Barbarian Book Shop - Wheaton, MD

[moonlite]

 

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.

 

bill, did you sell your store to stribling? I sold mine in jackson to him.

I know he bought one on the coast too.

 

these days, diamond makes it easier to change your orders at least 2 weeks out from receipt. Its saved me a bunch of dough but I still guess wrong many times a week.

 

[ciorac]

 

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.

 

bill, did you sell your store to stribling? I sold mine in jackson to him.

I know he bought one on the coast too.

 

these days, diamond makes it easier to change your orders at least 2 weeks out from receipt. Its saved me a bunch of dough but I still guess wrong many times a week.

 

No. Ken bought Gulf Coast Comics in Biloxi, my stores were in New Orleans. One was re-named Crescent City Comics a year or so after I sold it to my friend Les. The main store, which is still open and in the same location (More Fun Comics), I sold to my friend Steve Thomas.