What's important to you in a comic shop?

cobra_commander · Post by **cobra_commander** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:02 am

Good back issues? Discount bins? Magic the Gathering tournaments every Thursday?

For me...back issues used to be the big draw for me going to a comic shop regularly

ibreakhorses · Post by **ibreakhorses** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:07 am

Discount bins, lots of well priced back issues, no Magic crap and no toys!!!

sd2416 · Post by **sd2416** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:03 am

accurately graded books and prices.

buff-beardo · Post by **buff-beardo** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:39 am

A good assortment of back issues at reasonable prices. Bargain bins are the best. It also helps when the store is not over-cramped. Bonus - when the owner is not a complete *SQUEE*.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:22 pm

I would want my comic shop to buy/turn over collections often so I have new books to look through every so often.

myron · Post by **myron** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:03 pm

Zero wrote:I would want my comic shop to buy/turn over collections often so I have new books to look through every so often.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:11 pm

sd2416 wrote:accurately graded books and prices.

How do you accurately grade a price....?

Is there a price grading book?

"If the price isn't fully stamped on the sticker, it can only be a Fine+, maybe F/VF."

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:12 pm

Zero wrote:I would want my comic shop to buy/turn over collections often so I have new books to look through every so often.

MedicAR · Post by **MedicAR** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:03 pm

ibreakhorses wrote:Discount bins, lots of well priced back issues, no Magic crap and no toys!!!

Wow....you'd hate my LCS. Toys and stuff everywhere.

A friendly, knowledgable retailer would be a good start, he should know about the Silver Age at a minimum but Golden Age would be better. A smart businessman that understands that I'll be in every week is important too, that way he's likely to know what I like and "take care of me" when he can. I wish more retailers were able to rotate out collections, but that's why we have conventions I guess.

IMJ · Post by **IMJ** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:19 pm

If I'm in a store that doesn't keep up on back issues then I feel like I'm in a store that is just flipping whatever the owner collected until they can get out.

The guys that usually keep buying and flipping old collections are usually the most reasonably priced stores. Obviously the real steady money is in selling new comics every month, but unless they are really into the comic market and moving the back issues too, it's a glorified magazine store waiting to go out of business, IMO.

MedicAR · Post by **MedicAR** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:13 pm

IMJ wrote:If I'm in a store that doesn't keep up on back issues then I feel like I'm in a store that is just flipping whatever the owner collected until they can get out.

The guys that usually keep buying and flipping old collections are usually the most reasonably priced stores. Obviously the real steady money is in selling new comics every month, but unless they are really into the comic market and moving the back issues too, it's a glorified magazine store waiting to go out of business, IMO.

I had never thought of it that way, but you're right. My LCS rarely gets old stuff in, but when he does, it moves fast. There just aren't a lot of old books in my area and he's not big enough (yet) to go around the country to get more back issues. He has said that his goal is to order enough of every new books to have a minimum of two issues to go to back stock. They have tons of back issues, but they are fairly picked over. I did get a Spectacular Spidey #90 in VF for $2.50 recently, but you have to be quick to get the new "flavor of the month."

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:25 pm

If a store prices their back issues at the counter from a price guide, I won't go back to that store again. Back issues should all be priced so the customer can decide if they want to buy it without having to look at some prick owner or some lamo fanboy as they try to remember that "R" comes after "Q" and before "S" in the Wizard and Overtreet guides. Then after they find the book listed, they proceed to give you the NM price for a banged up book. Bite me, smokers of cock and restock that book while your at it.

tssgery · Post by **tssgery** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:37 pm

I look for a number of things:

1) Reasonably priced, well stocked, back issues. And, yes, the issues should be occasionally restocked so I don;t look over the same issues time and time again.
2) Friendly employees, that pay attention to their customers. I don't to hear the clerk talking to his friends on the phone about what theyr'e doing Friday night.
3) Toys are fine, but they shouldn't dominate the square footage. I want comics, dammit!

ibreakhorses · Post by **ibreakhorses** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:30 pm

400yrs wrote:If a store prices their back issues at the counter from a price guide, I won't go back to that store again. Back issues should all be priced so the customer can decide if they want to buy it without having to look at some prick owner or some lamo fanboy as they try to remember that "R" comes after "Q" and before "S" in the Wizard and Overtreet guides. Then after they find the book listed, they proceed to give you the NM price for a banged up book. Bite me, smokers of cock and restock that book while your at it.

Yeah, I hate when the books get priced at the register.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:59 pm

I'll echo what others have said. I look for a good selection of back issues that are reasonably priced for the condition they are in. That's most important to me. Well, maybe it's second to a friendly and knowledgeable staff, but that should be a given in any retail environment. A good variety of additional merchandise - toys, models, t-shirts, cards (sports, Magic, etc) RPGs, etc) is a plus too just because I like looking at that stuff.

I had to go to Shreveport today and went by Excalibur. They're a nice little store - not too cramped, plenty of variety, good selection of back issues (with price stickers on the bags) with the exception of NO VALIANT. But their prices on those back issues are outrageous. NM prices regardless of condition. I asked about bargaining room on those prices, and he didn't seem to like that idea. No "bargain bins" at all. So after 20 minutes or so of searching, my son bought a Qui-Gon Jin action figure and that was it.

Speaking of prices, I looked at the Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn TPB and thought I'd buy it as I haven't read it and I've heard it was good. Looked at the cover price - $14.95 and it's not even 1/4 inch thick?!?! I just couldn't pay that much for it.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:04 pm

ibreakhorses wrote:
400yrs wrote:If a store prices their back issues at the counter from a price guide, I won't go back to that store again. Back issues should all be priced so the customer can decide if they want to buy it without having to look at some prick owner or some lamo fanboy as they try to remember that "R" comes after "Q" and before "S" in the Wizard and Overtreet guides. Then after they find the book listed, they proceed to give you the NM price for a banged up book. Bite me, smokers of cock and restock that book while your at it.
Yeah, I hate when the books get priced at the register.

The last shop I worked at, I had to do that and I absolutely hated it. We lost many many sales because of it and I could never make the owner understand that.

cobra_commander · Post by **cobra_commander** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:25 pm

Heath wrote: Speaking of prices, I looked at the Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn TPB and thought I'd buy it as I haven't read it and I've heard it was good. Looked at the cover price - $14.95 and it's not even 1/4 inch thick?!?! I just couldn't pay that much for it.

You could probably get the original issues of ebay for $5

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:27 pm

Heath wrote: Speaking of prices, I looked at the Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn TPB and thought I'd buy it as I haven't read it and I've heard it was good. Looked at the cover price - $14.95 and it's not even 1/4 inch thick?!?! I just couldn't pay that much for it.

Ridiculous. You can get the original issues, all six of them, for $3 or less.

Lame.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:28 pm

cobra_commander wrote:
Heath wrote: Speaking of prices, I looked at the Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn TPB and thought I'd buy it as I haven't read it and I've heard it was good. Looked at the cover price - $14.95 and it's not even 1/4 inch thick?!?! I just couldn't pay that much for it.
You could probably get the original issues of ebay for $5

Oops.

And you SHOULD, too!

It's absolutely the best Green Lantern story ever told.

IMJ · Post by **IMJ** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:52 am

ibreakhorses wrote:Yeah, I hate when the books get priced at the register.

Oh my God, if I walked into a store that was gonna do that with a pile of back issues I had I'd laugh hysterically and walk out the door while they were thumbing there guide.

cobra_commander · Post by **cobra_commander** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 6:27 am

Jay Tomio wrote:I haven't been in a comic book store in years and without doubt the landscape has changed in that time but it still saddens me a bit to I know that the 3 local comic shops in my childhood hometown all closed their doors before I left. Something seems fundamentally wrong with there not being a viable place for establishments that gave at least this kid so much joy in just weekend visits.

As an adult now, I guess I would look for the same in any establishment. People that know what the *SQUEE* they are talking about (regarding what store they work in). A guy working in a comic book store who doesn't know what Stray Bullets or who Colleen Doran is like a bartender who doesn't know what put in a rum and coke - you don't have to be world class, but at least be able to pass for somebody who absorbed something from working in a comic shop.

Some amount of order. Look, I understand that we want kinds involved in the hobby, I just don't want to walk into a place that looks like they run the kingdom however. Where I live, strangely enough the book aisle is where doofus parents drop of their kids while they shop - these tards proceed to tear through every comic on the rack, beating them to hell. All of them. Kids will be kids, but I mean kids in Military families having no discipline scares me. It's not even discipline - it's just not vandalizing merchandise. I used to be a manager of a major retail store, and I used to threaten parents with prosecution who left there kids in the toy aisle to ravage and plunder.

Excellent

MedicAR · Post by **MedicAR** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 7:51 am

Heath wrote:....Well, maybe it's second to a friendly and knowledgeable staff, but that should be a given in any retail environment.

Yeah, it shouldbe a given, but the sad reality is that most retailers (of any knd) have a staff that is clueless about the products and couldn't care less about the customer.

daydreamscomics · Post by **daydreamscomics** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:03 am

here is what i would expect in a shop if i didn't work at one:

1) new issues displayed in some sort of correct order. i can't stand walking into a shop where they divide new issues into company, or title, or any other order. it makes no sense to me. am i the only one that thinks alphabetical order makes the most sense?

2) back issues that are stocked and ACTUALLY PRICED. it's more than annoying to walk into a store, look at back issues to find they have no price on them, to then ask what the prices are and get an answer like "depends what it is". i'm sorry, but any store trying to sell anything after 1975 (outside of key issues) for overstreet prices is stupid.

3) ORGANIZATION. is it really that hard? diamond has a section on their retailer site where they highlight a shop every day as they travel across the U.S. there is nothing worse than seeing a shop that has trades mixed in with comics mixed in with toys mixed in with gaming stuff. make a place for each item, and keep them there!!! a lot of there stores look more like flea markets than comic shops.

4) employees who don't look down their noses at you or look at you like you are *SQUEE* if you ask ANY sort of question. odds are anyone on this board knows more about comics than the person they are asking...

i guess i'm just over the "comic dungeon" set up. stores need to get with the times and evolve as the comic world does...

just my 4 cents...

Chiclo · Post by **Chiclo** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:10 am

MagnusRF wrote:
Heath wrote:....Well, maybe it's second to a friendly and knowledgeable staff, but that should be a given in any retail environment.
Yeah, it shouldbe a given, but the sad reality is that most retailers (of any knd) have a staff that is clueless about the products and couldn't care less about the customer.

Drop by my gun counter some time.

Do your best to come up with a rifle I can't tell you something about off the top of my head.

whovianone · Post by **whovianone** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:48 pm

Organization, quality, and an owner who cares more about taking care of the collector than gouging. I'll spend ALOT more money there in the long run!!