Shop Owners: How much $$ to start up??

[Stromm]

[awe4one]

Personally, I won't return to a comic store unless it has some type of back issue inventory. I can buy new issues via mail order and be reasonably sure in what I'm getting. Same for TPBs, statues, and toys. Back issues though need to be seen first hand to be sure of what you're buying...

 

Jim

[drice6900]

Just as an aside, I have noticed more and more stores going with the gaming route (cards, roleplaying, miniatures, etc) and offering comics mainly to the weekly pull people. Comic displays are reduced to make room for gaming tables and players/tournaments.

 

[DevilBat-migration]

I've noticed this gaming route as well.

[toro]

Three local comic stores in my area,,2 have minimum back issues and one has none.

 

They are diversified in the fact that one has a big gaming business, another a coin and stamp business and the other,,,they are a music store,,,not CDs or DVDs but they teach Bass and Guitar.

[the blob]

"Please don't invest in manga/anime if you open a store. A comic shop that had been in business for 20+ years in Tampa did that and was done 4 years afterwards."

 

I have seen enough of this stuff deep discounted in various bargain bins that you can probably put together a manga "section" with combined "retail" value of a few thousand for a hundred or two. of course, if you don't know manga, you have no idea what you're buying, but i digress.

[the blob]

"Given that about 1/3rd of the books will need to be repriced the following year (figure 2/3 of them have no real change) you're looking at someone working full-time for about three months the next year (and every year after that) to go back through them, find the ones that need new prices and price them..."

 

Actually, most likely 50-75% of your inventory can likely easily be tossed into a $1 or $2 bin pretty quickly without bothering to look them up. And comic shop owners have a lot of dead time to price books.

 

FInally, re-price books? Maybe expensive stuff you have up on the wall or behind the counter, but not in the bins. Or maybe a book gets "hot" and nobody has caught it in the bins. But normally, if it didn't sell for $4 over the last year (or more), why would you re-mark it to $5 because the guide says so? If the book has become worthless overnight it's easy enough to flip through your bins once in a while and pull books that are marked with a price and toss them in the $1 bin.

 

The lame excuse I've heard for not having prices on books is that people switch stickers, etc. I don't buy it and I find that not having a price on it is a HUGE turn off. I don't like sitting down with the guy behind the counter, looking the books up and fighting over grades. Maybe you do it anyway with the sticker, but at least the sticker is a starting point.