This is probably the busiest August Walkin' Willie's Comix has had in a long while. Dragon*Con is only 21 days away (that's 23 days for attendees) and it has become our biggest show of the year. Obviously, a large amount of time will be spent preparing for that extravaganza - that show has really grown a ton over the last few years. There are not a whole lot of comic dealers there which is a shame. All the bigtime dealers used to come to Dragon*Con back in the late 1980's through the early 1990's. Now it has become more Sci-Fi and Fantasy oriented with only around seven or eight comic dealers there. Comic dealers that do well at Dragon*Con have merchandise with low price points - folks will buy bargain bin books, $10 (or less) Silver and Bronze age and discount trades. They will not buy $5000 CGC books.
Secondly, we are ratcheting up our inventory over at our eCrater store with literally hundreds of discount books loaded up in the past month. We will start putting up some old stuff this week - there is a little up there but not near enough. Basically, our Walkin' Willie's Comix eCrater store will have (and already has) a ton of single issues WAY below price guide prices. There are still some trades and hardcovers there but they will be moving to our own Walkin' Willie's Comix website website at www.wwillie.com
We are throwing a ton onto eBay as well. eBay is not the huge elephant in the room it once was but it still gets a ton of eyeballs and we are hoping we can move some of those eyeballs to our eCrater store and our own website. We have twenty auctions ending starting tonight and finishing tomorrow night and twenty more for next week (although that number will grow today). eBay used to be our main revenue stream but not anymore - too many other sales channels with better profit margins EVEN selling at steep discounts. eBay is now much, much better for BUYING than SELLING - you can really get some bargains there now.
Our long term strategy is to do shows for about five more years and then hopefully, we have developed the online relationships with customers to stay just online only after that. Maybe do a couple of shows with one table or booth once in awhile but mainly attend shows to BUY merchandise.
It's extremely busy around Walkin' Willie's Comix right now but that's a good thing....
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