THE PLAN; if I may call it that...

Every couple of years, I'm tempted to move from 'direct ship' reorders, to 'regular ship' reorders.

DIRECT SHIPPING:

Basically, if I order at the beginning of the week, I receive reorders two days later, and I'm billed the following week. The reorder comes air shipped, but I'm charged by my distributor at ground ship prices.

Nevertheless, it adds a full 15% to most orders in shipping costs.

REGULAR SHIPPING:

If I wait to receive the same material with my usual Wednesday's shipment, I'd pay more like 3 to 5% shipping. But I have to wait anywhere from one week to two weeks, and the bill comes due upon arrival.

Usually, I decide that getting the material earlier and paying for it later makes more sense. It's more convenient, and I love being able to say to the customer "I'll have it on Thursday." I also figure that replacing a good selling graphic novel in 2 days rather than 14 days, might mean I sell more.

SAVINGS:

Overall, I figure I can save about 200.00 a month in costs by buying regular rather than direct.

Once again, I'm tempted by the idea of saving a couple of hundred bucks a months in costs. What's enticing me is that I can probably come up with a method to have the inventory in stock of the best-selling books, so that waiting longer for it to arrive won't cost me a sale.

My business is doing well enough now, that losing the five or six extra days in payment terms isn't significant.

IT'S DC COMICS, AND IT MIGHT WORK.

DC graphic novels are my best-selling backstock by far.

I've always carried at least one copy of each major book, maybe two in quantity of the first in an important series; i.e. Sandman, Preacher, Fables, Y-the Last Man, etc.

A very large percentage of evergreen best-sellers are DC; especially the Vertigo imprint.

About a year ago, DC changed their terms and I lost 3% points in discount. I've slowly inched up in orders until I'm within striking distance of the quantity I need to regain the 3% points.

THE PLAN:

So the Plan, if I go forward with it, would be to make sure I add about 150.00 worth of DC material every week. To get there, I'd probably be able to order second copies of about 20 to 30 different major series, and then a second copy on second tier series (books that sell only once a year or so) , and then maybe fill in the holes on third tier series (books that may sell only once or twice every couple years.)

What this does is make sure that I don't run out of evergreen books while waiting the extra 10 to 14 days. And it bumps up my discount level at the same time.

Roughly speaking, I'd be saving around 300.00 a month overall, counting both shipping and discount. If I figure 50% margins, its the equivalent of 600.00 dollars in sales. This works out to equivalent of getting around 30 to 40 EXTRA graphic novels every month for the same cost. Most of the 'extra' DC order is canceled out; and I am more likely to have a copy of a best-selling graphic novel in stock.

3% POINTS AND 300.00 ADD UP:

Ultimately, 300.00 a month in savings doesn't seem like all that much; but what the last few years have taught me is, every percentage point I can shave off of costs makes the store all that much stronger.

There will probably be about a 3 month inconvenience while I institute this policy. I'll be ramping up my orders to save the 3% points, but I won't have either the extra percentage or the extra copies at first. Nevertheless, this can work because so many of my graphic novel sales are DC -- outstripping Marvel, Dark Horse and all the other companies.

SPOILED:

I have to admit, I've been spoiled by the 2 day shipping. I've tried to institute the above ideas before, only to fall back to bad habits. The extra 3% DC discount is kind of the clinching argument. With money in the bank, saving a few days in payment terms doesn't seem as important. That and the realization that the store is so well stocked I'm not as worried selling out of the best books (It's hard to imagine that waiting an extra 10 days would cost me 30 - 40 book sales a month; especially as the inventory improves...)

Going forward, I can maximize my DC sales by getting those extra 3% points; compounding whatever success I might have selling their product.

So it's probably time to get disciplined and quit relying on the instant gratification of direct orders...