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Opinions on opening a comic shop
- Thread starter TheCuriousdabber
- Start date
Your friend should talk to people who know about businesses, and you shouldn't use Era as a litmus test for this type of question.
If this person is independently wealthy and can sustain a vanity business, it would likely be an enjoyable avenue. If the goal is to make money, it sounds unwise.
Pretty much what I came in to say. If the friend has money to blow and is just doing it for something to do, then go for it. I just wouldn't expect to make any real money with this venture.
Most of the industry is either doing it for passion or they have nothing else to do let's be real for decades now
We have two comic book stores in our city of about 55,000 people. One gets by by selling used toys, CDs, and high-end smoking accessories. So glass bongs and whatever people need to vape with.
The other is your standard shop that somehow limps along. They have a HUGE minis section for Warhammer and whatnot, with a big selection of brushes and paints. Lot of cards and board games, too.
What really keeps it going, I think, are events it holds. TCG tournaments, tabletop things, DnD nights. They found a nice core group of customers and then a way to keep them coming back. But going into the store, I don't know how profitable it ever is. ANd during the pandemic? Man I'm surprised it's still open.
The other is your standard shop that somehow limps along. They have a HUGE minis section for Warhammer and whatnot, with a big selection of brushes and paints. Lot of cards and board games, too.
What really keeps it going, I think, are events it holds. TCG tournaments, tabletop things, DnD nights. They found a nice core group of customers and then a way to keep them coming back. But going into the store, I don't know how profitable it ever is. ANd during the pandemic? Man I'm surprised it's still open.
There was a guy on the old forum who opened a sweet looking used gaming store somewhere in CA I think. Wonder how that went for him, be sweet if it was still operating.
The Upper Deck Griffey rookie that was once thee rookie card is I think under $300 last I looked. It was like 150-200 in the 90s
There's some that still carry value but we ain't hitting the millions like we thought as kids
Sounds like a bad idea.
HOWEVER!!!!!!
What the hell do we know? I can't wait to be able to my comic shop and shoot the shit. Next year is a mystery and that is exciting. My shop is also a coffee house.
I'm also opening a business (again) next year. "May fortune favor the bold."
HOWEVER!!!!!!
What the hell do we know? I can't wait to be able to my comic shop and shoot the shit. Next year is a mystery and that is exciting. My shop is also a coffee house.
I'm also opening a business (again) next year. "May fortune favor the bold."
The problem with the comic/collectibles/sports cards/etc markets are that they are all bubbles which tend to burst EXTREMELY quickly. Look at the 90s for an example of how bad the industry can get literally overnight.
If he's serious, he needs to look into things other than comics, as collectibles and related merchandise are basically keeping niche retailers open...even places like Gamestop have become basically Funko Pop stores. It's a really, really bad time to get into the industry right now though, and shops (some open for decades) are closing left and right. If he can provide something no other retailer in the area can and also compete with online sales, he may have a chance. Even then, it would be a very small one.
My sleeves of early-mid 90s Jordan cards that I could have made bank on way back when aren't worth the stock they're printed on these days. Some of them were almost literal gold at certain points.
I assume that when someone is so defensive about a friend like this, there is no friend.
On topic
Also, considering his other gig is cannabis related, perhaps he is setting up a comic store as a money laundering enterprise.
I remember asking the owner of the shop I used to play Magic at, they sold comics, board games, and trading cards, this same question. I'll try and quote as best I can. "I used to have a cozy office job that paid out the ass and I only worked forty hours a week. Now I've doubled those hours and eat ramen every night." Things were so tight, everyone but him and the co-owner don't get paid in money. They got paid in merchandise.
Customers would be more appreciative in a new tabletop / card game store instead that hosts events.
I know someone who has a comic book shop, it is his only income and he does quite well. He only has comics and a few anime/comic figures on his higher walls. He does subscriptions and comics just to buy.
There is also a comic book shop down the road for me, it has 95 % comics and 5% nature toys and has been in business in the same location since before I was born 37 years ago.
There is also a comic book shop down the road for me, it has 95 % comics and 5% nature toys and has been in business in the same location since before I was born 37 years ago.
Start with an online business first, grow your costumer base.
Wait another year, and then if the market is definitely there open a small shop and grow from there.
Use the physical space to throw small events, competitions, meet and greet. Get local writers and artists to do their indie launches there.
Wait another year, and then if the market is definitely there open a small shop and grow from there.
Use the physical space to throw small events, competitions, meet and greet. Get local writers and artists to do their indie launches there.
The only way a "comic book shop" can exist is by relying on MTG or other TCGs to boost revenue through singles sales. Board games are another supplemental sales product, but you need to be in a place where niche, high end board games sale.
That being said, MTG has suspended in-store play for the time being. So it will be a while before that's even up and running again.
That being said, MTG has suspended in-store play for the time being. So it will be a while before that's even up and running again.
I was a manager in a comic shop in a major city for five years, and... unless you are dedicated, prepared, and understand industry trends, it's a terrible idea. Especially if your friend wants to focus more on back issues and older comics rather than weeklies. That's not a lucrative industry; very comparatively few people care about old issues outside of just buying them in TPB format, and most people with comic collections sorely overestimate the value of old comics.
As an example, at least 15 times a week, someone would roll into the shop, look me in the eye and go "Yo! How much is the Death of Superman comic worth?" and 15 times a week, I would have to look them in the eye and go "The price on the cover." A couple of the bagged variants were worth more, but it wasn't going to net them much, especially with the rates for which we would do trade ins. With that comic in particular, we still had cases of it from the original release and would give them away in FCBD bundles. Unless you're selling primarily gold/silver age stuff, there isn't going to be a ton of value in a lot of older stuff. Maybe that's changed a bit since I left the industry, but physical media was already on the decline when I left that job and I know things have only gotten tougher.
On top of that, running a comic shop relies very, very heavily on new books. The vast majority of people shop for comics between Wednesday and Saturday, and most are there to pick up their weeklies/monthlies. The only way to keep people shopping for comics is to have pull lists and cater to people wanting the new stuff, as well as people who exclusively collect in hardcover/softcover format.
Most comic shops are forced to diversify greatly to fill other niches. My shop sold comics and manga. We also sold Warhammer and D&D materials, carried pretty much every major TCG, hosted Friday Night Magic and had multiple "game days" for players to come in for other TCG matches. We had days for Warhammer people to come in and paint their models. We sold shirts, action figures, POPs, PVC figures, statues and other collectibles based on what our customers typically bought. We also had a small selection of DVDs, sold drinks and other little knick-knacks. And even then, there was more than one occasion where we were struggled because sales were low and rent was high. You have to also consider insuring all the books you sell, and be aware that not everything will be covered by insurance. We once lost a metric ton of merchandise from a floor when there was a ceiling leak, but the insurance didn't cover it because it was a roof leak and not because of street flooding; which we didn't even have confirmed to us until after we spent days calculating the approximate $ in losses. You'll also do practically no business during inclement weather; my boss would fuss as me on days where we only did maybe a hundred bucks in sales, and I'd have to look him in the eye and say "People are not shopping for paper products on a rainy Tuesday."
The truth of the matter is a comic shops are pretty niche and while it can be very rewarding—to this day, it was probably one of the most fun jobs I ever had—it's an investment, a money and resource sink, and you have to know exactly what you're doing in order to keep with the times and stay afloat. Even seasoned vets in this industry are struggling with that in 2020 and have to find new, innovative ways to keep people shopping. If you're ill prepared, you will fail. I'm not into completely discouraging it, but everything I've read from OP makes me feel like this is a very half-baked idea that is based more on passion than logistics, and OPs friend should probably just stick to a more casual, online storefront.
As an example, at least 15 times a week, someone would roll into the shop, look me in the eye and go "Yo! How much is the Death of Superman comic worth?" and 15 times a week, I would have to look them in the eye and go "The price on the cover." A couple of the bagged variants were worth more, but it wasn't going to net them much, especially with the rates for which we would do trade ins. With that comic in particular, we still had cases of it from the original release and would give them away in FCBD bundles. Unless you're selling primarily gold/silver age stuff, there isn't going to be a ton of value in a lot of older stuff. Maybe that's changed a bit since I left the industry, but physical media was already on the decline when I left that job and I know things have only gotten tougher.
On top of that, running a comic shop relies very, very heavily on new books. The vast majority of people shop for comics between Wednesday and Saturday, and most are there to pick up their weeklies/monthlies. The only way to keep people shopping for comics is to have pull lists and cater to people wanting the new stuff, as well as people who exclusively collect in hardcover/softcover format.
Most comic shops are forced to diversify greatly to fill other niches. My shop sold comics and manga. We also sold Warhammer and D&D materials, carried pretty much every major TCG, hosted Friday Night Magic and had multiple "game days" for players to come in for other TCG matches. We had days for Warhammer people to come in and paint their models. We sold shirts, action figures, POPs, PVC figures, statues and other collectibles based on what our customers typically bought. We also had a small selection of DVDs, sold drinks and other little knick-knacks. And even then, there was more than one occasion where we were struggled because sales were low and rent was high. You have to also consider insuring all the books you sell, and be aware that not everything will be covered by insurance. We once lost a metric ton of merchandise from a floor when there was a ceiling leak, but the insurance didn't cover it because it was a roof leak and not because of street flooding; which we didn't even have confirmed to us until after we spent days calculating the approximate $ in losses. You'll also do practically no business during inclement weather; my boss would fuss as me on days where we only did maybe a hundred bucks in sales, and I'd have to look him in the eye and say "People are not shopping for paper products on a rainy Tuesday."
The truth of the matter is a comic shops are pretty niche and while it can be very rewarding—to this day, it was probably one of the most fun jobs I ever had—it's an investment, a money and resource sink, and you have to know exactly what you're doing in order to keep with the times and stay afloat. Even seasoned vets in this industry are struggling with that in 2020 and have to find new, innovative ways to keep people shopping. If you're ill prepared, you will fail. I'm not into completely discouraging it, but everything I've read from OP makes me feel like this is a very half-baked idea that is based more on passion than logistics, and OPs friend should probably just stick to a more casual, online storefront.
It would have to be much more than a comic shop. Basically the comic part would be a *bonus* add on to a business model that is actually profitable like a cafe or something.
I made such poor investment decisions when I was 8.
Fuck, when was this?
With his existing business shouldnt he just open a legal CBD, Dispensary, and Vape shop? Maybe set aside a corner/shelves to display some comics/merch with some signs to point to the online shop? Get a license to sell lotto tickets and you have a money printer going.
Uhh, during the middle of the Bulls' first run in the 90s when I lived in Chicago, even mundane shit like the '90-'91 Hoops, Fleer, Skybox (especially Skybox), etc were selling for like $50-$100 at points. There were special McDonald's releases of Team USA packs and in the Chicago area they had McDonald's-branded Fleer Bulls packs that went for big bucks depending on who you got, obviously Jordan was the big one. It may have been strictly regional at the time, but for a few years anything Jordan-related was $$$. Then you have shit like the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards, Shaq rookies, etc. that were selling for hundreds of dollars.
I live in a similarly sized area. We have 3 shops.
1 has been here 30 years, has awesome ownership, tons of longtime customers; they scrape by.
2 burns through money like crazy and has so much unmovable inventory that the owner makes the staff keep boxes of comics in their apartments. Owner is rich and owns other businesses, probably just views comics as a way to lower his taxes.
3 is basically a merch store and sells almost no comics.
it's a terrible business for a lot of reasons but IMO the defining issue is that once you buy a book, you own it. You can't send it back to the publisher if it doesn't sell so you have to guess at how many copies of each and every book you want. Guess too low and you're losing sales and pissing people off that you don't have what they want; it takes 4+ weeks for orders to come in so they'll just go get it elsewhere. Guess too high and congrats, you now own a bunch of shitty comics. Enjoy watching them rot in your store or spending your time selling them online at a loss so you can afford to guess how many copies of the new X Men event book you can sell.
1 has been here 30 years, has awesome ownership, tons of longtime customers; they scrape by.
2 burns through money like crazy and has so much unmovable inventory that the owner makes the staff keep boxes of comics in their apartments. Owner is rich and owns other businesses, probably just views comics as a way to lower his taxes.
3 is basically a merch store and sells almost no comics.
it's a terrible business for a lot of reasons but IMO the defining issue is that once you buy a book, you own it. You can't send it back to the publisher if it doesn't sell so you have to guess at how many copies of each and every book you want. Guess too low and you're losing sales and pissing people off that you don't have what they want; it takes 4+ weeks for orders to come in so they'll just go get it elsewhere. Guess too high and congrats, you now own a bunch of shitty comics. Enjoy watching them rot in your store or spending your time selling them online at a loss so you can afford to guess how many copies of the new X Men event book you can sell.
Here are some anecdotes about two local shops in my area during the time of COVID, based on conversations with the owner of one and a long time employee of the other.
First, in a city of around 300k, there's a very large nerd emporium that sells comics, games, and has a bar inside with a large gaming space. They started a couple of decades or so ago as an online retailer and started to move into physical retail partly because they were paying for storage anyway, so why not let the locals shop in the same space? Their newer space is simply huge and consistently crowded on the weekends with tournaments and such happening constantly. For comics specifically, however, that's something where they focus on newer comics (mostly as part of their online sales) and completely divested themselves of back issues recently - they were just sitting there and not moving and maintaining the back issues wasn't worth it to them, even with all the space available in the store. During the pandemic, they have done record business on the strength of their online sales, plus strong local shopping from folks bored at home. But, what's really driving sales is that online shop.
Secondly, in a city of around 500k, a more traditional comic shop. They're right across from a university and have been around for around 35 years at this point, with a very loyal customer base. They have an extensive selection of back issues and a modest stock of role playing games and card games, but beyond that they're almost a pure comic shop. They've done better than expected during COVID - again, folks are bored and want stuff to do at home - but not great, as in "we're good to make rent this month" not great, where they're hanging in there but not exploding with business like the other shop with the online focus. It's a great shop to go in and browse through back issues for ages and chat about comics with the owner and staff, probably the kinda of thing the OP's pal envisions - all of which isn't so hot during a pandemic. It also doesnt' help that a significant chunk of their clientelle is off campus indefinitely. Part of the reason they're hanging in there is their well established customer base, with the regulars working hard to spend extra money there and help keep the joint afloat.
Since the business model being discussed in the OP sounds a lot more like the second shop, I'd be highly dubious about trying to get this going during a pandemic. Also, some thoughts about the problems of getting the business going:
First, for current collectors, there is a subset of folks who are obsessed with the rare variant covers offered by various publishers; I think Marvel makes a particular point of having these available. If I understand correctly, the rarer variant covers are made available based on the size of the orders you're placing: buy X copies, you can get the 1-in-X variant along with your order. Then, those get sold - for a mark up or otherwise - to the folks who are excited to collect them. In order to get those covers, you have to have a focus on selling the regular monthly comics and not just back issues and trades or what have you. The shop I mentioned that does a lot of selling online has whale buyers who focus on these variants and who will sometimes agree to buy as many extra copies as the store needs to hit the rarity threshold so they can then buy the rare comic. None of which is to say that you have to focus on this sort of thing if you're running a shop - the traditional store I mentioned just has the variants they happen to receive at a markup in a seperate box at the register - but either way it does require you to have a focus on selling the monthly issues as they come out every Wednesday, which is a tough hustle.
Secondly, DC comics recently decided to leave the monopoly distributor Diamond and go with an entirely seperate distrubtor. This transition got off to a rough start - a lot of it was kinda amateur hour - though I do hear things have kinda settled down. Now, Diamond having a monopoly isn't great but this also probably wasn't the year for DC to really try to break their hold on the market. From a practical shop running standpoint, you now have an extra distributor to deal with, whereas when most everything was going through Diamond you at least only had a single source to worry about in terms of hitting overall order levels to receive discounts and such. My pal at the big online shop let me know that the whole DC thing is doing better, but things are still in flux in terms of being shorted issues, dealing with damage returns, and so forth. For a new shop opening up without experience dealing with these distributors and these issues, this seems like an extra lousy time to try to jump into the market.
Finally, it occurs to me that shops that have been open have been lucky to offer an indoor-oriented activity during the pandemic. Thankfully, vaccines are en route, but if the OP's friend does try to go for opening the store they may be getting things rolling just in time for people's pent up desire to go spend their money on going out, dining out, and so forth to mean they aren't spending nearly as much on the hobby they'd already loaded up on while stuck indoors for a year and a half.
In short, I understand optimism, but this seems like an exceptionally terrible idea. Which is what the entire thread has been saying, but I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus. Caveat: I don't own a shop, never have, don't work retail, and am probably talking outta my ass. But, even then, it just seems like a great way to go broke quickly and probably lose a personal comic collection in the process of trying to keep a dying store open.
First, in a city of around 300k, there's a very large nerd emporium that sells comics, games, and has a bar inside with a large gaming space. They started a couple of decades or so ago as an online retailer and started to move into physical retail partly because they were paying for storage anyway, so why not let the locals shop in the same space? Their newer space is simply huge and consistently crowded on the weekends with tournaments and such happening constantly. For comics specifically, however, that's something where they focus on newer comics (mostly as part of their online sales) and completely divested themselves of back issues recently - they were just sitting there and not moving and maintaining the back issues wasn't worth it to them, even with all the space available in the store. During the pandemic, they have done record business on the strength of their online sales, plus strong local shopping from folks bored at home. But, what's really driving sales is that online shop.
Secondly, in a city of around 500k, a more traditional comic shop. They're right across from a university and have been around for around 35 years at this point, with a very loyal customer base. They have an extensive selection of back issues and a modest stock of role playing games and card games, but beyond that they're almost a pure comic shop. They've done better than expected during COVID - again, folks are bored and want stuff to do at home - but not great, as in "we're good to make rent this month" not great, where they're hanging in there but not exploding with business like the other shop with the online focus. It's a great shop to go in and browse through back issues for ages and chat about comics with the owner and staff, probably the kinda of thing the OP's pal envisions - all of which isn't so hot during a pandemic. It also doesnt' help that a significant chunk of their clientelle is off campus indefinitely. Part of the reason they're hanging in there is their well established customer base, with the regulars working hard to spend extra money there and help keep the joint afloat.
Since the business model being discussed in the OP sounds a lot more like the second shop, I'd be highly dubious about trying to get this going during a pandemic. Also, some thoughts about the problems of getting the business going:
First, for current collectors, there is a subset of folks who are obsessed with the rare variant covers offered by various publishers; I think Marvel makes a particular point of having these available. If I understand correctly, the rarer variant covers are made available based on the size of the orders you're placing: buy X copies, you can get the 1-in-X variant along with your order. Then, those get sold - for a mark up or otherwise - to the folks who are excited to collect them. In order to get those covers, you have to have a focus on selling the regular monthly comics and not just back issues and trades or what have you. The shop I mentioned that does a lot of selling online has whale buyers who focus on these variants and who will sometimes agree to buy as many extra copies as the store needs to hit the rarity threshold so they can then buy the rare comic. None of which is to say that you have to focus on this sort of thing if you're running a shop - the traditional store I mentioned just has the variants they happen to receive at a markup in a seperate box at the register - but either way it does require you to have a focus on selling the monthly issues as they come out every Wednesday, which is a tough hustle.
Secondly, DC comics recently decided to leave the monopoly distributor Diamond and go with an entirely seperate distrubtor. This transition got off to a rough start - a lot of it was kinda amateur hour - though I do hear things have kinda settled down. Now, Diamond having a monopoly isn't great but this also probably wasn't the year for DC to really try to break their hold on the market. From a practical shop running standpoint, you now have an extra distributor to deal with, whereas when most everything was going through Diamond you at least only had a single source to worry about in terms of hitting overall order levels to receive discounts and such. My pal at the big online shop let me know that the whole DC thing is doing better, but things are still in flux in terms of being shorted issues, dealing with damage returns, and so forth. For a new shop opening up without experience dealing with these distributors and these issues, this seems like an extra lousy time to try to jump into the market.
Finally, it occurs to me that shops that have been open have been lucky to offer an indoor-oriented activity during the pandemic. Thankfully, vaccines are en route, but if the OP's friend does try to go for opening the store they may be getting things rolling just in time for people's pent up desire to go spend their money on going out, dining out, and so forth to mean they aren't spending nearly as much on the hobby they'd already loaded up on while stuck indoors for a year and a half.
In short, I understand optimism, but this seems like an exceptionally terrible idea. Which is what the entire thread has been saying, but I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus. Caveat: I don't own a shop, never have, don't work retail, and am probably talking outta my ass. But, even then, it just seems like a great way to go broke quickly and probably lose a personal comic collection in the process of trying to keep a dying store open.
Unless you have a direct line to the shit people want. . .
Those relationships are often decades old preferred customer type deals
Unless you open your shop in a big and populated city and can pay the main price of rent, it's gonna be super rough I think. Even during pre-covid times speciality shops like video game stores and toy stores stores closed down a while ago in my home city that isn't a capital.
Dont open it up for the money. If you do it, you are doing it for the passion. If you want to make money you'll quickly find that you'll need to diversity into something else, like board games, manga, light novels and books. In fact, you pretty much need to switch to doing a generalized "Geek" store to survive and somewhat profit.
Oh oh, so back when I was like 9.
What should I do with this binder full of nba cards? Who would even want it?
Make sure to stock pop figures, trading cards and Board games.
You can attract enough people looking for those to maintain the comic book shop
You can attract enough people looking for those to maintain the comic book shop
Your friend won't make nearly as much selling comics as they will selling weed.
is your friend also smoking large amounts of weed?
If they want to sell vintage and rare comics a digital store is a far better idea. A physical store might be good for displaying rare comics while also selling paraphernalia. But the income will likely need some sort of bolstering.
As others have also said, every comic book store in my area has become a pop culture store with games, figures, shirts and things. There's a reason for this trend. This is what sustains the businesses. Comics alone is not largely sustainable.
is your friend also smoking large amounts of weed?
If they want to sell vintage and rare comics a digital store is a far better idea. A physical store might be good for displaying rare comics while also selling paraphernalia. But the income will likely need some sort of bolstering.
As others have also said, every comic book store in my area has become a pop culture store with games, figures, shirts and things. There's a reason for this trend. This is what sustains the businesses. Comics alone is not largely sustainable.
Time to make a market research analysis.
% of your area's population being into your target demographic
Take that number, search their average income in your area
Now imagine them spending a part of income at this shop for their hobby.
Does this number is worth the trouble?
Spoiler, i highly doubt you can make a living out of that...
% of your area's population being into your target demographic
Take that number, search their average income in your area
Now imagine them spending a part of income at this shop for their hobby.
Does this number is worth the trouble?
Spoiler, i highly doubt you can make a living out of that...
If your friend wants to do something in this field, why not start a website or a podcast about some aspect of comics that your friend finds interesting? Those are both things that you could conceivably turn into a business with enough time & effort, but won't bankrupt you if they fail like a niche brick & mortar store almost definitely will.
Does he have a business plan?
Like -
1. Here's how much profit I'll make on average per unit sold, or per order, if he has a decent guess for what his Average Order Value will be. So I need to sell X units a day / week / month to cover rent, cover salaries, cover bills. That's my break-even point.
2. Then I need to sell that number + Y, where Y is... actual "profit", but of course it isn't actually "profit" yet because if you're treating it as your job you need that profit to actually pay yourself a living salary.
I know fuck-all about comic books but a very general rule-of-thumb in retail, across categories, is that items are marked up ~100%. So a shirt that cost customers $20 costs the store $10. This means that $3 or $4 comics probably cost the store $1.50 or $2 each.
3. So if he has ~2 employees making $8 an hour full time (he'll probably need more unless he wants to be there every morning, every evening, every weekend?) that would be $2600 in employee costs per month. I'm not calculating benefits or anything.
4. I also know fuck-all about commercial real estate rent, but if you're in a city on a commercial street, it might be $4000 or $5000 / mo? Just a random guess. If he can BUY the space and not lease it, and his cannabis business can cover that commercial mortgage, then this might be more viable.
So this means you're up to ~$7500 / mo in rent and employee costs. And this means you'd need to sell 5,000 $3 comics every month to not lose money, and another ~4,000 per month if he wants his pre-tax salary for himself to be ~70k/year.
So that would be ~9,000 comics sold per month, or 300 per day. Does he think he can sell 300 comics a day, 365 days a year? Has he answered the all-important question, yet?
"Why will people buy comic books from me, and not from another online store or another store in my city?"
He needs to have a good answer to that question. It can be answered in a trillion traditional or non-traditional ways. His store is in a better location with more foot traffic. His store also sells coffee. His store has signing an events or MTG tournies or... whatever. Maybe the secret greab-bags ARE a good hook. He just needs to have an answer to the question of how he can hit 300 sales every day.
(None of the above accounts for advertising, or the online presence he wants to build, any number of other details - it's just an example of the way he needs to be thinking about things and not a specific comic book shop example).
Like -
1. Here's how much profit I'll make on average per unit sold, or per order, if he has a decent guess for what his Average Order Value will be. So I need to sell X units a day / week / month to cover rent, cover salaries, cover bills. That's my break-even point.
2. Then I need to sell that number + Y, where Y is... actual "profit", but of course it isn't actually "profit" yet because if you're treating it as your job you need that profit to actually pay yourself a living salary.
I know fuck-all about comic books but a very general rule-of-thumb in retail, across categories, is that items are marked up ~100%. So a shirt that cost customers $20 costs the store $10. This means that $3 or $4 comics probably cost the store $1.50 or $2 each.
3. So if he has ~2 employees making $8 an hour full time (he'll probably need more unless he wants to be there every morning, every evening, every weekend?) that would be $2600 in employee costs per month. I'm not calculating benefits or anything.
4. I also know fuck-all about commercial real estate rent, but if you're in a city on a commercial street, it might be $4000 or $5000 / mo? Just a random guess. If he can BUY the space and not lease it, and his cannabis business can cover that commercial mortgage, then this might be more viable.
So this means you're up to ~$7500 / mo in rent and employee costs. And this means you'd need to sell 5,000 $3 comics every month to not lose money, and another ~4,000 per month if he wants his pre-tax salary for himself to be ~70k/year.
So that would be ~9,000 comics sold per month, or 300 per day. Does he think he can sell 300 comics a day, 365 days a year? Has he answered the all-important question, yet?
"Why will people buy comic books from me, and not from another online store or another store in my city?"
He needs to have a good answer to that question. It can be answered in a trillion traditional or non-traditional ways. His store is in a better location with more foot traffic. His store also sells coffee. His store has signing an events or MTG tournies or... whatever. Maybe the secret greab-bags ARE a good hook. He just needs to have an answer to the question of how he can hit 300 sales every day.
(None of the above accounts for advertising, or the online presence he wants to build, any number of other details - it's just an example of the way he needs to be thinking about things and not a specific comic book shop example).
A 30 something bachelor with a "cannabis cultivation" business on the side? I'm sure this will work out!
Basically all of this. Either you need to go ultra-high end, which is incredibly expensive and risky to get into, or be a hybrid store that does way more than just comics. Running a store that sells the weekly floppies is not great unless you have something major to draw people in. Copper/Modern back issues don't do it, so you'll need higher end stuff to get dollars. Alternatively, he could become a submission site for CGC/CBCS, but even that would be making only a few dollars on every transaction. The important part is getting people in the door and seeing the goods.
Does this city have a good board game store? You can get a lot of things from the same company (Diamond/Alliance) so it sort of just makes sense to do both. Problem is, a lot of places are not allowing gatherings in public spaces. With that being said, though, the board game shops in my area are doing gangbusters right now and can't keep stuff stocked. It's a better way of moving inventory than books that may or may not sell.
Which one? Oxford?
I fucking hate that place with the fury of a thousand suns and am crossing my fingers that COVID does it in.