Consignment is a Con

As publisher, I generally do not sell my comics on consignment. The only exception is if it’s some sort of community/collective art store that only deals in consignment. However, in regular stores that buy products wholesale, no I won’t put my product at that kind of disadvantage. Sure, some people might say, “But you make more money from consignment, why would you wholesale and make 50% of the cover price when you could make 80% by selling on consignment?”

Well, what kind of effort is a comic shop owner going to put into selling my comic if they are only making 80 cents per issue sold? Especially if he’s making around $2.50 from the sale of a Batman comic? It’s not worth their effort to actively try and sell a comic on consignment and it most likely will end up languishing in some dusty corner out of mind of the comic shop owner and customer alike. Australian comics are already at a disadvantage against imported comics; its hard to compete with the internet coverage, colour covers, colour interiors and recognised creators. Australian creators need good comic shops to help sell their comics, or at least point them out to comic buyers - and we won’t get that for an 80 cent return.

Secondly, it’s a matter of principal, Australian comics are just as good as imported comics; selling by consignment means that there is some returnability of product. That’s pretty much admitting defeat before the comic even hits the stand, that’s pretty much saying “yeah, this comic doesn’t have much chance in selling, thanks for doing me a favour Comic Shop Guy”. No. It’s the comic shop that is making the profit, more so than the creator. Its up to the comic shop owner to gauge their customers and make an order of how many copies of a particular title they can sell. If an owner believes that a particular title won’t sell in their store then they shouldn’t order it – just like when they order through Previews; they make a conscious decision on how many copies of Xmen, Bleach or Optic Nerve they order based on the buying habits of their audience. It should be the same with locally produced comics.

Dealing with consignment, just causes more headaches for the creator and retailer alike. At regular intervals, like every three months, the creator has to visit, ring or email the retailer with questions of ‘how many sold?’ The retailer then has to find the comic, count how many issues have been sold and get back to the creator, then cheques have to be written and sent. That’s a lot of work for 80 cents return, especially if the stamp costs 50 cents, the envelope 10 cents, the phone call 22 cents, the cheque etc etc. Retailers like consignment because it means less risk, but that’s short term thinking - consignment also means a lot of work for a diminished return. And diminished returns are dumb.