What a year it has been!
Written By Ken Hulsey
It is hard to believe that a year has passed since the doors of Monster Island News' online store, known as
View Obscura, opened its doors in a virtual sense. As expected sales were slow at first but by the end of the year business was sailing along briskly. What had begun as a showcase for my
personal photography and art prints quickly expanded into a full-fledged
comic book and
antique store, in fact the store grew so fast that I could hardly believe it.
As the year came to a close
View Obscura housed almost 600 individual items for sale and of this posting there were at least twice as many items waiting to be listed, so if you don't see the item you want, don't worry, it will be there soon.
We are big in the Bronze Age!
Though we carry
comic books that date back to the 1940s, it is the era known as "The Bronze Age" (1970-1979) that account for about 60% of our total sales. This, in my opinion, is proof positive that this era of comics is coming into its own with the fan base ... and that they are just damn good comics.
Gone in a Flash!
Of our total comic book sales, “
The Flash” led the way. To be honest it has been a bit difficult to keep up with the demand for these books, though we have managed to do exactly that.
Other top sellers include:
•
Green Lantern
•
Amazing Spider-Man
•
Action Comics
•
Avengers
•
Justice League
•
Uncanny X-Men
•
Spawn
•
Wonder Woman
•
Captain America
•
Iron Man
This Summer Godzilla Was King!
As expected, due to this summer's blockbuster release of "Godzilla", our exclusive "
Godzilla movie poster" was a big seller.
The one thing that we learned this year was that you could never underestimate the power of "Sexy". Our "
Bettie Page Poster Print" was our number one selling item overall. Overall, just about all of our
pin-up art in stock sold very well, which speaks for itself. Following in a close second was our "
Johnny Cash Poster Print." I guess that there are a lot of you out there that like both pin-ups and classic country music ... which makes you one of my kind of people.
Star Wars, those crazy ... Star Wars
When it comes to our vintage toy section, I just had to sing along with Bill Murray from SNL back in the day.
Star Wars toys sold very well along with
Godzilla items and our
Barbie and Disney dolls.
Our
Movie Memorabilia section has been growing steadily all year with new original movie stills, lobby cards, and movie posters regularly added.
The newest section of our store is "
The Museum Collection" and it will be growing even larger in the year to come as we add more antiques with historical flair. Many rare items are to be the feature in our queue, so if you are in the market for rare items, you are going to love this section of our store!
To everyone who took the time to shop with us over the past year, I personally thank you. We have really taken pleasure in serving you in the best way we possibly can. We take great pride in making sure that each item shipped from our store is packed securely so that when it arrives to you it will be in perfect condition. Additionally we strive to get each item out ASAP, so that you can have your item in a timely manner. Our customers, a great compliment, have called us “the best shipper on Etsy” and we accept this honor with a lot of pride.
Here is some of the feedback we have gotten from our great customers:
• "The packaging was in perfect condition and it arrived just in time! Thank you for a great first purchase experience." - Kartiki Sharma
• "Products came super fast, in perfect condition and packaged up great! thank you." - Erin Cook
• "Fantastic service! great communication, fast delivery, and item arrived in great condition....perfect seller! Thank you :-) " - Fossil Mummy
• "A great price and it's in great condition! amazing shop!.. Great seller!.. thanks again!" - Sterling Springs
Most of all I want to thank God, without whom none of this would have been possible. Over the past year, Terri and I have blessed in so many ways and we are truly thankful for these blessings.
