“Subscription Service”, “Pull Box”, “Your File”…etc…etc.  There are a dozen names for how a comic book store will hold your comics.  Oh yeah, “Hold Box” is another term that’s frequently used.  Some stores don’t even have this service.  It’s hard to believe there are places where you can call and say, “Hey!  I’ll be by in 3 hours to pick up Batman 13.  Can you hold it for me?”

And the owner will say, “No way man.  We don’t hold books period.  Good luck getting here in time while there are still issues on the shelf…suckaaaaaa!!!”  Well…maybe not in such a snarky tone but there are stores whose business model decrees that they never hold books.  After all, if you don’t hold a book then you can’t be stuck with a book.

So what do I mean by “stuck with a book”?  Here’s the nuts and bolts comic retail back story on how comic sales work.  Proceed with caution:

When a comic book comes out and hits the shelves it basically has a “shelf” life.  The shelf life can be determined by how long it takes for the book to stop selling and start just sitting there gathering dust, forlornly staring up at you pleading for someone to buy it.  For example, when a brand new comic comes out I can usually sell about 80% of it the first week, 10% of it the second week, 5% the third week, and 2% the fourth week.  After a month the book just gets dumped in the back issue bins or blown out to a flea market dealer.  These numbers vary of course…some books can sell for months and others are pretty much done after the first week.

So what happens when a file customer secretly decides to just stop getting his books?  A month will go by…maybe two…and after calling and e-mailing we finally blow out his file.  But what do we have?  A file full of books that are beyond the 4 week selling margin.  A bunch of “dead books” that I’m now stuck with.  Wasted useless inventory that I’ve got money invested in.