Zaldiva, Inc. a leader in Pop Culture collectibles, comic books, memorabilia and auctions, today detailed its acquisition strategy as it continues to focus on rolling-up smaller comic and collectibles retailers under the Zaldiva brand. The company has identified its first 5 targets for acquisition.
“We see the comic and collectibles industry being in a very similar situation to the video rental business of days gone by,” stated Nicole Leigh, CEO of Zaldiva, Inc. “Along came Blockbuster and the whole landscape changed. These smaller comic retailers, the ‘mom and pop’ stores, don’t have the infrastructure to compete in the marketplace. We’ve built a solid foundation with our online www.zaldiva.com store and have backed it up with a successful retail location that integrates eBay online auctions.”
Leigh added, “When we talk about ‘rolling up’ or ‘acquiring’ other retailers we are looking at comic book companies with large ‘subscriber’ bases, meaning recurring monthly revenues. Margins in this business are typically 50% plus, and with our backend and online infrastructure we believe we can maximize their revenues and profitability.”
Discussing comic book collecting, Leigh commented, “The one remaining bastion for comic speculation remains in online auction sites such as eBay; but even there, comic books remain a buyer’s market. The highest price paid for a comic book is $350,000 for Marvel Comics No. 1 bought by Jay Parrino (USA) in November 2001.”
“We are also looking at some of the convention businesses, as these can produce substantial revenue with huge exposure to our target market. We recently announced a JV with InvestComics of West Palm Beach, Florida. The joint venture will utilize both companies World Wide Web presence to increase market share and brand awareness in the comic and collectibles industry,” concluded Leigh.
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