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The Metropolis Collectibles Story: Highlights the workings of a business where there are no signs that any of the deadly sins have taken root. Look at how a person can pursue best business practices when not hobbled by personal demons.
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The Metropolis Collectibles Story: Highlights the workings of a business where there are no signs that any of the deadly sins have taken root. Look at how a person can pursue best business practices when not hobbled by personal demons.
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Were you a Batman fan? Perhaps, as a kid, you hid under your blankets with a flashlight and the latest copy of Dick Tracy.
Or maybe, as a parent, you’re watching your kids save their allowance for the new issue of X-Men. Most of us read comic books as kids… but if you think comic books are something people grow out of, think again.
For Vincent Zurzolo, Vice President of Metropolis Collectibles, comics are a way of life—and a way of business.
The market for comic books, as entertainment, as collectibles, and as investments, is already enormous, and is only showing further signs of growth.
“There’s a tremendous potential for our product because comics have touched every person in some way or another. The most popular fictional character in the world next to Santa Claus is Superman.”
Metropolis Collectibles is cornering the comic book market with their high-end retail business and website, http://www.metropoliscomics.com/.
And their business doesn’t end with comic books—Metropolis is also known for their vast collection of rare and collectible movie posters as well.
While many people only think of comics as a childhood hobby, the fact is that comic book collecting is serious business. In fact, so many people are turning to comics as an alternative to traditional investments that Metropolis plans on offering small group seminars to teach the fundamentals of comic book investment in 2003.
“Our clients are serious collectors, for the most part. Around the holidays, we get a lot of people who are buying presents for their husbands or boyfriends. 95% of our business is male. Maybe even 99%. And they’re very serious about recapturing a part of their childhood. Comics represent nostalgia-- they represent a better time.”
“This is how I feel about comic books: You may be selling a comic book, a collectible, an investment, but most of all, you’re selling a story. It may be the story inside the comic book, or the story that comic represents in some person’s life. You’re selling something that has meaning to a person. And that’s something that a lot of people miss.”
This insight is a fundamental part of Metropolis’ business idea. This element, when it applies, is part of the additional value---beyond the price of the comic book itself--- that adds to the value for the collector.
I’m willing to bet that Vincent is a storyteller, and that storytelling is part of his success at conventions and shows. (See Storytelling to build business).
“Some people can’t remember what they had for lunch yesterday, but they’ll remember back in 1973 when they went to the newsstand and picked up their first copy of Spiderman and were drawn into this escapist form of entertainment, an alternate universe where the impossible was possible. And that means a lot to people, to be able to remember that feeling and have a piece of that around with them. It makes them happy.”
“And, of course, there are a lot of people who invest in comic books strictly for profit. Comic books are a fantastic investment when you’re talking about using it as a long-term tool. It’s not a tool to be used for six months or a year. They appreciate slowly, but they do appreciate. I can pull out a price guide from 1972 and one from 1990 and you’ll see a tremendous amount of difference in the prices. Many times, the increases are easily the same as what you’d get from other types of investments.”
Vincent began buying and selling comic books at 17. He continued through college to support himself, but it wasn’t until he graduated that the business really took off. He was proud of his degree in marketing, but he knew he wouldn’t be happy in the corporate world. So he decided to keep doing what he loved—selling comic books—and his bedroom became his first office.
Vincent displays the passion and purpose we talk about elsewhere (see section 8). It can bring focus to the game plan and energy to the enterprise, particularly if Vincent can communicate it to those around him.
“Back in the early 1990’s, stores like Wal-Mart and Price Club were selling 3 comics in a bag for a dollar. The market was absolutely booming at the time, and there was a tremendous amount of extra comic books out in the marketplace. I was able to buy warehouses with a quarter of a million or half a million or a million comic books and move them from the seller to the buyer. I was basically a middleman at that point. I didn’t have a lot of capital reserve, so I’d just make buy-and-sell deals.”
He sold comic books on the street in Manhattan, on Broadway between John Street and Maiden Lane—the heart of the Wall Street financial district.
“I’d go out there and sell comics all day, I’d hustle the Wall Street crowd, and buy and sell warehouses of books and do comic conventions, and all the while I was building my business up from there.”
The comic book conventions were crucial to the growth of his business. When he started out, he attended as many as he could, sometimes more than 30 per year. In more recent years, he has become more selective, attending 15 or fewer shows per year, all of them larger shows guaranteed to attract a key audience.
This immersion in the marketplace is part of what I refer to when I write about conversations with the market. He is listening, interacting, trying out ideas, watching reactions and honing his approach as he hustles on Wall Street or schmoozes at conventions. Taking in information is as valuable to the growth of the business as is his opportunity to get his story out there.
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