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Barbarian Book Shop - Wheaton, MD

Started by Monstro,

22 posts in this topic

Rich_Henn

Rich_Henn

Posted
Posted

I think it's under new management, but NOT much better.

 

The shop USED to be on the opposite side of that store front, now it's in the back.

When it was in the front, it was owned by a guy named Carl, and the place was, without question, a fire hazzard.

 

You'd walk in and there would be PILLARS of comics from the floor to 3 foot or so, the back issue bins were COVERED with boxes of action figures, and against the wall like a staircase, was tiers of more Diamond boxes filled with comics.

The back of the room had book cases with paperbacks, and to be quite honest...neither Carl or his assistant had any idea what they had, there was so much stuff burried under mountains of more stuff.

 

It was frustrating to go there and shop beause it wasnt even organized chaos...it was simply chaos.

 

I went back one more time about a year ago, when I discovered someone else owned it now. It's much smaller, the books are packed SO TIGHT into their long white that you know they're all just major spine stress. You can't even pull books out of those boxes they're so jammed tight.

 

It boggles my mind how shops like this stay open.

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
Posted
I think it's under new management, but NOT much better.

 

The shop USED to be on the opposite side of that store front, now it's in the back.

When it was in the front, it was owned by a guy named Carl, and the place was, without question, a fire hazzard.

 

You'd walk in and there would be PILLARS of comics from the floor to 3 foot or so, the back issue bins were COVERED with boxes of action figures, and against the wall like a staircase, was tiers of more Diamond boxes filled with comics.

The back of the room had book cases with paperbacks, and to be quite honest...neither Carl or his assistant had any idea what they had, there was so much stuff burried under mountains of more stuff.

 

It was frustrating to go there and shop beause it wasnt even organized chaos...it was simply chaos.

 

I went back one more time about a year ago, when I discovered someone else owned it now. It's much smaller, the books are packed SO TIGHT into their long white that you know they're all just major spine stress. You can't even pull books out of those boxes they're so jammed tight.

 

It boggles my mind how shops like this stay open.

 

Rich's description remains completely accurate. I stop by every once and awhile and usually leave empty-handed because you can't find anything, the prices are high and the books that are often displayed in cases appear light-damaged or faded.

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ciorac

ciorac

Posted
Posted
I think it's under new management, but NOT much better.

 

The shop USED to be on the opposite side of that store front, now it's in the back.

When it was in the front, it was owned by a guy named Carl, and the place was, without question, a fire hazzard.

 

You'd walk in and there would be PILLARS of comics from the floor to 3 foot or so, the back issue bins were COVERED with boxes of action figures, and against the wall like a staircase, was tiers of more Diamond boxes filled with comics.

The back of the room had book cases with paperbacks, and to be quite honest...neither Carl or his assistant had any idea what they had, there was so much stuff burried under mountains of more stuff.

 

It was frustrating to go there and shop beause it wasnt even organized chaos...it was simply chaos.

 

I went back one more time about a year ago, when I discovered someone else owned it now. It's much smaller, the books are packed SO TIGHT into their long white that you know they're all just major spine stress. You can't even pull books out of those boxes they're so jammed tight.

 

It boggles my mind how shops like this stay open.

 

Rich's description remains completely accurate. I stop by every once and awhile and usually leave empty-handed because you can't find anything, the prices are high and the books that are often displayed in cases appear light-damaged or faded.

 

Pokerkid and I stopped in a comic shop much like this one the other day. They had a few cool books hanging inside some cases, but they were faded out to near oblivion, but the high prices remained. Upstairs was the backstock and you couldn't get a book out of the long boxes as they were packed as tight as a Rigellian shellmouth.

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bronzilla

bronzilla

Posted
Posted

Packed too tight boxes is sadly a common theme in Comic shops.

I cant tell you how many times I have walked out of a shop in frustration due to this!

Imagine what you could find, and the money you might spend, if you could actually look thru the inventory!!

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Rich_Henn

Rich_Henn

Posted
Posted

 

 

And yet some shops turn down $800 in sales because they don't agree with slabbing.

 

Politics be damned, I don't know of ANY shops (excluding Mile High and Graham Crackers)...so I'll say TYPICAL comic shops...that do the kind of business daily and can afford to turn down that kind of money. NOT to digress to joeypost's thread from earlier this month, but I guess talking about shops like Barbarian just brings that back home.

 

Hearing about books overpriced, faded, spine damaged packed too tight, no organization...it's no wonder we still see shops close up on a regular basis.

 

And one other thing...about Barbarian...they're not turning money hand over fist, they're not subject to a lot of drive by traffic flow or new customers.

There's no doubt in my mind there.

 

Neither before Carl turned over the shop to someone else, nor after.

So you'd think with all that free time to kill, instead of watching TV or reading comics, as a shop owner, MAYBE you'd take some time to organize, clean up, re-evaluate what you DO have and what you CAN sell and actually try to run a business rather then a run down club house.

 

 

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ciorac

ciorac

Posted
Posted
and you couldn't get a book out of the long boxes as they were packed as tight as a Rigellian shellmouth.

 

I have no idea what that means exactly but it's a hilarious reference!

 

Monstro, fun idea for a thread.

 

lol

 

It's a Star Trek reference

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ciorac

ciorac

Posted
Posted

 

And yet some shops turn down $800 in sales because they don't agree with slabbing.

 

Politics be damned, I don't know of ANY shops (excluding Mile High and Graham Crackers)...so I'll say TYPICAL comic shops...that do the kind of business daily and can afford to turn down that kind of money. NOT to digress to joeypost's thread from earlier this month, but I guess talking about shops like Barbarian just brings that back home.

 

Hearing about books overpriced, faded, spine damaged packed too tight, no organization...it's no wonder we still see shops close up on a regular basis.

 

And one other thing...about Barbarian...they're not turning money hand over fist, they're not subject to a lot of drive by traffic flow or new customers.

There's no doubt in my mind there.

 

Neither before Carl turned over the shop to someone else, nor after.

So you'd think with all that free time to kill, instead of watching TV or reading comics, as a shop owner, MAYBE you'd take some time to organize, clean up, re-evaluate what you DO have and what you CAN sell and actually try to run a business rather then a run down club house.

 

 

When I had my stores, we made a point to keep the long boxes orderly and loose enough to shop, but not too loose to let books get damaged. Title dividers were the pre-printed type and all books were bagged and boarded with all-white backing boards. We tried to design the stores as collector friendly as possible.

 

If money was not an object and I could afford to lose money on a store every year, I'd open one back up just for the fun of it. It was lots of work keeping the stock fresh and worked, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

For the wall books we kept direct lighting off of them, and used green fluorescent bulbs in the fixtures to minimize any fading. Nonetheless, we rotated the books from boxes to wall just to be sure. No outside lighting could reach them, so we weren't overly concerned.

 

First and foremost, we priced everything fairly, so we kept the backstock moving. This more than anything kept them from fading

 

:)

 

It was the new books that made it tough to stay afloat. That Capital City/Heroes/Diamond bill every week was relentless. Getting the order right was not really my strong suit. You have to forecast it two to three months in advance, and collectors can be fickle, or they don't always come in on a regular basis to clean out their folders.

 

I do miss it though.

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cavecarson

cavecarson

Posted
Posted

That is the 3rd location then Carl was originally next to the aquarium store on Triangle ln and then moved across the street to newer & bigger digs (remained a fire trap though). Now it looks like it's moved back to Triangle ln to a different spot.

Still remember digging through the back issues and buying stacks of Marvel back issues for 40 cents each. I had a standing order for 10 copies of any new #1 issue that came out ...until I got 10 copies of Devil Dinosaur. Those were the good old days.

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