What are some reason's...

[disneyteddies]

That a comic book store goes out of business? Has anyone closed up shop before and if so why? I'm talking about brick and mortar stores or websites like Metropolis. Go ahead and bend our ears because we're trying to watch out for pitfalls in our comic book website plans.

[Shadow-wolf]

It usually has to do with money, either there's not enough customers or they have to compete with other shops. There could be other reasons such as health, personal/family reasons and having to relocate. Online stores are much easier to run then brick an mortar stores, all you have to pay are hosting fees and maybe someone to design your website and database if you're not proficient with that sort of thing.

[razorz000]

That a comic book store goes out of business? Has anyone closed up shop before and if so why? I'm talking about brick and mortar stores or websites like Metropolis. Go ahead and bend our ears because we're trying to watch out for pitfalls in our comic book website plans.


Here is what I'm thinking: Just my opinion...
People don't notebook sales for what they spend on books & sell books for. It's done in their heads and that's a BIG NO-NO..

I've found locations for stores are a big factor for store fronts as well as not buying enough of one series or not caring books that appeal to younger people.

As for the website that Hoss is talking about I don't see it going under OR belly-up to many people here care about this & Hoss's idea to let that happen me being 1 of them.

[marvelguy]

I have about 6 or 7 LCS in the next town over from me. They are doing fantastic business because of the colleges that surrounds there. It must be the customer bases and the people need some "spending" money to buy stuff like comics, DVD's. video games, etc...

Websites is the way to go.....

[razorz000]

websites NOW are better than a store front, only because someone doesn't need to leave there house to spend their money.

Plus if they now how to email someone they can pick up LOTS of reading material that doesn't require pumping gas or moving anywhere.

Also websites are easier to maintain because you don't have to employe people to run it & cost is alot less than a store.

[btdhome]

when i closed mine, it was due to overhead eating up more and more of any profit margin. got to the point where it began to lose money. didn't take long to wipe any savings built up over the 10 years or so it was open.
Mind you, at its peak this store was doing 250k a year, down to about 150k when we closed.

[disneyteddies]

Thanx Shadow, Btd, Razorz and M.G. It's good to hear we're still going in the right direction. Btd, sorry to hear about your store...I can't even imagine that kind of money flow.. good or bad. We never wanted a B and M store because of the high overhead, besides being at home we can write a lot of our stuff off including about a third of our utilities. We've been working on this thing for many years now and it has grown so much on paper that by this time next year it will be an actual website. We can't wait, we've taken so long getting it going because it's not going to be just a hobby for us..we want to do it for the rest of our lives full time!! Thanx again everyone for the help and suggestions. Corral members will be getting some quirks!

Hollywood Hank!

[eobcards]

New stores, onlone and off, and new dealers at a local convention, often do OK at first, but tend to die off as soon as the locals get what they need from them.

It's a good idea to add to your inventory as often as possible. When I did the shows (54 per year), I made it a point to have something new every weekend. It may not have been what someone wanted, but it kept them comming back to see what it was.

These days web domains are so cheap, I don't see why anyone wouldn't want one. Even if you're not selling anything. My server is hosting my three domains and gives me unlimited just about everything, including shopping carts, chat boards and guest books for only $7.95 a month. I'm no longer selling, but I still use many of the features. Other packages can be had for less.

[malaprop]

hey EOB, long time no see. This is nanapong. let me know if you decide to get rid of that Disney collection.

[eobcards]

Mal, Thanks for the offer but I could never part with any of my comics, especially the Disney ones. Also, just recently a friend gave me a Barks Donald Duck March Of Comics #4. That leaves me with only two to complete my Barks collection, March Of Comics 20 and the Kites giveaway.

[malaprop]

A FRIEND GAVE YOU? I guarantee I don't have any friends like that. Post them if you get the chance. i just got a beat up 1948 Firestone, which I'll post in What have you won lately.

[eobcards]

Mal,
Yes gave. Funny story about that. A long time friend of mine, with a HUGE collection of comics, is a real condition nut. He's been upgrading his collection for years, and won't even buy a comic with even a minor crease. Years ago he told me he would give me his MOC #4 if he ever found a better copy. I didn't think it would be likely he would ever really upgrade this book as it's very expensive in high grade. As it turned out, a mutual friend of ours died last year. Our friend had a complete collection of Barks comics in really nice condition, and my friend bought the MOC #4 at a really good price from our friend's sister. I reminded my friend of his offer but he jokingly pretended to not remember it. A few weeks later he dropped over and gave me the comic. Made my day LOL!

I lost all my comic scans when my hard drive went kaput a while ago. All I have left are the ones I had uploaded to my server. Here's a page of some of my Christmas comics. I can't understand why I didn't include the '48 Firestone as I included the other six. (I hope I'm doing this right)

http://www.eobcards.com/disneychristmas.htm

[sckao]

Read Tilting at Windmills by Brian Hibbs. It's a book that collects the first 100 columns. It's also an online column over at Newsarama and now at Comic Book Resources.

Also, you should note that having a brick and mortar store is one of the best methods of acquiring collections. You won't get that with a website generally.