Good or bad time to start an LCS

[the blob]

with all of that said, despite my imagination as to how much "fun" it would be to run a shop as well, after watching my friend's shop go under, after he had owned shops for 20 years and run them for 5 before that, selling a wide variety of merchandise and having a fantastic lease by Manhattan standards ($1K a month...but on a side street) and being the only shop in am affluent neighborhood of 100,000 people with two universities within a reasonable distance and an elem and jr. high nearby, it seems like a brutal business. granted, this was in 1999/2000 when it was perhaps even more brutal, but still, now it can be even worse if you make an error overordering new books...10 extra copies costs you $20 rather than $10 or less 10 years ago.

[JohnnyDeLicious]

Here is an idea I had but never tried.

 

In New York we would buy a hero sandwich for lunch . Some places called it a sub sandwich and some places called it a hogie.

There were stores that only sold heros - like Busco's off Tremont Ave. in the Bronx.

 

I thought it would be great to open a "Super Hero Sandwich Shop" that sold subs and new comics.

 

To get customers hooked on comics I thought I could give a comic to each person that bought a sandwich until they really wanted to follow and collect a character. It could be any old comic

that the buyer might grab off a comic rack.

 

We use to get an hour for lunch - so I pictured guys eating their sandwiches and reading the free comics. I hoped eventually they would buy the new comics I would sell.

 

I went as far as finding out that I could not use the name Super Hero because Marvel and DC had joint rights to that name.

 

A few years later a place opened in the Hampton Bays called "The Great American Hero Shop"and they had made up super heros as art work on their walls but they did not sell comics.

 

If anyone uses my idea - I want a free Well Done Roast Beef Hero with Salt Pepper and Mayo.

 

Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, OK has a sandwich shop. It is one of the best comics stores I've ever been to. I'm not sure how long the store has been there, the sandwich section opened around 2000. The owner, Matt Price, has been on several SDCC panels about opening your own retail shop. These are the most boring sounding sentences I've ever typed. http://www.speedingbulletcomics.com/ is their website, it looks like they only keep the sandwich side open on new comics day currently.

[BaltimoreLauren]

Speaking of creative idea's, I always wanted to open a "kid friendly" shop. Granted, a lot of shops are kid friendly, but I was thinking of making the main focus on younger readers, with toys, books (such as that Batman kiddie book I posted a while back), events for younger kids, ect. It makes more sense in my head, I promise.

[ChiSoxFan]

I'm surprised at the amount of negative opinion on a comic board.

I wouldn't call a lot of what's being said "negative" opinion, so much as it is realistic warnings that the chances of opening a comic book store and making it a money-maker that actually puts cash in your bank account at the end of the month are even less than opening a standard business and being successful. I believe that the numbers are 1/3 of all new businesses fold their tents within two years, and half are gone within 4 years -- and a comic book store appeals to a niche market that, I would think, put those imposing odds even higher against success.

 

A comic store is a very specialized business and not one most business people would jump into. Unfortunately most comic stores are owned and operated by comic fans with no business acumen.

 

I won't disagree with that -- I will state that in my case, I came into the business having worked successfully in but the service industry and retail for a number of years, while my partners had owned an operated another business (non-comic-related) for several years that had been very successful and profitable, and for all of the business smarts I had (or thought I did), they knew even more than I did. Good business people making good decisions still see their endeavors end up badly sometimes, and in today's economy and in an industry that has been shedding customers for years now, good business sense is no guarantee of a better result.

 

I do completely agree with you in the idea that buying an existing store is far preferable to opening one from scratch.

[FlComicFan]

Far as add ons such as action figures of couse it works if you buy close outs etc. Just not buying stock from Diamond at their regular prices. Diamond does do closeouts and sometimes you can pick up figures that have been out for a while for a good price $2-3 each. Then I do buy a few cases. Not so much when a case of 12 figures costs you a $120 and it takes you selling 8 from the 12 just to break even. Every dollar your customers pump into your business is precious.; You have to be able to capture as much of that as your money. Otherwise you become a non profitable front for Diamond Comics Distributors. Anytime you are able to buy merchandise that is sellable that will give you a big return you will do well. That is where back issues and buying over the counter factors in heavily. I like to stop and check out shops when I travel and often they dont buy anything over the counter. What a waste!

 

If you run a tight ship and order properly and build up a business that incorporates the more profitable items such as back issues and buying over the counter you can maintain a gross profit of around 40%-50% or slightly more of the money you take in. IE your shop takes in 15K in a month you gross 6K-7.5K before you account for rent/insurance/utilities/advertising.

 

Why do stores close then? Oversaturation in that area. Improper ordering. Bad business decisions. Treating your customers like dirt. Heck any type of business can fail if you dont put some effort into it

 

The biggest asset your store will have is the amount of passion and knowleadge you will put into it. A good comic book store is like a old fashioned barber shop or even some say like a church function. People dont come there just to buy their books. They are coming in to socialize, talk about movies/music. Gripe about their bills etc etc.

 

Besides comic store owners/employees not being business a lot of them also tend to be either unfriendly/shy/oblivious or some other social disorder. People want to fell good when they spend their cash. Least one can do is be friendly and accomodating. You will win and retain business by being likeable and treating people right.

 

 

 

 

[codfish]

 

Why do stores close then? Oversaturation in that area. Improper ordering. Bad business decisions. Treating your customers like dirt. Heck any type of business can fail if you dont put some effort into it

 

Not to mention insufficient start-up and operating capital since you will likely not even be close to making money for a year or two, crappy location, buying too much, wrong hours, etc

 

The biggest asset your store will have is the amount of passion and knowleadge you will put into it. A good comic book store is like a old fashioned barber shop or even some say like a church function. People dont come there just to buy their books. They are coming in to socialize, talk about movies/music. Gripe about their bills etc etc.

 

Product knowledge will only get you so far. It does not get people in the doors or guarantee that you will be able to manage your inventory. It certainly will not prevent people going delinquent on their accounts. You have to have a pretty broad knowledge for it to meet the approval of your customers and there is no way to please everyone.

 

Besides comic store owners/employees not being business a lot of them also tend to be either unfriendly/shy/oblivious or some other social disorder. People want to fell good when they spend their cash. Least one can do is be friendly and accomodating. You will win and retain business by being likeable and treating people right.

 

At the same time this can get you into trouble because the customer draws the line and they will always set it to their advantage and not to yours. So being friendly and stuff helps but at the same time it is a business relationship and what rules you set are not up to negotiation. As you go along you will figure out which folks you can bend the rules for and which you can't.

 

Margins are already slim and giving them away doesn't help anyone and customers need to know that.

 

BTW I am not being "negative". People wanting to start up a comic store, especially from scratch, need to know that just because you love and know the product doesn't mean you will succeed and if you aren't thinking with a business mind there is a good chance you will fail and that could affect your personal finances for a long time to come. That is why you write a business plan and do alot of footwork. If it seems impractical then you can save yourself a ton of grief.

[mschmidt]

Besides comic store owners/employees not being business a lot of them also tend to be either unfriendly/shy/oblivious or some other social disorder. People want to fell good when they spend their cash. Least one can do is be friendly and accomodating. You will win and retain business by being likeable and treating people right.

 

At the same time this can get you into trouble because the customer draws the line and they will always set it to their advantage and not to yours. So being friendly and stuff helps but at the same time it is a business relationship and what rules you set are not up to negotiation. As you go along you will figure out which folks you can bend the rules for and which you can't.

 

Margins are already slim and giving them away doesn't help anyone and customers need to know that.

 

I wholeheartedly disagree - I am sick & tired of comic book stores where the owner/employees seem like they couldn't care less about the customer. I'm not talking about bending over for every person that walks in the door, but rather treating people the way yourself would want to be treated.

 

You never know whether the guy who just spent $3.99 buying a random modern will come back later & plonk down $500 on a SA key, so why would you have an attitude that makes sure something like that is never going to happen?

 

The only reason I spend money at my LCS is because they're good people & I want their store to stay in business - there's not a back issue in their store that I couldn't find cheaper online (either on ebay or here on the boards). I even moved my entire 40+ book pull-list over to them even though their discount is only about half of what I could get online ...

[Ogami]

Speaking of creative idea's, I always wanted to open a "kid friendly" shop. Granted, a lot of shops are kid friendly, but I was thinking of making the main focus on younger readers, with toys, books (such as that Batman kiddie book I posted a while back), events for younger kids, ect. It makes more sense in my head, I promise.

 

I think this is a great idea. Seriously.

 

I am seriously considering opening a store in the next 8-12 years, and I plan on focusing exclusively on trades, new comics and rare books. No store full of long boxes of cr.ap or kiche.

 

It will be a true book store.

[sckao]

 

Seriously, buy this man's book and read his articles:

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=column&id=28

 

(The Fri, April 17th one is particularly interesting for people interested in starting a store.)

 

 

[Ogami]

Seriously, buy this man's book and read his articles:

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=column&id=28

 

(The Fri, April 17th one is particularly interesting for people interested in starting a store.)

 

 

I've enjoyed reading that before.

 

I really had to post this bit. This is what I'm talking about.

 

"Trade paperbacks are the majority of our (dollar) sales, and have been for many years now, and individual back issues are essentially an afterthought, stuck in a corner of the store, and I’ve even been contemplating getting rid of them altogether.

 

 

 

Things have changed."

 

 

[mschmidt]

Seriously, buy this man's book and read his articles:

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=column&id=28

 

(The Fri, April 17th one is particularly interesting for people interested in starting a store.)

 

 

I've enjoyed reading that before.

 

I really had to post this bit. This is what I'm talking about.

 

"Trade paperbacks are the majority of our (dollar) sales, and have been for many years now, and individual back issues are essentially an afterthought, stuck in a corner of the store, and I’ve even been contemplating getting rid of them altogether.

 

Things have changed."

 

 

I'm not doubting that there are nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from Bill's articles, but to me his writing is tainted by the fact that his own store (Comix Experience in SF) just ... well, to put it kindly ... sucks.

 

The store is dirty & tiny - doesn't have a particularly good selection of new books, nor TPB's - and the only back issues to speak of are a smattering of boxes, hidden away in the corner, filled with mangled quarter-bin books with $5 price tags on them. They were so filthy I had to wash my hands after looking through them.

 

The Experience is one of a bad mall store which just makes it hard to take him seriously.

[sckao]

 

 

 

 

[sckao]

 

(Part of the reason why he's profitable is because he doesn't get STUCK with books that don't sell. That's one of the things about his POS system.)

 

That means he doesn't ORDER all the titles obviously... but he also doesn't get stuck with them.

 

Sucks for the customer I guess... but it keeps his store open.

 

[MrBedrock]

A few random thoughts:

 

1. the rent for a good location will kill you financially

 

Not true

(Spend the dough on the best location you possibly can - there is a reason it costs more - TRAFFIC)

 

2. back issues take up a lot of capital, square footage, they move slow, and customers handling them degrades them

 

partially true

(but they are still a significant percentage of overall sales in any store that invests in the endeavor. For us that is about 10% of overall sales. Or approximately $25,000 a month spread over three stores.)

 

3. people don't buy back issues like they used to

 

partially true

(because there is so much new reprint material available consumers have more choices on how they spend their money to read their back issues)

 

4. people don't buy new issues anymore, you can't count on "investors" buying 10 copies of a hot book

 

part one - not true part two - who cares

(I don't know how else to elaborate)

 

5. you are a lot better off selling online if you really love comics

 

not true

(HUH?)

 

6. your best books you will end up selling online anyway

 

not true

(you can definitely sell good books in your store)

 

 

but what do I know ............

 

 

[moonlite]

Seriously, buy this man's book and read his articles:

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=column&id=28

 

(The Fri, April 17th one is particularly interesting for people interested in starting a store.)

 

 

I've enjoyed reading that before.

 

I really had to post this bit. This is what I'm talking about.

 

"Trade paperbacks are the majority of our (dollar) sales, and have been for many years now, and individual back issues are essentially an afterthought, stuck in a corner of the store, and I’ve even been contemplating getting rid of them altogether.

 

Things have changed."

 

Ah but some things have changed, recent developments from the retailers I have noted on industry boards and spoken with seem to indicate a decline in sales of TPB's from a year ago. This not be true for every LCS but seems to be the case for me and for a number of others. I realize it may be the economy but I have customers who only buy tpbs and they are spending the same.

 

I also have more customers who buy both new books and tpbs to catch up on stories they didn't want to pay the money to buy the singles for. I never understood this "I'll just catch the trade when it comes out" statement.

 

Ok, a six issue series reprinted in HC is going to cost you $20 at least. And most times the series was 2.99 so that makes it $18 to buy the floppies. If the floppies were 3.99 well then the HC is likely to be $30. Yes I realize the SC are a little cheaper but not many dollars cheaper and you have to wait longer to read that. So you are saving money today on the floppies to just to pay more in 3-6 months for the HC or nearly the same for the SC?

[sckao]

 

Personally, I like HCs because I want them long-term in my library. I loan books out to people as well and the soft-covers get beaten up when I do that.

 

 

 

 

[FlComicFan]

Sales of trades may be slowing because most of the truly viable back catalogue has been put in print alreadyfor several years Also of late Marvel in particular has been putting out oddball choices on older material. Kitty/Wolverine HC really? Something like that is readily available in the quarter bins. Yet a lot of classic material is unavailable. Where is the Starlin Warlock, Avengers Korvac saga, Great darkness saga is OOP again. Affordable EC in softcovers?

 

Not to mention $20-30 is tough in the current economy.

 

I'll stick with back issues but you do no need to devote some time and effort to them. Your customers need to see a continuous influx of new material and one needs to make an effort to restock the titles that move. Biggest problem is what to do with the glut of books you acumulate buying bulk collections.

 

Tilting at Windmills is a very well written and insightful piece. I dont have much to say on his actual store other than he's been doing it 20 years so he's doing something right.

[2morrowMan-migration]

how very dis-heartening

[2morrowMan-migration]

i must be a rare breed, On a saturday with nothing else to do i can do a loop and hit 12 comics shops in one day. But if time or funds are limited, the shops with the weakest back issue sections are skipped. I understand that 80% of back issue stock doesn't move but that 20% can be a nice chunk of cash. Of the 12 shops in the loop, 3 have stood out due to the fact they are always buying collections, so their "Wall" always has different stuff to look at. These are the stores i never skip, the others not so much.

I have the dream (or delusion) of having a shop as well, so i ask lots of questions at all the shops, and i look at their shops thru critical eyes.

 

just a couple things ive learned along the way.

 

Most businesses fail within the 1st year, so you need at least 1 yr operating costs

2 years is better, 5 years is best, as most new businesses don't turn a profit untill their 5th year.

As far as inventory, that depends on wants hot in your area.

Customer service is KEY. Dont be ignorant or arrogant.

Be organized and clean. If the bags are so old they are sticking together and turning yellow, most collectors won't even look

the same goes for not having the books in some type of order, If they can't find it they can't buy it.

Parking, Ive noticed most LCS in my area have terrible parking. A good lot ensures ample parking for all customers and a viable place to have an annual tent sale on FCBD

 

and there are more chinese take out restaurants than all other fast food restaurants combined, and those cute little boxes they put the fried rice in, are totally an american thing, orginally meant as oyster pails

[2morrowMan-migration]

Seriously, buy this man's book and read his articles:

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=column&id=28

 

(The Fri, April 17th one is particularly interesting for people interested in starting a store.)

 

 

I've enjoyed reading that before.

 

I really had to post this bit. This is what I'm talking about.

 

"Trade paperbacks are the majority of our (dollar) sales, and have been for many years now, and individual back issues are essentially an afterthought, stuck in a corner of the store, and I’ve even been contemplating getting rid of them altogether.

 

Things have changed."

 

Ah but some things have changed, recent developments from the retailers I have noted on industry boards and spoken with seem to indicate a decline in sales of TPB's from a year ago. This not be true for every LCS but seems to be the case for me and for a number of others. I realize it may be the economy but I have customers who only buy tpbs and they are spending the same.

 

I also have more customers who buy both new books and tpbs to catch up on stories they didn't want to pay the money to buy the singles for. I never understood this "I'll just catch the trade when it comes out" statement.

 

Ok, a six issue series reprinted in HC is going to cost you $20 at least. And most times the series was 2.99 so that makes it $18 to buy the floppies. If the floppies were 3.99 well then the HC is likely to be $30. Yes I realize the SC are a little cheaper but not many dollars cheaper and you have to wait longer to read that. So you are saving money today on the floppies to just to pay more in 3-6 months for the HC or nearly the same for the SC?

 

 

I like the feel of a HC or SC when i read it, along with the extra material that they put in them. Its also easy to find them for half price at the cons, and my local library also carries trades, recent ones too. Plus they can order what you want.

Im anal so i have to put my floppies in bag and board, so with the trades its nice to not have to be sooo gental, not to mention dealing with all that tape when tring to read a run of baged and boarded floppies, what a pain!!!