'Antique Mall' help/advice

[cmixer]

I'm changing jobs & should have a couple days off each week.

I always wanted to open a comic shop, but now know the work & expense.

Has anyone here ever opened a booth at an 'Antique Mall'?

 

I assume i pay, approximately $250 a month,

Load it with pre-priced merchandise,

and 'update' the booth once-a-week?

Goodness knows i have the toys & low-end books to stock for years.

 

I could even 'man the booth' each Saturday in case someone wants to sell to me,

or try to get a bulk discount.

[CAHokie]

There is a place like that in the LA area called Frank and Sons. It is only open Wed and Saturdays (usually), and people have their permanent spaces there. It is almost all comic / cards / sports related. They seem to do really well and it is always crowded.

 

My concern about it being an antique mall type store, is that you may not get the right customers most of the time unless they have other similar booths there that people come to see.

[StuporMan]

Start off by spending some serious time there as a customer. Do you get a lot of pickers? People looking for dollar books? Is anyone else there selling comics? Find out why or why not...

 

From what I've found is that most of the customers who shop at antique places or swap meats are just looking for cheap stuff. I gave up after a weekend once when I got the question, "how much for this?"

"$20"

"Might as well be $100"

 

...I soon figured out why I was the only person selling comics there. The guy selling metal advertising signs was crushing it though...

[youmechooz]

I'm changing jobs & should have a couple days off each week.

I always wanted to open a comic shop, but now know the work & expense.

Has anyone here ever opened a booth at an 'Antique Mall'?

 

I assume i pay, approximately $250 a month,

Load it with pre-priced merchandise,

and 'update' the booth once-a-week?

Goodness knows i have the toys & low-end books to stock for years.

 

I could even 'man the booth' each Saturday in case someone wants to sell to me,

or try to get a bulk discount.

just open a store. open days you have off.

[Shadow Images]

Antique malls are hit and miss. You have two types of sellers here overall . Ones that price everything way overpriced because every comic is worth a fortune. The others price everything at $1 or $2( these are getting increasing rare). The people that actually know how to price are few and far between. This is just my experiences of Antique stores I've the past few decades.

 

 

I would follow the suggestion of hanging around a few weekends and seeing if there are going to be buyers or just flippers looking for eBay stock.

[RCheli]

I think it's a great idea. If you have the stock, do it. Price things fairly, change things up frequently, and I bet you'll make some money.

 

Not I'm-gonna-retire-in-six-months money, but something.

 

Although depending on where you live, $250 sounds low.

[Robot Man]

In my area you can rent a case for around $80. A month. It is a locked glass case. The employees have to open it for a customer. I used to be in a couple of malls. Sales really dropped to the point that I would sometimes owe them money. I ended up pulling out of the malls and did Sunday antique flea markets instead. I do a lot better with face to face transactions.

[punksdropdirtysrh]

Antique malls are hit and miss. You have two types of sellers here overall . Ones that price everything way overpriced because every comic is worth a fortune. The others price everything at $1 or $2( these are getting increasing rare). The people that actually know how to price are few and far between. This is just my experiences of Antique stores I've the past few decades.

 

 

I would follow the suggestion of hanging around a few weekends and seeing if there are going to be buyers or just flippers looking for eBay stock.

 

Every antique shop I've searched through in my area has overpriced books. I can't believe what these guys are thinking. I saw a a bunch of 90s Superman priced at 5 bucks each. Yikes. There was a UXM 277 for $20. Ive just about given up on finding gold in antique shops.

 

Tried doing a garage sale and after I wasn't getting any hits for $1 per book (what I thought was a steal for the types of books I had) I ended up doing 4 for a dollar just to get rid of them. People are looking for dirt cheap deals. If I had high dollar books I wanted to get rid of, I'd do my best with eBay or try Craiglist.

[Tempus Fugit]

I do the bulk of my sales in the local antique mall. I have a rack of $3-6 comics, a rack of $3 mags, 1 short box of $7-30 books, and 1 sb of dollar books. I also have a lockable case that holds 4 bigger dollar books.

 

The rest of the booth is die cast, models, some sports, etc.

 

We are lucky enough to be in a heavily traveled tourist town 2 hrs N of Chicago.

 

When I first moved in the situation was as others have described: unbelievably overpriced modern drek, and unbelievably priced 2nd tier titles on older books.

 

I sell $250-$500/month on comics and other items get me to about $1K/month in the winter, and maybe double that on a good summer month. Fees run about 25% on $1K of sales.

 

I price the same as I do here and at shows.

 

I go there daily to make sure everything is in order. After a busy day, it gets pretty tore up.

 

I definitely surprised some other dealers at the mall, especially when I sold multi-hundred dollar books, and had a couple $500 comic sales days. One thing I noticed is that others dropped the prices on their drek to try to undercut me, but they don't realize it's drek so it still doesn't sell. Also in the event that they put out a decent book, it's $2, so I snap it up.

 

Pic below is old, I have the walls much more densely filled now.

 

PM me if you want more.

 

TF

 

[Hekla]

I had a booth for about a year and, while fun, it was more work than I expected. Some months were very good, but some months I barely broken even. In my case, In addition to monthly booth rental fees I had a 10% fee from items sold and there was a store sale every few months that required mandatory participation (minimum of 10% off). After a while I realized I could make more on eBay and wasn't beholden to someone else's schedule to restock, etc. The plus of being a public seller is that I had several people intact me wanting to sell their comic collections; of course it was always drek, but it's always exciting for that opportunity to come across a real find.

 

If you have a diversity of comics and toys, you may do well; my booth was small and fairly limited.

[Not*Sure*]

I'm changing jobs & should have a couple days off each week.

I always wanted to open a comic shop, but now know the work & expense.

Has anyone here ever opened a booth at an 'Antique Mall'?

 

I assume i pay, approximately $250 a month,

Load it with pre-priced merchandise,

and 'update' the booth once-a-week?

Goodness knows i have the toys & low-end books to stock for years.

 

I could even 'man the booth' each Saturday in case someone wants to sell to me,

or try to get a bulk discount.

 

I have three antique mall booths, You will NOT not make money off comics and collectibles..unless they are absolutely nothing you care about. I have 6 locked showcases..three have been cracked open..looted and items stolen. Comics not in a showcase..fall victim to people just pulling them out of bags and boards..and putting them into a bag with the price they want to pay..regardless of what you have marked.Action figures...are uncarded..stolen...or whatnot..150 wrestling action figures..60 stolen.

Putting anything worth any money in a place unattended..just don't mind getting it stolen or broken.

 

I pay $150 a month per booth..plus 10% of sales..the lowest prices I could find in Missouri.

They usually have 8-10 employees on staff and cameras all over the place. I can only imagine they are pointing the opposite direction of my booths...

 

I am dropping a booth this month. Somehow I was making plenty of profit with one booth..doubled when I went to two booths..and dropped out and making barely the rent with three.

I do about $300 a month in comics and collectibles..this is mainly with $1-$2 comic books..and action figures under $5..

 

I make most of my money off of housewares and clothing.. I sell in one booth..

[punksdropdirtysrh]

I do the bulk of my sales in the local antique mall. I have a rack of $3-6 comics, a rack of $3 mags, 1 short box of $7-30 books, and 1 sb of dollar books. I also have a lockable case that holds 4 bigger dollar books.

 

The rest of the booth is die cast, models, some sports, etc.

 

We are lucky enough to be in a heavily traveled tourist town 2 hrs N of Chicago.

 

When I first moved in the situation was as others have described: unbelievably overpriced modern drek, and unbelievably priced 2nd tier titles on older books.

 

I sell $250-$500/month on comics and other items get me to about $1K/month in the winter, and maybe double that on a good summer month. Fees run about 25% on $1K of sales.

 

I price the same as I do here and at shows.

 

I go there daily to make sure everything is in order. After a busy day, it gets pretty tore up.

 

I definitely surprised some other dealers at the mall, especially when I sold multi-hundred dollar books, and had a couple $500 comic sales days. One thing I noticed is that others dropped the prices on their drek to try to undercut me, but they don't realize it's drek so it still doesn't sell. Also in the event that they put out a decent book, it's $2, so I snap it up.

 

Pic below is old, I have the walls much more densely filled now.

 

PM me if you want more.

 

TF

 

 

Nice booth, wish I could shop there!