Starting a Comic Book store

sd2416 · Post by **sd2416** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:44 pm

Has anyone here started or work at a comic book store? Im wanting any information as to what I would need to start a store, be it contacts for shipping new books(diamond, etc), best way to go about acquiring back stock, etc. Any info regarding small business grants would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for everyones time.

justin · Post by **justin** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:52 pm

Sorry this is all the info I have..........

"When you start to make money from your hobbies, your hobbies cease to be!" -Corrain Addison

-A

BodaZoffa · Post by **BodaZoffa** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:41 pm

There was a member here named John Hickman who use to own a comic book store. He used the name Master Darque, but I don't know if he still posts here.

Boda

sd2416 · Post by **sd2416** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:48 pm

I found a Master Dorque in the member list but not a Master Darque.

comicguy · Post by **comicguy** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:55 pm

At one time I ran 3 different stores in a comic book store chain

. If you have any paticular questions let me know and I can see what I can come up with based on the exp that I had.

fryabusa · Post by **fryabusa** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 6:47 pm

soundoftheuniverse · Post by **soundoftheuniverse** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 7:13 pm

Wow, now that's a straight shooter if I ever heard one! pun intended.

Such honesty seems uncommon.

sd2416 · Post by **sd2416** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:14 pm

i find it hard to listen to the owner of Mile High anytime his mouth is moving.

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 1:07 am

I've never considered opening a shop, but I found those Rozanski columns interesting. The dude gets a little long-winded, but he has been around.

DawgPhan · Post by **DawgPhan** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:36 am

depluto wrote:I've never considered opening a shop, but I found those Rozanski columns interesting. The dude gets a little long-winded, but he has been around.

he also thinks quite a lot of himself. I mean without him no one would even have comics, much be collecting them. He has saved us all..God Bless Him...

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:50 am

While there's no containing his ego, he is the Wal-Mart of the industry. Whether that's a good or bad thing is a matter of opinion.

DawgPhan wrote:
depluto wrote:I've never considered opening a shop, but I found those Rozanski columns interesting. The dude gets a little long-winded, but he has been around.
he also thinks quite a lot of himself. I mean without him no one would even have comics, much be collecting them. He has saved us all..God Bless Him...

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:54 am

Things have changed a lot these days. It's much easier to start a store. You call Diamond (no choice), give them your info, and make your orders. Thet ship you the books these days, no distribution centers.

As for stock, this is also easy. You can call K..com, who wholesales. You can try "neat stuff". Best, though, is to buy collections from collectors and build your own stock. There is no shortage of people with caches of books who want to sell in one chunk.

sd2416 wrote:Has anyone here started or work at a comic book store? Im wanting any information as to what I would need to start a store, be it contacts for shipping new books(diamond, etc), best way to go about acquiring back stock, etc. Any info regarding small business grants would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for everyones time.

DawgPhan · Post by **DawgPhan** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:34 am

Here are some tips that I think everyone can agree on.

buy comics @ $.05 and sell them @ $.10..
Please keep your stuff sorted and priced.
Offer a discount to anyone with a pull list..
Remember that you are in the business of selling comics..
You are not a collector when you own a store.

as for getting collections...there are tons of collections that are sold all the time. Many going for pennies per book. Buy those and blow them out. Having a good back issue supply will keep people coming back and create more customers. I know that I NEVER return to a store that does not have a book older than 18 months. NEVER. Good Luck. Are you going to start this store from scratch, or do you have a ton of comics that you want to sell? If starting from scratch I gotta think that you should expect to lose a bunh of money the first year or so...dont put all your eggs in this basket. Oh and plan on spending some really long days there...

tssgery · Post by **tssgery** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:49 am

Amen on making sure you have plenty of back issues. I can get new books in any number of places so it's a non-differentiator. Having a good selection of SORTED back issues is essential for me.

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:24 am

Also make sure you have a full-time job on the side so you can pay your bills.

myron · Post by **myron** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:29 am

depluto wrote:Also make sure you have a full-time job on the side so you can pay your bills.

no doubt...a nice captive market would also help...location, location, location

whetteon · Post by **whetteon** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:32 am

depluto wrote:Also make sure you have a full-time job on the side so you can pay your bills.

sd2416 · Post by **sd2416** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:50 am

No, Im not selling any of my own comics. I would be starting from scratch. I see collections for sale all the time on ebay, however, I dont know if I trust them. I would like to see what im buying if im going to pay that much for that many books. New book sales wouldnt be that hard, but its the building of the back issues that have me worried. Location wouldnt be a problem since my aunt basically runs a rental property business here, there are plenty of locations of thiers I can use to get started. I am currently looking into small business loans, preferrably small business grants. Anything would help and all your suggestions have been appreciated. If anyone has any info regarding the grant/loans, please post it. Thanks

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 12:21 pm

Ebay is also a good place to look for fixtures and stuff, things for store display. And there are some massive lots that go up for bid every now and then if you need the illusion of expanded inventory. Check in your area though cause shipping is a monster.

wrunow · Post by **wrunow** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 12:43 pm

I own a retail establishment, although not a comic store, and have often thought about setting up a comic store on the side as a hobby although friends of mine who own comic stores seem to have the same problems as any other retail business. I would think the initial expense to open a LCS wouldn't be all that high if you started small and didn't try to sell every new card, game, and action figure ever made and stuck pretty much just to comics.

I would think someone could start with a fairly small amount of money, less than $15k and build it into something. Don't forget to budget for operating expensed and initial high advertising, and don't plan on making a profit for up to a year. If you plan on having employees, that is a whole other story and complicates thing. If you think you can just have a high school or college kid sitting there so you can have a day off, good luck to you, because you will lose your shirt when your not there (there are exceptions). Anyway, good luck and I admire your enthusiasm.

comicguy · Post by **comicguy** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:30 pm

When I ran a store for a comic book company, each store cost the company roughly 20,000 dollars to open and run for the first 2 months until business started to come through the door.

Also remember if your target date is sept 1(for example) you need to start ordering new comics in June so you will have comic bills the first day you open.

Collections were not a problem when i was in the biz. People were always willing to sell for .01-.05 per book for a big collection(unless it was older stuff). We usually paid up to 50% of guide in condition for either high demand books with quick turn over or books that we knew a customer needed. We offered a search service, this allowed us to fill our customers wants from the stock of 8 stores. As mentioned before, ebay could be a good place to get some nice store stock

Staffing is a whole other issue. Most(not all) of todays youth(kids16-24) simply have no work ethic. Saw this first hand when I ran retail establishment. A lot of them simply think if they show up to work that is all that ia expected. I used to be a hardass(according to a couple of former employees) to work for. I always left a list of things to do when it was slow, these included: dusting shelves and product, washing windows, alphabetizing back issues,and other such house keeping duties.

When I started my own oil delivery company I looked into grants and loans. I was told that because I was starting small that I did not qualify. Most small business loans start at 50,000 dollars.

The most important thing you can do is research.Questions you may want to ask if you already have not:

Are there comic stores in the area?
If not why?
How do they do?
What do they seem to stock?
Where are they located?
How many people in your area do you think buy comics?
Can you increase that amount?
How much work are you willing to do for this venture?
Can you live without income from this business for 1 year?
Why are you doing this? for fun? for profit? to put a competitor out of business?
Are you going to have employees?
How much does an employee cost? Fica, SS, Workers Comp, Disibility
How much is insurance? Theft, liability, fire, other?
What is the traffic flow like where you want the store?
Is there parking?

I am not trying to scare anybody off but these are basic questions asked not just for a comic store but they can be formatted to any reatil establishment.

I would also recomend having or keeping a full time job for money to pay personel expenses and health insurance, if self employed this can cost 800/month or more for a family plan(and not a very good plan at that, trust me)

Also know your market, If for example DC comics do not sell wht? Is there nobody interested or is it that the other shops have comics that all the customers already have?

Sorry for being so long winded, please feel free to ask more questions.

Good Luck

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:28 pm

Sounds like we should all get into the business.

johnhickman · Post by **johnhickman** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:31 pm

BodaZoffa wrote:There was a member here named John Hickman who use to own a comic book store. He used the name Master Darque, but I don't know if he still posts here.

Boda

Still here, but don't get to post much. I owned a store for about 3 years, it was already existed when I took it over and I sold it for cash and some backstock. Cashflow is very important, as it takes time to sell stock and Diamond will want to get paid WEEKLY or up front when your books are shipped. Most of your revenue will come from NEW comics sales, not back issues, but back issues are an important part of the mix, as without one or the other, you'll discourage sales. I would expect a minimum of 6 months of cash flow to stay in this business. It's hard work and takes a real love of people and the business of running a small business to make it work. I went from annual sales of about 100k to about 400k before I sold the business, but remember this was during the boom business. I never saw the bust, so I have no idea what to expect these days. Hope this starts you going in the right direction.

johnhickman · Post by **johnhickman** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:42 pm

DawgPhan wrote:Here are some tips that I think everyone can agree on.

buy comics @ $.05 and sell them @ $.10..
Please keep your stuff sorted and priced.
Offer a discount to anyone with a pull list..
Remember that you are in the business of selling comics..
You are not a collector when you own a store.

as for getting collections...there are tons of collections that are sold all the time. Many going for pennies per book. Buy those and blow them out. Having a good back issue supply will keep people coming back and create more customers. I know that I NEVER return to a store that does not have a book older than 18 months. NEVER. Good Luck. Are you going to start this store from scratch, or do you have a ton of comics that you want to sell? If starting from scratch I gotta think that you should expect to lose a bunh of money the first year or so...dont put all your eggs in this basket. Oh and plan on spending some really long days there...

Dawg has some good points here. Have a supply of cheap books - don't price everything cheap or give away the store, but a quarter (or better yet a 50 cent bin) will keep people sifting in the store and you can buy this stock for a few cents a book. I used to also have a discount box of trades that may not have been perfect, but a good buy. A good selection of popular back issues going back to the 80's with some bronze and silver thrown in will make your store appear well stocked. You won't move a lot of high priced back issues, but a good selection of reasonable price point silver is good to stock walls or display cases. You have to know what you have - I had back issues in depth and restocked them as they sold and had a database of back issue books so I could tell what I had pretty quickly - this helps when buying books too. Even if the book guided for $20, if I had 5 of them, why buy any more? Discounting was a little different for me. I would discount pull sheets/pre-orders but only the items that they pre-ordered or pulled, and even then I kept a tight watch on ordering to make sure someone wasn't overextending themselves and I would get stuck with a lot of books I didn't need. I didn't have any issues with requiring a deposit on some orders and with anyone just getting a monthly pull sheet. I charged $10 refundable if they canceled with thier box in current shape. If you dream about reading comics all day, FORGET ABOUT IT! I read a lot more now than I ever did then. I might have read maybe 10 comics a month back then. I contributed my entire collection when I bought the store to back issue stock. It doubled the back issue stock and created a lot of equity for the store.

johnhickman · Post by **johnhickman** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:48 pm

sd2416 wrote:No, Im not selling any of my own comics. I would be starting from scratch. I see collections for sale all the time on ebay, however, I dont know if I trust them. I would like to see what im buying if im going to pay that much for that many books. New book sales wouldnt be that hard, but its the building of the back issues that have me worried. Location wouldnt be a problem since my aunt basically runs a rental property business here, there are plenty of locations of thiers I can use to get started. I am currently looking into small business loans, preferrably small business grants. Anything would help and all your suggestions have been appreciated. If anyone has any info regarding the grant/loans, please post it. Thanks

These days I am a banker for a large super community bank in Kansas City and help small business people with all sorts of issues. My first advice is to start putting together a business plan. How will you make money? What are your expenses? What are the demographics for your market? For your industry? NO ONE will lend or give you money just because you're a nice guy. You'll need to show them you've done your homework and know what you're getting into. They will also want to see that you have placed yourself financially into the business. If you figure out that you need $30000 to keep yourself afloat for 6 months, most lenders will want to see that you have the majority to lose if it fails which means more than 50% of your start-up capital will need to come from you or personal sources. Try the SBA's website as well as the Kaufman foundation for assistance in building a business plan.

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