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Visualizing comic book sales

Started 1 year ago by hijinx / 9 posts

  1. hijinx
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    I'm a comic book retailer and I write software for managing comic shops. One of the key procedures is called "cycle sheeting" or just "cycling" your comic book inventory.

    The idea is to capture the comics sales within a certain window (usually after one week) and then to capture the current inventory state. I put this information together into a graph like the following:

    http://www.hijinxcomics.com/images/ffgraph.png

    In it, the red line represents the number of that issue received, the yellow line represents the number of subscribers to that comics, the blue line is what sold in the first week and the green line is the current number sold.

    I'm looking for ways to improve this graph. It was generated in Perl using the GD library, but I'm planning on transitioning to Google Charts in the near future. Any help representing it (and improving it) as a Google Chart would be very much appreciated. In fact, I'll give a free graphic novel (up to $20) from ComicBookShelf.com to whoever posts the very best one!

    thanks!

    dan shahin
    Hijinx Comics
    ComicBookShelf.com

  2. hijinx
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Here's an example of how the graph is used to help me make ordering decisions:

    http://www.hijinxcomics.com/images/action_example.jpg

    (the sparkline above the main graph shows the sales of that every issue of the title to help put the six month graph in context)

  3. nathany
    FlowingData Editor
    Posted 1 year ago #

    well that's an interesting challenge. i'll try to squeeze it in on the blog some time this week.

  4. Tim
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    I would like to know less about the chart you have, and more about the decision making process.

    * What are the actual triggers/rules that cause you to order (or not)?
    * How do you determine the quantity to order?

    Then I think the graphs/charts could be designed to be more useful.

  5. hijinx
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Unfortunately, many of the decisions are qualitative rather than quantitative and thus are tough to graph. The writer and artist have at least as much effect on sales as the characters, often much more.

    Knowing my profit margin, I try to sell as much inventory as I can within a given window (about 3 months usually, but some items turn slower) but I don't want to sell out in week one unless I know that I won't sell any more. I'm pretty unhappy with anything less than 75% sellthrough. The only way to know that is through diligent inventory cycling.

    Does that help?

  6. nathany
    FlowingData Editor
    Posted 1 year ago #

    can you provide a sample dataset (in csv form) and be more specific about what it is in the graph or the data that you're looking for e.g. trends, outliers? like what does data look like for a comic that sells well?

  7. hijinx
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    I'm basically looking to profile which books sell primarily in the first week, versus those that sell more over time, as well as what sold to subscribers versus "off the shelf" sales. You can call that "shelf life" or something, but it varies significantly for different comics.

    Some will sell only to subscribers and nobody else, or only one or two people in the first week and then never again. It's crucial to know what comics have a long shelf life so I can order more of those and less of the ones that are stale after week 1.

    Ultimately the number that matters is the "sell-through" percentage. Since the comics are non-returnable, I essentially have to eat any unsold comics! But if I'm too conservative and sell out too quickly, I sacrifice growth.

    It's very important to me to target my dollars into products that I know will yield a high sell-through over time. I like to look at the sell through percentage for each issue

    here's an example of how I enter the data and some of the key metrics I track.

    http://www.hijinxcomics.com/images/allstarcycle.png

    I'll try to post the data as a csv soon.

  8. hijinx
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Here's the data as captured for All Star Superman #1-12

    issue,qty_ordered,reordered,qty_week1,qty_current
    11,60,0,24,14
    10,60,0,20,6
    9,70,0,40,12
    8,65,0,20,0
    7,70,0,33,5
    6,65,10,17,0
    5,70,0,22,1
    4,70,16,16,6
    3,75,0,24,0
    2,60,40,20,10
    1,75,50,22,24

  9. hijinx
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #


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