I just opened up a comic book store in the UK about 6 months ago, feel free to ask any questions about the retail side of things.
Also Diamond suck balls and I actually like the current Batgirl and Black Canary runs
>>83069257
which publishers sells the most?
>>83069274
Right now we've been selling a LOT of Image trades, Preacher has been selling well due to the TV series gaining some hype - DC tends to have more standing orders with us than Marvel runs but the Marvel issue 1s sell pretty well.
Batman TMNT has been huge
>>83069257
Are you seeing a lot of new comic fans or are they mostly all long time readers?
>>83069257
So what's it like being an idiot who invests in an unprofitable enterprise?
>>83069379
Fortunately, nostalgia and famous trades will carry us for a while if every teenager in the UK dies, we also do other stuff in the store so I'm not too worried
>>83069353
We get a mixture, but generally our main customer base is around 20-40 so they are already established fans, lots of them have kids though and comic books seem to be picking up amongst the teenage crowd at the moment (I can only assume it's because of the huge media presence currently.)
>>83069445
You online?
>>83069857
We're just high street based at the moment, in South London specifically, but we will probably be moving online when we eventually expand into key issues and collectibles further. Unfortunately there's no point trying to compete with Forbidden Planet or Amazon this early on
>>83069257
How well are you expecting Rebirth to sell?
Any stories about normies and casuals to tell?
I'm honestly scared to ask, but how are 2000AD/the Megazine/the collections selling?
How noticeable is it when new movie is out? Are TV shows on the same level, like, has anything changed when S2 of DD came out?
>>83069257
How hard was it to start a shop?
How much capital did you have raised/loaned for your shop?
Did you have inventory already sitting around or did you buy?
Are you actually making anything resembling a living wage yet?
How many employees and how big is the shop?
>>83070247
Small loan of million sterlings.
>>83069257
Do you need any staff?
>>83069257
>I actually like the current Batgirl and Black Canary runs
Hey, nothing wrong with a little bit of fun.
What books are your favorite?
>>83070256
How hard was it to start a shop?
Did you have inventory already sitting around or did you buy it after your loan?
Are you actually making anything resembling a living wage yet?
How many employees and how big is the shop?
>small loan of million sterlings
>million pounds
>small
>>83069257
>I actually like the current Batgirl and Black Canary runs
I bet they sell like shit
In a battle between Captain America and Captain Britain who do you think will win and who will you be rooting for?
>>83069990
Rebirth SHOULD sell okay, thankfully it's not cost us a huge amount to buy into but we have a lot of people who are looking to start reading from issue 1, which is good. We've ordered in 50 copies of Rebirth #1 and will likely give some out for free to customers spending a little more than average as it seems like an interesting jumping off point. All the customers I have spoken to about the spoilers seem to be more intrigued by them than put off so far.
>>83070123
2000ad sells terribly unfortunately, we sell several of the smaller collected versions and the 2012 GN for the Dredd Movie has done okay, it's a shame.
>>83070187
Daredevil series 2 really boosted sales on Miller's work, namely Born Again - we had 2 copies of it in store before, they sold immediately - then we placed 5 separate orders for customers on it further down the line. Loeb's Yellow has also sold well following the series, and the Daredevil/Punisher crossover was well timed by Marvel.
Sorry for the slow replies by the way, I want to be as descriptive as possible without taking up walls of texts so will keep my replies across several posts.
>>83070550
I always see 2000AD pretty much anywhere that sells newspapers and magazines, even in my middle of nowhere town, so maybe readers are buying them there.
>>83070247
We are totally self funded, two of us opened up the place from personal savings and (although I always feel like a spoiled piece of shit for saying it) I got around £10k after my dad passed away (cancer,) all in all we put in around £14k for the initial investment and fortunately we've been able to make rent and budget for stock each month, we're breaking even, we both work second jobs so taking a wage isn't really priority at the moment, we kind of treat it like a hobby at this stage.
Regarding starting it up, it was difficult, we started planning in May last year and opened in November though, so if you put your mind to it it's achievable, the red tape and paperwork is the hardest part about the whole process.
We didn't sell any of our collections or books to start off with so we literally bought in all of our stock fresh, then proceeded to flesh it out as we progressed - the store has at least 4x as much stuff in as it did when we started now.
It's just us two working at the moment, occasionally we have a couple of dedicated customers who I can trust to watch the store for an hour or so if I have shit to do. We have a fairly reasonably sized store, not sure what I could give you for comparison but we have a front area with stock, the counter, then a back area with some tables and sofas for gaming/hanging out and drinking beers on a Wednesday night.
>>83070271
My above response may answer that, as we are just breaking even at the moment we can't afford to pay anybody unfortunately.
>>83070301
They are exactly that, fun. Black Canary was interesting to me because I liked the different direction they took the character in, and the outright weird plotline. Personally I'm a batfag through and through, Cacophony by Kevin Smith, though not without it's flaws is one of my all time favourites. Nailbiter and Saga on Image have been great and 90s stuff in general is a love of mine.
>>83070676
One thing that we've found is that it entirely depends on where you are what people will buy, we have a copy of Judge Dredd Featuring Judge Death from when we first opened that we thought would shift that hasn't moved in 6 months, but another store owner I met had his copies of it sell really well. It's super hard to judge what your local nerds will buy as everybody has such different tastes.
>>83070390
Captain Britain, I've heard murmurings of who is on writing duties for a reboot and I know the guy is brilliant, so I'm hoping when that is eventually out it will give me something to read from the Marvel camp again, though Spidey has been pretty good recently.
>>83070880
I should add, that's all rumours though, chances are we'll never get another Captain Britain solo book again because of corporate circle jerking in the Marvel offices.
>>83070550
Well, fuck. Thanks though!
>>83069257
>I actually like the current Batgirl and Black Canary runs
These are the kind of retards that open comic shops.
>>83072343
Well, personal taste doesn't have to affect what we stock or the store in any way
