Why aren't there more quarter bins?

[kyanther]

I found a shop that has more quarter bins than normal back issues. The thing that surprised me is they were all in pretty good shape. What surprised me even more is finding a deathmate epilogue gold in the boxes! I think it was worth a quarter. Lol, and just for humors sake, I picked up the wildstar gold number 1 from image too since it was right behind it. I always thought that character at least looked cool.....being attacked by a starfish and all

[400yrs]

At my store we have 25-cent, 50-cent and dollar boxes largely because when the store began 10 years ago it was a total anime store with a few boxes of comics over in the corner. As time has gone on the shop has become half anime/half comics, but the boxes remain because once you have the discount bins for a time, if you take them away people come in and panic because they aren't there. Seriously panic. People have come into the store while the books are at a con and ask in a worried tone "Where are the quarter books?" We tell them they are at a con and, their little hearts jackhammering away, they ask "Well you're still going to carry them, right?" I have had people tell me they were diagnosed with cancer who were calmer than the people fearing for their quarter books.

So to keep my customer base from going into cardiac shock we fully embrace the quarter bins. They do okay for us. Heck I have so many other things that are dead weight that the discount bins are the least of my worries.

Do you carry toys? Comic related toys, I mean, not anime.

The LCSs around here have a ton of toys and I've never seen ANYONE buy one. Do they actually make money on them or is that just dead space?

[daydreamscomics]

At my store we have 25-cent, 50-cent and dollar boxes largely because when the store began 10 years ago it was a total anime store with a few boxes of comics over in the corner. As time has gone on the shop has become half anime/half comics, but the boxes remain because once you have the discount bins for a time, if you take them away people come in and panic because they aren't there. Seriously panic. People have come into the store while the books are at a con and ask in a worried tone "Where are the quarter books?" We tell them they are at a con and, their little hearts jackhammering away, they ask "Well you're still going to carry them, right?" I have had people tell me they were diagnosed with cancer who were calmer than the people fearing for their quarter books.

So to keep my customer base from going into cardiac shock we fully embrace the quarter bins. They do okay for us. Heck I have so many other things that are dead weight that the discount bins are the least of my worries.

Do you carry toys? Comic related toys, I mean, not anime.

The LCSs around here have a ton of toys and I've never seen ANYONE buy one. Do they actually make money on them or is that just dead space?

toys here are mostly dead space...which is why we designate very little space to them. we have a small toy case in the back with vintage stuff and a small wall of new figures but that's it. we sell most of that stuff at conventions. wal'mart & target killed marvel legends for us, and there just isn't a lot of interest in most new toys from dc direct

[TKWill]

At my store we have 25-cent, 50-cent and dollar boxes largely because when the store began 10 years ago it was a total anime store with a few boxes of comics over in the corner. As time has gone on the shop has become half anime/half comics, but the boxes remain because once you have the discount bins for a time, if you take them away people come in and panic because they aren't there. Seriously panic. People have come into the store while the books are at a con and ask in a worried tone "Where are the quarter books?" We tell them they are at a con and, their little hearts jackhammering away, they ask "Well you're still going to carry them, right?" I have had people tell me they were diagnosed with cancer who were calmer than the people fearing for their quarter books.

So to keep my customer base from going into cardiac shock we fully embrace the quarter bins. They do okay for us. Heck I have so many other things that are dead weight that the discount bins are the least of my worries.

Do you carry toys? Comic related toys, I mean, not anime.

The LCSs around here have a ton of toys and I've never seen ANYONE buy one. Do they actually make money on them or is that just dead space?

I hate toys at Comic shops. I wish I could find a comic shop that was like the music shop in High Fidelity. Nothing but comics, that's all. No toys, No Anime, No Sports cards, No Hero-Clix, No Magic. Just Comics. That place would get my money all the time, and then I wouldn't have to walk by emos smoking cigarettes in front of the store.

[thePike]

I just bought 500 books from the "3-for-a-dollar" bin from my LCS and paid $50. Ended up paying $0.10 a comic since I did it in bulk (he even threw in the new long boxes for free).

Thats why I like the quarter bins!!! (assuming you've got guys like at my LCS that cut deals like that for regulars)

All valiants too, although nothing too very special...

[rictor]

We do carry comicbook toys, but they really don't move at all. We had a few consistent DC Direct buyers, but they all moved away, and now the stuff just sits on the shelves. The toys are specifically what I had in mind when I was talking about the dead weight in the store. The anime and video game-based toys actually sell quite well for me though

Some of my anime customers actually reflect ThrillKillWill's sentiment just transferred replace "Comics" with "Anime." We get some of the dirtiest looks from some of the otaku elitists that come into the store. The vast majority of both the anime and comic fans are great and very tolerant of the other, and get along well, but we do occasionally get people disgustedly asking why we carry comics.

[slym2none]

My old LCS has a few cards (Yu-Gi-Oh and the like are good moneymakers, and this is no gaming store) and they have comic statues and busts, but otherwise, it's just comics. The one close by has even less of the first two... but they're a little shady (see the story about the Death Of Cap eBay auction record.)

No quarter/50 cent/dollar bins, though.



-slym

[TKWill]

In Abilene, TX (my folks live there) a new shop opened about two months ago. They dabbled in the gaming side of things and now commit about thirty percent of their shelf to the stuff. On Friday nights the place is packed with Gamers playin gin tournaments. I was talking to him and he said that that is where the money is right now. The place is real nice, I just avoid the place because he sells all back issues for cover.

[tarheelmarine]

In Abilene, TX (my folks live there) a new shop opened about two months ago. They dabbled in the gaming side of things and now commit about thirty percent of their shelf to the stuff. On Friday nights the place is packed with Gamers playin gin tournaments. I was talking to him and he said that that is where the money is right now. The place is real nice, I just avoid the place because he sells all back issues for cover.

When I lived in VA the comic shop there had gaming going on all of the time. Those gamers are true nerds.

[tictuck]

At my store we have 25-cent, 50-cent and dollar boxes largely because when the store began 10 years ago it was a total anime store with a few boxes of comics over in the corner. As time has gone on the shop has become half anime/half comics, but the boxes remain because once you have the discount bins for a time, if you take them away people come in and panic because they aren't there. Seriously panic. People have come into the store while the books are at a con and ask in a worried tone "Where are the quarter books?" We tell them they are at a con and, their little hearts jackhammering away, they ask "Well you're still going to carry them, right?" I have had people tell me they were diagnosed with cancer who were calmer than the people fearing for their quarter books.

So to keep my customer base from going into cardiac shock we fully embrace the quarter bins. They do okay for us. Heck I have so many other things that are dead weight that the discount bins are the least of my worries.

Do you carry toys? Comic related toys, I mean, not anime.

The LCSs around here have a ton of toys and I've never seen ANYONE buy one. Do they actually make money on them or is that just dead space?

I hate toys at Comic shops. I wish I could find a comic shop that was like the music shop in High Fidelity. Nothing but comics, that's all. No toys, No Anime, No Sports cards, No Hero-Clix, No Magic. Just Comics. That place would get my money all the time, and then I wouldn't have to walk by emos smoking cigarettes in front of the store.

Amen to that

[rictor]

. . .On Friday nights the place is packed with Gamers playin gin tournaments.

You know, I always wanted to run gin tournaments, but most of my gamers are 16, so it's really not worth the legal hassles. And after the third round the rules just go out the window.