That Taxes Thing

[billroper]

One of the distressing things about doing the taxes for Dodeka is seeing:

How many different titles we carry.

And how many of them appear to have sold one or fewer copies in 2015.

Some of these are the result of having bought out Juanita's inventory when she retired and having acquired various CDs that had been sitting in her inventory for too long. A few of them are the result of my own ordering errors.

The problem is that the boxes are large and heavy and the table is very full. But if you don't take the CDs out to the cons with you, you can't sell them...

Filk is an extremely regional business. And given that we're in the eighth-or-so year of a sucky economy, I certainly understand people's reluctance to take a flyer on something that they aren't familiar with.

Ah, well. Moving along now.

Comments

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

could you do some kind of a "try something new" promotion? maybe a grab bag or a buy someone you havent heard and get a (reward)?

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Back In The Day, it was a rare and special thing for a filker to be able to make an album, and there were few enough of them that it was reasonably possible for a consumer of filk music to buy them all. Now there are so many that I, at least, am paralyzed by choice.

I assume that at, as a dealer, your inventory is a sunk cost, so it makes business sense to lower the price on things that aren't moving until they move. But since you're also a producer, publisher, artist, and supporter of artists, do you try to hold your price point?

[billroper]

It's not so much the cost of the excess inventory, which is really only on the order of 150 CDs -- it's just the hauling around which starts to be annoying. :)

I have generally tried to hold the price point on things, because it's not like I have that much stuff that needs to be liquidated and it's not clear much elasticity the market actually has. (If you don't want it for $15, did you want it for $10? Or do you really just not want it?)

Sooner or later, most things sell. Depending on which thing it is, we might throw a party. :)

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

I think the next time I'll see you is at MARCON when Bill, Brenda, Teresa, Amy, and I are accompanying Seanan on her concert. You could make it a Mad Science sale or maybe a Villain sale to go with the Convention theme. (We are performing a Three Weird Sisters concert too so that might help move some of our merch off your table.) :-)

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

I'll admit to being reluctant to "taking a flyer on something new," but I've been trying to try other stuff.

On the other hand, most of my filk buying has been since I moved west - so from Random Factors or one of the other West Coast dealers (so I've probably only reduced your inventory by a couple of titles at Chicon 7, and possibly stuff you consigned through Random Factors at Conchord 26).

Now, we get to see who, if anyone, has filk at Bubinocon.

[hms42]

I have no problem trying something new, but the main problem is finding something on your table that I don't have. :(

[archangelbeth]

Any hope that you could sell via CDBaby or something? (You probably already thought of that. >_> )

At the cons, have a CD available to play (with headphones)? Samples on a website?

Good luck...

[madfilkentist]

One factor is that a lot of people are buying filk on the Internet. I like to support dealers, but I also hate to wait till a con to get the latest music.