Tell us about that old comic book shop you remember...

[thehumantorch]

I'm pretty sure the internet made back issues hard for shops to sell. I know I'm not paying three bucks an issue for 90's X-Men and I doubt anybody else is either. They would get away with it if not for the web though. I don't think it's a bad thing that collectors have an outlet besides getting gouged by the LCS, even if it means we have less bins to sift through when we go downtown. I would still gladly bargain bin dive every chance I get though.

 

It is no accident that LCS, with few exceptions, en-mass no longer have any real back issues. It is a lot easier to buy manufactured new product with predictible

profit margins than digging up back issues that may or may not sell for who knows how much.

 

Yes, quality stores like Bedrock Comics can do it but Richard has a world of experience in grading, restoration and real sales experience; and he still stocks

new product.

[dupont2005]

Yeah I don't blame them for not filling the store with back issues that will sit in the bins forever. I do think a shop that specialized in nothing but new issues and bargain books could work though. All those bins, every thing a dollar or less depending on grade. It's not hard to buy drek and low grade readers for ten cents each or less in bulk so filling the bins wouldn't be a problem. If the store didn't market themselves as the "bargain" comic store it might backfire, but I think a giant 800 sq. ft. bargain bin full of old beat up Archies and Justice Leagues would draw in casual readers, bargain hunters like myself (and I know there are plenty of comic shoppers like myself), and parents willing to buy their kids a stack of old kid friendly Comics Code era comics for $5 but not necessarily willing to buy them one issue for $5.

 

Having everything in the store being either $1, 50 cents, or a quarter based on condition and priced with a little colored sticker dot would cut down on the man hours of inventorying, researching, pricing, and grading them. Also, since it's a bargain bin I don't think alphabetizing them and placing them in chronological order would be absolutely necessary. It would help, but I would deal with it being out of order if I had to.

[thehumantorch]

Back issues can work but it isn't easy.

 

If you ran a store full of bulk bins you would have to sell thousands a

month to pay the rent and keep the lights on let alone pay you wages.

 

Where would you find a steady supply of bulk bin fodder, thousands a month,

for the life of your shop?

 

You might find that after a while the local collectors have purchased tons of

your bulk books and crossed them off their lists. What do you sell them now?

 

I'm not saying back issues won't work. To succeed you've gotta know the true

value of books, you've gotta be able to grade and hopefully spot restoration.

 

 

Selling back issues is also a ton of work. Buying, grading, bagging and boarding

takes time. I hate going into LCS that have spaces on the wall from books they

sold a year ago. If you sell a back issue, climb up there and hang another. The

fact that they don't tells me that back issue sales is a small portion of their business.

[dupont2005]

Not nothing but bargain bins of course. The monthlies and trades would still be there. Just instead of letting random Copper Age Web Of Spideys sit in the bin forever marked at $5, blow them out at a dollar or less each. I don't think a store full of bargain comics would be emptied out at a rate too fast to replenish. Keep signs up around the store stating that you buy comics, and when people ask explain that you buy wholesale rate by the box full. Keep ads up on Craigslist and also put your own up. Watch eBay, entire stores and huge collections get sold off at wholesale often enough. Hit the cons and do what Chuck does if you have to. I think it could work. Of course I know less about the business side of comics than most on this board though. I would limit grading to "this one's falling apart, 25 cents. This ones got some bends/small tears in it, 50 cents. This one's intact (don't bother counting the spine ticks or judging the corner sharpness, it's a bargain bin) one dollar..." and so on. Taking the comics out of the bag wouldn't even be necessary. Just slap one of the three colored stickers on it based on your impression through the bag. If it didn't come in a bag and it's going into the lowest priced box, don't bag it. If it's going into the second tier box give it a bag but no board. If it's going into the third tier bag and board it. It would still take time but I think it would be cut way down that way.

[porcupine48]

have to come back to this one

[bill977]

my first shop was jim kovacs comic store in lakewood,ohio. in 1979,when i really got into collecting,i decided to drive there from the mansfield,ohio area. i had no idea how to get there exactly,but the open road called. i remember looking at a map of the cleveland area and was off at 7.00 am one sat. morn. we finally arrived at 9.00 am,1 hour before opening. my wife and i never got lost,tho we could have got there in 90 minutes. so we are sitting on detroit ave waiting for the shop to open. finally at 10;15 am mr kovacs arrives and we head in. i was working on a jla run at the time,along with batman 115- up. then i saw the 3 for a dollar boxes,filled with g-vg silver age and dropped my whole self imposed allowance of 40 bucks. needless to say,we went back several times a yr till the shop closed around 1983. i do recall maggie and don thompson writing articles in the cbg hammering mr. kovacs for his whatever the traffic will bear attitude.

[bill977]

hey kd,was that the shop on the corner of pearl and ridge roads? i also recall 2 other shops south of pearl road on ridge rd. did lots of shopping at all 3 in the mid to late 80s.

[tth2]

First it was the Stars & Stripes bookstore on the Army base in Seoul, Korea in 1972-73, and then it was the Stars & Stripes bookstore on the Navy base in Taipei, Taiwan. The smell of all the fresh paper is still vivid for me today, as is the memory of big display shelves full of superhero comics. I still remember the first superhero comic I ever bought--Captain America 149.

[Boozad]

My first was Arrival on Broad Street in Wolverhampton. New issues and about two years worth of back issues, it was a tiny shop and OK for me who started buying there when I was 14 or so.

 

A couple of years later it was Bridge Street Comics in Walsall. Now this was better, much better. All the new releases were on one wall and the counter ran along the window, which left a hell of a lot of room for back issues. This was where I built most of my first collection, and his monthly service was fantastic even though I used to pick up every week.

The prices of some of the SA and BA seemed huge back then, but I'd love to pay those prices now.

As the scene over here died a slow and painful death, the backstock disappeared and the number of new monthlies eventually started to dwindle too. The guy who ran the place finally ended up selling comics out of the boot of his car on the nearest car park. His 'assistant' was asked to go and spy on the new nearest competition, Forbidden Planet. Instead of checking it out he applied for a job there and got it, he's now the manager and relieves all of the week's packages of variants and tries to sell them on eBay for 10x cover.

 

Finally it was onto Nostalgia & Comics in Birmingham. Much bigger and better than the other two put together. I only went there a few times as BSC had me covered for most of what I needed so it didn't make sense doing the extra mileage. But when you did go there it was comic heaven.

Now it's a subsidiary of Forbidden Planet, and you're lucky to find 15-20 F/VF copies of back issues of the big titles going back no later than early Copper.

 

The death of the British LCS still upsets me to this day. I miss them. Especially Bridge Street.

[Shadow]

I started collecting in 1978 at age 12. There was a store that started around that time in Toledo called "The Comic Shop". I still remember scraping together about $8 and my mom drove me to it. When I walked in, my jaw dropped. I figured I could spend all day there just trying to stretch my $8. The owner had a case full of key Marvel books like ASM #1, FF#1 and some DC's also. And his back wall was huge.

 

I didn't make Want Lists then so I just started digging through the bins. I started collecting JLA's and had a Super-Friends Limited Collectors Edition which reprinted two old JLA stories with #36 and #61. I found both original issues (in Good) and was overjoyed! I now possessed some old comics! (I've since upgraded those issues but still keep the old ones today for nostalgic reasons.) I know I bought other books that day but I no longer remember which.

 

For 4 years after that, until I got my drivers license, my friends and I would plead with our parents to take us there. If one agreed, we all hopped aboard. Those really were innocent times when collecting comics and reading them was such an important part of life. The store rarely had sales but I still remember him having a big sale circa 1981 where I bought Captain America #100 in Fine for $2 off his back wall. I believe he sold the store by the mid-80's. It's still in the same plaza, different location and owner. The last time I stopped by a few years ago, it was way to crammed in and they didn't even have half the lights on. When I asked if they could turn the lights on in the back issue area, it was like I was inconveniencing them. And the boxes were way too full and jammed, plus the wall books hadn't been moved around so some of them were faded or creased.

 

My other fond memories were discovering old comics at used book stores. Back then, most used book stores had no clue what comics wer worth. Arounf Christmas 1980, we were in Chicago at my aunt and uncle's house. We went downtown one cold, gray rainy day and I remember we weren't far from the Sears Tower area when we walked by an old book store. I asked my parent's if I could go in and they said I had 15 minutes. The store was full of books stacked high all around. I asked if they had comics and they took me around a corner to a large room stacked full of comics. Oh my God, I had only $3 and 10 minutes left and thousands of books in no order facing me! I rummaged through and found a Captain America #101 and JLA #15. (I still have the JLA, it's in a Fine+ or a VF I believe) It cost me $2.50 for both and oh how I wished I had all day and $100!

 

Those were the days. Not to sound "old" but there was something about the "discovery". For many of these books, it was the first time you had ever seen them. Now, with the Internet, we can pull an image of any comic we'd like. And we can buy them easier also. But, boy was the search fun at times back then. It was like finding hidden treasure.

[Weird Paper]

First it was the Stars & Stripes bookstore on the Army base in Seoul, Korea in 1972-73, and then it was the Stars & Stripes bookstore on the Navy base in Taipei, Taiwan. The smell of all the fresh paper is still vivid for me today, as is the memory of big display shelves full of superhero comics. I still remember the first superhero comic I ever bought--Captain America 149.

That smell... the smell of the Stars & Stripes is one of the most vivid sensory memories. We lived overseas in the mid 60s and I bought all my comics at various S&S. When we moved back in the early-mid 70s, and I first walked into the bookstore on base at Heidelburg, it all came back to me. Odd, but no bookstore stateside ever had that distinctive smell.

[the blob]

I'm pretty sure the internet made back issues hard for shops to sell. I know I'm not paying three bucks an issue for 90's X-Men and I doubt anybody else is either. They would get away with it if not for the web though. I don't think it's a bad thing that collectors have an outlet besides getting gouged by the LCS, even if it means we have less bins to sift through when we go downtown. I would still gladly bargain bin dive every chance I get though.

----------

 

shops are a mixed bag in terms of this. some price stuff to move, some believe the guide is the bible. even before ebay there were plenty of shops (at least around me) that priced stuff like that at 25 cents - $1 to keep it moving out the door...plus, there were always shows to go to where stuff was priced to move. most of my local shops now do not price any back issue like this at more than 50 cents to 1/2 cover.

 

[the blob]

Not nothing but bargain bins of course. The monthlies and trades would still be there. Just instead of letting random Copper Age Web Of Spideys sit in the bin forever marked at $5, blow them out at a dollar or less each.

--------------

 

my main LCS does this. web of spidey 1 might be priced up, but I suspect the rest would go in the dollar box as would most CA books. i have plucked several ASM 239s out of there (albeit beater copies), that's where all the Byrne FFs go, Avengers over the mid-180's, practically any thor after 1976, most DCs, etc. strict NM or better X-Men and Spideys might be priced a little higher. and he had a pretty good sell-through on this stuff, sure, but there just isn't a vast quantity of this stuff coming through and he's in an incredibly busy location, etc. sure, i guess he isn't out there chasing bulk deals to get more of it (not much floor space), but not that many people want to drag in 5 long boxes of drek to get 5 cents each. i don't know how well the busines model would work if he had 60 long boxes devoted to this rather than 6.

[the blob]

another problem is, it's tough to just acquire the 70's and 80's drek that will sell (and the stuff from the 90's and 2000s that will as well) without getting a bunch of stuff nobody wants (even for 25 cents). not too many folks will let you cherry pick all the best stuff and then pay 5 cents each for them.

[mikenyc]

Look let me preface this by saying I'm only thirty, so I don't want to come off as a curmudgeonly old man, but I will.

 

When mp3 players came out it was fantastic because I could buy a cd put it on my computer download it to my ipod and walk around. I had the jewel case with the liner notes and lyrics. I could listen and read through and have an actual experience. With music clearly on the path to only digital downloading I feel disconnected from the artists.

 

Same with comics. The pleasure of walking into a crowded shop and smelling the air is incredible. When I made the mistake of bringing my wife around with me to a few shops she could not understand why I would smell the air as if I was entering a fine restaurant. But the smell and feel of digging through boxes with the anticipation of finding a gem or the book to complete your run is so crucial to me in the enjoyment and fulfillment I get from collecting.

 

The experience of shopping on mile high or mycomicshop is so sterile. Books are listed, no surprises, no anticipation, no work involved. We are the instant gratification generation, myself included, and the Internet is stripping us down from the real connection to experiences associated with our individual pleasures.

 

Maybe I'm the modern version of the Elvis is shaking his hips and corrupting our children, but I don't give a *spoon*.

[dupont2005]

There are definite downsides to the online experience as opposed to the LCS experience, but there are upsides too. I now own the complete WaRP Elfquest magazine run (with several copies of the first 6 issues). I know, it's no great feat today, I think I paid $20 for the entire run on eBay. Back before the internet though. I think I saw ads for #1 for $40 via mail order, and tracking down an entire set for a small town kid whose parents were not going to give him a bunch of comic book money and drive him to a con was beyond even hoping for. I just accepted it as something that would never happen. I would not own that set to this day if not for the internet, and with the internet it was easy as cake and at a bargain price to boot.

[kidcolt]

Online shopping certainly has its benefits. My LCS has very little back issues especially any key back issues. Online I can find almost any issue I need and usually at a decent price. Unfortunately most times the shipping is more then the purchase price.

[JuliusSeizure]

My mostest favoritest was THE OUTER LIMITS in Waltham, MA. Steve Higgins is the owner and still going strong (just chatted with him on the phone a week or so ago.)

 

He turned me on to pre-code in the early 80's. I would go there every Saturday to buy SA and while looking through his extensive back issues noticed some boxes underneath the back issue tables. A couple contained nothing but pre-code horror and these were my first looks at them. Chatted with him for a bit about them and bought a few. The next week I bought a few more. And then a few more. I think I cleaned him out of those books after a few months. I started buying the TALES TOO TERRIBLE TO TELL books that New England Comics had put out and that extensively covered the pre-code horror genre. AMazing books but the series was never finished. Then Steve started setting things aside for me and suddenly I was being exposed to "Xela" airbrush pre-codes. Some amazing stuff there as well.

 

Here are a couple of reminiscences of mine about him and the store from 2004/2005 I had posted here:

 

"Steve Higgins: Outer Limits (LCS in Waltham MA). He will do his best by you. The very first time i met him (around 1984 or so) I went into his shop seeking SA books and saw an X-Men #1 (as I recall) on the wall with a loose staple just sitting in the bottom of the mylar. I said to him "There's a loose staple in the X-Men 1". He replied with a somewhat "Oh spoon who IS this person look "Well, that's the condition of the book." To which I replied "No. There is a staple floating free in the bag ITSELF." To which he looked closely, saw the offending floating metal, and immediately removed it. The book itself had two quite fine staples in the correct place. He looked a bit sheepish and immediately loosened up. Since then I spent most Saturday late mornings at his shop. If I tmed it right (i tended to time it right in later years) I was there when he ordered pizza was assured of a free lunch! Geting to know my interests he would sometimes surprise me by setting aside a GGA or precode horror book he just got in for me to look at first. Overall great guy."

 

"I was at Outer Limits in Waltham one day a few years back (hey Steve Higgins!) and said "Hey. Interesting book there. (or words to that effect)" (It was a Marvel Crypt Of Shadows #1 in nice VF shape). Steve by this time knew my collecting proclivities (pre-code horror and offbeat things like paperbacks by Ed Wood, some horror movie posters etc). Anyway, Steve takes the book, hands it to me and says "Take it. You might find it interesting (or words to that effect)" Just like that. Now it was just maybe $10-12 but still made me feel mighty fine."

 

 

In 2006-7 I lived walking distance from the Outer Limits. That was cool. Great store.

[jerome34]

One point that was almost mentioned deserves a comment. Many new collectors

who get most or all of their back issues off the internet will never have enough

exposure to the smell of a good old-style comic store to have that memory as a

guide. For those of us who did, we could leave comics for a decade or more,

walk into a store with the proper smell and WHAM we are back to reading and

collecting again. When these new collectors leave collecting, they will never

have that smell to bring them back. I think that will have a long term effect on

the field by drastically cutting down the number of collectors returning to the

field after 10, 20, or 30 years.

 

 

If old collectors wander into a new odorless store, they will soon wander out

without any temptation to return to reading and collecting.

 

Alas, I think it is too late to modify store atmosphere since most of the current

collectors would think of it as a sign of a "dirty" store to be avoided and

parents who had taken their kids to an odorless store would not want to

bring the kids back to "such a dirty store." Blame it on bagging comics. :smile:

 

Just look at the number of entries in this thread that mention the smell

of rotting paper as being the perfume of choice.

 

 

[VintageComics]

One point that was almost mentioned deserves a comment. Many new collectors who get most or all of their back issues off the internet will never have enough exposure to the smell of a good old-style comic store to have that memory as a guide. For those of us who did, we could leave comics for a decade or more, walk into a store with the proper smell and WHAM we are back to reading and collecting again. When these new collectors leave collecting, they will never have that smell to bring them back. I think that will have a long term effect on the field by drastically cutting down the number of collectors returning to the field after 10, 20, or 30 years.

 

 

If old collectors wander into a new odorless store, they will soon wander out

without any temptation to return to reading and collecting.

 

Alas, I think it is too late to modify store atmosphere since most of the current

collectors would think of it as a sign of a "dirty" store to be avoided and

parents who had taken their kids to an odorless store would not want to

bring the kids back to "such a dirty store." Blame it on bagging comics. :smile:

 

Just look at the number of entries in this thread that mention the smell

of rotting paper as being the perfume of choice.

 

 

I've mentioned the love of how comics feel and smell but never associated it with actually being formative in my years as a hobbyist.

 

You're absolutely correct. To remove the senses is to remove the emotion from the equation. Rather than a romantic encounter, digital comics just become an electronic quicky.

 

OK, not quite but you do bring up a very valid point.