ItsVenom

Hi! My Wife & I begin our journey of starting a dream of ours, opening our own comic book store! We are set to open next Friday, but we're going to offer online services also. To start off, we're giving away a free comic with every purchase. We'd appreciate it if you all checked us out! quikcomics com

PhantomStranger

I'll link it for you. Good luck in the business. No one goes into running a comic book store for the money, so we know you must have true passion for them. Most of the newer, less established shops in my area tend to survive by catering to manga, toy and gaming fans.

https://quikcomics.com/

DVD Josh

Might be helpful to put the address of your store on the main page

fujishig

I figured maybe he didn't have a store, that it was only online?

Assuming he's not just a spammer (and I'm very cautious about someone finding this forum and putting a url up for their store), welcome! Like PhantomStranger said, comic stores are that weird crossroads where you're not going to make a ton of money, at least up front, so a lot of it is doing it because you love comics, but you still need to be a savvy businessman to not lose your shirt. So good luck!

ItsVenom

Very true! We're going to hit some other markets too for sure, it's hard to survive on comics alone

kefrank

Just FYI, I think this is technically forbidden. If you want to advertise your own business on the site, you have to pay Internet Brands for an ad. Maybe there are loopholes though.

Geofferson

Mod note: It's correct such that we do have general policy restricting personal advertisements and promotion. So if the intent of this thread is to self-promote, it'll be shut down.

However, this topic can also generate interesting discussion around comic book stores along with the current mechanisms of commerce for comic books.

As a result, we can persist with keeping this discussion open for now. Will check in periodically to gauge interest and participation.

davidh777

fujishig

It is sort of weird. Stuff based on comic book properties are red hot and probably more mainstream than ever before... not only cinematic universes and the Big 2 superhero stuff, but Walking Dead, Deadly Class, etc. But it's so mainstream that stores like Target and Hot Topic and Gamestop (and RIP TRU) have a ton of things that would have been the domain of the comic book store. I'm sure amazon sells a ton of graphic novels. But the lowly comic book is still super super niche. I'm pretty sure trading card games saved a lot of comic book stores from closing down.

PhantomStranger

"Nerd" culture has begun infiltrating mainstream retail outlets, cutting into items that were once the exclusive domain of comic book shops. I see comic book tshirts these days at virtually every big retailer. Target seems to have a perpetual section for them.

davidh777

fujishig

Now I know for sure you guys put me on ignore because I just said that...

PhantomStranger

I never ignore anyone.

davidh777

TheBigDave

About half my local comic book stores have converted into game shops. All products have been moved against the walls. The middle of the store is filled with folding tables and chairs for customers to play RPG/card games. Some of them even started selling beer for the players.

majorjoe23

movieguru

No. What is a hot topic?

Obi-Wanma

I've always said that if I won the lottery or something, I'd love to open a comic shop just as a way to spend my days. Of course, I live in a state where you're not allowed to claim the jackpot anonymously, so if everyone knew that I was a multi-millionaire, opening a shop where people know I'm going to be there most of the time probably is a good way to get robbed.

Without some unexpected windfall of that sort though, I'm not comfortable tying my family's welfare to a dying industry.

Trevor

Yep, I’ve had that win-lottery-open-comic-shop thought forever. Of course, I pretty much refuse to participate in the tax-for-stupid-people, so another dead dream.

Obi-Wanma

I'll drop a couple of bucks when the jackpots get ridiculously out of hand, but in general I don't buy too many lottery tickets either.

movieguru

While opening a comic book store may seem like a dream, it would eventually become a job just like any another and you would still have to show up for work, stock shelves, do paperwork, etc.

fujishig

I'm assuming he won enough in the lottery to pay people to do that for him, and afford to lose money running the business as a hobby.

PhantomStranger

I think part of the fantasy is hiring some underling to actually run the shop on a day-to-day basis. All I would want out of it is walk in on new comics day each week and absorb the milieu of eager readers.

movieguru

But then you're really just hanging out at a comicbook store and not really doing the things that one would want to do if they owned a comic book store. It would be like being rich and wanting to be president of the U.S. but then all you do is play golf all day and bitch about everything on twitter.

Obi-Wanma

I would stock shelves and stuff like that, but you really only have to do that once a week in a comic store. I would definitely hire help too though, I couldn't do it all by myself. My fantasy mainly involves selling comics and talking comics with the customers and reading comics or playing video games when things are slow.