So You Want To Run a Comic Book Store

I had a mom come in a little while ago, telling me her son wanted to do what I do and said he'd come and work for free. I told her that wasn't the best idea for many reasons, #1 for me was that I really didn't need to have someone hanging around the store all day. But I will pass along the advice I gave her.

Let me start by giving you the brief rundown of my illustrious career in retail. After graduating college, I bounced around many jobs. After leaving a job selling Chevy's, I ended up working at a Radio Shack. Someone I had worked with told me he made good money there during the holidays, so when I found myself unemployed in November, I decided to give it a shot. It wasn't bad, certainly better than selling cars in January, so I stuck it out. Eventually, I would run 2 stores on my own, before moving to Chicago.

While it certainly wasn't glamorous, it taught me a lot about merchandising, ordering, dealing with employees and dealing with customers. And all of this has been invaluable in running my Comic Book store.

Think about your typical comic book shop. Most of them are organized so that the employees can find stuff easily, not necessarily the customers. Half full boxes laying around. Stacks of stuff lying around. 2 employees arguing about who would win a fight between Spawn and Impossible Man. I told the mom to have her son get a job as an assistant manager in some national chain retail store. The reason for this is the job will have training and structure. Corporate will have requirements, created through years of trial and error. Corporate will tell you exactly how to do your job. And this is really crucial.

The single greatest thing that comic book store employees are missing is customer service. I cringe in fear thinking about my mom going into my old comic shop to get me something. If they bothered to talk to her, it would probably have been just to point in a general direction. All that lady is doing is interrupting their really cool day. They are better than their comic reading friends because they actually work in a comic shop. How cool is that! I get to read comics all day. And talk about comics all day. I'm king of the world!

And I think that this is what the lady's son was looking for. Wouldn't that be a cool job? Well, come by and ask Jason, my helper, who is sorting and bagging 90 long boxes, how glamorous it is. Or counting all the books on the shelf or all of the trades so I can figure out what I am out of. It is a job just like any other. Does it have its own unique perks? Sure. But the store won't be around long if people don't come back.

What Radio Shack taught me was how to deal with the person who didn't know exactly what they needed. Anyone can ring up a person who brings their stuff to the counter. It takes customer service to help someone find what they want or to give them purchase options. It takes asking questions and listening to the answer. Or how about add-on sales? When was the last time someone suggested something to you at the register?

Now can I teach someone how to do it the way I do? Maybe. But I don't really have time to teach. I just do it. I try to make attractive displays with like products so that someone looking for one thing may find another. I try to make sure everything is clearly priced. I try to make thinks as easy to find as I can (Space is becoming a factor in this one right now). Go work for a big box store (or a Radio Shack) for a summer and learn about dealing with customers. That will put you head and shoulders above many comic books shops out there right now.

Season's Greetings

Yeah, I know its late. Just don't ask a retailer to do anything around the holidays except sell, sell, sell.

Its been another great holiday season. Luck willing, I will pass last years Decembers sales today and still have through Wednesday to show gain. Which is good. Especially in this "troubled" economy.

I got my invoice for next week and I was dismayed by the lack of product coming in. But when I started looking at it, I was overwhelmed by the great stuff coming in. So next Friday will be a test. Is it better to get a great variety of product or a smaller amount of very popular and sought after books? Heck, even Kick Ass is coming out!

Marvel's What If? line

I have always loved What If? comics from Marvel. I often used them to learn about a story that I didn't know, like the Evolutionary War. And then it would take a different spin on it. But too often they turned into try out books. It seems like and editor would come up with a story idea and then give it to a new writer and artist as a try-out book. I remember some from the '90s being almost unreadable.

The 2 new ones that came out the last 2 weeks feel like that again. The last bunch from last year were good. I didn't care for the X-Men one, but they were good overall. The last 2 are really substandard. Specifically the art. The House of M one was a little light on story (the cosmic cube is a little more powerful than they gave it credit for) but the art brought to mind porn comics and not in a good way. I just read the Fallen Son one. The story was solid, but the art... Maybe he just needed an inker. It all looked unfinished. Like it was trying to be Tommy Lee Edwards, but not good enough.

2 really substandard books give me little hope that the rest of the current run will be any good. Too bad. I was really looking forward to it.

On a side note, I have never read the Young Avengers and only the first trade of Runaways, so the back up story make little sense to me at all.

An Open Request to Marvel Comics

Dear Mr. Wacker,

Please put Marcos Martin on as many Spider-Man arcs as possible. Or give him his own spin-off book. His art is so perfect for Spider-Man. The bend in the fingers. The way the costume looks like cloth, not just drawn onto his body. they way he looks like he is straining while lifting something heavy. Even the way he made the Shocker's costume look like it was actually padded as opposed to just covered in criss-crossed lines.

Also, could I please get the original art from pg #15 of issue 561 or page #4 or 6 from issue 579.

Thanks

The Irony of Running a Comic Book Store is

that I am generally the last person to ask about what is coming up in comics. I read a lot and, while I can remember specifics about books, I generally can't tell you what is happening in upcoming books. What made me realize this is that I was really excited about the new issue of Justice Society. I know, from reading the Previews, that there is a big Black Adam arc coming up. So I assumed it was the end for the Gog storyline. now don't get me wrong. I have been enjoying the storyline. But I thought it was ending, mostly because I am focusing on books 2 months from now. Last Tuesday I had to finalize my order for November and I started looking at the December order book. But this latest issue was from the September order book. That was 3 books ago for me. My memory is not that good.

Trying to keep all of this info in my head has gotten to be too much. Same with subscription customers. I do apologize, but I can no longer remember all of the books you get off the top of my head. I have a fancy dancy program that does that for me. But calling and asking what is coming in for you the next week is now beyond me.

Crazy Thursday Ahead

Thursday is normally my "Get everything organized" day after the craziness of New Comics Day. I get all of the statues out and make sure everything is back where it is supposed to be. It is also the day I get my invoice for the next weeks books, so I update the website and do the board in the store. (If you've never been to the store, the board is a 3'x2' dry erase board that I write every thing that is coming in the next week on. I rarely do it in one try. And I have to concentrate to make my writing legible. It is my weekly chore that I enjoy.)

But this week, new comics are coming on Thursday. Bit of a bummer because I lose a day to sell them. And the weeks never quite work out right. Wednesday is usually very slow because all of the regulars know not to come in on Wednesday and Thursday sales are rarely equal to Wednesday + Thursday.

But, there are a lot of books I am interested in reading this week. So don't ruin Secret Invasion for me. I probably won't be able to read it until I get home.

Hello Blog World!

I used to only blog when I felt I had something important to say or something was really bugging me. Which, as I guy who sits in a comic book shop all day, was fairly infrequently. Hence, a barely used blog.

But 2009 is going to be different. (Yeah, I know, you’ve heard that before). This Twitter thing has gotten me in the mood to something daily. Plus I want to create more of an online presence for the store, primarily via eBay, but also to get my name out there and let people know I am here.

So, my plan is to have something out there much more frequently, maybe even every day.

Today was pretty uneventful, mostly just doing a reorder of the gobs of stuff that sold this weekend. It scares me when my weekly reorder is bigger than some of my regular weekly orders in my first year.

Friday night was kind of slow (shopper burn-out) and I had the Freakangels trade on the counter, so I picked it up and started reading. Really good stuff by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. Its the story of 12 powered people in London who combined t cause a world catastrophe and how they are dealing with the aftermath. Very interesting stuff and I am eager to see where he is going with this. It is a collection of an online comic, so I got caught up there, but I do highly recommend it.

Not much, but hey, it’s a start.

Crazy Times Ahead

My busiest day of 2007 was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. While I doubt I will be able to beat the awesomely incredible Free Comic Book Day of this year, I certainly have high hopes. Lots of people out of work early. A long weekend ahead. The unadulterated need for reading material. The fact that its a pretty darn good week of new books will not hurt either.

We have worked hard to get all of the trades in some semblance of order and today will entail getting everything neat and tidy. I am really hoping to finish November strong and then just bull rush through December, setting all sorts of sales records for the store.

Weeeeee!

DC Troubles

So if the recent Lying in the Gutters story is correct, DC is falling into disarray. It is very disappointing to me. There was so much momentum behind its line right now. And it may all be for naught.

First is:

“The last issue of "Final Crisis" is further delayed as it is suffering from serious rewrites. It appears that DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio was unhappy with the way the story concluded and the implications for the DC Universe for a while and had ordered changes from a, naturally, rather unhappy Grant Morrison. Considering this is the way he wrote the pitch for the book.

As a result, creative teams working on a number of spinoff and affected books have also had to stop work while the “Final Crisis” ending is reworked.

Expect more lateness, more annoyance and less likelihood of Grant Morrison doing DCU work in the near future.”

DiDio has set the entire future of the DCU on this book. Remember when Countdown was the “spine” of the DCU and it got scoliosis and cracked a vertebrae. Now Final Crisis (“Heroes Die, Legends Live Forever”) is in disarray. And late. Very very late. We didn’t get an issue in September and it doesn’t look like we will get one in November, either. The first 3 issues were a jumbled mess of bits and pieces. “You need to have read Morrison’s stuff to understand it.” Well, that’s not good for the casual reader. What about the people who don’t like Morrison (and I can understand why)? They have been pushed away from this, DC’s big story setting up the future.

And now Morrison may be pissed and leaving the DCU. Well, that’s fine and dandy except for the fact that he has spent a long time carefully crafting Batman RIP. Is it now going to fall to just anyone to pick up the pieces and make a story out of it?

Also, if the end of Final Crisis didn’t fit in with the direction the DCU is going, does anyone know what’s going on? At least at Marvel, I have the feeling that they know where they are going for the next year. DC seems to be playing a month at a time. People were thinking that there was going to be a complete reboot of the DCU. Well, first, that would be a shame because of the great things going on in Batman, Superman and Green Lantern. Throwing all of that away would be silly. But on the other hand, is Final Crisis going to have any effect on the DCU? I don’t see how. Batman is dead (supposedly) but not in the pages of Final Crisis. Superman is heading to outer space with someone else taking over his titles (New Kryptonians, maybe?). Secret Invasion is a one day event and there apparently will be effects shown in the Marvel Universe. DC has shown no correlation between Final Crisis and anything going on in any other book.

The Second story is this:

“Morrison is not the only person having difficulties with DiDio's direction. I understand that James Robinson and Dan had a stand up argument that led to Robinson quitting the Superman books and the DCU in general.”

The Morrison Superman issues have been good. People really seem to like them. Why piss off yet another creator? Geoff Johns can’t write everything.

Overall, there just seems to be a lack of leadership, or vision, or something at DC right now and this is not the time for it. Get your act together DC. Comics are in the middle of a nice boom right now. Lets keep it going.

Happy November!

Yeah, I know I am a couple days late, but I am happy to be past the election. Random thoughts this morning:

A Marvel Digital Comics Online person recently referred to actual comics books as "dead tree editions" in comparison to the online versions. This was in a Comic Book Resources article and has clumsily been edited out, but it certainly shows Marvels direction and maybe some of their ambivalence to the Direct Market (ie Comic Book Stores). I'm sure that there has been a lot of research done to show that this is the wave of the future, and of course I am very biased, but I just don't see it. I don't see all of the people who currently buy comics suddenly switching to reading them on their computer or on a fancy handheld device. Some of the hip kids who have every gadget known to man, sure. And supposedly there are already tons of people illegally downloading them. So there is a market. But is it a viable market? Are those people reading for free suddenly going to start paying? Or maybe one will pay and then send them out to their friends anyway.

There aren't that many comic stores out there. Under 3000 according to the last thing I read. These stores have been out on the front line, taking the heat for Marvel's publishing woes. Late books and bad books get blamed on the stores. The customers know its not our fault, but they can't complain to Marvel. So how does Marvel thank the retailers for being there, ordering and promoting their products? They decide to cut us out of the loop and deal directly with the readers. I can understand their thinking, but not their understanding.

Back in the early 90s, Marvel decided to eliminate the middleman in the distribution area. Why pay some other companies (yes, there used to be more than one distributor) to get their books out to the stores. So Marvel went exclusive with Heroes World and it was a disaster and nearly killed the comic book business. Marvels bankruptcy was partially a result of this decision.

I understand their thinking of cutting out the middleman, but not theeir understanding of what all was involved and what the repurcsussions would be. I was getting ready to open my store at this time and had to setp back, not because of the potential distribution problem, but because I would be getting my product from 2 sources. At the time, discount was based on the total order amount. Cutting that by a third would decrease my discount from both distributors and I was not certain I could make it with the loss of money. Marvel didn't think it through completely for everyone involved. Maybe its my lawyer training to look at both sides of the issue.

Right now Marvel is looking at saving printing and shipping fees by eliminating that part of their business. And, sure, it looks great. "I can eliminate 25% of our publishing expenses." But you again have to look at the entirety of it. Are they going to make the same amount of money from just publishing online? They are still going to have the talent fees, editorial fee and everything else involved with putting out a comic, just not the printing expenses. But is the monthly subscription fee going to cover all of this? They are in a tough position right now. Their online thing won't take off until they put the books online at the same time as the new books hit the stores. But when they do this, they will lose the business in the stores. While I would still carry the books, I would make no effort to support the books. I'd order just enough to sell out quickly and I would be pushing everybody else. Why would I help support my biggest competitor? And presumably Marvel would stop publishing actual "dead tree editions" and go exclusively online. And then went the novelty of the online thing wears off, I doubt that the stores that are left would be very receptive of Marvel coming back.

People have been bemoaning the downfall of the Direct Market for years. "The should go to a Graphic Novel only format and get rid of monthly comics." "The bookstore model is the way to go." Well, last I looked, bookstores aren't doing too well right now. From a Grand Rapid Press Article in May: "Borders is in the midst of a turnaround plan aimed at returning the company to profitability after reporting two straight years of more than $150 million losses."

Now a large part of this is lost sales to online sellers like Amazon.com. And recently Marvel had an ad in every one of their books for an online discount service. Now I understand that full page advertisers are hard to come by rigth now and that defrays a part of their publishing costs, but it was a bit annoying having Marvel actively promote my competition is frustrating. It would be like the inside cover of every books saying "You could have bought this for less at Amazon.com" Or the back cover of every CD saying "You could have downloaded this for half of what you paid."

The other, very confusing part of it is this: Marvel sets the price for their books. I don't have a choice on what to sell the books for. Right on the cover. And now Marvel is trying to dictate that I sell their product for less than that. If they think the price is too high, they should lower it, not point my customers to someone who has no overhead and takes no stock position on their product and is simply an order taker.

More to come

More Numbers Stuff

Well, apparently September was an abberation and sales are back to where they were. Which is good and reassuring. I have heard some customers talking about having to cut back on their purchases, but I really didn't see much this month. Tracking sales is still really hard, only because I am still new and haven't seen any real trends. Well, except that November and December are really good for business.

Going back this year, January through April were pretty steady I had a 47% increase in sales from April to May. Then there was a 19% drop back down, but things stayed at this new higher plateau through August. September dropped back down to April numbers. That is why I am glad to see a 21% jump back up for October. Last year had a 31% jump from October to November and a 14% jump from November to December.

So, if things hold the way they went last year, I should do just fine.

Lots of good books still to come; the wrap up to Secret Invasion in December, Final Crisis still going, lots of Green Lantern goodenss coming as well.

On a side note, I haven't done many reviews on the site after there was a bruhaha about stores doing negative reviews of books they are trying to sell. And I kind of agree with internet on this one. There are lots of books I don't care for that sell well. Who am I to say what is good or bad. Plus this guy was reviewing books from his Marvel Preview books. So people were being told they were bad and not to buy them before they came out. Marvel no longer does the Preview books, so I don't get to see the books until you do. It will be a more level playing field.

So I will get to more reviews soon, but they will generally only be on books I feel positive towards or have hope that it is going somewhere.

Quick review. Incredible Hercules#122 made me laugh out loud.

Inventory Troubles

Here is a little insight into the rough and tumble world of comic book retailing. Every week, I, or some lackey I trick into doing it, count the books on the shelves. I keep track of the last 10 weeks worth of merchandise, so I don’t count everything, just the recent stuff. It is a rather time consuming process and is rarely completely accurate. Stuff out of place or items sold after the count are not taken into account. Still, it’s the best way to see what is selling, what is not and what I need to order more of.

I decided to use my antiquated POS system to try to help me with the count this week. Sadly, it just tracks what is sold. I can print a report for what is sold on Wednesday, but instead of telling me I sold 27 copies of Secret Invasion #7, it has 27 lines stating Secret Invasion #7 and in several different places on the list. Why, I don’t know. It just does it that way. So it is quite a pain determining how many copies and just what was sold that week.

But given all of those problems, here is my big one. You would think it would be simple to just take the number received or the number on hand from last week and then deduct the number sold and then I would have my total on hand. This is technically correct, but it does not take into account items in customer pull files. For instance, I know I sold out of Thunderbolts #125 because there are none on the shelf, but my count shows 4 left. Thus they are in pull files. Yes, I can go through the files to see what is still there, but that starts to get time consuming again.

I think I would be better off just counting the shelves again.

Any ideas out there?

Changes, Changes, Changes and a recap

More changes are in place at the store. Boscov's, a department store, recently went out of business. I was able to pick up a great slatwall gondola for less than it would have cost just to ship a new one here. The shelving for it finally came in on Tuesday, so I squeezed it in. I had to move a lot of stuff around, but I think it really looks good and I like how it is working out so far.

I have also made a change in my storage situation (something I should have done long ago) and now I will be able to get my back issues organized. If there is anything you are looking for, please let me know. I will soon have almost 100 long boxes sorted and priced. I can't fit them in the store, but I will be rotating them with what is currently in the store, so the back issue selecting will be fresher. Plus I'm sure that some of that will be fresh quarter books stock.

September was my 2nd slowest month of the year, which is not good, but is understandable. I just hit my 2nd anniversary, so sales data is really raw. Trends are really hard to see at this point. Last September was a small drop from August, so this may be a trend. School starting and activities and general craziness at home can certainly lead to lower sales. But last year was a 5 drop and this months was a 20 drop. I really hope this was just a blip.

Back on Track!

September has been a crazy month. Sales were down, but I was busier and more unorganized than I can ever remember. The trip to Vegas the first weekend of the month really threw me for a loop and kept me off balance all month. I was talking to a customer Saturday and realized I had forgotten to add some books to his pull list that he had asked me to a long time ago. I knew I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants and this confirmed it.

So, no more. I am going to get everything neatened up and I am going to get myself organized. I will be blogging at least weekly and I will updating more than just the "Coming this Week" list on the website. I will be reading more, reviewing more and recommending more. I am adding a big fixture this week, so hopefully things will start getting more organized and looking fresher.

So, come by and take a look at the changes I have made.

I Don't Understand Commercial Leasing Agents

I found out something that blows my mind, so I thought I'd pass it along. All I know about commercial real estate is what I have dealt with personally. I hope someone out there is reading this and can enlighten me to what I ma missing. Here is my history.

March 2006. I decide I am really really going to open my store. I start driving around looking for good places to rent. There is one on the side of a shopping center. Not great, but the right size and maybe a good place to start. So I call the guy up. I had dealt with him for a client on another space in another town regarding the lease, so I felt good about the situation. We start discussing amounts and stuff. He gives me a range of what the spot would rent for. We'll call this place spot #1. So I think about it. I also find an empty spot in another strip near me and I inquire to the leasing agent as to what it would run. I turns out that space is waayyy too big for me at present, but he has another spot available. We'll call this space #2. The problem with this space is that they currently have a tenant there who they are evicting, so we can't get into the space. It is a photo studio, so all I can see is the reception area. We drive around and find some other spaces, one being a building that is being rebuilt (space #3) and some others. I make inquiry calls to the others, but they are a bit ridiculous, considering what they offer. Most of these have remained empty or had spots fill and empty on a regular basis. No one stays long.

So, spots #1 and #2 are both in strips that can't be seen form the street and are on the sides of the plazas. One can bee seen driving in, if you don't look where you are going. #2 is behind a bank drive through. So neither are very good at all, but I am not in a position to be really choosy. Good spots are too expensive and I am just starting out. #1 is the better of the two choices. So I tell the agent I am ready to go forward. Could he send me the lease to look at. If I can get it at the lowest of the rent range he gave me, I can do it. Of course, it is at the highest of the rates ($8 sq ft more). I tell him no way. He doesn't even counter offer. He just says ok. 2+ years later he finally found a tenant for it.

So I focus more on spot #2. It is less than the lower range of #1, but it is really in a bad spot and I still haven't even been able to see how big it is. So, 3 months of back and forth on when I can see it. I am now 2 months from my projected opening date and he still can't let me in, but he wants me to sign the lease to hold it. I give up. I dig through my notes and find the number for #3, one I really have never thought more about. It is on a side street, but it is right on the street. I call and stop by to look at it. It is perfect. It is my current home and I have been very happy there.

So, now I am running out of room. I need more space to put more stuff out on display. I can expand into gaming, if I have a place for tables. I can get back issues out if I have tables to put them on. The best thing for me would be for the nail place next to me to move so I could knock out the wall and just expand. I have that in writing to my landlord, but I haven't heard anything yet. Their lease is up in July, so hopefully I will hear something by the end of the year. One way or another, I would like to know what is going on.

There is a big store that recently opened. A standalone furniture store went out. It is a 5000 sq ft store, 5 times as much as I have now. Now I can't afford to have my rent go up that much, but I figured I would at least ask how much it was. I contacted the agent with the big sign out front. I contacted him once a month for four months until he actually responded. His response was that they were in negotiations to lease it and thanks for asking. So, ok. I probably couldn't have afforded it anyway, but being big and standalone, I figured they may have trouble filling it and may like a tenant on the cheap.

Nothing has happened in it for a couple of months now. So I am driving by today and I see something in the windows. I look closely as I get near. They are McCain campaign signs. He blew me off to rent the place for two months.

I would have to guess that commercial tenants are not banging down the doors right now. Place #1 just rented the space I was looking at, but still has two empty spaces. Place #2 did rent that spot, but they have 2 or 3 open spots as well. A new strip is just about done being built. It was a thought, but it is almost double my current sq ft rate, so doubling my space would quadruple my rent.

I realize that a comic book store is not the most common of businesses, but I am doing very well and I am looking to grow. Wouldn't it behoove a leasing agent to at least give me the time of day?

Kevin Smith Batman. Really?

So, I am looking at the DC solicits for November on Newsarama and I come across this:

BATMAN: CACOPHONY #1
Written by Kevin Smith
Art by Walt J. Flanagan & Sandra Hope
Cover by Adam Kubert
Variant cover by Andy Kubert
Sketch cover by Andy Kubert
Best-selling comic book writer/director Kevin Smith (GREEN ARROW, Daredevil, Clerks) steps into Gotham City to write this 3-part miniseries event! Practically from out of nowhere, the mysterious masked killer known as Onomatopoeia returns and sets his sights – and sounds – against The Caped Crusader!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with three covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Adam Kubert), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Andy Kubert). For every 50 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Adam Kubert), retailers may order one copy of the Sketch Edition (with a cover by Andy Kubert). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale November 12 • 1 of 3 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Several questions pop into my head:
1. Is the whole thing written, or just the first issue? I feel this is a pretty valid question.
2. What does Walt Flanagan's art look like? I know he's Smith's friend and runs his comic shop in Jersey, but can he draw?
3. Based on the previous 2 questions, does DC seriously expect ANYONE to order 25 or 50 copies of this? A 1:10 variant, maybe, but 25. Not a chance. With the possibility of #2 hitting in 2010, sorry.

And I'm really not trying to bash Kevin Smith. I thought Daredevil Guardian Devil and Green Arrow Quiver were excellent stories. But Spider-Man Black Cat and the still unfinished Daredevil: Target make me less than comfortable going heavy on a new book of his with unknown art. And a variant Kubert cover is really not the draw it once was. If the brothers had not botched Batman and Action, there may be more good will towards them, but not now. And a $4 cover price makes this one even more potentially unsellable.

OK, enough of a rant for now. I'll keep reading about what's coming and see if there is anything else of note.

Watchmen and the Genius of DC Sales Team

Several weeks ago, before the trailer of Watchmen was out, DC ran a promotion for Comic Book shops where we could order as many copies of the Watchmen graphic novel as I want and at a date in future I can return the unsold copies and only pay for what I don't return. I found out that 18 fit in a box, so, what the heck, I ordered 18. The promo stuff was gearing up. The action figures and mini busts were being ordered. What could it hurt.

I am now down to 2 copies left. In the 1 week since the trailer went up, I have now sold 16 of the 18 copies (including 1 copy while I was typing this). I am sure that the other 2 will be gone by the end of the day. This is incredible. And I have to commend DC for doing it right.

There is no way I would have ever ordered that many copies. Ever. Even if I knew the trailer was going to be there. But I had nothing to lose. And I will be ordering 18 more to arrive Wednesday. The best part is that I am sure that the book stores were caught unaware, even Amazon. And I am sure many comic books stores did not take advantage of the offer like I did.

Here's why I think that it worked so well. Comic readers have long loved Watchmen and non-comic people have most likely at least heard of it. The trailer is on one of the biggest opening movies ever. Comic book people are giddy about the trailer (well at least I am). And it stirs that interest to read it again. "Where's my copy? I lent it to someone and never got it back. I need to read it now!" So the people that know it want it again. And their friends who are sitting with them at Batman go "What's that about?" and the comic reading friend gushes about it. So they also want a copy. And the people who have no comic friends, but see the trailer think it looks interesting and POW, its on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and other places. Its all over the internet. "If this many people say its good, I'll give it a shot."

Hence 16 copies of a $20 book sold in 1 week. And its only going to grow.

Thank you for being proactive DC, and making sure I had the opportunity to stock the shelves to take advantage of this. It is a win-win-win situation for all involved.

Now to pull out my battered copy to re-read it. Or maybe I'll get that fancy new hardcover that is coming out...

EDIT: Just a quick update. I just sold my last copy of Watchmen at 6:45pm.

Infrequent Customers

I just want to express my love of the infrequent customer, that guy who you see maybe monthly, but usually not even that often. Now, this is not to say anything bad about my regulars, the guys who come in every Wednesday or whatever day they always come in on. Those are the guys who keep the doors open. I look forward to talking with them every week.

However, the infrequent customer is like finding money in a jacket pocket. I count on the weekly guys, but the random guys are real treat. They come in and get months worth of books at a time. Or they clear out a overgrown subscriber folder.

Yet another name change

Well, I decided to go with a name that made more sense. This name actually goes back to the beginning. This was my original name that I filed with the state of PA, way back in 1993, when I started doing conventions in anticipation of opening an actual store. It only took me 13 years, but I did it!

I know blogging about blogging is a sin, per Mike Sterling, so I will not belabor the point. My wife was looking at a customers blog and asked me if I had one. I said yes, but I don't do much. My customer does his much more and she said I had no reason not to throw something up every day. So, now, with no excuses, I will.

More to come later when I get some stuff finished around the store.

Sorry For the Distraction

I apologize to anyone coming into the store the next couple weeks, well, and last week. I am trying to do some stuff and my head is not where it should be.

It all started Wednesday when the books showed up 3 hours late. Never a good thing and kills the rest of the day for me as it is a scramble to get the books out and sorted with customers standing there as every book comes out of the box. And I didn't have time to get the bar codes into the system. Very frustrating.

Thursday morning, I ran to Ikea to get 6 more bookshelves. I have run out of space for trades and the last few weeks worth are just stacked on top of the back issue rack. My initial plan was to have a rack for new DC, Marvel and Other Publisher trades, so that the new ones would be displayed face out and be seen and sell better. Well, those racks are full. And the new ones just get dumped in front of the other ones. Good for the new, bad for the old. The indy rack is now 5-6 trades deep, which makes it impossible to find anything. And there is no organization at all. Frustrating to the customer and to me. I have 4 books cases for the trades when they move off of the racks, but that was full as well, so things just began to stack up. I bought 6 more with the hope of making more of a display in the front of the store. All of the big sellers, like Vertigo, in one place. Plus a rack just for the new arrivals, like at the big books stores. And then I can use the racks to spotlight titles, like Batman or Spider-Man. I am mostly looking for a better way to merchandise. A big part it was the Marvel Essentials. I love them. I keep them all in stock. But I only sell 1 or 2 a month. They used to have a whole big rack. Then I moved them to the book cases, but they took up the whole book case. When I got the new bigger kids rack, I moved the Essntials to the old kids rack. But I was still spending a whole lot of floor space on something that really doesn't move well. That was part of the reason for making the change as well. Now they have their own out of the way book case.

So all day Thursday was spent trying to get these new bookcases built. I was only able to get 3 of the 6 made. It didn't help that I forgot a screwdriver and was using the Swiss Army knife.

Friday was 4th of July and I was closed.

Saturday morning I finished getting the books cases built. I then spent quite a bit of time finding a place for them. The fact that the store is not square, makes thing like this a little challenging. I like the odd shape, but it does create problems. So I finally got them where they will work. Rather than a square, they are a rectangle. I was hoping for a square with the side of the one on the left next to the book case you were facing, so I could put a little sign as to what was in the book case or whatever.

The other thing I did was replace the 4 foot front display table with a 5 footer. The two 8 foot tables with some of the back issues on them are 5 feet back to back, so this just made sense. I also replace the back 8 foot table with a 5 foot one. This table was only there while I sorted a collections, but it soon became part of the store. But it also stuck out 3 feet, so it never really fit. Replacing it with the 5 foot looks better. But it also cost me 4 boxes on display and the storage underneath. I kind of got everything tidied up Saturday night. We'll see how tidy tomorrow morning.

Oh, and in the midst of having the store disorganized, a customer brought in 2 life size stuffed Spider-Men. He won them at a fair or something and had no room at home. With no back room, I don't have any place for them either. For fun and to get them out of the way, now have them hanging from the ceiling. I will take pictures when I get everything straightened up.

Then I got busy the rest of the day, so I didn't even fill the book cases up. Then I was off Sunday and closed Monday. I just feel very disconnected from the store right now. Which may not be a bad thing only because of the changes, it feels different to me right now. I need to freshen it up.

This week, I will have Tuesday and Wednesday to get everything organized. Hopefully, I can get it all done. New books won't be here until Thursday, so I get an extra day to get ready.

But then more disconnect for me. We are taking a family vacation Friday through Tuesday. So, not only will I not be at the store, but I will be getting back on Wednesday morning, just in time for the new order. Getting the store ready for new books is about a 2 hour process. Moving the new books around to make space for new titles and replacing and adding the new signs. Not rocket science, but time consuming. Maybe I can leave the task for Matt on Sunday. But Wednesday is still going to feel a little odd.

So, please cut me a little bit of slack these next two weeks. I may forget that you asked for a specific book or forget to track down something. Don't take it personally. I just have a lot going on.

Marvel vs DC

For what it's worth, in my store, the last issue of Secret Invasion outsold the last issue of Final Crisis 49 to 31. And Final Crisis had 2 covers.

But the last issue of Batman (part 2 of RIP) sold 39 copies.

So it would appear that, while most Marvel fans are picking up Secret Invasion, not all DC fans are getting Final Crisis. And after the debacle of Countdown, I don't blame them for waiting.

And looking at these numbers, I can't wait until I become a really big store and those numbers are 5 to 10 times bigger.

Motivational Issues

I just had a great conversation last night with a customer about what I can do to beef this pace up. He used to work in a store, so I wanted to pick him brain a bit. Things are going great, but they can always be better, right? Plus, I need to know what I am doing wrong.

Now, I know my weaknesses and strengths. But my biggest weakness is lack of motivation. Sure, sometimes I get a fire under my butt about something and I won't let it rest until it is done. But more often than not I find it hard to get going. My single biggest problem with the store is clutter. I hate it, but I tend not to do anything about it. Now if everything had its place, it would be much easier. But having no real back room (some shelves in the bathroom don't really count) is a big problem. I have no place to put stuff. So you'd think it would make me keep everything nice. No. It doesn't seem to work out that way.

Hello, my name is Colin and I'm a piler. My piles have piles. an when its comics, it is especially bad. Books pulled off the new shelves to make way for more new stuff. Make a pile. You want me to buy these books? OK. Then I put them on top of that pile. Books transferred in from another store also go on that pile.

But then, when I say "Enough!" an even worse thing happens. I take those books and I put them in a box, typically a short box. And then that box goes SOMEWHERE. In the bathroom, under table or even worse, TO THE BASEMENT. (We'll get to that later).

The goal of the boxing, is that I will address it later. but we all know, that's never going to happen. Out of sight, out of mind. And then someone will ask about one of those books. And I look a them. I know its in a box. Somewhere. Crap.

The basement is particularly bad. I spent 2 hours down there on Monday night, going through boxes just looking for a box of overstock that accidentally went down there. I only went though about 45 long boxes. And herein lies the problem. Of those 45 long boxes, I hope to never have to look at half of them again. Reign of the Supermen. Breaking of the Bat. X-Men 1-25. X-Tinction Agenda. IMAGE. I swear they are multiplying down there, because I could not have possible bought all of those in under 2 years.

The other problem with the basement is that it can only be reached from out side. I have to walk around to the back of the building and down a flight of stairs. not the best thing to do while open for business. "Here's that copy of Spawn 42, sir. I knew I had it somewhere. Wait, where did you go? Where did my good books go? Where's my computer?" You get the picture.

My other problem is lack of space to display the stuff. In the space I currently have for back issues, I could probably squeeze in another long box worth of stuff. So there is a perceived lack of urgency in sorting and pricing those 60 odd boxes in the basement. Oh, I would get started every once in a while. Several boxes down there are ready to go. but then I'd hit one of those Image boxes and it would stop me cold.

So, to get back to the point of this whole post, I keep looking around today and thinking, Man I should really straighten up. But I just don't have the motivation today.

So I am sorry if you come in and its messy. I will try to do better tomorrow.

Bad News at DC

Well, supposedly something bad is going to happen at DC soon. I wonder if it's Dan Didio losing his job. I really wouldn't mind. Yes, a lot of his problems were beyond his control, but he needed to have a firmer plan and better editorial judgment. He's not a comic guy, he's a TV guy. He tried to bring in his entertainment buddies and they blew it. Alan Heinberg on the relaunch of Wonder Woman. The TV guys on the relaunch of Flash. Bringing in the Kuberts brothers (who know they would bail on him so dramatically?) Maybe not all his fault, but he's the head. I think the Chuck Dixon thing will be the final card for Paul Levitz. Coutodwn was Didio's baby and it was a dramatic failure, especially with Grant Morrison distancing himself from it. It was Countdown to Final Crisis, right? And all of those Countdown minis were for what? I keep thinking back to Countdown Arena and wondering what the point was. It will be nice to see them get some direction from whomever takes over.

Memorial Day Delays

In case you didn't already know, due to the Memorial Day holiday, new books won't be out until Thursday this week. I really don't understand why the stores have to suffer because of this. This week has a ton of product and I think one of two things should have happened.

1. The publishers (or Diamond) should have broken things up a little better. Too often lately we are getting big shipping weeks followed by little week. Some weeks have no X books followed by weeks like this with Astonishing, Uncanny, X-Force, X-Force Legacy of Violence, X-Men First Class, and X-Men Legacy. Why? A few weeks ago we got every Ultimate book (well, except Ultimates, but that is a whole different rant). People come in with $X to spend on new comics. When all of these types of books are dumped at one time, they will get them, but at the expense of something else, or they will decide that now is a good time to drop a book that they had been getting, but weren't that fond of. And either of those things is good. And chances are, next week will be a really small week.

2. While I understand that the reason for the delay is that UPS was closed on Monday and thus, everything is delayed a day. but, why couldn't Diamond have moved their system up a day and shipped on Friday rather than wait until Monday. Diamond is the one who determined the Wednesday on sale day, so shouldn't it be there responsibility to make sure that we have the books on Wednesday, rather than whenever they feel like sending them to us?

My big days, not surprisingly are Wednesday-Saturday. So losing one of those days hurts. The lost sales on one of those days is not made up in the other days. And I have one less day to sell those books. In the old days, that would not have mattered. But, with the odd shipping schedules lately, it does have an effect. I order books with the assumption that the I will have 4 weeks to sell the majority of the copies before the next issue comes. But the previous issue of X-Men Legacy came out 2 weeks ago. I did not know I would have less tome to sell that one. Now, in all honesty, I underordered it and can't get more, so it is moot for me, but the principle is still there. I remember not that long ago, Joe Quesada, in response to late books, said "No one ever said (comics) had to be monthly." I respectfully disagree. You, as a comic publisher, made the comics monthly. I remember when they used to have months on them. Don't call the retailers and fans unreasonable just because your talent can't produce the work in a timely fashion.

I ordered Hulk #3 based on the sales of #2. Sadly, I did not know it would be a month late and that the people who picked up #2 would give up on the book. The same thing has happened on Thor. Sales were very strong at in the beginning, but they are now half of what they started. In that case, I also think that the 2 covers on every issue with nothing to distinguish one issue from another to be a huge factor in lost sales. A customer comes in and usually can look at the cover to remember if they bought that particular issue. Each issue of Thor has had 2 cover and each with a pin-up of Thor. There is really no way to distinguish one from the other. Add in late shipping and you have customers looking at the latest issue and not being able to remember if they bought it or not. "Well, nothing has really happened in it anyway, so I guess I will get something else."

When a book is on schedule, people pick it up out of habit. Out of sight, out of mind. There is a big difference between "The new issue of X is out already?" and "They finally came out with another issue of X." There are lots of books available to readers every week. Publishers can't afford to lose readers. For most people, reading comics is a habit. Break that habit and you lose the sale.

Another problem retailers have with this is that, unlike other publishers, Marvel takes no responsibility for late shipping books. Due to the changes in the order process, retailers can adjust both DC and Marvel order numbers up to 3 weeks before they ship. But this does not take into account loss of sales due to customer apathy. DC, to their credit, still makes late shipping books returnable. They take the blame for the delay and unanticipated lack of demand for the late book. Marvel does not. Giant Size Astonishing X-Men comes out Thursday. Will it sell as well as the previous issue that shipped, what, 6 months ago? I have no idea. And being Marvel, if I do not order enough, I will not be able to get any more should it sell out. More on this later. This problem has already hit Ultimates 3 for me. #3, which was late, sold less that half of #2. Now, while I was able to adjust my order umbers, I saw no reason to order less than I did of #2. Why would I? You would assume that the same number of people that bought #2 would continue to want to read the story and get the next issue, right? And if it shipped on time, they probably would have. But the lateness cause people to move on. How do I order #4, since it is going to be late as well. Should I assume there will be more loses and order half of the sales of #3?

Well, that would be the safe thing to do. To protect myself, I should reduce the number of #4 I will get and then reorder more if I sell out. But, Marvel does not overprint their books and you usually cannot get more if you need them. That is why they are doing so many reprints. Secret Invasion #1 is going to its 3rd printing. Did they not anticipate demand? We, as store owners, are make complete guesses when it comes to something like this. Yes, I assume it is going to be big. But how big? No way to tell. Only Marvel knows the story and can make the judgment that it is going to be good. They need to have more faith in their own product since they are the only ones who know what it is. I get a 2 sentence blurb of nothing in previews to make my decision on.

Here is one of my favorites. Here is all I had to base my order of Kick Ass #1 on:

The greatest super hero comic of all-time is finally here. WOLVERINE: ENEMY OF THE STATE's team of MARK MILLAR (CIVIL WAR) and JOHN ROMITA JR. (WORLD WAR HULK) reunite for the best new book of the 21st century. Have you ever wanted to be a super hero? Dreamed of donning a mask and just heading outside to some kick-ass? Well, this is the book for you--the comic that starts where other super hero books draw the line. KICK-ASS is realistic super heroes taken to the next level. Miss out and you're an idiot!

And I have to order based on that. Or Marvel 1985, that comes out Thursday:

Before SECRET INVASION...before WORLD WAR HULK...before CIVIL WAR... The most powerful super-villains in the Marvel Universe gather their might to wreak havoc on the one place they've never before set foot-YOUR WORLD! As mankind's enemies cut a swath of destruction with unprecedented ferocity and ruthlessness, the fate of the planet rests in the hands of one person: Toby, a 13-year-old boy who holds the key to uniting his comic-book idols, the Marvel Heroes! Superstars Mark Millar (CIVIL WAR, FANTASTIC FOUR) and Tommy Lee Edwards (BULLET POINTS, The Question) deliver a Marvel Event the likes of which you've never seen!

I have a feeling I am way too heavy on this one, but they did 3 covers, so I felt that there must be something to it. But I am not confident.

It is hard enough to order the product based on the little amount of info we are given. Throwing lateness on top of that just makes it that much harder.

Enough ranting for today.

Gene Colan ailing

I read about it here

Apparently Mr. Colan is having liver trouble. I am not a doctor, but it certainly does not sound good. Mr. Colan is one of my favorite artists of all time. From his Daredevils to his Howard the Duck to just about anything he has done. I am lucky enough to own 3 of his original Daredevil pages. I am truly saddened by this news. My wife tried to commision him to do an original piece for me for our 10th wedding anniversary, but he was too busy then. Boy, do I wish I had that now.

She did get Mike Grell to do this great one for me though:



I just sent him an email through his website and I plan to send him a card today. Far too often lately we have lost great creator and I always wish I had let them know how much they meant to me or inspired me. Well, I am not going to blow it with Mr. Colan. I think I will shoot off a quick note to Stan Lee, too.

Feel better, Mr. Colan.

Free Comic Book Day Wrap-up

Without a doubt, Free Comic Book Day was a huge success. I don’t know how many books I gave away because I ordered tons and still have lots, but the numbers I do have are incredible. I usually have 35-45 sales on a Wednesday, my biggest sales day of the week. On FCBD, I had 84 sales and that doesn’t even take into account how many people just came in for the free stuff. It is safe to say I had over 100 groups of people I the store Saturday. I say groups, because many were couples and families. What a day!

It was great having so many people in the store. The bad thing was that I was pretty much stuck behind the counter and I couldn’t get out to talk to everyone. It was great to see some regulars, just there to shop, step up and help new people who needed some help making decisions. I knew my customers were the best and this certainly reinforced that opinion.

Sales wise, the numbers are unbelievable. I had a kind of impromptu customer appreciation sale. I knew a lot of regulars would be in for the free stuff, so I decided to give them an incentive to spend some money. Apparently it worked. Sales Saturday were 3 times the sales of last year and 60% higher than my best day EVER.

I can’t believe that I am already a third of the way to my monthly minimum goal and a quarter of the way to my “wouldn’t it be awesome if I could hit this number” goal. And all of this without having a new book Wednesday yet. And this Wednesday is going to be a doozy.

See ya then!

Pittsburgh Comicon Review

I knew something was up when there was no line to get in when I arrived 5 minutes before they opened. Because I got in free, I had to walk across a hallway over the convention floor to the other side. Looking down I could see that most of the dealers weren't set up yet. Again not good. After getting in, I immediately noticed that there were less than half of the dealers from last year. And after walking the floor multiple times, I knew it was time to go. Normally I could stay all day, but there was nothing to see. Same local dealers, same local talent and special guests. And many guests apparently decided not to show up Sunday. Not good.

Now, I remember last year, there was some question of the viability for the show because the New York Comicon was moving back from February. And the fact that it actually ended up being the week before. I am sure that was the main cause for a lot of dealers not being there. Most could not do both and NYCC is mare more prestigious and probably better attended. The same problem with the guests I am sure.

Now there certainly were a lot of big names, but it is always the same big names. now while it is nice saying hi to many, including those that have been to my store, I think a variety would be better to draw in more people. Now I talked to the people I needed to and made a contact that will make both of us some money, but that was about it. A couple of notable absences were Diamond Comics and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. A big deal, no. But odd that 2 national organizations didn't show.

And I am not even going to delve into the fact that the organizer was just convicted of murder. Probably did not help, but I don't know how much.

I looked at doing the show before I got in with New Dimension Comics, but the price was too much. $500 for a 10 x 10 square with one 6 ft table. That's a whole lot of comics just to cover that.

As for the selection of stuff.... I came ready to spend $400 on customer requests, maybe some stuff for me, maybe some stuff for the store. I spent $10. Hopefully next year will be better.

eBay Store is a Success

I had some reservations about opening an eBay store. namely the high fees eBay charges. Well, I bit the bullet last Tuesday and opened one here (well don't go there now, but that's actually good news). So, I put up 2 statues that have been sitting in my store for well over a year now. 2 really cool Bowen statues, Full Size Scorpion and Rhino. I copies the pictures from Bowen and wrote a little blurb. Let's see what happens.

The Scorpion sold the night I put it up and the Rhino sold today. Both in one week. And at the same price I had them in the store, so it wasn't like I wholesaled them out. I am thrilled.

Time to make the internet work for me instead of cjuct consuming massive amounts of my time.

Pricing, Pricing, Pricing

I realize that this is not particularly blog-worthy, but it is how my whole day is going to go, so I figure I should mention it. Last Thursday, I bought a 12 long box DC collection. Mostly the good stuff, Action, Superman, Batman, Detective, Flash, Superboy, Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League, Jimmy Olson, Lois Lane. 12 centers up through late 80s, as I recall. Running through 12 boxes becomes kind of a blur, so I don't remember everything exactly.

Today, being a presumably slow Tuesday, is the day to get them priced. It is such a nice batch that I am forgoing my usual "Stick the boxes somewhere out of the way until I get around to them." I have 20 boxes in storage in the basement at the store that I literally have no idea what is in them. It'll be a little bit like Christmas when I pull them out.

Since I have no where to put them other than basement storage or bring them home (like the 20 long boxes currently in my basement at home - kind of hard to sell them this way), I figure this is the best thing to do. Timing couldn't be worse with Free Comic Book Day coming up and needing the table for that. Ah, well. I am becoming a master of having a store full of stuff without it looking like a jumbled mess. Or so I hope.

My father-in-law is going to build me 2 special long box racks, so I will have room for another 60 boxes soon, well as soon as all of his other projects are done. I don't have the tools, namely a table saw to do it and I would likely lose a thumb trying to do it myself. Plus he lives for doing these kind of things.

So, if you are in the area, stop by and see my great new collection. In all honesty, I'd love to bring this home and read them all, but, well, that ain't gonna happen. I'm lucky enough to read the books I am really enjoyed, let alone all of the new stuff that comes in every week. But that is a post for another day.

New York Comicon

Well, today is my day at home, so I am going to use it to peruse all of the info from the New York Comicon. I know, sounds like fun huh.

Saw this video. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Buying stuff

I knew when I opened the store that I would have people bringing me in books to buy. And I always thought for the worst. All I would see were early 90s stuff. And I certainly have seen a lot of that. But the amount of good stuff that has come in the door has really surprised me. I just took in a 12 long box collection of Batman, Detective, Brave & Bold, Action, Superman, Worlds Finest, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane and a bunch of other stuff. All DC. Then another guy brings me in Early runs of Power, Authority, and Planetary. That is the fun part.

The bad part is finding a place for all of this. I don’t have a back room, so the boxes tend to sit out, which drives me crazy. I don’t want to be the store with crap everywhere.

I need a bigger store.

A Happy, Friendly Store

I feel really good that customers mothers and wives are comfortable enough to come and get their loved one's books for them and actually hang around and talk to me.

Today was one of my biggest orders yet. 30 boxes. It is usually 8-10. An unhappy confluence of lots of regular weekly stuff, half of the free comic book day order and a ton of stuff I bought from a special Diamond Comics Distributor sale. I am wiped out and the store is in disarray. I was lucky to get everything checked in before the customers started coming. Tomorrow is going to be pricing and organizing day.

Didn't read a single book all day. Definitely not a normal Wednesday.

Diamond Woes

Well, today Diamond finally pulled the "We're Diamond Comics, where else are you going to get your stuff", in response to a product I received that was not how it described in the Previews catalog. I asked to be able to ship it back and they said, sorry, it was close enough. I ordered a $675 stretched canvas print and received a paper poster.

Well, I may be just one little comic book store, but I am going to see what I can do to get my stuff from some other sources. And as to that $2000 POS system Diamond wanted me to buy from them, um, I don't think so.

Name Change

In an effort to jump start my blogging, I decided to come up with a witty name. I figured what would be a good place that people would like to come to every day. I was watching Happy Gilmore (actually my wife was, she loves that movie) and Happy found his "Happy Place". So I was thinking, "Where's my happy place?" Well, to be completely honest, my happy place is at the store, but at home it is in my chair surfing the interwebz or reading comics. Throw in a reference to a Monty Python sketch and we have a winner. I had to drop the "THE" because there is another blog named that and I don't know the rules of duplicate blog names.

In case you don't know the sketch to which I refer:



In the spirit of honesty, I do not actually read comics in the Comfy Chair, but the Comfy Couch is not a Python sketch.

Here We Go Again

Yes, I suck at this. But I am about to get a whole lot better. I finally feel that I have a grasp of what I am doing in the store and now is the time to become "Master of the Internet" (dun dun duuuunnnnnn).

Well, not really. I am trying to make something useful and productive of the website. I will finally be opening my eBay store and doing regular auctions. And I decided to start doing a daily blog. Is anybody reading? Maybe not now, but hopefully I can turn this whole thing into something cool.

I am going to try to update it daily. I may change the name to something a little less specific. I don't know right now.

Stop by every once in a while. I will tr to make it fun or informative. Or both. Who knows.

Crikey! I Forgot About This

I now have a website and a myspace page

I guess it is time to get back to my blog.

A brief history of me:

I grew up in Chicago and my first memory of comics was when friends of the family moved out of town and the 2 teen age sons left me what seemed to be a refrigerator box full of comics. Mostly Archies, Richie Rich and Caspers, but just enough Superman, Batman and Spider-Man to set the hook in permanently. Later in high school I found out that there were stores where I could get every comics book out there. They also had older comics and I could fill in the gaps and find out what happened. That’s when I started collecting comics and I have never stopped. After graduating from Penn State, I bounced around from many different jobs. I eventually hit a fork in the road in 1999 and decided that I would either go to law school or open a comic book store. Sadly, I chose law school. After graduating and working as an attorney for 5 years, I realized that that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I started researching what was actually involved in the day-to-day operations of a store by searching the internet and finally opened my store September 7, 2006.

OK, I know that was fascinating. I guess the whole point of this blog for me is to try to pass along some insight that I have learned in opening a store. While it has been fun there have been a lot of mistakes and successes that I figured I would pass along.

If you really want to do this, get some retail management experience first. Luckily for me, when I wandering aimlessly through employment options after college, I took a temporary job a Christmas working at a Radio Shack to get some extra money. While never being a tech geek, it wasn't a bad job. I quickly moved up to management and ran a couple stores. Luckily, both those stores were small and I ran them mostly by myself. Good training for now. I also learned how to deal with customers, stocking levels, ordering and general business stuff that I still draw on today.

Comic Book Store Employees

The biggest problem I see for comic book store employees (and owners to be honest) is that comic books are such an odd product. To be a good, helpful employee, you need to have a pretty good knowledge of what is going on in the current storylines, know what is coming up (or as much as the publishers will let us in on) and know what happened in the past. Nothing is more impressive (or outright scary) for someone o come in and say I'm looking for the book where such and such happened and being able to grab the back issue or the trade where that happened. Now, the internet has made this a much easier task.

Editorial note: This is one reason that Borders will never be able to replace comic book stores and I hope the publishers realize this. I am not getting into the whole Bookscan debate, but most good comic books stores should be able to destroy a mass market book store on knowledge and selection and keep all of the trades selling, not just the most popular.

But to also be a good employee, a person needs to be personable, interested in what the customer wants, and be interested in what is best for the store. Most comic book readers think that working in a comic book store would be something they would enjoy and be a lot of fun. But their opinion is based on being around a lot of comics and talking comics all day. Which is great. That is a really fun part of the job. Sadly, a lot of the job is cleaning, straightening, merchandising, counting, ringing up sales and other retail type things. And this is where the "fans" fall down. I recently had a customer stop at another store and the cashier argued with him that the book he was buying was not as good as another book. I kind of blinked, not wanting to believe it was true. I make tons of recommendations all day long. "Hey, if you like that, you may like this." Or "I see you like that writer. Did you know he just came out with this book?" I have never, and will never, denigrate a persons purchase. Well, that's not true. I will good heartedly mock some purchases from the quarter box, but only with customers that know my level of sarcasm. "Ravage 2099? Really?"

I used to have to drive to get my Wednesday books and sometimes the books would be late, so I would be able to watch the employees interact with customers. I was pretty shocked at the level of disdain. The attitude was "Don't you know that this is when the new books come out and I want to read all of the new books, not deal with some nitwit like you." New books weren't available until the afternoon. One guy would take them out of the box and the two other guys would grab a title he wanted to read and actually stand there reading it! Phones were answered with a very "Why are you bothering me" tone. My personal favorite was when a part timer brought in a vacuum from his other job because they didn't have a vacuum to vacuum the carpet and someone decided it needed it.

OK. Enough venting on other store's employees. The point I am trying to make is that the desire to work in a comic book store has to be tempered with an actual idea of what needs to go on in a retail store. Spend some time working for a large corporation. While they may lack the personal touch of a small neighborhood store, they know what works. Read the employee manuals. See what they do to train. Understand merchandising, suggestive selling and even just basic bookkeeping.

Store Environment

I'm not saying you need to be a marketing genius, but you have to think about what makes people buy. How are you going to let people know you exist? What are you going to do to make sure they come back? Simply putting an open sign in the window isn't enough. And even worse is scaring them off once they bothered to come. There is a store nearby that I went to once. It is 15 minutes away, but I drove an hour to get my new books. It was a gaming store with about 40 titles of newish comics and 6 short boxes of 50 cent books. There were people playing some sort of game on tables in the store and they all stopped and watched me look around the store. I felt like I was intruding in their club. The counter was on a riser and the cashier was seated behind the counter with his girlfriend standing behind him, hand on his shoulder. I felt like I was approaching the King. Guess what? I have never been back. One of the owners stopped by right after I opened and said that they were getting much more into comics. I mentioned my experience (without the King comment) and said I didn't think I'd be treading on their feet since they didn't seem too serious about comics. He assured me I was wrong, but from the customers I have gained, I don't think this is so.

When you plan out your store, think about customer flow. How are they going to walk around the store? Make sure your aisles are wide enough for people to get past one another. Make sure customers are not having to step over merchandise. Make things logical. I never was able to figure out the shelving of another local store. He bags and boards all of his new books and put them on the shelves that way (but he doesn't sell bags and boards - never figured that one out). That is a great service for the customers and makes sure the books don't slump on the shelves. It also let him hide damaged books. Going through a box, I recently found the book that kept me from returning to his store. A copy of Bite Club #3 with a tear in the front and rear covers. Being in the bag disguised the damage. Now, to be fair, I never returned the book to him to have it replaced, but it angered me enough not to return. Do I sell damaged books? Probably. I can't look at every book when it comes in to make sure it is OK. But more often than not a customer has brought a damaged book to my attention. And I have never knowingly put damaged merchandise on the shelf for sale. It's not worth the damage to my reputation. I want every person to want to come back to my store.

That's all for today.