of their pocket. Regardless, weather the value is perceived or actual, it hurts those of us who can’t afford to make little or no money on these items because we actually have four walls, a roof, lights etc that factor into our costs of doing business. These undervalued toys and games make it hard for brick-and-mortar stores like mine to sell what we have in-stock, making it harder to have a viable business. We’ve seriously discussed not carrying certain games and any action figures in-stock because we can’t afford to “waste” that kind of money. For figures sitting on the floor, I benefit more from donating them to a charity and tax-deducting them at full-price than I am selling them for the prices people sell them on EBay.

Then there’s the places that buy mass amounts of a comic so that they can get a variant cover or toy or something. They make a PREMIUM for these variants and sell the regular issue comic for next to nothing. If there was a world without variant covers, I’d be SO happy. Sure, I can make extra money on them, but I fell like it somehow devalues the work inside, the actual comic book. Then you’ve got these eBay nuts listing the variants as “sure to go up in value” and “extra special” and “ultra rare” but they don’t tell you anything about the awesome story that unfolds inside the cover. In the end, comics won’t last if all they are is a collection of variant covers without something good on the inside. And I get stuck with people from all over town trying to get a variant from us, who have never shopped here before and won’t pick up anything else but this variant, while a stack of the “plain cover” comic sit and sit, quality story going to waste. Many comics retailers are trying to work on having more people realize there’s actually a story and art inside these things, something full of fun and enjoyment, rather than just something to collect. We know that’s the only way for the industry to flourish. But some of these eBay stores do just the opposite, and they can do it on a far more global scale than I can sitting here in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Sure, we have an eBay store too, but the items there are sold for the same price or very close to it as what we sell them for in the store, with no false claims attached.

I don’t blame people for getting a good deal on something. As I said, I do it myself from time to time. But I also like to shop for things in brick-an-mortar stores: I can see it, hold it, ask questions about it, and take it home with me right then and there knowing what I’ve got. Sure, I might pay more for that convenience, but it’s worth it to me. Who wants to shop in a world of Wal-Mart stores, grocery stores (of which there doesn’t seem to be a low-priced on-line alternative yet), and internet café’s where you do the rest of your shopping? Not me.