Brick and Mortar Comic Book Consignment store viability

[comeaux]

Yea so I would listen to the guys with experience here … it probably wouldn’t work and just turn into a bottomless money pit. OR ! you could open up a comic store in Colorado, throw up a few stripper poles, some hot chicks and sell bong hits … then you might have something !

[the blob]

$1 comics AND strippers. that would probably work, but not because of the comics.

[dgarthwaite-migration]

Let's assume you need about 1500 sq, ft of space (1000 retail, 500 storage and office).

 

And let's assume rent and overages cost per month on that space is $1.50 per foot (I'm averaging here realizing that in some places it will be much more, some places much less). That is $3000 per month.

 

And let's assume you fixed costs per month (phones, internet, electricity, alarms etc.) at $1000 per month.

 

And let's make up a number to cover supplies needed to conduct your business (paper, merchandise bags, toilet paper, pencils, tape, etc.) at $300.00 per month on average.

 

That's $4300 per month in essentially fixed operating costs.

 

That does not include you initial build out costs (fixtures, signage, deposits, permit fees etc.) That could run in the tens of thousands of dollars. But we won't include that for now.

 

At this point you already need to sell 2150 books per month just to break even on your fixed costs.

 

But I assume you will want to earn a salary out of this place too. Let's say you are frugal and can live on $1000 per month. That's 500 additional books that need to be sold.

 

2650 books per month just to cover fixed costs and your meager salary.

 

And remember you are only relying on $2 back issues to draw in customers. You will have no other media generating product, no new issue buzz, no advertising incentives other than old discounted back issues.

 

I personally don't think it is viable over a long stretch.

 

+1

 

Not to mention that many stores are pulling back issues entirely because they aren't selling well. Your exposure on eBay far overwhelms the number of customers that will walk into your store in a day. Also, price point is everything. If you are only making a dollar profit on a comic and paying an employee $1 in wages for 15 minutes to ring the customer up and answer stupid questions, or "be friendly" and make the customer's experience friendly... you can quickly turn that dollar profit into a loss.

 

DG

[Bookery]

awesome info MrBedRock about the bookery. did he say he was selling them for $1 each. I must have missed that. How much stock? If he had 10 times as many issues, would he sell more?

 

Sorry, MichaelB... I lost track of this thread awhile back and didn't see your question. We have about 50,000 back-issues we offer for $1 each, and we add new items every week. But the truth is, the sales are the same as when we started with about 20,000 back-issues. In every community you will ultimately reach a limit based on available customers and their available budgets. I could have $10 million in inventory, but in the Dayton area I can still only sell so many $ per month, barring the occasional traveler or outside dealer sale.

 

I also didn't open up the $1 section until after I'd been in business for 20 years... so I had plenty of inventory just sitting in storage doing nothing, as well as 20 years of building clientele. I have an advantage, as well, in that I have a lot of space in a building I own (don't rent), and since the space would be wasted otherwise, and I had the overstock inventory already, the $1 section makes sense (for now) for me.

 

But I agree with Bedrock... in most cases it wouldn't pay a shop, particulary one in a high-rent area, to waste floor space with $1 comics... in fact many shops eschew back-issue sales altogether due to the cost/space ratio. Flea markets, on the other hand, can provide a permanent space at low cost for such items, and low-priced back-issues seem to do well in that environment, I am told. In fact, a big chunk of the $1 comics I do sell go to flea market dealers who can get $2 - $3 for them in that arena. Of course, they know their clients and pick issues accordingly... as any dealer here can tell you... there are plenty of comics out there that won't even sell for a buck!