I might be buying a comic book store...
 

depending if the loan all goes through. Any suggestions for do's and don'ts?

IMO I am not sure buying a comic book store is a smart decision at this time...Comic sales are quite low, cover prices are too high for most people. The local store in my area just had a 75% sale on their inventory to help keep the store open. This is the last comic shop in my area. They also sell alot of gaming cards, action figures but even after the 75% sale they still had a ton of stock left...Finally remember with a comic shop Wednesday is the day for the most business with the new release books, the comic shop owners tell me there are days they can barely stay awake.....

Here's a thread from another forum about what people want from a comic store
here

But no matter what you do, open a retail business is incredible risky (expect to lose money for quite some time). and a comic store specifically is even riskier as it's so dependant on loyal repeat business (so if there's already a popular comic store in the area, you'd have a hard time stealing customers.

Another very important point...Discounts on new release comics. I am pretty sure you will offer a reserve service for your customers, well in this day and age the discount is extremely important. My LCS offers 15% off new titles, I have seen some online sellers offer 40% off. I have seen alot of stores in my area close up, some offered 10% off, some even 20% off. If you are starting a new store you will need to pull the new customers in, which means giving that discount. Also you might want to advertise in a local paper...

Try to sell other things too that could appeal to the same demographic i.e. used DVDs and video games (don't bother with new ones, very little profit margin), toys, snacks, etc. Anything that might make you a little extra profit, take advantage of the traffic that will already be coming into your store.

Keep all the inventory for yourself

Maybe go around to a bunch of other comic stores that are close enough to drive to within reason. Bring some friends and see what you do or do not like about how other people set things up.

Be nice to customers...that seems really obvious, but there's something about comic and record stores that brings out the biggest know-it-all douchebags. Be prepared to help customers and treat them how you'd want to be treated.

Take if from someone who has managed a comic book store for over 5 years, the BEST advice I can give you is, especially since you have to take out a loan & I'm guessing are not very rich, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT buy a comic book store. Unless you don't have to pay rent or utilities of any type, it is near imposssible to make any type of profit from a comic book store. The only way to even stand a chance, would be to already have a built in customer base (ie, taking over a store & inheriting their subscribers). Simply looking at this forum should be reason enough not to buy a store, almost everyone here buys there comics on-line.

Trust me, I know every in & out of running a store, I know all the discounts, all the tricks, & especially how difficult it is to do an order every month. Seriously, I can't stress enough what a bad move it is to own a comic book store, unless you are very rich.

If your still going to do it, I remember when my local comic shop was struggling. They started a Thursday night game night, people would come in and play Magic the Gathering. They use to make up for poor sales on those nights. Good Luck.

I totally agree. I've been managing a store for nearly 3 years now and this rings true.

If you go through with it I wish you good luck :)

I noticed that there is a chain of comic stores here in the Phoenix area that dedicate almost half of their stores to manga and anime. That seems to make up for lack of interest in comic books.

Where are you located? Is this the only comic book store in town?

I think two things save my LCS

Gaming- They have a large game room that is packed with tournaments every weekend, and during the week there are game clinics held

Promotion- Seems like the store is everywhere inb the community. At the theater during opening weekend for every comic themed movie, charity events, indy stuff, etc.

For ex this weekend in town is WeFest, which highlights indy music, so yesterday they had a band at the store playing, and Indy comics were $1.

Now bear in mind I dont shop at my LCS as much anymore due to prices. They charge $20-$22 for DC direct toys, that I can get at the mall for $15, or $10 on eBay. And the highest discount they would offer on pull boxes was 15% off, and I was subbing to 30 titles. They have a mentality that they do us a favor by being a comic store.

So dont rely on just comics, get involved to get your name out, and price is everything.

Instead of a local comic book store why not create a comicbook mail order business. This offers a much better chance of success and has virtually no overhead that you would with a brick and mortar store.

90% of comic book sales are new books. There's virtually no back issue market at a store fron level. Even if you're in a large metropolitan area you'll have a hard time findind a customer base for back issues; and most back issues will only sell for a $1.

Better than a LCS would be to sell at all the big comicbook conventions they have. You'll have more customers looking at your back issues there in a weekend then you will at a LCS in over a years time.

if you do it good luck.. a games room would be a good idea as well as selling online.

I know I stopped shopping at the first comic book store I frequented when the manager who'd been there forever left, and they hired a couple of jackasses. These guys ALWAYS acted like they were doing you a favor by getting my books from my pull list. They always acted like I had banged their mother when I dropped a book. And they always made me feel like shit when I didn't feel like keeping a book they suggested and they decided to put in my pile. Eventually, I took most of my business to another store. No idea if a lot of customers felt like me or the market just caved, but the store eventually closed.

The only advice you need is don't do it.. The comics market sucks right now. Diamond doesn't give a shit about the LCBS anymore. Marvel & DC don't either, as they're too occupied trying to get more of a foothold in the big retailers.

Why is the previous owner selling? Have they opened their accounting books to you? Have you hung around the store for several weeks to months on various days to see the traffic?

As more people discover mail ordering, the worse off you'll be. If you're in a major city, you're better off opening a gaming store. I can't believe how well the gaming store has done that opened near my local mall. I thought the overhead would kill them, but instead in the 3 months they've been open they've suddenly had to start thinking about how they can re-arrange the store to make room for more Magic: the Gathering and miniatures players.

Thanks for the all the suggestions. Sorry if I wasn't clear, this is an established comic store that's doing well. The store is in GREAT shape. It's the only store in town, been in business for over twenty years, is located next to a Starbucks and between two colleges, and it has increased profit every year since opening. And this is with VERY little advertising or promotion. It carries a little bit of everything, games, comics, movies, cards, etc. I've run a bookstore for over ten years, both used and at a corporate. If the store does go belly up, I can still pay it off with the stock. The owner has to sell because he's up a creek with his wife having health problems and having already moved to Texas because of them. He's currently having to pay for two locations and all his wife's bills, and he's gone down to the wire.

I'm sure it's not impossible to succeed with a comic book store, but you have to have the right model too. It sounds like this store might have the right model for it's respective community. At a time when comic book stores are closing left and right, the store I frequent is one of four stores in Houston. If they are struggling, you wouldn't know it by looking at it.

With two colleges and a coffee shop nearby, I'd say you should find a way to make a high quality catalogue of trade paperbacks you can order. There's no way to carry them all (not to mention how financially irresponsible that would be), but if you could show someone a catalogue that displayed a small color scan of the front cover and a line or two of text stating what is printed in the TPB along with the price, you could probably do good business there.

If you go that route, also consider adding a blurb of "if you're interested in this, you might also like..." and name a related series or another TPB done by the same writer.

Good Luck, My favorite Comic Book stores are the that are well lit and clean and all of the fanboys are in the back of the store, and the isles are wide enough for people to walk down.

There is a store in a nearby city that has done so well that they just opened a third store in a mall. They do a lot of special events for releases and movies. So, that may help a little.

I would suggest that you check out Brian Hibbs' "Tilting At Windmills" column at http://www.newsarama.com His older columns (that aren't online) are available in a book called "Tilting at Windmills" from IDW. He offers a lot of nuts and bolts information about comics retail that would probably be quite useful for someone getting into the game.

If it wasn't for the cheap B&W Manga books that the kids love, my local shop would've closed down years ago.

tip 1: pull boxes with at least 6 monthly titles 20%
tip 2: diversify, toys, games, etc
tip 3: hold a weekly comic discussion open to anyone(we do ours on fridays from 7 to 10 and it went from 5 people to 25 people in just 6 months) also give those that come on a regular basis 25% off of books every so often(hint:announce it about an hour into the comic talk) also it may turn into more than talking about comics, this is a good thing it builds relationships and loyalty to your store
tip 4: find local people who create comics (i.e. independent creators, self publishers) and invite them to your store. buy some of their comics to sell at your store and setup in store appearances. it helps build their business and yours.

good luck

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It's nearly a done deal. BTW, the place is very clean and has plenty of space. Subscription services are already set up the way you guys want them. The only thing that sucks is the rent, but it's in a good part of town.

I'm assuming free comics for DVD Talkers, correct?

Click here for a darn good reality check- http://www.wildpigcomics.com/comic-shop-tips.htm

Here is the thread where I got the above link-http://boards.collectors-society.com...=2#Post1805083

Wow, what a depressing read that was! Remind me NEVER to consider buying a comic shop...

Wow!! I just read that link about that store. And one of the the things he listed as his biggest problem was that UPS would ship his stuff to the wrong location. And how ironic is this, I was the running the store his stuff would routinely wind up at. That store is not that far from the store I use to run. His store actually, is very very small, & we would always wonder how on earth he stayed in business.

I can't stress this enough, to balance out the cost of rent, do LOTS of ebay, & most importanly, put a LOT of time into maintaining ebay yourself, or have someone you completely trust do it. Ebay is a godsend to the comic book retailer, but when you do ebay in bulk, negative feedbacks can pile up very quickly & absolutely kill the money you should be making on the stuff you sell.

Which also leads to another of the most important things that most people buying a store never focus on enough. If you, yourself are not going to be working at the store 24/7, make sure you have people working for you that you trust. 5+ years running a store, I just can't stress that enough, & tell you how many people we truly thought we could trust, ending up screwing us in the end.

When I had a reserve box it never occurred to me that the shop had to pay for those books weekly. Now I feel kind of bad for going in once a month or so. Sorry Geppis.

I think most of these tips are pretty good. Eventhough the store has been doing well, it doesn't mean you can try and expand on it and try and make it better.

I personally would try something to get kids involved, figure in their pre-teens. Focusing on college students will be difficult because you're losing 25% of your clientele each year.

As well as December-January and the summer. Assuming they go home.

To add to the suggestion of employees... once you start running a comic shop, you will find that you no longer have time to read the books. Make sure that your employees are well-read when it comes to the weekly titles, and hopefully on many of the independants as well as it allows them to suggest other titles. Do not hire people that don't like comics, nor should you let them work in your store unless you absolutely had to. The former owner of my LCBS let his wife work the store, and she was often on the verge of being openly hostile towards customers as she didn't like comics and didn't even want to be there, but she *HAD* to see the money coming in so she insisted on being there anyway. I can't tell you how bad his business was hurt by her presence. The new owner is trying hard to recover from the damage she did to the place.

Just wanted to thank you guys for all the help. I didn't get the store. I was beaten by another buyer (three of us were in a race to the deadline of today) by an HOUR!! The price for the store was $50,000 for all the accounts, fixtures, and inventory which alone amounted to $250,000+. The store made 45,000 to 50,000 profit (ie after everything was paid for) a year for the last five years and that was on cruse control. I really think, considering the way things went down, I just wasn't meant to have it. Thanks again for all the suggestions and help.