VegasJeff

I must say AndyFish's advice above is very good stuff.
I can also add some input to this discussion. I've setup and designed many Retail POS system setups.
As a retailer, a POS system is an absolute must these days. A standard POS system with all the bells and whistles will run you about $1,000 per lane (register). Since you will be just a one store operation that $60/month POS listed earlier in this thread will probably be your best deal if it does everything you need it to do.
You will need to track inventory, charge credit cards, find out what your cost is on an item at a second's notice, setup reorder points. You will be able to run reports to determine what is selling and how to better allocate your funds on future orders. Your vision of a comic shop may not match the wants or needs of the customers in your area. This will help you adjust to their needs and order what they want and pay money for. You should also do a complete inventory count every quarter to make sure what you have on hand is what your computer system says. This is how you will determine how much shrinkage you have (i.e. theft, etc.). Industry standard is roughly 2% for that number. This will help you figure out if employees or customers are robbing you blind. Then you can make adjustments to compensate for that. POS systems can also tie into accounting systems and help automate a lot of the paperwork.
If you don't have a POS system you are just 'amatuer' and your days as a retailer are numbered. I'm sorry if this sounds rough but business is war. I heard a number that 80% of new businesses go under in the first three years. If the largest comic book chain in the country (who is that?) were to open a shop across the street from yours how would you compete with them? Something to think about.
If you don't have management experience in retail. I would suggest getting some first. Go manage a Walgreens or CVS or a Convenience Store for a year. The experience you get will be invaluable down the road if you decide to do this. I encourage you to do so with the proper setup you could be very successful.
 
 

I like that cover artwork on Savage Tales#2. I remember it well because it is the same artwork that was on one of the first issues of Savage Sword of Conan I bought off the newstand. Don't remember the exact issue number but I think it was around 1988.  I remember buying that issue and it's kind of funny because I was probably 10 at the time and I remember this cashier who was an older lady giving me a hard time about it since I was so young. After looking at the cover she said to me "Aren't you a little young to be buying this?" With my quick rabbit thinking I told her back "oh no that's artwork". She sold it to me and I quickly left. I didn't think she could of stopped me from buying it as it wasn't in the black polybags like the Playboys were on the newstand at that time.

I found the cover I was referring to in the previous post. It is from Conan Saga#14. I like it better than the original since it has less text covering up the artwork.

I think we need to realize the Marvel we grew up with as a kid is dead. This is now Marvel owned by Disney. So I personally think a lot of these changes are being forced by above.
When the race of a lead character in a movie such as Star Wars is more important than their acting ability, it is a sad day. Diversity is the new racism.

Why not just get 4mil mylars? It doesn't degrade.
It's stiff enough to not need a backboard (if handled gingerly) and they are only about 3 times as expensive as normal poly bags w/boards.
 
I think they are also safer. I've dropped a comic in a bag+board on its corner and it crumpled the edge of the cardboard AND the comic about a cm. And I've dropped a comic the other day with a 4mil mylar also on the corner and it saved the comic because they are rigid and oversized. And the comic tends to stay centered away from the sides.
-Terry
 
 
 

Kudos to the OP for starting this thread. I was thinking of starting a similar one based on what I've been seeing.
According to trends I've been seeing in comic book sales data, my analysis indicates that within 40 years new comic books (at least in their paper format) will cease being made (and perhaps as soon as 20 years if trends accelerate). I'm sure this won't be a surprise to many who have also noticed declining sales. This also does not answer the question if the comic industry will survive the leap to digital online based comics. That discussion would probably be best saved for another thread. 
So to have a better understanding of why this is happening, we need to do a root cause analysis of the situation. If we go back to the beginning of comic books, we must remember they were created as a cheap form of disposable entertainment.
When I first started reading comics in the late 80's as a kid there were simply not many alternatives for entertainment. Perhaps an hour or two of cartoons in the afternoon on 2 or 3 channels, play video games (if you could afford them), listen to the radio or cassettes, read a book (boring for most kids), there was no internet, not much else besides going outdoors. Now fast forward to today, while comics books have gotten more expensive, there is an almost limitless supply of free (or nearly free) alternative forms of entertainment that are also more convenient such as netflix, youtube, free downloadable games on your smartphone, websites, etc. plus we know have the ability to download digital versions of books instantly. That is one of the key reasons why books/magazines/comics have been in a downward spiral. I don't believe digital sales will make up the the difference. I'm also under the impression that the format we are used to will die as it was designed for the limitations and cost of paper and it doesn't transition all that well to digital compared to other stuff.

And you lived?!?! Suprised you didn't get impaled by one of those pieces of metal. And how much does a long box weigh anyways? Surprised you didn't get crushed either. Well, it might explain a few things now. 

Just to clarify, Manga means Japanese comics. Anime means Japanese cartoons. Japan is where it originated but it's possible you could see something made in the same style from another Asian country or even America here. Mange/Anime has been really popular here on the West Coast especially among the Asian community. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but Manga like Comics has also been experiencing a decrease in sales compared to years ago.
ComicConnoisseur made some good reco's above. Lone Wolf & Cub and Akira are definitely classics. If you haven't seen the Anime for Akira put that on your list. Two more classics I can recommend that I have in my collection are Golgo 13 and Old Boy. I also picked up Star Trek which I think is cool to see in Manga form. I really like the Manga digest format, but I believe some of them are just reprints from magazines in Japan.
The only Japanese Anime I've gotten into recently is One Punch Man. You can watch it on Netflix right now. Check it out.
 
 

You deal with all the BS in SoCal because there are so many beautiful women.

Perhaps RockMyAmadeus will have some solid data on this. In the meantime, I did come across some info that before Archie was relaunched in 2015, the digests were selling about 4x the number of the regular sized comics. The distribution of the regular size comics was roughly around 10,000 copies an issue or so at that time. 

For Magic, the most valuable cards were from the first few sets and expansions, because they contained the most powerful cards in the game (many which would not be produced later) and also because there simply was not enough Magic cards to meet demand when they first came out in the Early 90's. You probably could find a website out there that tells you how to determine which series a card is from. I got a multi-row box of them sitting in my storage bin that I will go through at some point.

Here is my first effort at giving back to the community since a few others on the board have hooked me up in the past.
I picked up the codes for 5 free digital copies of Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) #1. 
If you haven't tried any digital comics yet this would be a good way to try one out. You must create a marvel account which is easy.
First 5  gets them. Limit 1 per username.
 
 

Here is my first effort at giving back to the community since a few others on the board have hooked me up in the past.
I picked up the codes for 5 free digital copies of Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) #1. 
If you haven't tried any digital comics yet this would be a good way to try one out. You must create a marvel account which is easy.
First 5  gets them. Limit 1 per username.
 
 

Best advice I ever heard when completing runs or sets is to get the keys first. The most important reason is that it tests how serious you are. If you can't afford the most expensive key from the start then you probably should re-evaluate your collecting goals. Perhaps take on collecting a run or set that would be easier or cheaper to complete. The secondary reason, you want to get the keys first, is that prices generally continue to head upwards and buying them first will keep you from getting priced out and prevent you from failing to complete the run or set. Don't start anything you can't finish!

Just curious, how many years did it take for your books to go from $500 to being worth $10k+?

I have a friend named Jim who doesn't collect comic books but loves movies and by extension the MCU among other things. He is your average "familar-with-but-doesnt-collect-comic's" type of guy we all know and hang out with. If i want to know what is going to be valuable/go up in price, I ask myself one question: "What would impress Jim?". Its a simple question that never fails, what would impress someone outside of our hobby?  Would Suspense 3 get him? Probably not. Would Tales To Astonish 27 work?  Nope, not very exciting cover and no costumes.  Would AF 15 first appearance of Spider-man with one of the most iconic and widely pop-culture known covers of all time Impress him? Yeah, that's a guaranteed every time affirmative.
Any book that does that or close to, will hold its value or go up. Simple as that. Anything a non-collector can instantly identify as rare/cool/valuable/special by just describing it in one sentence, or just showing a pic of it on your phone, THAT piece is powerful, and THAT PIECE will go up more than others.
I think this plays also into my "Social Media" theory about this books price spike. Take that instant cache homerun book, and add to it beautiful chip free cover with decent color and centering (who cares whats on the inside or back in this scenario), and you get lots of interest and new money coming in, pushing the supply of books that meet that criteria to new record prices.

I think we need to realize the Marvel we grew up with as a kid is dead. This is now Marvel owned by Disney. So I personally think a lot of these changes are being forced by above.
When the race of a lead character in a movie such as Star Wars is more important than their acting ability, it is a sad day. Diversity is the new racism.

I must say AndyFish's advice above is very good stuff.
I can also add some input to this discussion. I've setup and designed many Retail POS system setups.
As a retailer, a POS system is an absolute must these days. A standard POS system with all the bells and whistles will run you about $1,000 per lane (register). Since you will be just a one store operation that $60/month POS listed earlier in this thread will probably be your best deal if it does everything you need it to do.
You will need to track inventory, charge credit cards, find out what your cost is on an item at a second's notice, setup reorder points. You will be able to run reports to determine what is selling and how to better allocate your funds on future orders. Your vision of a comic shop may not match the wants or needs of the customers in your area. This will help you adjust to their needs and order what they want and pay money for. You should also do a complete inventory count every quarter to make sure what you have on hand is what your computer system says. This is how you will determine how much shrinkage you have (i.e. theft, etc.). Industry standard is roughly 2% for that number. This will help you figure out if employees or customers are robbing you blind. Then you can make adjustments to compensate for that. POS systems can also tie into accounting systems and help automate a lot of the paperwork.
If you don't have a POS system you are just 'amatuer' and your days as a retailer are numbered. I'm sorry if this sounds rough but business is war. I heard a number that 80% of new businesses go under in the first three years. If the largest comic book chain in the country (who is that?) were to open a shop across the street from yours how would you compete with them? Something to think about.
If you don't have management experience in retail. I would suggest getting some first. Go manage a Walgreens or CVS or a Convenience Store for a year. The experience you get will be invaluable down the road if you decide to do this. I encourage you to do so with the proper setup you could be very successful.
 
 

I think we need to realize the Marvel we grew up with as a kid is dead. This is now Marvel owned by Disney. So I personally think a lot of these changes are being forced by above.
When the race of a lead character in a movie such as Star Wars is more important than their acting ability, it is a sad day. Diversity is the new racism.

I think we need to realize the Marvel we grew up with as a kid is dead. This is now Marvel owned by Disney. So I personally think a lot of these changes are being forced by above.
When the race of a lead character in a movie such as Star Wars is more important than their acting ability, it is a sad day. Diversity is the new racism.

Marvel's Falling Sales Marvel VP blames diversity for falling sales
Personally, I think hollow stories and never-ending series renumbering is killing them.