A lifelong dream of mine is to open up my own comics shop, would they even be profitable these days...

A lifelong dream of mine is to open up my own comics shop, would they even be profitable these days? Or would I just be driving myself into bankruptcy. Anyone here actually own or work at a store?

If you want to be profitable don't have any non DC/Marvel/Walking Dead comics, don't go after all that hipster image and dark horse shit since you're just losing money since they're NEVER going to sell. Also sell shirts and toys.

I don't know how any comic book store is still open, to be honest.

Neither do I, thats what worries me. Seems like the best job ever on the surface but theres no way in hell in this day and age theyre pulling in a profit

And card/board games.

Most new businesses fail, regardless of what they are.

The reasons for this are complex but a major one is a lack of research on the part of the owner. It's no good you coming to us and saying "would it fail", you need to know where you would open one - what's your rent like, are there places that would attract/put off customers (ie are you going to be that little bit hard to find and lose money for less rent, are you going to be in Cracktown and get no customers and lots of hassle, are you going to be in the big mall and have higher rent and a hidden utility fee for mall maintenance that you can't really do much about); are there potential customers at all and how many as a rough estimate, how much are they likely to spend per day per customer (demand is harder to augur, but it's not impossible), etc etc etc. You might be able to find an existing store (or a regular stand at local flea markets) for sale by the owner; you need to be looking at his accounts ahead of any sale being agreed, and you need to ideally spend some time on location checking out the condition of the place, the stock, and the customers. Because someone trying to sell you a business will lie to you, even if only by omission.

If you have no retail or big contract experience, don't bother. You'd be throwing money away. Get a retail job and figure out what needs doing to run a place properly (ideally, hold various grades of job at various employers).

There's no quick substitute for experience, and experience is going to make research that much simpler. Also, don't spend your life savings or mortgage your house or whatever. If it's going to cost that much, go into partnership.

You can do it but comics can't be your main source of income. Do gaming, music, etc to actually pay the bills.

Fuck even do fashion if you have to. Or cheap jewelry for the Claire's audience (actually don't do that, seems like a built-in nightmare with neckbeards and teen girls in the same place).

>Seems like the best job ever on the surface
Does it? You basically have to deal with the weird teenagers and neckbeards in a retail environment.
Plus, I imagine all business is dead every day that doesn't begin with a W.

Location is *everything* user. A comic shop in the city can and will get lost. My local shop is in a suburb, near a school, only 2 miles from my home, and they are flourishing. Doing so well in fact that they are opening another store.

Comic book shops are a thing of the past, outside of a handful in good areas. Nowadays, a lot of them are general hobby shops that do a lot of tabletop gaming and merchandise dealing. There's nothing wrong with that, though.

Yeah most comic stores I know of pull multiple duties as comics/gaming/merchandise/anime and manga stores.

The only comic store I've frequented that ONLY sells comics and comic-related stuff was a tiny little operation that had been in business for ages and had a dedicated consumer base and good word-of-mouth to keep it going.

Take a look at all that shit in your pic, OP.

The only things in that pic that will make money for the store are the figurines, action figures, blind bag minis, etc.

Floppies, trades, manga will sit and sit and it MIGHT move, if you wanna be successful, peddle the shit out of TCGs, host TCG game nights as often as you can.

Side note: do not run Yu-Gi-Oh stuff, though it's okay to sell it. No idea why, but my LCS says Yu-Gi-Oh players are by far the most likely to steal shit out of others bags, decks, what have you, they're basically the gypsies of the TCG world.

Oh shit not just TCGs, minis too. Pimp minis and all the associated things like construction, painting, etc.

My LCS also does board games and they do pretty well there, too.

This is good advice OP. Make sure you sell things other than comics as well like T-shirts, toys and trading cards. That will help out a lot.

Don't sustain yourself with just comics. Sell candy and toys too.

Also consider a comic book store/arcade.

Running a store with large, open areas and good lines of sight helps dissuade shoplifting in general. You'll also need an attentive staff that understands that they're getting paid to do a job, not just sit around, talk, and play games.

Could be worse, he could be wanting to open a gun shop.

If you're making an arcade, at that point just go the barcade route and say fuck comics.

>You are going to lose money.
>You are likely to fail.
>You will piss someone off.
>You will be bad mouthed.
>You are going to have to deal with it, with a smile on your face.
>You will get that one guy that special orders everything under the sun the disappears for a year, >comes back and is PISSED at you personally because you sold it when he never returned.
>You will get the "well store x sells it to me for $x.yz why cant you?" line.
>It will take a very harsh toll on your personal life.
>You will have to deal with the weird kids and adults.
>They will attempt to draw you into conversations that you want no part of. But you cant escape because you are the only employee!
>PAYING QUARTERLY TAXES!

You really need to diversify revenue. Every Successful comic shop ive been to also sells games and other "nerd culture" junk.

You cant be in the mind set of "Hate this, so i wont sell it" because you want the potential customers in your store giving you their money. You literally cannot afford to dislike something.

Ive worked at one thats been open for 30+ years and is still going strong. comics and comic memorabilia dont pay the bills. Magic the gathering does a lot of the heavy lifting. The store would be closed if it wasnt for huge quarterly profit bumps brought on by new releases. Buylisting singles for resale is incredibly profitable

This.

Stay away from YGO. Unless you want super high shrink.

This desu. Throw in some food with a big screen to watch movies and your set

Anime and Manga shops are much more successful.

Very good points.

And it wasn't theft from the store, it was theft among the yu-gi-oh players, they'd steal cards out of decks, decks out of bags, bags wholesale, it was nuts.

Store quit hosting tournaments because they practically had to have an extra person on shift to sort out and deal with all the theft/complaints, they keep all card boxes behind the shelf so they didn't have to deal with packs walking off.

I know this came off as cynical and harsh, but honestly those are the realities of this business. Before you start any business, you really need to ask yourself some very difficult questions and face a lot of the negatives head on

You were lucky the YGO players were only targeting themselves.

When we actually hosted, they stole comics from our shelves.

Yeah, this. The one I frequent is comics and old video games in the front and a shit ton of used albums and vinyls in the back with an entire wall of dvds and more modern video games.

If you want to stay mostly comics, you've at least got to sell those shitty Funko things while also doing Magic sessions and shit.

are they really though?
I dont think ive seen one outside of japan.
everyone ive met that is into that stuff just pirates it.

That is crazy, I'll ask for more YGO stories when I go in for D&D tonight.

Any speculation why it's the YGO people instead of, say Pokemon people that act that way? My LCS had no idea.

Don't pander to tabletop neckbeards. No play tables. No events. Nothing. Sell them their cards and books and whatever and send them on their way.
They may not like it, but ttg/ccg players alienate any even slightly normie customers. They stink up the place, loiter without buying anything, and generally make your place look trashy and sad.

There are a lot of comic shops in my area and the least successful and least trafficked one is the only one that has card/gaming tables.

My local barcade doesn't have any food, but it's near a bunch of restaurants so it's hard to complain. Tons of TVs though, and it's all about 80's stuff. It's a good time.

I have no idea either. nearest we could tell is that it attracted 2 groups of people : mid 20s to early 30s "hardcores" and very young kids who watched the show.

the first group would do everything the could to intimidate and rip off the young kids.

im sure id have more of an idea if we didnt kill YGO events after like 5

As a former YGO player that used to play at my LCS I can attest that they are a bunch of thieves

Opposite around here. You need that income.

We dont let them game during prime shopping hours though. we cover the tables with back issue boxes and sale stuff.

gaming events are held in the evenings when foot traffic and window shoppers are at the lowest. Youd be surprised how many tabletop players will pay a 5-10$ table fee per night

hey, that's nostalgia and comics in birmingham, uk. owned by FPI as well. source; i work for fpi.

also, what are you talking about? every location is different. graphic novels essentially sell the most where i work, all you gotta do is make sure to stock the essentials, along with popular indie titles.

my lcs owner encourages people to create pull lists and doesn't order a whole lot of stock outside of what people are pulling. was kind of annoyed by this at first, but i guess it makes sense to not order more than what you can realistically expect people to want to buy. it has kind of bit him in the ass recently in regards to Rebirth stuff flying off the shelves faster than anything he's seen since opening the store two years ago tho....

and yeah i used to play yu-gi-oh at another comic store, and had stuff stolen from me. it got to the point that when the store did tournaments they asked people to leave any bags of stuff they brought in behind the counter until they were ready to leave, only carrying their decks, dice, calculators and playmats from table to table

The store in OP's pic is Nostalgia & Comics in Birmingham and from all the signs they have up, i gather they have a massive problem with people stealing manga.

I meant that you're not gonna move a lot of trades, people aren't gonna come in for magic cards and say "Oh who is this John Constantine person here? All His Engines? I'll spend $25 and check this out" instead you're gonna get random people coming in at random times looking for random trades.

You can predict it, stock Civil War, Kingdom Come, whatever, but you're still not gonna make money on trades like you will on minis/TCGs, Amazon undercuts prices too much.

this.

also, keeping in employees after hours just to please a few unwashed TCG players isn't that beneficial.

holding events are fine, long as you keep it entertaining and offer out discounts now and then. don't make it a regular thing though.

Market research is key too.
Whats the market look like in your area? How saturated is it?
What do the other stores sell?

if you are lucky enough to not have other stores in your area, how do you now there is a want for this type of store?

There isnt one within 20 miles of my home. BUT there isnt a want for it. Id go out of business FAST.

eh, you'll be surprised to be honest. i've had plenty of customers come in for a specific book, and they have bought piles of new books based on my recommendations. there's usually something for everyone nowadays, and most prefer checking out books there and then, before purchasing.

i'd probably focus more on board games than TCGs too. they don't make my shop a tremendous amount of money, unless they're limited pokemon runs or new magic packs.

There are no big comic store chains, so your only competition would be barnes & noble (but then again, they only have trades) and other comic shops

But then again, do people in your area even like comics?

as if those rubbish signs are deterring any of their thieves. unfortunately that shop has a rubbish layout and i don't know why the old guys working there haven't reorganised the place yet.

Easy way to solve that problem is kick all the bad ones out. Worked for my local place and it's never been better, one dude was so bad he was permanently banned from the store, not just gaming events.

Huh, my LCS' trade section has gotten smaller and smaller as time has gone on, they just do not move, no matter where in the store they move them to!

Board games are huge there, they do gaming nights for them, usually are running 1 as a demo each night.

Man sometimes I am glad I live in a smaller city, out TCG players are nowhere near as bad as all these stories. I guess when you have a smaller population the creeps tend to be easier to spot and remove.

You'd have to make it a le nerd toy store to even remotely stay afloat

Some still prefer physical copies and to hold the comic tangibly. To leaf through and smell the pages, to glide their fingers and feel the texture of the pages.

Yeah, and those same people don't mind waiting a few days for Amazon or IST to deliver that book to them instead of going to a weird comic shop two cities away that may or may not have it.

>Plus, I imagine all business is dead every day that doesn't begin with a W
On the bright side, it is a lax enviroment and it probably feel like Smith's Clerks. Hell, invite some friends and play hockey on the rooftop.

I remember something similar back on /m/ and /toy/ about opening toy shops.

Basically do your research in the area above all else. You are going to lose money the first two years regardless, the point is to stop the hemorrhaging as soon as possible.

Every place is different, so go around town and look at the other shops to learn some experience.

We typically stock 1 copy of new Marvel/DC trades. We only order multiples if we know it will sell.

we cant get board games off the ground. they sell well but our BG players rather play with their friends not strangers.

Magic singles is big game for us. But not just instore. we sell through TCGplayer.com. dont get apathetic on pricing either. you could lose out on some minor windfalls.

>Quads

No it won't. You will not make enough money to stay in business
You need to add something more to the shop that'll make you actual money.

>those same people
Oh, the hypocrispy!
Do't categorize smelly hermits with adjusted and functional people of society.

It's good to visit a comic book shop now and again.

>at that point just go the barcade route and say fuck comics.
Why do arcades and comics have to be mutually exclusive? In barcades, the games are secondary to drinking/socializing. Comics can be supplementary to games and attract new readers who come in the store for vidya. Throw in some movies too why not? It's all connected.

Try opening a barcade
Alcohol + Free retro arcade games
Sell other shit(like comics) on the side
You need a shitload of money to be able to do it though.

I'd imagine comic shops get lots of weirdos. The one buy my house legit had to put up a sign reminding people not to shit at the front door.

>It's all connected.

It really is.

That's a simple matter of the shop workers being clear that you have to be out of the store at closing time if it's not some sanctioned event running long.

One of my coworkers used to work in some LCS, said the owner would just donate unsold floppies to a reading program for a charitable deduction.

>Stealth LCS stories thread?

I remember the LCS around where I live was oing their Friday night MTG games. Like two door down the street is a tattoo parlor, and apparently some drunk jock from the college tried to get a tattoo at the LCS.

Doesn't even need to be free games. Plenty of barcades sell tokens to use.
The problem with barcades is that you need a lot of square footage since cabinets take up a lot of space, so you don't always have a lot of room for other stuff.
Plus, most people want things kind of dark and raucus when they're drinking/playing so a reading room isn't the best addition for most bars.

>Alcohol
All the rest sounds fine but I dunno about this bit

Don't forget buttons and fridge magnets

>In barcades, the games are secondary to drinking/socializing.
I disagree, the games are a huge part of the socializing factor. People can go to any bar and get drinks, they go to the barcades to play old games and get drunk with their friends.
Comics just don't have that draw yet. You aren't hearing people say, "Hey, do you want to go out and get some beers and read Watchmen together?"

Chavs steal shit like manga and big two comic books and sell them around the estates for easy money

t. poorfag who bought a Green Lantern Rebirth GN from a local heroin addict for three quid because I didnt know it was stolen

I'm trying to imagine a life where you unwind with friends by getting drunk while reading Watchmen.

Like, how horrible and depressing is your reality that you have to get drunk and commiserate with friends about how much better it'd be if Veidt just showed up in the real world already?

You're assuming I suggested a comic book bar, when I actually suggested a comic shop/arcade. This would attract different customers than barcades. Perhaps younger customers, not wanting to get shitfaced and read, but rather having fun with classic games and getting introduced to comics for the first time.

I work at a comic shop. Don't open a comic shop. If you sell comics you have to do subscriptions to keep regular income and customers which can get annoying. Diamond is a horrible company to deal with and the only way you'll get comics. Magic and Board Games then have to come hand in hand and the market for magic constantly changes so it's only profitable half the time, board games barely sell because most board games these days run $40 to $60 which people don't want to buy because that's a videogame. Putting up with the retards and spergs who come in is literal hell.

And coffee, snacks, weeaboo shit, hookers and blackjack.

Is there something wrong with opening a gunshop user?

Don't forget the shitty pop figures

What shitty comicbooks are selling right now? What good comics won't even move?

Imagine all the problems of a comic shop, add in customers who are flat out ignorant but will loudly and aggressively interject when someone says different - this includes both workers, gunsmiths, and industry reps, customers who can't keep quiet about their politics, massive overhead costs, people buying out your stock to resell, idiots who will damage your very expensive merchandise and display cases through carelessness, and governments trying to pass laws to shutdown your business outright, force you out of business by increasing bureaucracy, or pass laws that allow them to confiscate your very expensive merchandise without compensation. Oh, and you'll have to deal with the ATF, whose malice is only matched by their incompetence.

How many folks actually do subscriptions at your place?

>and governments trying to pass laws to shutdown your business

Thought you were talking about comic shops until i got to this part.

Make it comics and manga/anime

Have tournaments for things like yugioh and smash bros

Believe it or not out of the 30+ years mine only started doing subs in the last 5 or so. Even now they dont advertise it and only a few people take advantage of it.

It was so odd at first to see a shop that didnt do this

It's a lot of the same issues just magnified and with a massive political element. And a federal regulatory and law enforcement agency that actively works against you.

The comic shop in my town is right in the city center. It has been an institution as long as I can think back. It has comics, manga, toys, sf and fantasy books, posters, merchandise. Upstairs there is another room where you can play card games and tabletop games but I haven't been up there since I stopped playing MtG over 15 years ago. I hope this store will never close.

To anyone that works in cb stores I got one question.
How well does X men floppies and trades sell?
And are their fans creepy antisocial people or Normies?

They sell ok. most of the buyers arent happy with the direction of the comic.
The Fans, well, every IP has a spectrum of fans. You get REAL good at judging the ones to engage with and the ones you just ring out as fast as possible to get them the hell out of there./

My cousin had the same dream and finally acted on it and is actually doing pretty damn well. Know your shit, pick a location that's pretty well populated and doesn't have an LCS, and sell things other than comics. Over half his store (and thus, profits) are toys and other collectibles.

anyone who actually works in ordering for shops? What kind of prices do are you looking at from your distributor? Are there price breaks after a certain point? What do margins look like?

You will never be financially solvent unless you do what every other comic shop does and buy up MtG packs at wholesale prices, open them, and sell the rares on eBay for more than you paid for the pack itself.