I've worked at a comic book store for 4 years. AMA

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Why haven't you killed yourself yet?

Why is merely being in a comic book shop so deeply unpleasant?

Got any good stories

how autistic do the clientele get?

How many people have tried to sell Death of Superman expecting a fortune

The current average life expectancy of a human is 78 years. How does it feel to have wasted 5% of your life working at a LCS?

Formerly Chuck's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop?

how much pussy did you get

How does it feel to have wasted ~15% of your life lurking on a Mongolian spice recipe visual exchange forum?

Because I have a girlfriend and dog that living with, why haven't you killed yourself user?
If I was to take a guess I would assume the unpleasantness people experience when in a comic book store is when most of the people in the store normally being either fat or way younger. New comic book day or rainy days are usually a lot better.
Can you be more specific? What sort of story would you like because I do have a bunch.

Tell us about your ....let's say top 3 weirdest customers

they can be regulars or someone that only came in once

Name the three worst customer experiences you can think of off the top of your head. I know you have at least one "THAT guy" regular who you can't help but think about.

how much of your sales come from MTG and manga?

How many funko pops have you sold?

Is this loss?

On the Itchy and Scratchy CD-ROM, is there a way out of the dungeon without using the wizard key?

how homeless are you?

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Depends, most are very nice but some will take offence to the shirts I wear or the recommendations I make to people while they're in the store but that is quite rare. I have seen people argue over a series multiple times in a store however.
My store doesn't buy comics off of people so I've never been in that situation but some people do buy multiple variants of a number one because they hope to make money on them.
I'm only working at the store because it's close to the university I'm studying at so I won't be 'wasting my time' in one much longer user.

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What's the average ratio of the customers genders that come into the shop?

Which country?
What was the funniest thing you have seen in the store?
Worst customer expirience?
What did your comic store do to attract people?

100% male. Occasionally some le epic tumblr geek comes in to take a selfie, but they never buy anything.

What was your hardest sell?

What's the most valuable key issue comic to walk into the shop or be sold? If your shop only sells moderns, how do you sell ratio variants, especially ones that are more popular like campbell variants, not like shitty hip hop ones.

What the hell are you talking about?

>Which country
US
>worst customer experience
We had a disabled guy in an electric wheelchair come in once. His colostomy bag burst all over the Gwenpool display
>how do you attract people
We fake outrage on twitter and get Buzzfeed to write articles about us

I have a girl who comes in every week for maybe the past five months and asks if saga is out and everytime I give her the release date but she still comes back to ask. I've asked her why and she says it's in case it comes out early. One of my co workers told me that apparently a guy who comes in the days I don't work and always buys a stack of new rebirth trades and will usually buy multiple of the same. We believe he sells the, online at a higher price but we've never asked him and the weirdest customer I've ever dealt with was a girl who came into the store and just started screaming and when I asked if she was ok she just stared at me before running out the door and I've never seen her again.
Just so I can answer as many as possible I'll keep this brief and if you want a follow up on one I can give it to you
I've had a guy who tried to fight with me over my aquaman shirt
I've had a girl who use come in every week and tried to pick fights with people over what they bought to the point where she became one of only two people we currently have banned from the store
There's a guy who only pays in coins which is infuriating because he spends $30 usually. For every manga trade we sell we usually sell forty regular trades. Our only big manga sellers are AOT and One Piece but One Punch Man is starting to sell as well as some marvel trades.
Yes
A lot of guys but we usually get about a dozen girls a week while I work there. Fcbd had a tonne of women coming in surprisingly.
Trying to convince people to buy an omnibus or absolute rather than trades are usually the hardest sell.
We usually ratio variants based on popularity of the title. We don't get many marvel variants outside of deadpool anymore but we get a tonne of the superman/ action comics trades as they are more popular then the regular covers most weeks.

cringy/juicy/funny stories, please.

have you noticed your clientele diversify from typical comicbook fans to include more nu-male and feminist types or has your clientele remained a constant demographic

This is my thread not yours mate don't mislead people. I'm Australian in case the previous user was wondering.

You're not in Newcastle, are you?

was it fun?

I don't believe that

>I've had a girl who use come in every week and tried to pick fights with people over what they bought to the point where she became one of only two people we currently have banned from the store
Did she ever buy anything?

Believe what you want. Whenever something comes out that gets a lot of mainstream attention, like Gwenpool, you'll get them coming in and taking selfies in front of the display. Then you never see them again.

Funniest story to happen recently would be that we had a kid try and steal a copy of batman and when we caught him he tried to run. He got maybe one foot out the door before tripping over our sign that sits in the doorway and falling flat on the face busting his nose open. His parents opologised but because he got blood on the issue my boss made the parents pay for it. As they walked out the door one of our regulars told the kid to watch out for the sign which made us laugh so hard that we gave him $5 off.
A lot of dudes have left marvel and now read dc and we have a lot of females reading marvel image and Harley Quinn compared to when I started.
No I'm in Queensland and that's as much detail as I'm willing to go.
She bought walking dead, bitch planet and captain marvel along with green lantern and I think justice league. She would mainly pick fights with people if they grabbed stuff like punisher or deadpool. Pretty much anything that involved ultra violence triggered her. The last straw was when she slapped a invincible compendium out of a guys hand and slapped him after the dude called her a cunt.

Don't listen to this other guy although it's not even we do get women who come in and some genuinely have a passion for comics. We do get people who look like generic tumblr girls but if they are willing to pay for stuff instead of reading it online only they are alright in my book.

Do you vote one nation? Are you concerned that you're now in range of North Korea's missiles?

No I don't vote one nation however I do know people who do as a joke. I don't vote based on a party but rather the policies a party promotes that benefits me and my girlfriend the most. In saying that the current Queensland labor government is fucking shit to a crazy degree. That's enough politics though so let's stick to Sup Forums related questions.

How often does Diamond fuck up your orders?

>Trying to convince people to buy an omnibus or absolute rather than trades are usually the hardest sell.
I don't care for omnibuses myself. The binding on them usually isn't up to snuff for their size, and it feels like I'm causing significant damage every time I try to read one.

As a degenerate, the only comic I give a shit about Is Rosianna Rabbit. Now that it's on permanent hiatus, what would you recommend to fill the void?

How was your coworkers and boss?

Any female (male) costumers?

Any interesting indie comics from Australia?

Not him, but you should read Hanselmann's Truth Zone, he namedrops a fuckton of australian indie writers.

Is this a family friendly comic shop, or an old crusty bastard comic shop?

I don't handle the orders personally but usually if diamond fucks up its on trades which annoys the owner because trade sales account for the majority of our sales. A couple weeks ago we had a fuck up on diamonds part that meant our news issues didn't get to us until the weekend. Do you spine stretch an omnibus and rest it on a flat surface before you read it that is what we always recommend our customers to do when they buy one as it'll extend it's life tremendously.
Sorry user I've never heard of that title, can you give me an over view and I'd be glad to give you a recommendation.
My boss is alright but he's only at the store when I'm there one day a week. My pay check is always in early so I can't complain about the guy. Co workers wise a lot of them are great and clearly know there shit which is important however there is one fucking guy who I despise as it's clear to me and most of the guys that he only got into comics through the marvel movies and as a result barely reads comics. I haven't had a shift with him in about a year unless there's a sale and we usually stick him on register because anytime someone asks something he either can't answer their question and ask us or just lies about a title by judging what the titles about based solely on the cover.
I answered this previously user.
I think we are family friendly anytime a kid walks in with his parents we always see that as an opportunity to get someone new hooked on the same hobby we have. We also have a section of the store filled with books focused towards all ages audience such as bone which I try and sell any chance we get, the batman adventures and other similar titles.

>His colostomy bag burst all over the Gwenpool display

Underrated post.

Rosianna Rabbit is edgy humour and blatant fat fetishism

How alt comic-friendly is the shop?

Fuck I dunno casuals not knowing what they're talking about, got any of those or just workplace stories in general

Geez user that sounds incredibly niche I couldn't think of a single title that matches that. If you like edgy humour then I hate fairyland might be your style although there's no fat fetishism in it. As long as it sells in our store we will try to publish it and there aren't many publishers that we don't sell. I hope that answers your question. Holy shit I could go on about that all day long with situations of casuals trying to act like experts. I had someone mix up Sam Wilson and miles morales when arguing about legacy characters with someone. Also people trying to say a book is bad while showing that they haven't read it by getting stuff wrong about the book. Like people hating gwen pool while claiming she's Gwen Stacy or someone saying they didn't like morrisons batman and robin because of how they portrayed dick Grayson and Bruce's realationship (he didn't realise dick was batman and Damian was robin.)

One of the biggest cases of a casual not knowing what they were talking about was someone claiming deathstroke was just a shitty deadpool knockoff when we were having a conversation with customers about the teen titans tv series last year when the rebirth title launched

Do you carry Sonichu by Christian Weston Chandler at all?

you are an user with patrician taste

>Now that it's on permanent hiatus
sauce? is the artist on depression or something?

Who the fuck even buys modern marvel

use a trip OP

No we don't and we've never had someone ask about it so I doubt that will change.
Marvel trade wise still sells well especially stuff like deadpool, punisher, xmen, Spider-Man and surprisingly waids daredevil. Current marvel wise we sell a little more floppies wise than image and a little less trade wise. Civil war 2 really killed sales as not many people were reading the event and as a result not many people kept buying their series. Are best selling marvel titles are deadpool Thor morales Spider-Man and xmen gold at the moment with our worse being captain marvel which we usually sell two or three a month and Hawkeye which we actually stopped ordering because no ones bought the past three issues. It's pretty even gender wise except with morales Spider-Man which is majority women.

>I've had a guy who tried to fight with me over my aquaman shirt
>I've had a girl who use come in every week and tried to pick fights with people over what they bought to the point where she became one of only two people we currently have banned from the store
>There's a guy who only pays in coins which is infuriating because he spends $30 usually.

How the hell do these people come to be? I have never seen someone have an autistic fit over nerd stuff anywhere in a store, only once or twice in public

>For every manga trade we sell we usually sell forty regular trades. Our only big manga sellers are AOT and One Piece but One Punch Man is starting to sell as well as some marvel trades.

Makes me sad. Manga is by far the main source of comics money in my country. The... dozen stores we have depend on it 100%

>we have a lot of females reading marvel image

which image comics? the good stuff or the political stuff?

>we usually stick him on register because anytime someone asks something he either can't answer their question

Well, can't you give him some recs?

Why do women want to buy morales spider man so badly

women are buying black spiderman? what does this mean?

didn't mean to similarfag

>the weirdest customer I've ever dealt with was a girl who came into the store and just started screaming and when I asked if she was ok she just stared at me before running out the door and I've never seen her again.

Some people just like rubbing people the wrong way I guess the aquaman shirt was from a guy who just thought aquaman was shit so I just tried to ignore him. The girl who got banned from the store looked like what probably comes to your head when someone says tumblr feminist.

Manga only sells poorly at our store because there is a store a couple blocks away that specialises in Japanese stuff so they have a better variety. Even my girlfriend uses it over our store and we aren't willing to expand our manga stuff due to the other store

The image titles that usually sell well with females especially are stuff like saga, walking dead and pretty deadly back when it was coming out and remenders stuff usually sells decent across the board including with females as well.

We've given him recommendations but he doesn't like anything dc or image so it's mostly marvel stuff which means anytime someone asks about dc rebirth he's lost.
I couldn't tell you why morales is selling well and it's not just women a lot of guys seem to like him too including guys who ask if there's any reprints of morales ultimate run in stock. If I was to guess it might just be that some people just want to read Spider-Man in te same way that batman has always sold well no matter what.

Fuck off reddit nigger

>Manga only sells poorly at our store because there is a store a couple blocks away that specialises in Japanese stuff so they have a better variety

Oh. I guess manga outsells comics everywhere ;_;

>The image titles that usually sell well with females especially are stuff like saga, walking dead and pretty deadly back when it was coming out and remenders

Well. They aren't bad comics. Was wondering if the "SJWs do not buy the comics they virtue signal" myth is true.

>so it's mostly marvel stuff

you can pull a "if I don't win I tie" and recommend him some of the weirder marvel stuff. kirby lee specially

I didn't realise making a thread made me a redditor and black. Learn things everyday.

I've worked at a comic shop going on 4 years now too.
It's just like any other retail job really.
Why do fucks like you feel the need to take questions as if you're in some important position?

Thanks for the bump user. Hope you get that stick out of your ass

Like I've said morales and Thor sell somewhat well at our store (usually top ten for the week) so atleast at out store the titles that are apparently sjw do get supported. In saying that America is bleeding readers to the point that I can see us dropping it by Halloween
We've made him read some older stuff like millers daredevil but it's always a battle since he prefers stuff like captain America and iron man.
I agree with you that it feels like any other job. To answer why I started this thread, I was bored and thought some anons on Sup Forums would be interested in knowing about what it's like working at a comic book store and some of the strange things that occasionally happens and considering how the thread turned out I'm guessing I was right. I never said I was important and honestly I'm sure there are other people who have much better stories than me. If you have any funny comic store stories from your time working at one feel free to add to this thread as I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one interested in hearing about it.

You mentioned that there was only two people banned from the store. What did the other one do?

How well do your Godzilla comics sell, if any?

>and we have a lot of females reading marvel image and Harley Quinn
Fucking GoTG 1 and 2, TWD tv show and Suicide Squad movie to thank for those. Fuck.

Happened before I was hired but apparently he was a regular customer for almost a year but showed up one day clearly drunk and accidentally knocked over a comic rack and when the owner tried to walk him out of the store the guy tried to take a swing. You can be an asshole if you want and we might ask you to either stop or leave but if you destroy property or assault someone then they face gets put on the storeroom wall and you aren't allowed back. I'm sure if we ever caught someone stealing multiple times we would ban them too but usually when someone pinches something once and we name and shame them they don't usually come back.
Godzilla sells about as well as our lowest selling dc titles but after the legendary film a couple years ago the trades sold well and I'm sure that'll happen when the next film comes out but I probably won't be working here by then.
Guardians doesn't sell that well at our store outside of free comic book day and I've personally never sold anything guardians related to a woman before in my time at the store but I'm sure it's happened on days I'm not there since I only work there seven days a fortnight. Harley has actually sold consistently well with females since her new 52 series began and the suicide squad movie didn't really impact that. Anytime someone buys current Harley I usually try and suggest her first solo run just since I find it leagues better but the people who read her current run prefer how she's written now.

bumping

>I've worked at a comic book store for 4 years. AMA
Honest answer. Do you think comicbooks would sell better or worse on lines of comicbook stands at regular grocery stores and whatnot, than in the corners of dedicated speciality shops?

I think it would sell better among children similar to how sticking chocolate at a checkout works to sell more of that due to impulse purchasing while I think having comic book specific shops are better for adults as anyone with the interest will seek it out and have the means to do so. I also believe comic book stores allow smaller publishes to survive along side marvel and dc similar to how places like gamespot or ebgames depending on where you live allow a greater variety of games to be sold.

What's the cringiest thing you've seen there? What's the sweetest?

Would it be rude to ask for a less handled copy of a book they have out front?

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PUT ON A TRIP, YOU FAGGOT.

This is literally one of the few occasions that requires it.

Cringiest thing I've personally was a guy who came in with his girlfriend to buy stuff. he was a scrawny pale kid and she was a landwhale a foot taller then him. The sweetest is easily anytime a little kid comes in with a parent or grandparent who grew up with comics themselves and watching them bond over titles. It reminds me a lot of me and my father as when he grew up he read the phantom, kamandi and batman and whenever I went to a comic store with him when I was a kid he was always fascinated by all the new characters that had showed up since he stopped reading and how characters he grew up with had changed.
Not at all, anytime someone asks if we have another copy in back that's in better condition as long as we aren't busy we will usually check. If a store truly values your business they should be willing to do that for you.
Why is a tripcode required

>Why is a tripcode required
In general anonymous culture, it's held that the content of the post should supersede the user. This is because the opinion matters more than the identity. In cases such as AMA, though, the content relies entirely on individual experiences, making the OP's identity the centerpoint of the discussion. Interaction with a specific individual, as opposed to a free-for-all discussion where all opinions are valid.

tl;dr
I want to Ctrl+F your posts.

ever see anyone popping a boner to a slutty statue or to a Red Sonja book?

What's the most heartwarming thing you've seen

Thanks this is a grea and informative thread. How is your shop doing financially? I always feel like comic shops are constantly barely above water due to the fact that the market is so niche.

You said you're near a college do you get college students often?

Not same guy but it helps verify it's you and not some asshole

Where did your life go so wrong?

I only really put the AMA at the start so that people would ask questions, I've already mentioned earlier in the thread that anyone else whose worked at a comic book store can chime in and if anything I encourage it as it'll show have different stores operate differently and have varying popular titles.
No nothing like that but we have a power girl statue in store that kids always try to nonchalantly look at.
Like I said anything that involves a parent and child bonding over comics is always heartwarming to see.
Financially the shop does well enough that we have been considering reorganising the shelving so we can pack more stock into the main room because as it is most of our larger books sit in the storeroom so we can have as many different items in the front. We get people who look like they could be college age but I don't know if they come from the campus or not. I would say our main demographic from what I've seen is 16-30ish. Like I said I don't mind if someone else chims in and gives their point of view as it just adds more to the thread. If someone shitposts then thats unfortunate but unavoidabe
I didn't know my life had gone wrong user.

Do you play D&D with your friend while ignoring the costumers like my local Comic book store does?

No but I do know of a store that does that. Our set up is usually one guy at the register and someone else who works on stocking shelves and talking to customers who may have questions.

Do you have any long-running regulars who have been coming to your place for at least half a decade? How are they like?

What's the most amount of money you've seen a customer spend at once?

Well I would technically be one of those people since I've been using this store since 2010. There are people who have been visiting the store since I've been there and they are either the type of people to just grab their pull list and leave or they will spend a little while talking with us or any other regulars that they've got to know about anything they've read or stuff they're looking forward to. I actually got into new super-man due to multiple people telling me how much they were enjoying the series whenever we talked about rebirth.
On free comic book day this year we decided to hold a 15% off sale on all stock to try and entice more people in and we wound up having people buying a tonne of omnibus and hardcovers. One guy came in and spent over a thousand dollars on marvel omnibuses and absolute long halloween. Usually our customers will spend about $50 if they are buying trades and it varies week to week when it comes to floppy sales.

>I actually got into new super-man due to multiple people telling me how much they were enjoying the series
I got into it the same way and ended up picking up the full run and putting it on my pull. Word of mouth really can have an impact, as long as the book is allowed to last long enough for it to matter.

Do you think porn comics can sell in the west? Japan's h-doujins always make good money from them.

It's true man, one of Sup Forums's strengths is that it has the potential to introduce people to series they may of never given a chance otherwise and the same is true of most comic book stores if you try to join in on a conversation. It's just a shame that in Sup Forumss case a lot of the board just repeats the same threads over and over again.
I'm sure there is a market for them but I doubt they would do very well in comic book shops. I could see them possibly doing somewhat well either online or at an adult sex store though.

are comic stores around you filled with tumblr SJW nonsense?
I used to go to Comicopia in Kenmore Square in Boston and the owner of the whole franchise left that particular location to some chick who not only filled the store with political shit, but the mailing list as well.
desu I just wanna read comics
it sucks too because that location sold a lot of good indie Boston authors and porn comics