Starting a comic book store - in India

[ThomasSchiff]

Hey there,

I've been a long time 'loomer' of CBR and the various discussions.. its has been extremely educating and fun but for some reason, I never felt like I had anything worthwhile to contribute.. hence the "new member" tag..

Now, getting to the point -
I am from India. We do not have a proper comic book store (online or brick & mortar). DC or Marvel do not have licensed retailers in India (based on a little research I have done). The monthly paperbacks are extremely rare to find in book shops. Online retailers do however sell graphic novels by the dozen. This creates a very difficult scenario for the fanboys of the country (and yes there are a ton of them). We subscribe to comics from the US - but the trouble with that is we have to wait close to a month (and a half?!) to receive our monthly comics. Lack of an Indian store also creates problems in trading or collecting. Variant covers and owning them are like dreams for us.

So a couple of us fans have gotten together and started working towards starting a proper comic book store (this will be online to begin with and once we start making a little money, we will open an offline store as well). We want to start with exclusive DC stuff first. While we have figured out the details like shipping, customs, taxes, etc. we are kinda stuck wrt to finding the correct person to speak to about sourcing the comics. One of our team members is based out of Chicago and has been trying to get in touch with DC, Wbshop, WHVdirect, etc. but hasnt been able to get any leads. So this is where I seek help and advise.

We would like to speak to someone who can help us getting details of -

How do we register as partners with DC/WB wherein we get priority and/or exclusive retail rights in India?

What kind of orders can we start with? How much margins can we expect?

Timelines are something we want to focus on - we want to get the comic books to the subscribers within as few days as possible from the day it is released in US : How can we work this out?

We would be positively thrilled and grateful to anyone who can point us in the right direction. We are doing this mostly out of our love for comic books. But also, few things are better than owning a comic book store. :)

PS: If I've posted this in the wrong forum, I apologize in advance.

[Mahzian]

First of all best of luck with your endeavour, it sounds like you are really pioneering comics in an area that hasn't had any exposure which is to be applauded.

From what I understand you really only have one option when it comes to stock these days and that is Diamond Comics http://www.diamondcomics.com

These guys supply pretty much the world's comic stores with stock ranging from comics to action figures to t-shirts (besides direct subscriptions to publishers that people may have).

Last time I checked they have a minimum order amount each month (this was years ago and then it was a few thousand dollars per month).

They bring out a catalogue each month called Previews (which is really thick) listing all the upcoming comics in 2-3 months time, you need to order within a few weeks and in 2-3 months time you receive the stock.

I'm in Australia and we receive stock the same day as the US, but this would also depend on your local shipping options, I guess what I'm saying is there doesn't seem to be a lag from the distributor.

Let us know how you go!

[FHIZ]

From what I understand you really only have one option when it comes to stock these days and that is Diamond Comics http://www.diamondcomics.com

Are they the world's supply, or just North America?

[Mahzian]

Are they the world's supply, or just North America?

They are the only western comic supplier that I'm aware of (that deal with direct editions from DC/Marvel), there used to be a company called Capital Comics which did the same but they folded in the early naughties.

There might be localised printers who deal to retailers though (I know we have one here in Australia who supplies to newsagents but they are overpriced reprints)

This might be helpful: http://retailer.diamondcomics.com/Home/1/1/28/227

[Kymeric]

Yeah youll have to go through Diamond Distributing. If that dosent work you could always do a resell buisness where you buy them independantly from sellers in america then resell them on your shelves in india. I think that would only be governed by local laws on second hand imports.

[DrSimonHurt]

I'm afraid you would have to set up a person in the west to buy the diamond goods and then resell them to you, which would probably double or triple the costs. You would be paying for customs and handling. Not to mention the amount of damage to the stock.

That said, I'm always rooting for India. I want to see India gain a lot of these things we have. I really hope you can figure out a solution.

I think it really comes down to what Diamond is willing to do for you.

[Mr. Holmes]

I'm afraid you would have to set up a person in the west to buy the diamond goods and then resell them to you, which would probably double or triple the costs. You would be paying for customs and handling. Not to mention the amount of damage to the stock.

If this is true, it's probably not worth it. From what I remember in India, European comics like Astrix as well as India's own comics are much more popular than what DC and Marvel have.

[zryson]

Hi Thomas. While I think its extremely commendable of you to want to do this, I think the costs will be so prohibitively expensive that it just won't be worthwhile to turn a profit on your behalf.

[The Frozen Reptile]

American Comics go to Japan; how could it be that much different to ship to India; from Vancouver there are more flights to New Delhi than to Tokyo.

[ThomasSchiff]

Mahzian - Thanks a ton for the suggestion. We have initiated conversations with Diamond comics. Hopefully we'll be able to figure something out that is worthwhile. Currently their minimum order requirement is $425. We are trying to figure out if they can reduce this minimum requirement for us for a couple of months. Will keep you all posted about the progress. If you have any more tips and suggestions, please keep sending them. We need all the advice we can get. :)

Kymeric, Mr.Holmes, Dr.SimonHurt, TheFrozenReptile - Thanks for your inputs. We do have a guy on our who's based out of Chicago. He's the one trying to connect with DC and Diamond comics. The benefit would be that since Diamond has a pick up point in Chicago, we could save a little on the shipping there. Here in India we've spoken to the customs guys and they charge something in the area of 10-14% on import of printed books. We are still trying to figure out other shipping (within India) and logistics costs. Hopefully if we are able to work something worthwhile out with Diamond, we will be able to supply the comics to readers at a not-so-exhorbitant rates. Right now it kind of boils down to what deal Diamond can give us.
We did consider the reselling option - but like you guys said, it's turning out to be very expensive. And since we have a guy in the west, we want to explore all other options before looking at the reselling model.
And yes, you are right, there is a huge market for comics like Asterix, Archie and the kind. There are also a ton of Indian comics and the market for that has seen a sudden boost. So much so that we have our own comic con which is now in its 3rd year. Check it out - http://comicconindia.com/
That is precisely why we want to bring DC, Marvel and later the other big names in west to India. People have a renewed sense of understanding and excitement when it comes to comics in India. And we just want to help them develop it more.

In the end, we are just a couple of fanboys wanting to help other fanboys of our country out. Profits and money are not something we want to focus actively on in the first year at least. The belief is that if we manage to do something good for the community, rewards will definitely follow. :)

Once again, if you guys have more suggestions, please let us know. Any leads, specific people any of you are interacting with in Diamond who can help us out, contacts, shipping tips, anything at all.. everything will be helpful.. :)

Cheers

[Mahzian]

No worries, I explored doing the same myself here in Australia, unfortunately there wasn't the demand at the time and I needed a steady income.

The minimum order of $425 is a surprise! That would be quite easy to blow through I would have thought, I'm almost ashamed to say I would spend pretty close to that at my local comic store each month...hehe

[The Man From Room X]

I remember going to India about 5 years ago and there was one distributer in India called Gotham Comics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_Entertainment_Group which sold select DC and Marvel comics monthly like Batman Hush, Kurt Buseik and George Perez JLA/Avengers, Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman, Geoff Johns' Teen Titans, JMS Spider-Man, Mark Waid's Fantastic Four, Joss Whedon's Uncanny X-Men and Mark Millar's Ultimates. It seems they've stopped publishing. Maybe you could get in touch with them.

I also recall them selling Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's JLA Earth 2 & New X-Men E is for Extinction TPBs and Mark Waid and Bryan Hitch's JLA : Heaven's Ladder for 90 Indian rupees each which would make it equal to $1.64 in the US. Less than a monthly comic book!