thirdgreenham

Yeah, I wouldn't say have a large inventory. In fact, keep it simple and small in the beginning. I also would resist ordering anything from Diamond, until you feel there is a call for it.

my post was bigger I hadn't read your post when I started typing. And on that note, it's interesting how similar our posts are. Kinda validates each other. I thought exactly the same thing after reading yours.

my post was bigger I hadn't read your post when I started typing.

I dont know why more people dont do this. I'm going on 6 years this May. Avoid new comics is my advice as well. I was advised via PM to contact you about your business model...can you give me an idea of what you've done to be successful? Opening my store wasn't as a much a dream as it was an opportunity. Sure I thought about having a store in years gone by, but I, just by chance had this happen to me. I being a single dad now and at the time of my opening of my store, was not in the best of situations. I didnt have thousands in the bank either nor a massive amount of inventory. I had visions, dreams and goals, but there was also reality that had to be dealt with first and foremost. There was a tiny little antique shop in my town I used to pop in every now and then when I was still ebayin' and setting up at flea markets. I often told the owner that if she ever decided to get out off the business, that I would like a heads up so I could rent the shop. So one day I drove by and instantly noticed the for rent sign in the window. I was glad she was moving out and upset I wasnt made aware of it sooner (my opportunity) So I called the land lord and was told that it had just been rented and to leave my number for future ref. I drove buy weeks later and saw new junk in the window and a large sheet blocking visibility into the shop. It was never open. I called the land lord a few times and it was suspected that the new tennent was actually living in the space (no shower..ewe), but that was what was suspected. There was 2 spaces, the antique shop $325/mo and a back room storage $200/mo. The current tennent made the landlord open a wall between the two spaces and combined them as one space. $525 he was paying and it was approx 6 months when I got a call from the landlord asking me if I was still interested and to meet him at the shop. (opportunity knocks again). I meet him on May15th almost 6 years ago and he is explaining the rent of both places now and the opened wall and I am getting bummed out. He sees that and there are two other women waiting to see the place currently out front. I'm crushed and just then he says, I just cant be bothered to put up the wall again and I simply can not rent you the store for $325 like the you expected, but I will give you both spaces for $350 no utilities. Let me know cause I got those 2 ladies to speak with next. I'LL TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. He gave me the key and I handed him $350. No contract, no receipt, just an address to send the money. It was mine right there. The meter was running and I was currently doing what I was doing to make my way in life and that was the race horse business (hence my avatar) I was at it over 10 solid years and was drible and drabling as I said with ebay and setting up at flea markets etc. I had moved what I had into my new shop that I wanted to sell, fixtures, display cases, shelves etc. I was only able to be at the shop just 2 days per week. I had no choice, I needed to make money. Over the first few years, I experimented with my days and hours and added more days and selected days off to get out to buy at auctions and estate sales. Three years ago I went 7 days per week 12-6 Mon-Sat and 12-3 Sundays. These days its like Shadroch said, Its my mancave and I'm just hanging out there. Diversity has been another factor in addition to being there everyday (yes and low rent, FYI my rent has risen $25 each yr and its currently $475 plus utilities). A variety of avenues my business stretches from LP records, comic books, vintage toys and games, coins, sports cards, magazines, nick nacks, advertising signs, and just about anything I decide I like and think I can sell for a profit. I simply enjoy it until it sells is usually the case. Ive got things that have been in the shop since day 1. So my door is open each day and that is for selling and BUYING. (more opportunity) I have not had that old lady with a run of Action Comics in yet, but I have had some great interesting purchases come through my door. Keep in mind, I am a hustler and go getter and I was hitting 5-20 and often more estate sales (monthly) in addition to two flea markets each week and ebayin' away. I was flippin big books on line as well. I have had many scores, home runs, and banner record breaking days, but even still I have many under $10 days. Because its my mancave hangout, I keep myself busy learning and moving items around. I have a natural knack for displaying my merchandise and some say its like a museum. Most people are taken back when they enter my shop and I great everyone and acknowledge everyone in the crowd while in my shop. I'm also blessed with the gift of gab. I just turned 50 this year so I have no shortage of stories and tales from my own childhood as many who come in are helpless to admit that they had this and that and that their mother threw out (fill in the blank). I dont have heavy foot traffic through my door, so I focus on the here and now whenever someone is in my shop. I'm entertaining them I feel at times. Dancing for dollars pretty much. I want them to simply spill what it is they like, enjoy, want, desire. I'm extracting info and use my knowlege of my inventory to show and suggest different items. Some days are better than others and just like Pawnstars says (and its so true) You just never know whats gonna walk through that door. Sure who wouldnt want a comic books shop, but why limit myself to just that. Seriously, I want my customers to be all ages and both male and female. I want to sell something to anyone and everyone. I buy with an open mind thinking oh I can sell this for $xxx as long as I was getting a deal on it. I do strive for items in my store to be vintage(pre 1980) I want good condition, not broken or incomplete things. Its such a deal breaker to have something sold and oops. Its hard enough to sell perfect good condition things. My secrets to success are common sense. Think like a customer. Little details are important. Being there when you say you are going to be there. Always have new merchandise. Listen to your customers wants and needs. I keep a rolodex file by item ie clocks, tonka trucks, fountain pens etc and next to it a phone number. When I get some I will call ya. Ive sold cars for over 6 years in my background so I know how to be romancing my customers list. You can never have what they want when they come in but I end up selling them something else. I just good at that. Being there 7 days means I dont miss many opportunities (sure I run late sometimes and close early at times, but never make a bad habit of it and I ALWAYS leave a sign up if I'm out for a few minutes or days. Facebook, Yelp, etc. I'm not too motivated to drive customers to my store. I am LAZY. So my web page is blah and I never up date it. I s#ck and I know it. I do post things from time to time on my store's face book page, but I just dont want to be spammy, so my posts are from time to time. I joined a few face books groups and post dedicated items and have sold a few things, but again, I dont want to do do internet business. Its too much like ebay and dealing face to face is my thing. So I'm diversified and dedicated, but I am also passionate about a lot of things. I am constantly learning and researching. All to often I sound so smart and professional because I am able to a few things about what ever it is I have in the shop no matter how cheap or expensive it may be. I'm excited about the most insignificant . I'm triggered by key words so it seems. Been a life long disability or ability depending on how you look at it. And I did try new comics for about 3 years. I had 2 subscribers. Went to comiccon in Boston 2 years trying to spread the word I tried and I guess if I was near a college or had a busy foot traffic location, it could have netted better results, but I chalked it up as a loss. More books were damaged my ordinary customers just grabbing books and yes kids and I tried a sign that got ignored. New comics are not for everyone and certainly not for me. I tried and failed, but I tried. This week I added new sports cards and 2017 Silver Eagles. I can try anything here and there. Because I'm so diverse it could work, if not successful, I'll nix it. The comic books I do sell are dollar books and my BIG books are $20 - 30 bucks at the shop. It certainly doesnt mean I cant wheel and deal in comic books, cause you can't stop me there. Just cause my store isnt a great outlet or I didnt focus and work as hard as I should have or could have, I'm getting my fix in other ways. So when I hear people say DON'T do it (open a comic book shop) its likely because you are getting into a dedicated and unique business with online competition. I can agree for the most part. But I REGRET not opening my store many years ago. It just never occurred to me to do so. I'm 6 years this May 15th and each year has been just a step in the right direction. Sure I still pop a certain item on ebay that I know my customers wouldnt pay up for but I know ebayers would. Thats knowledge Ive gained through out the years and I do give it a chance in the shop first, but Ebay is vital to getting rolling and keeping it real when the shop just dont hit on all eight. This is my longest post ever, sorry to scare some of you (all of you) Chris Terrific read!

Hi Bill, So, it looks like you're excited as well as a bit scared. Both very normal feelings when jumping into a big new venture. There's a lot to think about before really doing this. Location. Any competitors nearby? Any destination shops in the neighbourhood? ie. A specialty shop that thrive and have a lot of business, that perhaps would have some runoff business for your shop? What about the cost of rent? Rent sucks, but it is one of the fixed costs that you'll deal with. I have a coin and collectibles shop that has now 52 full years under its belt. I've been involved, in some fashion or another, since I was 12, so that's 32 years. I've been running it pretty much by myself for 15 years. I sell coins, stamps, paper money, gold and silver bullion, comics, sports cards and sports memorabilia, celebrity autographs, militaria, and pretty much anything that I think I can buy and resell at a profit. I've been asked many, many times before if someone should open up a coin shop or a comic shop and I always tell them that they can if they want to, but the shop will very likely fail. Even I, with the experience that I have, would likely fail. It would even be difficult for me to move my established 50+ year family business and start fresh in a new city. Why? Because there are a ton of invariables that we cannot predict. Or maybe I should say that there is nothing that you should count on or expect. Sales could be dreadful, for an EXTREMELY long time. How long will you be willing to put up with that? The benefit of having a physical location is your ability to buy stuff. Not to sell stuff. You'll likely find out that you NEED the internet to sell your goodies as people aren't really coming in. There's a few customers here and there but not much is moving. Can't generate enough for rent. So, you do what you can through online sales, eBay, flea markets, shows, whatever you can. Ah, but having that store....that hopefully, gives you the chance to actually buy something. Maybe you can get a collection? Maybe you'll get lucky and have a surprise item in there that is very good. Probably not, but there's always that possibility. If you do decide to take this on, I would recommend diversifying into a large variety of collectibles. I'd try to learn a bit about gold and silver coins and jewelry as well, so you add another thing to your "expertise". This could end up being a consistent area of profit for you, once you learn the best place to wholesale off the scrap metal. Have your comics, Magic/Pokemon, etc, but also consider used video games, Toys, DVDs, CDs, and stuff like that. Make it a true collectibles shop. One of the things that really helped my shop was the diversity. If coins weren't selling well, cards were. When cards were in the dumps, comics did well. Collectibles have trends. One day they are popular, then just okay then not very popular. Around and around and around they go. When you've got a bunch of different things, you are really just hoping that something picks up the slack when the others are down and out. Use social media well. Collect every person's info that comes in and start building your email list for your newsletter and special deal promotions. Consider having your own internal points system. Create a YouTube channel and create videos frequently. Advertise on Craig's List or similar sites. Get your name out. Hopefully, you are single and don't have a family, as this will take a ton of your time. Consider processing a lot of stuff at home. You can do a fair amount while watching a movie in the background. Consider watching movies or TV shows that you've seen before, so you aren't looking up too frequently. Either that or during your down time, consider watching some educational videos on YouTube, about stuff you're trying to learn about, like how to detect fake gold of fake Pokemon cards or fake Gretzky rookies. I wish you the best of luck, but be cautious before you jump in. Success is possible, but it may not come easily. Andy

Congrats!

It is fun!

good luck!

A shame that you already have your custom title. Maybe we have everyone sign a forum petition requesting a change. Or Arch starts giving people more than one Too easy!

I feel the same way. I guess...

Nice job, greggy! Congrats, Adam.

Adding flavor to the sauce I'll allow it. I just saw this Bounty offered on ThirdGreenHam - Prize TBD

You nubs are going to pay dearly! Don't you know what you've just done??

Rest in peace, young man.

Chills. Just got chills there.

are you SERIOUS?

Let me know when you're coming up. I'd like to have a drink with you as well.

Put me in, Coach.

Great choice!

read 88 of 100 Your reward is in the mail. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery Wow, that's really nice of you.

What a nice set to see!

So, a post that actually has something factual to say about Chip and his dealings gets no response whilst the tit for tat one-upmanship posts rattle on. This is why I stopped posting on the boards after a brief spell trying to get people interested in comic related discussion points (see “Re: How does having the last post in a thread make you feel?” for my less than subtle goodbye). I joined the boards because I had a lot to say about comics, having been a collector with a variant focus for many years. After an initially encouraging start – I got some good responses to my Pence Summary and Font Variant threads – both posts fizzled out despite my attempts to prompt further debate. Bottom line, no one was really interested. So I posted away in other threads, adding pictures and additional knowledge and was more or less ignored by the ‘regulars’ of those threads. My attempt to establish whether Marvel 1999 price variants exist re-ignited a fight between two board members, so I knocked that one on the head. The boards feel like a private party sometimes and you’re not invited because, God forbid, you might know something that the ‘regulars’ don’t. And we couldn’t have that could we. Because I’m a human being, with all the frailties that brings, I checked the boards for a while to see if anyone would notice I’d gone. They didn’t of course, but I did start to follow posts like this one about Chip while I looked. And I started to feel quite depressed. What a rotten thread this is. I can’t for the life of me think why otherwise intelligent, busy people would want to spend so long on here arguing over and over again about the same points. The desire to land the ‘killer’ blow in a thread and be seen as the moral conscience is clearly so important to some members it’s nauseating. They must go to bed thinking about it, wake up thinking about it and spend their day thinking about it. The best post in this whole rotten thread was “can we just DROP the mental health thing?” from Porcupine48 who, I’m guessing, would rather not have had to post it. And here I am coming out of self-enforced exile to add to the dross. Why am I bothering?! But here’s one difference – I will not post on these boards again, regardless of what responses come. I know that most will be scathing and I’ll likely be accused of being flouncy and a prima donna. Someone will spot something in the post that allows them to post a funny cutting one liner response, and that will be followed by smiley-winking-clapping face emoticons. Probably no one will say “You know, the guys got a point” and let it stand. I’m off to live my life. However dull it is, I need to find something better to do than post here. To the few good people on the boards who offered a little support, and avoid these rotten posts – like I should have – thank you. I have to absorb some of the blame here, as it was I who started that "How does having the last post in a thread make you feel?" thread.

$1725

I wish I could set up a poll where you could vote more than once You can.

Ooh, the heat is on for ice. That won't turn out well, I imagine.