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I'm opening up a brick and mortar this year and want some advice!!
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Started by Genesis Comics,

725 posts in this topic

Phantalien

Phantalien

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That person on facebook's rating reminds me of people on this site who talk about comic stores that don't fit their niche; no golden/silver age back issues, not enough back issues, back issues are drek, and etc.    

I have never been to any place that had an grand opening let alone a first month of opening that still didn't have problems or difficulties of some sort that needed to get sorted out.   Not to mention that there are more people eager to take the time to make a complaint online than a compliment.   really one star???  I would have given you at least 2 stars because the place is clean and at least a third star for a nice gaming area.  Then I would have written that the place looked nice but didn't have what I wanted but I would check it out in a month or two to see if any changes were made.

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revat

revat

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6 hours ago, Phantalien said:

That person on facebook's rating reminds me of people on this site who talk about comic stores that don't fit their niche; no golden/silver age back issues, not enough back issues, back issues are drek, and etc.    

I have never been to any place that had an grand opening let alone a first month of opening that still didn't have problems or difficulties of some sort that needed to get sorted out.   Not to mention that there are more people eager to take the time to make a complaint online than a compliment.   really one star???  I would have given you at least 2 stars because the place is clean and at least a third star for a nice gaming area.  Then I would have written that the place looked nice but didn't have what I wanted but I would check it out in a month or two to see if any changes were made.

Seriously, the rating is ridiculous.  The review and associated feedback is fine, because owners should want to hear what people have to say, but to downgrade to one star because things aren't to your specific personal preferences.

 

Its like dinging a steakhouse because they don't have enough seafood options, and don't serve tri-tip.  I get that some people like seafood with their steak, and everybody loves tri-tip (or should), but if the restaurant is clean, the service is good and friendly, and the STEAK they do serve is good, you can't go one star because you miss the days when steakhouses served tri-tip sandos.  Its insane.  Hopefully interested parties will read the review and realize its written by an a-hole so they can disregard it.

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FineCollector

FineCollector

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I'm not in favor of coffee unless you have a defined space to drink it, and you're too small for a couch and coffee table setup.  Kids will drink sodas at the gaming tables, and topple them over.  Simple mop up.  Where will the coffee cup be when it spills?  I wouldn't chance it.

Also, I don't want to be greeted with lingering food or coffee odors in a comic shop.  If there's a strong smell in the shop, I expect the books will share that aroma, and that's not appealing.

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01TheDude

01TheDude

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6 hours ago, FineCollector said:

I'm not in favor of coffee unless you have a defined space to drink it, and you're too small for a couch and coffee table setup.  Kids will drink sodas at the gaming tables, and topple them over.  Simple mop up.  Where will the coffee cup be when it spills?  I wouldn't chance it.

Also, I don't want to be greeted with lingering food or coffee odors in a comic shop.  If there's a strong smell in the shop, I expect the books will share that aroma, and that's not appealing.

ok-- so I guess the pancake breakfasts are out too.

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01TheDude

01TheDude

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48 minutes ago, Senormac said:

But what if comicdonna supplies the maple syrup ?

oh sure-- just poison the whole store, You think the coffee smelled bad, rotting corpses are on a different level.

 

 

(if I am thinking of the correct conversation in the other thread)

Edited by 01TheDude
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Genesis Comics

Genesis Comics

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7 hours ago, netherxvoid said:

i tried reading this whole thread but dont have the time. what is your feeling about the competition in your area, Tor comics, Next Generation, 4th world ?

Tor Comics:  I have known Darren for years.  I love his store as it reminds me of the old school comic shops.  There are always gems to be found and he is ALWAYS willing to work with me on pricing.  He has vast amounts of inventory and I know that if I need something for a customer that I don't have he will probably have it.  He actually was here today dropping off books for one of my customers!  He is the closest of the group and is a true comic shop.  We are different, as I am mostly a gaming shop that sells comics (my first week sales were 70% gaming, 10% other, and 20% comics).  We are not really competition for each other other than possibly the new comic sales.  We've spoken and are going to run the same discount policy so as not to try to "outdo" each other where nobody wins.

Next Generation:  I've visited the store a few times and have spoken to them at Eternal Con.  I like their set up a lot, with the comics in front and the gaming in the back, away from the comic area.   They are the closest of the 3 to what I do.  Good selection of comics, good selection of singles as well as older MTG product and I felt their prices were fair.  They are the furthest away so I don't see there being much overlap as far as gamers/comic collectors.

4th World:  Not much to say because they are the icon of the comic shops on the island.  I will never be able to "compete" with them as far as the depth of the books that they have.  In all honesty I have not been there in over 10 years, but have heard nothing but good things about them.   I can't comment on them other than my experiences then, which were great!  I remember being happy about the prices I got on some silver age books.  Everyone there was nice.  I ended up frequenting Tor comics as they were closer and he had most of what I needed.  There wasn't any particular reason I didn't go back other than I had a shop closer. They are further away than Tor, and they don't do gaming as far as I know.  They have been successful for over 20 years and I hope to have that same success! 

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01TheDude

01TheDude

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You might have covered this much earlier in the thread in the part I sort of skipped over for a while--- BUT....

Is the way you decided to set up your shop the way you envision a comic shop or do you have strong ties to the gaming side of things? i.e. are you into gaming or is it more or less a good method to remain viable as far as sales are concerned (or some other mix).

I imagine you had a vision of how you wanted your store to look and that is what you went with- Just trying to get an idea of what shaped that vision.

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Genesis Comics

Genesis Comics

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8 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

You might have covered this much earlier in the thread in the part I sort of skipped over for a while--- BUT....

Is the way you decided to set up your shop the way you envision a comic shop or do you have strong ties to the gaming side of things? i.e. are you into gaming or is it more or less a good method to remain viable as far as sales are concerned (or some other mix).

I imagine you had a vision of how you wanted your store to look and that is what you went with- Just trying to get an idea of what shaped that vision.

I probably need to give some of my history in order to explain how it came about...

I was a comic collector first...from the early 80's all the way through the mid 90's...I'd visit my LCS on Friday nights or Saturdays (my parents were divorced and my father picked us up then) and we went to get our new comics and browse the back issues at Collector's Comics in Wantagh, Rainbow Bridge Comics and Rick's Comic Cave in Queens, with the occasional stop at Mr. Mongo's Comic Asylum.  I'd grab the new issues of Omega Men and Infinity Inc (my first 2 sets that I collected).  As my collection grew and I saw how busy comic shops were and how much I enjoyed going, I started thinking about opening a comic shop in the early to mid 90's.  Wizards was telling me my stuff was valuable!!!  My father and I talked about opening together, but with the advent of Ebay we got cautious and wanted to see how the landscape played out as things that were "rare" were all over the place on Ebay...I began to play a new game, Magic the Gathering and I was smitten!!  Loved the game and bought into a number of other games in the 94/95 years: Jyhad (Vampire the Eternal Struggle), Rage, Illuminati (my all time favorite game!!), Spellfire, Hyborian Gates, and later on Star Wars.  My focus switched to gaming more than comics as I was on a limited budget.  I played and collected MTG over the next few years, but eventually slowed down as I got married and had kids.  I had new priorities and no more expendable income...this was probably around 1999-2006/7 or so.  I happened to be looking on Ebay to find out how much my Incredible Hulk 181 was worth...we were having some $$ issues and I was thinking of selling off some of my stuff that had been sitting around for years...that's when I learned about CGC...sent it in along with my fathers Avengers 4 (I got a 9.4, he got a 4.5).  I think my 9.4 may now rest in joeyposts collection as a 9.6 these days...but I digress lol.  I did a show up in Boston, a small show in a VFW near where my father lives, he was selling some stuff too.  I brought all my MTG stuff...I had done a bit of research and had found that a lot of the early stuff had gone up a lot!  I ended up doing over 5K in sales in a VFW as someone smarter than me, lol, spent about $3000 and picked up my complete UNPLAYED sets of Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Legends as well as my playsets of all 10 Dual lands ($10 each dual btw lol), and all of my EXTRA Legends, Alpha, Beta, Antiquities, Arabian, and Unlimited, including, but not limited to, Mox Emerald, Moat x 2, Mishra's Workshop x 2, there may have been a Library of Alexandria as well, all my early foils,a few "extra" duals, and anything of value that I had.  I was thrilled, and if he still has that stuff, I'm sure he made 5-10x his investment if not more.  Now I didn't bring everything I had MTG to the show, and I still had some stuff at home...and as you all know, you start going through stuff and you get nostalgic and I got back into it!  Same with the comics...paid off the bills I had to and even had some extra money...over the next couple of years I joined the CGC boards, comic shops were few and far between as most had closed that I frequented, I learned about pedigrees and picked up a bunch of TTA pedigrees from Doug Schmell, I believe they were from sfilosa's collection, issues 61-69 missing 66 I believe.  I bought and sold and started thinking again about opening a shop as I was a restaurant manager and the hours were crazy (both in length and the acutual times)  60+ hours a week, sometimes working 5AM-5PM, 12PM-10PM, 4PM-4AM and no set schedule...

Fast forward a couple of years and I hurt my back (herniated disc) lifting a comic box which I thought was empty, it was not.  At that point after a few weeks, going back to work, I realized that I'm getting older and the hours and the work I was doing was not going to get better...at this point I seriously began thinking about a comic/gaming shop.  It was July 2012 when I said to myself, within 5 years I want a store of my own...so I started organizing and organizing and pricing and organizing stock...started buying collections and gathering inventory and started envisioning exactly what I wanted my shop to be...I knew I needed gaming, which was fine because it was something I liked and something that I had a lot of inventory of, even though I had sold off most of my top end stuff.  I spent at least 1 hour a day most days and a few more on my day's off, beginning to organize my MTG cards and my comics...it took years and years to get everything the way I wanted, especially the binders of MTG and all the extras sorted properly...I left the comics to the end as I figured it'd be easier, but pricing took a lot longer than I thought and I'm still pricing things today.

Now, to actually answer the question, depends on when you ask it.  When I started, was what I have now what I envisioned, no, not that close really.  It's a lot smaller than I anticipated (I hadn't started pricing out rents).  I don't have enough room currently for the amount of comics I thought I'd be able to have, so I have to do some re-arranging.  It morphed as I went along, as days and weeks past and as I visited more and more shops, a different picture began to emerge.  I had to carry POP's...I had to carry Plush, I had to carry mini-figures...I wanted to be an old school vintage type of place...but I don't have the stock to pull that off, and I would lose sales from the kids that drop in with mom and dad that just want something small.  The MTG area turned out mostly how I wanted, but once again I had more planned.  

Am I happy how it turned out?  Yes, for the most part.  I still have some work I need to do and could use the space a little wiser not that I've worked in the space a bit...but overall, I'm happy with how it turned out!

I had a great first week doing over 8k in sales which was more than double what I had anticipated.  I have had a lot of great feedback from guests coming in.  I already have a core group of 8-12 MTG players who are playing in tournaments already.  My first week sales were 70% MTG, 10% other, 20% comics with 95% of that 20% being back issues...new comics have not sold nearly as well as I had hoped...I'm struggling to get in the other gaming players (Pokemon, Vanguard, Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragoborne, etc), but it's been 9 days so far...I've done more than I could have hoped for...

While the dream looks different than it did at the start, it's still the dream, just in a different form!!

 

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thehumantorch

thehumantorch

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8K in your first week is great.  70% gaming suggests that you made a great decision to focus on gaming.  Hopefully you can grow your comic file customers and your new comic business and you'll have two strong revenue streams.  How many file customers do you have at this point?

I was a long time comic collector who started playing MTG because my LCS got into it and I was curious.  Great game and the players can be great customers - it's like the crack cocaine of gaming.  My LCS focused too much on MTG and started making mistakes on my pull list.  Suddenly titles I'd collected for years were missing issues and when I brought it up they had no interest in trying to find them.  Most irritating was my complete run of Comic Book Marketplace magazine, I'm still looking for most of those missing issues.  I closed my file and never went back and that store is now gone.  

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Genesis Comics

Genesis Comics

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6 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

8K in your first week is great.  70% gaming suggests that you made a great decision to focus on gaming.  Hopefully you can grow your comic file customers and your new comic business and you'll have two strong revenue streams.  How many file customers do you have at this point?

I was a long time comic collector who started playing MTG because my LCS got into it and I was curious.  Great game and the players can be great customers - it's like the crack cocaine of gaming.  My LCS focused too much on MTG and started making mistakes on my pull list.  Suddenly titles I'd collected for years were missing issues and when I brought it up they had no interest in trying to find them.  Most irritating was my complete run of Comic Book Marketplace magazine, I'm still looking for most of those missing issues.  I closed my file and never went back and that store is now gone.  

I thought it would be more gaming, but I was thinking more 50-40-10 gaming/comics/other

I have 2 pull list customers so far, both want Dark Knight Metal stuff...

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netherxvoid

netherxvoid

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I think your assessment of those other stores is very accurate. Not to be the downer of the thread I just don't see the service your providing that's different from any place that will set you apart from the pack (strictly business aspect) also if gaming is going to be a large portion how do you deal with golden memories, the war store and brothers grim? The have the lock down on eastern island gaming 

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Genesis Comics

Genesis Comics

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22 hours ago, netherxvoid said:

I think your assessment of those other stores is very accurate. Not to be the downer of the thread I just don't see the service your providing that's different from any place that will set you apart from the pack (strictly business aspect) also if gaming is going to be a large portion how do you deal with golden memories, the war store and brothers grim? The have the lock down on eastern island gaming 

I'm guessing you are from Long Island...have you stopped in yet?  You are very familiar with the local landscape (or are using google maps at least).  

Brothers Grimm is THE Long Island Gaming shop.  I've met Gil on numerous occasions.  We have the same mindset that the more shops the better!  More options for more players...we each teach newer players and bring them into the fold, and get them buying games, whether they shop there or here it's good for the hobby!  Grimm is a very competitive atmosphere, where I am more casual (Grimm has casual as well but has the reputation of being competetive).  I've played there myself over the years.  As far as how to differentiate from myself and Grimm, I'm not running the same events they are running on the same days...if they have Standard FNM, I have commander etc.  I don't have the space that Grimm does, so I don't do miniatures, Warhammer, etc.  If anyone comes asking for that sort of stuff I send them there (which I have done 10+ times in my first week).  

I've been to the war store once, and spent a lot of time there talking with the owner (who's name escapes me) about opening a business.  He was friendly knowledgable.  Like above, I have his schedule and will not be running same events simultaneously.  If I remember correctly, he had minis, models, and a gaming area, but didn't have a lot of MTG at the time when I was there.  Only thing we have in common is MTG

Golden Memories:  Another store that has been around forever that I remember going to when I was younger...although he's moved, I stopped in recently.  Reminds me of the old Collectors Comics, nice selection of trades.  He also runs some great sales now and then.  I don't believe he does gaming though.

So, your question is how do I compete with so much competition around?  I don't compete, I compliment what's around by doing a little bit of what each one does (with the exception of Next Gen which is not really close).  I cater to the mom's that want Pokemon, plush, POP's and mini's for the kids, I have some nice silver/bronze/copper books and do my best to price fairly...I'm between a Chinese food place and a pizza place and get a lot of walk in traffic.  I'm organized...I can tell you if I have a card in stock within 1 min of you asking me.  I have all my commons organized which my customers love.  It's easy for them to get a playset of commons quickly.  I try to be clean, friendly, and spend time with all my customers if I can!  I am not saying that the other stores don't do all that, they very well might...I'm not there enough to know.  I have a vision of what I want a store to be and have now made that vision a reality.  Only time will tell if I will be successful, I hope I am...I will never be Grimm, 4th World as they are the BEST gaming and Comic shops around.  I am a smaller hybrid that I hope will fill a need.  How am I different?  Stop on down and say hi!

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