Opening a Comic Store : Thoughts & Opinions

[Eggman]

Howdy from Dallas, TX everyone! I hope your New Years is off to a great start.

 

When I was a kid collecting comic books in the 70s and 80s, I thought that owning a comic book store must have been a little slice of heaven. Imagine doing something that is more than a hobby - and having fun doing it. Time marches on, bills come in and life intrudes relegating this to just a fantasy, or to nostalgically smile about as you lean back in your desk chair at "your real job." I chose the corporate track and have been successful in my endeavors so far.

 

Some events in my life are now changing, and there is a window of opportunity in the next couple of years to fulfil a fantasy of mine: owning and operating a store as my sole occupation.

 

There appears to be consolidation in the store ranks over the last decade or so. I would image the stereotypical "raggety little comic shops" are the first to go (but I'm not *assuming* that). I know there are certainly risks involved : cash flow and growing collector base being perhaps some of the primes.

 

My initial want is to open a nicely located shop (wary of high rents, but in a nice area with visibility and traffic). I don't want to fall vicitim of many a store I have ran into over my life of the run-down strip centers or similar locales. Professional, warm, inviting store. It would have a wide arrangement of new issues - and a unique display showcasing them (patent pending...:-) A "wall of wow" - tastefully and professionally done - highlighting many of the dream books and such. A nice, large graphic novel area. Of course, all the typical archival stuff (mylars, bags, boxes) available. The first store (hopefully of several) would be located in California, north of San Francisco. I'll keep the exact location quiet for now..... ;-)

 

But I would also diversify so it would likely have a large manga contingen, sculptures, videos, busts, action figures, sculptures.

 

Next, lets not forget about out gaming friends. Have a large-scale game zone (similiar in concept to GameStop, but with friendly, fun people helping everyone). I would stock all the games, along with items going back to Atari 2600s. Try-any-game to play in the store first with trade-in allowances of course.

 

Set the place up with an area or two with couches, flatscreens and such. Room to hang out. Some hardwood floors/replica to break things up.

 

Weekly or monthly events highlight gaming marathons, comic book cons, etc. Just a fun place where kids - and the adults - could hang out and get their fix. From casual collectors to the more well-healed clients.

 

So, with all that said, what would YOU like to see in a store? What is missing from today's comic book meccas? What would you like to see? What bugs you about existing stores? I would greatly appreciate all your feedback.

 

Thank you kindly in advance!

Eggman.

 

 

[Mr.Silvestri]

well 1st are economy is going down hill and would hate to see you start something only to close the doors sometime down the road.

 

Now with that being said I'd say 89% of the people who chat here would love to own a brick & motar shop, but why open a store that would cost way more money to run and operate then to open an at home shop in which you can have the whole world come in and shop instead of just the people in you town & save a HUGE amount of money doing so.

 

[Han]

Space. ;;;; most every comic book store I've been in has a severe lack of ROOM, to move around, breathe, step back and scan the rows...it's hard to find anything in the stores that are floor-to-eight-foot-ceiling bookshelves spanning a wall thirteen feet long and crammed with books. It kind of makes me want to just leave because I feel claustrophobic. But other than that, if you have the funds and the space to support such a huge expenditure that you're looking at, all the better. It sounds like it'd be a fun place just to hang out ^ ^ Maybe a little much to set up all at once, looking at it from the starting-out retailer perspective, but from the customer perspective, intimidating maybe a little, but very awesome.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Opening a Comic Store : Thoughts & Opinions

 

Don't. Its a dying business model, in a declining industry.

[dekeuk]

 

I only shop online but I think to be a success you need:

 

1. location (access to public transit might help)

2. affordable rent

3. lots of space so store is not cramped and you can move around

4. low/mid grade dc & marvel back issues stocked IN DEPTH back to 1975 on main titles

5. some low grade dc & marvel from 1965-1975 era

6. new comics

7. back issues organized and not packed so tightly I can't browse

8. sell your high grade stuff online where it will be better appreciated

9. comic supplies

10. comic based toys

11. NO sports cards (this is a comic book store)

12. try to buy better high value material locally and sell that stuff online to keep cash flow strong, otherwise it sits for a long time before a local person will buy it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

San Rafael, Novato, or Santa Rosa seem like decent spots for a new store. High income area and very under-served with stores.

 

As you probably know from previous threads on here, boardies want more back issues but there's a reason why stores these days have limited selection. They don't sell fast enough to justify the rents.

 

Having a big gaming component is probably helpful as it gives you two main sources of revenue and as the years go by you can see which one to favor.

 

If your business plan is well-thought out and you are well-capitalized, I'd say go for it. The great thing about working with comics is that it rarely feels like work. Plus, if you have a store you will have some hirelings to do things you don't like.

 

Like I probably said previously, when you're up here scouting around, I'd be happy to get together.

 

Marc

[Mio]

Don't do it. It's an enjoyable hobby that can be done well and profitably at home on a small-medium scale. Establishing retail infrastructure is a high risk venture with limited financial rewards.

[nochips]

Ask Moondog. He knows more about comic ships than all of us put together. He can tell you of the pitfalls before you jump in.

[backtomarvel]

On a minor note, there's really only one LCS near me -- in the Twin Cities, a decent market size -- that sells 'supplies' at an even reasonable rate. Maybe it's a good 'loss leader?'

 

Secondly, I'd have to say I would think 72 times before signing a lease out of the block. Have you explored a home business? Are there tax breaks?

 

Should you spend the money otherwise going to rent for consulting on growing online traffic? For buying inventory? Assuming you would try and sell some online, too, why not start there?

 

Say, take your capitol and think of yourself as a dealer rather than a store owner? Work hard at finding collections to buy instead of trying to find ways to get people in the door?

 

Feels to me like less risk and will afford you the chance to back out several months in if it doesn't feel right, instead of worrying about lease payments.

 

Just a thought and good luck with whatever you decide!

[Comicopolis]

Do it online instead - you've already got potential customers on these boards.

 

10% discount for CGC members!

[conditionfreak]

Open a web site and promote it well. A brick and morter (or wood) shop has about a 3% chance of being a successful business venture IMO.

 

Unless you combine it with something else, like video games and such. Then maybe you get to a 10% chance of success.

 

I do not know one single person under the age of 27 who buys comic books. I know they are out there, but not many. It is all about the internet for this hobby. Present LCS's excluded, but from what I hear, they have hard times and always have had hard times.

 

Insurance, utilities, payroll, etc, are just to darn high for the amount of collectors in any one location. The best locations, where you would have the best chance of making it, are too high in rent for a business like this.

 

To answer some of your questions.

 

What bugs me about stores is the way comics are boxed for perusal. Yea, I know. How else could one do it? But multitudes of guys going through the boxed back issues and damaging the books by bending them and pushing down on the tops of them to get them back after pulling it up to see the covers, just makes them all mid grade, when many of them started out as high grade. They were put in the boxes and priced at the previous grade. Now they have been tortured, but still have the previous price. Many collectors will not take a book up and negotiate. They will instead just push in back into the box and look further. It's a vicious circle

 

The other thing is the usual lack of quality silver and golden age stuff. It is all about the moderns in most stores. But, maybe that's just me.

 

Never hang your stuff on the walls for months or years. Shows well, but the lights just destroy the colors and they become washed out.

 

One last tidbit of recommendation is that it is better to "move" books for a lower price than you actually want, than to keep it there for years. Cash is king. If you price a book for 40 bucks and it languishes there at 40 bucks for two years before you lower the price, you have made a mistake business wise. If you paid 8 dollars for it and have it priced at 40, sell it for 16 and move on. Giving a customer a good deal is never a mistake. You doubled your money. The buyer is telling his friends about your great pricing and he also is coming back looking for more "steals". What is wrong with doubling your money? Greed is usually a killer.

 

Good luck if you do it.

[jimjum12]

Remember to include POP items such as Cold Sodas, Snacks, and maybe a pinball machine. These all generate income for a friend of mine's LCS. A selection of used DVD'S and VCR's might work. Get creative with your marketing...combine with charitable fund raisers, radio stations , etc. Providing a consignment service may help you stock your wall of dreams with low overhead to you.Keep your profit margin as low as you can....I think it was Mr. Bedrock who said, "I'm here to SELL comics, not keep them." Have quarterly sales to thin out slow moving stock.GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Han]

Open a web site and promote it well. A brick and morter (or wood) shop has about a 3% chance of being a successful business venture IMO.

The general rule of thumb is first two years are losses, the third year breaks even, the fourth and fifth start to climb. If you can't make it for at least three years without breaking even, it's a BAD idea.

 

I do not know one single person under the age of 27 who buys comic books. I know they are out there, but not many.

 

[jduran1]

Yes but lets look how comic stores evolved. First in the old days comic shops were where you went to buy your pharmaceuticals. Second they sold bongs and and weed paper and underground comics. Great place to launder cash for the owners some people used to say. . Most were also run by pony tailed anti-establishment hippies/farmers and hired people who could cared little about customer service. The shops were dusty and dirty with incense lit all the time. They then started carrying lots of comic books but the stores were still to scary for little kids to go into. Some comic shops I go in to today still look like what I described above. Most of these stores are gone.

 

So my advice is as follows. Reinvent how a comic shop should look if you can afford it. Sell Comics, movies, toys, books etc. The old model is dead and done. Hire a designer interior decorator and the top retail guru you can find. Your shop should be in a mall for the traffic and widows and orphans should feel safe in there. It should have the excitement of a casino.

 

Build a great website and sell comic related toys again in your store. Hire high school kids going to Harvard to work for you and make them all wear cool polo shirts with your shops name on it. Make it feel like a Disney store and you should do well on your investment plus get out of your house. But wait a year or so to do that given our horrible economy right now.

 

If you open a comic store that looks like the comic stores in America left today you will surely fail.

[PrismaticSmoke]

The only Comic Shop to survive near me is half Comic Shop, Half used book store. Majority of Customers are for the book side.

 

However if I was to open a shop you have to be mindful of what your product is.

 

The shop should be spacious, good supply of back issues of all grades.

 

I would have a section for Comic Toys, a Section for comic apparel with various sizes, good selection of supplies.

 

Since Comics is a hobby and despite what others have said if you know about Sports cards you can add a small counter for that market. There are those who do collect both. If you are in a market that has a sports team I would defantly have a sports card section.

 

At the counter it would not hurt to have a small Soda pop section with a selection of candy to help bring in more income.

 

But be prepared to advertise locally, if they do not know, they will not come. Advertising is KEY and IMO a reason why MANY comic shops fold up. Yellow pages is NOT advertising.

 

But do not just sit there and expect local sales to help, Make a web site and offer a pull service, give a %15 discount for pull service and reasonable shipping costs. This way you can pull business from those who do not live near a shop. Work your inventory onto Auction sites like ebay, Ebid, etc

 

Run Promotions, Take large stacks of Comics that would normally be in the quarter bins down to your local hospital and give them to the kids. The kids have something to read and also it is a way of getting young ones involved, your store stamp displayed on the issue may drive future customers.

 

Any business can succeed if done properly, alas I feel that many comic shop failures are more the fault of the owner not really understanding how to run a business, failing to do what it takes to keep customers, and failing to adapt to changing business environment. I am sorry but a comic shop with a fat man at the counter in a cramped store that is not inviting is not going to succeed

 

Finally be reasonable on pricing, If you try to use "Overstreet" to price your only setting up for failure. While there is no accurate pricing, using several factors to arrive at a reasonable price will gain you more customers. Be fair in pricing, but do not give away the store. You want the customer to feel happy about the purchase.

 

If done properly you can succeed. But it is up to you to make it work.

[Moondog]

Howdy from Dallas, TX everyone! I hope your New Years is off to a great start.

 

When I was a kid collecting comic books in the 70s and 80s, I thought that owning a comic book store must have been a little slice of heaven. Imagine doing something that is more than a hobby - and having fun doing it. Time marches on, bills come in and life intrudes relegating this to just a fantasy, or to nostalgically smile about as you lean back in your desk chair at "your real job." I chose the corporate track and have been successful in my endeavors so far.

 

Some events in my life are now changing, and there is a window of opportunity in the next couple of years to fulfil a fantasy of mine: owning and operating a store as my sole occupation.

 

There appears to be consolidation in the store ranks over the last decade or so. I would image the stereotypical "raggety little comic shops" are the first to go (but I'm not *assuming* that). I know there are certainly risks involved : cash flow and growing collector base being perhaps some of the primes.

 

My initial want is to open a nicely located shop (wary of high rents, but in a nice area with visibility and traffic). I don't want to fall vicitim of many a store I have ran into over my life of the run-down strip centers or similar locales. Professional, warm, inviting store. It would have a wide arrangement of new issues - and a unique display showcasing them (patent pending...:-) A "wall of wow" - tastefully and professionally done - highlighting many of the dream books and such. A nice, large graphic novel area. Of course, all the typical archival stuff (mylars, bags, boxes) available. The first store (hopefully of several) would be located in California, north of San Francisco. I'll keep the exact location quiet for now..... ;-)

 

But I would also diversify so it would likely have a large manga contingen, sculptures, videos, busts, action figures, sculptures.

 

Next, lets not forget about out gaming friends. Have a large-scale game zone (similiar in concept to GameStop, but with friendly, fun people helping everyone). I would stock all the games, along with items going back to Atari 2600s. Try-any-game to play in the store first with trade-in allowances of course.

 

Set the place up with an area or two with couches, flatscreens and such. Room to hang out. Some hardwood floors/replica to break things up.

 

Weekly or monthly events highlight gaming marathons, comic book cons, etc. Just a fun place where kids - and the adults - could hang out and get their fix. From casual collectors to the more well-healed clients.

 

So, with all that said, what would YOU like to see in a store? What is missing from today's comic book meccas? What would you like to see? What bugs you about existing stores? I would greatly appreciate all your feedback.

 

Thank you kindly in advance!

Eggman.

 

 

The costs of the construction you outline along with signage and fixtures will be astronomical. Your inventory costs (I assume you're starting from scratch) will be enormous, and the area you're targeting has some of the most expensive real estate in the country and correspondingly high rents.

 

Frankly, this business plan is what you called it - a fantasy. Your cash flow needs will be so huge that I could not imagine in a million years that you could turn a profit (even working it yourself and not paying yourself a salary).

 

Couches and flat screens? You do realize that the rent per square foot for the couches and TV's is the same as the space where you're selling goods, don't you?

 

The reason that most comic-book stores are in low-rent, out-of-the-way areas with old fixtures is that this is the only way they can afford to stay in business. And here's the main reason: The margins are too low on the new stuff that you will sell.

 

It is possible to make a living with one comic book store. But you would probably need to buy an existing profitable store. I can't see how a new store could make it today. In Chicago I'm not aware of any new stores having opened in the past few years.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bosco685]

This thread, though I wondered what some of the responses were going to be, is very enlightening.

 

A few years back my company wanted to help a major laundry appliance company reinvent themselves, and focus on the coinless laundry business. This way, they would design washers and dryers that would accept stored value cards (e.g. gift cards, loyalty cards).

 

I think the majority of the responses here hit on what we discovered how laundromats were reinventing themselves from this effort. Not only were they coordinating with vending machine operators to also install machines that would take these cards, but also working with Microsoft to create xBox games that would take the same cards and keep a captive audience. Otherwise, you throw your laundry in the machine, and either leave to get food or sit and just read a magazine.

 

The all-in-one, captive audience-within-the-store model was massively successful. So why couldn't a comic shop, if you are set on brick-and-mortar, do the same?

 

Great points!

[comicwiz]

Open a web site and promote it well.

 

I don't mean to point you out conditionfreak, but I'd really like to hear some ideas on how someone goes about promoting an online venture well.

 

This is not intended as a smarty comment either, as I do know a fair bit about this aspect of online commerce, but I am also genuinely interested in hearing how some members have successfully promoted their online shops.

[moonlite]

Open a web site and promote it well. A brick and morter (or wood) shop has about a 3% chance of being a successful business venture IMO.

 

Unless you combine it with something else, like video games and such. Then maybe you get to a 10% chance of success.

 

I do not know one single person under the age of 27 who buys comic books. I know they are out there, but not many. It is all about the internet for this hobby. Present LCS's excluded, but from what I hear, they have hard times and always have had hard times.

 

Insurance, utilities, payroll, etc, are just to darn high for the amount of collectors in any one location. The best locations, where you would have the best chance of making it, are too high in rent for a business like this.

 

The other thing is the usual lack of quality silver and golden age stuff. It is all about the moderns in most stores. But, maybe that's just me.

 

Wow?

 

Website? yes, because no one else is doing that, probably about the same chance of success.

 

I own a LCS and know a lot of collectors under the age of 27, even 22 for that matter.

 

Anyway, this illustrates a good point.

 

If you are doing this for a viable business...you need to listen to retailers like MOONDOG or some others here, not collectors. I own a LCS and have owned 2 different ones, for a total of 13 years. I wouldn't say they are highly successful but I don't choose the high traffic locations nor do I do it full-time for a living. Two factors that would change how I do business.

 

For instance, looking in the previews magazine we order from, a collector would probably tend to order LOTS of stuff if preferences were given. However, the amount of that stuff that would actually sell in a store varies.

 

You didn't mention why you would open? Is it a hobby or retirement fun thing to try?

Will you have to do it for a living? How much capital do you have..where you are talking about and the type of stuff you are going to be into (wishful into), you would need a minimum of 100K to start a new store and pay bills until established. Might even need more depending on your goals.

 

There is too much to go into in these posts but talk to people who actually deal with this on a daily basis, not those who visit for 30 minutes a week. For instance, back issues are tough to deal with (floor space, supplies, pricing, updating, liquidating, whatever you do with them) and they may account for 5-10% of sales but require 25% or more of floor space. Thats the reason many stores don't have them.

 

Wishful thinking would be a two level store with upper level open area for gaming and for gatherings. Lower level for book and product sales (people can come and go quickly). I would love a store that stocks everything ever offered. howz that for collector wishing :0).

 

 

[centipede]

This is actually a great time to open a shop (from an economic perspective). History shows that businesses launched during a bad economy have a higher chance of success as the costs to lauch (due to rent, loans etc.) is less. However I'm not sure if comic shops are a great way to go at this point in history. You'll have to reinvent the comic shop model.

 

I generally shop at only 1 comic store for a few key reasons. First, graded comics, and tons of them. Second, a small number of key NM or better silver and bronze age comics at good prices. If a store doesn't sell graded or high end older comics I'll rarely go in. Second, comic supplies...E Gerber silver/golden mylars, acid free backing boards, archival boxes.

 

Forget the old model with hundreds and hundreds of back issues. The hobby is becoming more elitist. Buyers are mostly over 30 with money to burn on investment grade books. If you stock back issues, keep the comics in the back and post a lists for each title with the available comics and grade..maybe on terminals with photos. That way you can find what you want fast and request to see it, without thumbing through 800 books which are all bent and fingerprinted. Keep your store well spaced, run an annual convention, and stock TPBs/graphic novels and action figures to satisfy your younger buyers.

 

I love the idea of the gaming area. If you put in the old centipede game I might even have to come by and play, .

 

Best of luck!