Genesis Comics

I just completed a difficult DC bronze run...sorry to be off topic so early in the thread lol...it was Welcome Back Kotter. It took over 6 years and I was going for 9.6 White Pages or better. I had to sub half of them myself as there weren't a lot in high grade available (before WW comics had the run they have now). Issue 6 was my last issue...(if anyone needs NM- to NM issues of # 6 let me know as I have about a dozen lol). Does Atlas count? If so, I'd say the entire Atlas run would be very tough...I have a few high grade examples but they are few and far between...I thing Vicki 3 and 4 are especially tough. As far as what would make me tap out and not complete, I'd say My Love would probably be the toughest of all.

Not 100% sure...I was not "bidding" on it but was talking with another dealer who was...he told me that the guy selling said he wasn't taking less than 5K for the book...I heard he had an offer of $2400 for it, but then I lost track/interest

I can only give feedback as a vendor at the show so here are my 2 cents. Overall the show went OK for me, but not as good as in past Eternal Con's. I had done 2 of the last 3 (not last year as I had thrown out my back) and had made more money each of those times. I don't know if it was where I was set up, or how I set up, but the traffic at my booth was a lot less than years past. At the Cradle of Aviation I had a nice spot at the corner, next to the ATM, around the corner from the bathroom, and near where it splits into 2 other rooms, across from the stairs. Here I was in the middle and had a 10x10 space (which was a lot smaller than I thought when I finally got there). I decided to set up in a "U" shape with the opening in the front so people could come in, but when it was busy people would stand in front of the opening, blocking anyone that might have wanted to come in. Multiple times I politely asked people to move. I was there with a friend, Jason, who helps me at cons and will help me when I open up along with my wife and son...there was no place for us to stand without being in the way...inside no more than 1 person, maybe 2, but everywhere you stood you were blocking someone...next time I'll set up with tables in front and tables in back. I had 2 goals for the Eternal Con: 1) Make $$ 2) Advertise we were opening soon Both could have been better...$$ was under what I had wanted to make, and I dropped the ball on some advertising opportunities and the venue itself gave me some issues there as well that I'll get into later. The "load in" was pretty easy, pull your car up to the ramp, you get checked in, and you could pull right next to your booth and unload, they gave you 15 minutes to unload, then you could go park and come back in. You could set up 7-7 on Friday, so it was good as people came at different times...leaving, however, was an entirely different story... Day 1 of the con, 8-3 was the best sales time for me. After 3:00 on Saturday my sales were $60... I moved a few books to dealers (which constituted 60% of my sales for the weekend). Sold a few keys early. Buught 2 ASM 300's for a GREAT price from another dealer (One was 9.4ish and the other 9.0/9.2), and immediately flippped them to another dealer for a profit. The $2.00 books (modern's) did not move...maybe sold 20-30?...I lowered the price to $1 day 2 and sold a bunch more, maybe 100+ but not as much as I had thought. I put together some sets, but only sold 1...the last few cons I attended I sold a lot more. I brought some nice condition LJN's and moved 2 or 3. CGC books I sold 0 but didn't have a great selection, unless you really liked the Hulk, lol. Other dealers I spoke to said CGC books were slow movers for them as well...in my experience, people were just looking for raw high grade on the keys. I had a few boxes of copper/modern decent books and they just sat there. Maybe I had them priced to high? There were lot's of really low ball offers on books...more so than in the past. In the first hour of the show I had someone offer me 25% of my asking price on an Avengers 4 GRR (higher grade). I had a decent selection of Magic Cards and did some sales on those as well...maybe $300...no big cards, but lot's of 8-15 dollar cards. I also had 35 or so boxes of MTG which didn't move other than a couple of packs of Morningtide and Shadowmoor that I sold (I didn't anticipate moving these, it's not really a MTG show, but I wanted to advertise what I am going to have in the store). Day 2 started slow and ended slower...it seemed the only people in my row making any $$ were the people with the lego figures....couldn't even see them as they were 2 deep almost all day. Sunday is kids costume day so it makes sense that they would do well. Sales were low, didn't sell anything the first 2 hours on Sunday....not a lot of people there early, or at least not in my area...got busier around 12 but died out almost entirely by 3. Some of the positives from the show: Met a lot of other dealers, talked about the opening of my location and made a lot of contacts for wholesale products. Spoke to Billy Tucci about coming for the grand opening as long as it doesn't interfere with his vacation lol. I picked up a bunch of the lego figures to try out in the store to see how they do. I spoke with a few artists about coming possibly coming in (I'd like to have someone different in once a month - Artist, etc). Met silver and bronze (boardie) and checked out the awesome display of toon tumblers!! Don't know if any other boardies came by. Met Helen Slater (Supergirl - original from the movies) and had her sign a Supergirl Coloring book and a box of Supergirl cookies from 1983. She was very nice and spoke with me a my wife for a while. My son got to meet Greedo (he loves getting Star Wars autographs) and they spoke at length, his favorite part of the show. Met Carbonaro, who bought a Flash 123 from me. We spoke about the opening of my new location for a bit. This was the first time I had spoken at length with him. Very friendly, high energy! Later on in the day, my wife went outside to get food from the food truck to bring back in and Carbonaro saw her and bought us all lunch!!...guess I sold the comic too cheap lol. The security staff at the Nassau Colliseum was very friendly. Met a lot of nice people overall, customers and vendors, so for me a decent show overall sales wise.... Now a quick rant about something that happened to me that had never happened before. The vendor directly in front of me saw that we sold trading card games and asked if we were interested in some Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I asked my friend Jason to take a look and see if we wanted to purchase them, there was a book and a container that had about 50 or so packs of what looked like 20-25 cards each...I stepped away for 2 mins to pick up a print from JaCo Tartaruga (gorgeous watercolor art btw) who was 2 tables away...when I got back, there was another dealer looking through the cards that were sitting on my boxes. He then asked how much for the cards in the container I couldn't believe the gall to come up to someones booth while they are looking at something and trying to buy it! I asked her how much for all and took it all. He shot me a dirty look and stared me down for a few seconds...after I paid her he walked away without saying anything. I just took the cards and put them under the tables...I've never had that happen before. I would NEVER get involved in someone else's negotiation Some of the opportunities for the show (from a vendors point of view): 1st off, I realize it's the first time the show is run in a new location, so I understood there would be some hiccups. Here is a list, from the dealers prospective, of things that could have been better. 1) Internet. No service/very spotty service, couldn't even make a phone call (I have ATT). The Nassau Colliseum "free" internet was in and out all day. This posed a major problem for me (not because of CC, I only took cash at the show), but because of a missed marketing opportunity that I had planned for. I set up 2 free boxes of items, 1 box of comic books, 1 box of MTG cards. Each box had 100 items, for MTG is was 80 packages of bulk rares and 20 packages of good cards or prizes, in the comic box it was 100 comics with about 20 "good" comics and 80 random modern books. I had planned on asking guests to like an share my facebook page and if they did they got to choose one of the prizes at random. On Day 1 only 5% of the people that wanted to do it could connect. This was unfortunate as I was hoping to connect to a lot more people on social media. On Day 2 I collected email addresses, I will email out links to the facebook page, but it won't be as effective as it could have been unfortunately. 2) The changing of the "rules" almost every time you entered, exited the building. Day 1 I could bring food in, Day 2 I could not...but some people could (as we were being told food could not enter, someone came in with 5 pizzas...didn't have time to argue, I had to get back down to my booth, so ate quickly outside. Day 1 to enter the building, you put your cell phone and your keys in a box, walked though the metal detector, put your bags/cart on the side (not searched). Day 2 every bag was opened, searched meticulously**(and the wait was ridiculous to get back in). **I am all for security, but you need to be consistent in how you are doing it. You can't allow people to come in relatively unsearched day 1 and expect them to be happy about waiting 20 minutes on line day 2. Day 1 there was one line vendor/guest/VIP to get in the building, so if you left, you had to wait on line to get back in. Day 2 was better, vendors and VIP's had a "seperate line", but took the same amount of time to get in as VIP people in front of us had bags. 3) End of the day Sunday...what a cluster...there was only 1 way out and only 4 or 5 cars allowed in at a time to unload, so even though they told you not to break down until 5, people were breaking down at 4 so they could go the con promoters, tell them they were ready and get their car in the "line". Vendors were still waiting to get their cars down at 7 PM. I decided to cart my stuff up instead of waiting in the line, took just as long...it was the worst "leaving a con" experience I've ever had as a vendor. I did not leave until about 7:30 and I was fully packed up at 5:30. Each trip to and from car took about 20 minutes as it was a bit of a hike to the elevator and then to the car. Couple this with the fact that after standing all day and packing up, the first thing the staff did was collect the chairs and put them away, so we all had to stand another 2 hours while waiting for cars to come down. 4) ATM machine out of order (this is the 2nd time this has happened at an Eternal Con...unaccaptable, we are there to make money and if people can't get their money, we as vendors lose. Guests lose out on an item they want. I lost out on multiple sales. Elevators and escalators were not working at different parts of the show. Bathrooms not attended to as quickly as needed, some times clean, other times filthy (overflowing, papers on the floor, no soap in ladies room). 5) Communication was not as good as in Eternal Con's past...I'm sure most of it was due to the new venue, but having the floor plan change less than 2 weeks before the con and not being able to get a copy of the floor plan to advertise where I was going to be was a bit frustrating...I had a booth number but had no idea where that booth was. This was due to the fire marshall making them change somethings around (not the fault of the show organizers), but frustrating nonetheless. I gave some feeback to John Rosas at the end of the show and will send an email and link to this thread to Frank Patz. Overall it wasn't a bad experience as a vendor, but it wasn't a good one. Most of the issues were venue related. I much preferred the Cradle of Aviation museum as a venue and I'm not sure I'd be so excited to go back to the Colliseum if the unloading/internet issue is not addressed. I dropped the ball on advertising as I should have made a sign that said "New store opening soon", but I hadn't finalized the lease (not signed yet, but agreed upon) until less than a week before the show, so no time to get a sign...should have just drawn one up). Live and learn. There were some tables set up in the hallway, but there were a ton of artists inside as well...only saw about 10 tables outside, but there were about 50+ inside, to answer a post above, so saying that all the artists were outside was incorrect.

I believe that Applebee's has a code that can get you 20% off...

Anybody from the boards going? Or just me...

I haven't collected for myself, other than to re-sell since the late 90's, I have picked up collections which have books from that 2000-2012 gap, I picked up a 20 box collection that had the books from the last 5 years...so, overall, my lightest area from copper on up is that 2000-2012 range...but I do have books from that era.

I have not, that is a great idea, thanks!! I have been looking at closed locations and trolling facebook and craigslist though.

Alright, another short update: I've agreed verbally to a lease for a 1000 sq foot retail space (smaller than I wanted). Lease is for 3 years, so if it doesn't work out, it won't be too bad! Landlord is drawing up the lease and if all goes well I'll have the keys by Aug 1st!! It was a tough decision to go smaller than I wanted. Shop is 15 feet by 64 feet approximately. No storage unless I build a small wall in the back, which i may do just to put a few racks up. This allows me to put tables in the back for the gamers and the comics up front, so the comic collectors don't have to deal as much with the gamers blocking them from looking at books. It's located in a larger strip of stores that has a number of food places (I'm between a pizza place and a chinese food place, shop also has a stat health, cricket wireless, card shop (does not sell pokemon which is good for me), nail salon, hair cutter, cleaners, and about 10-15 other places. I'm less than a 1/4 mile away from a movie theater (on the other side of the street). There is good parking and the street is very busy with car traffic (not a foot traffic location unless you are in the strip). The price was slightly higher than I had wanted. I mulled it over for a few weeks, going back and forth with the landlord. I was able to get 2 free months and the 3rd month at right around half price). This will give me a bit of time to build back up some $$. You always here location, location, location. I chose location over price/size. This may prove to be a bad decision or I may be a genius (more likely somewhere in between lol). If someone knows anyone at Diamond, can you have them call be back please? Geez...I'm trying to speak to someone about comicsuite, left a message, 6 business days later they called back (I was out), called again, and waiting 4 days now for a call back...not making me want to buy your $6000 system... I've decided to go alphabetically for the comics as per most of the suggestions. While I thing there are pro's to both, the overwhelming majority of people I've spoken to think alphabetically is the way to go vs. by character. I will still divide by Marvel/DC/Independent but will not divide up the independent (other than Valiant which is already done). The last 2 weeks I've worked on "organizing" books for the shop. This process took longer than expected and was more aggravating than I thought. I already had Marvel/DC/and Independent seperated. I also had the Silver and Bronze stuff seperated out. Each box was already newly bagged and boarded, and each box was alphabetized in an of itself. So I take out my 50 boxes of copper-modern Marvel to start. I have new books (about 20 boxes-last 5 years stuff) and about 30 boxes of copper stuff that I collected back in the day infused with 20 or so small collections I've purchased over the years. My thought process was to make the boxes "store ready", meaning 1) bagged and boarded, 2) alphabetized 3) Dividers used 4) No more than 2 copies of any book 5) priced and ready to be put out. One thing to point out at this juncture is I have not really bought any new books since the late 90's. I've picked up a few here and there, but have not collected runs of anything. ( I "left" comics for a while in the 2000's to get married, have kids, and I focused mostly on MTG...). After starting to combine the boxes I was having difficulty with the #'s (as there were multiple # 2's, non-variant, just different series with the same title...really Marvel...Punisher has 10 different volumes?? I like my stuff organized, so I spent way too much time creating dividers for each and every different volume. My favorite is when they start over at 1, go back to original numbering, start over at 1, changed title (I'm looking at you Hulk!!). I've done 1-4 and am up to 5 now...I'm doing all this while pulling stuff for Eternal Con next weekend as well. I have not started pricing books yet. I've spoken to a few shop owners, one goes only by Ebay, one goes by Ebay for keys and Overstreet for non-keys (he has frequent back issue sales). It seems much easier to use Overstreet (and with possibly opening in August, easy looks good right now), but at the same time, I don't want to alienate people with higher prices...what are the boards thoughts? Any shop owners out there with advice? Sorry to cut this short (LMFAO) but time got away from me and I have to take my son to his baseball game...I'll keep updating, and let you know when Diamond decides to call me back!!! Thanks for listening and keep the suggestions coming!! Getting excited and nervous for the journey!

Genesis Comics and Gaming will be at Eternal Con at Booth # 186. I'll have lot's of $2.00 boxes of new books (last 5 yrs up till 2 months ago), Frank Frazetta prints from 1979/1980, about 10 short boxes of high grade bronze, including Flash 123 and Marvel Premier 15 (if they don't sell at the show, off to CGC), Adventures into Fear 19, Marvel Spotlight 2, run of Marvel Team UP 1-60 or so (no 3 or 4), Jimmy Olsen 134,135 (2 copies), New Gods 1,2,7 (2 copies) and many more! Will have a couple of CGC books including a CGC Signature Series Frank Frazetta Creepy in 9.6, I have 2 short boxes of mid/high grade silver including a DD 4, 7, about 25-30 Neal Adams books including a Detective 400, Avengers 4 golden record reprint, Iron Man Subby 1, etc. I will also have about 40-50 different boxes of Magic the Gathering (everything from Modern through present, with the exception of 9th, 10th, Lorwyn, Ravnica:City of Guilds, Future Sight, and Darksteel). All masters boxes, as well as an almost complete set of Expedition lands (missing 4). I will also have about 200 higher end singles ($15+), as well as some standard stuff. I'll have some stuff to get signed as well if you are so inclined (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comics and cards), for Helen Slater (a box of Supergirl cookies from 1983, a coloring book, and a hard cover book, all with her image), a couple of Greedo figures as well). I'll also have some cheap Star Wars figures ($5 each or 4 for $20...1995-2000 or so). I'll also have some LJN WWE figures as well, loose, carded, graded. As far as CGC books go I'll have a Transformers 1 9.6 White, Henchgirl 1 9.0, Some TTA pedigrees 9.4 (Northland, Western Penn). Also some McFarlane Hulks 9.6 from Western Penn, but not notated. I'll also have a couple of pedigree Hulk issues. I have a short box of signed books, 2 short boxes of variants (1 older and 1 newer (nothing overly exciting $5-$10 books)) There will be one box of raw pedigree books, WW, Flash, Marvel Team_ up. I'll also have a short box of signed books, some with certs some not. There will also be a nice short box of key Valiant issues, golds, 1st appearances from the Pre-Unity days. I will also hopefully be announcing the grand opening date as well at the event for Genesis Comics and Gaming!! I've reached a verbal agreement on a lease in Ronkonkoma!! I will have boxes of comics/toys/Magic cards that I will be giving away for those who "like" and "share" my social media as well as a drawing for prizes to be determined for those who sign up on my website. If you are going to the show and are looking for anything in particular, please PM me and I will bring it if I have it!

For me the toughest run was Welcome Back Kotter 1-10 in CGC 9.6 or better with white pages. If you look at the census there are very few of the issues graded aside from # 1. Add to that the fact that Doc Joe has 9 of the 10 in 9.6/9.8 with the majority in 9.8 and I could see I would have to find them raw and sub them. I was able to purchase a #1 CGC 9.8 from Ebay (the only candidate I had I had signed by Ron Palillo at an old Big Apple Con a few years back and the other isssues I had were 9.2 at best). I bought a # 7 from a boardie who had it graded on site in Chicago a few years back. I purchased a run from BronzeBruce? I believe...I subbed 5 of them and got back # 5 in 9.8 a #2 in 9.4 and 3 others in 9.6 (including a 2, I had sent 2 copies in)...all had white pages. This was huge as I knocked off a big chunk right there. (On a side note, that submission was one of my best as I had also subbed a Hulk 110 that came back at 9.6 White pages, which at the time was the highest graded, as well as a Hulk 5 that I thought would come back at a 2.5, it came back 3.5...Also subbed 2 NM 98's...but they only came back at 9.6 and 9.4 so I dumped them for $75 and $45 lmfao). All I needed was a 9, 10, and a 6. I don't recall where I finally got the 9 and 10...maybe wwcomics or ebay? Funny that I'm drawing a blank on those... The 9 was very tough as well...have a good number of raw "NM's still lying around lol. The last issue I needed was the # 6... I had purchased well over a dozen "NM" issue number 6's from ebay to try to find one...never found one in the wild (comic shops or shows)...I finally narrowed it down to 3 candidates and headed off to wintercon last year, got some opinions from a few dealers at wintercon and subbed the one that people thought had the best chance. A few months later and now I have the only complete Welcome Back Kotter registry set! Came back at a 9.6 with white pages! Out of the 10 issues only 2 are graded 9.8 (the 1 and the 5). The rest are 9.6. Over 10 years in the making and finally complete! Not sure what the next "goal" will be...that was a "cheap" one, but difficult as there were really not a lot of copies available graded when I started and I had to sub a bunch myself...One of my earlier goals, before it got too expensive, was to put a run of TTA's from issue 59-101 and Hulk 102-118 CGC graded 9.4 or better, off white pages or better...and pedigrees only! I was halfway there, but it got too expensive and I sold a bunch off...still have a few...maybe I'll make another run of it as it appears prices have come down on the non-keys...

Anything else coming this morning? Or can I go have my coffee?

New Gods 7 I'll take it!

Sorry I haven't posted or updated in a while. I've read through this entire thread 10+ times start to finish and will continue to do so as there is so much great advice here. Even though there were a lot of "Don't do it!!" comments, I've decided to continue to pursue the "dream"! Please excuse the randomness of the following, just some of the things I've been working on. *As people suggested I plan to be open 7 days a week. The opening times will be determined on the shopping center I'm in...due to gaming and tournaments I will be open until 10 at night and later on Fridays...probably close earlier on Sundays...but I will adjust as the business needs dictate. * I've purchased and read "Tilting at Windmills" so thank you for the recommendation on that book! Lot's of great information there. * All of my "paperwork" is complete as far as corporation status, I decided on opening as an S-Corp as it seemed to be the best option and one that the "comic and gaming" stores in this area recommended. All my tax paperwork is in order and I am legal to open a retail location. *I've signed up with the 2 big gaming/supply/toy distributors here on Long Island (GTS and Southern Hobby). Next up is Diamond and Magazine Exchange in Oregon. * I have a good friend who is a real estate lawyer, who I've hired to look over the lease once I finally find a place. * I've spent the last 2 months, scouting our areas on Long Island that I feel would be good areas to open a shop, that aren't too close to other shops, near schools, in good neighborhoods, and that have good parking. This has been eye opening as I've learned that the real estate agents promise things and then don't deliver...I thought I had a spot nailed down and all of a sudden the things that were supposed to be included were no longer included...it was frustrating as it was a good place, but I decided to move on and told the landlord he has my number if he changes his mind and meets what the agent had promised. I've learned what "CAM" charges are (Common area maintenance) that is an additional charge for (trash, snow, taxes) that some landlords charge in to addition to the rent. This was not something that I had heard of but apparently it's very common in shopping centers. I am learning something new every day! I had another place I really liked that I tried to negotiate a lower rent, but it ended up being rented at full price. Looking back, the location was prime, and although the rent was higher than I wanted, it's the one I regret. It was one of the first locations I saw, and though I liked it, I wanted to see more...live and learn. I am looking at 5-10 places a week and will update when I find one! I've decided, based on price that 1200-1500 feet is the max I will be able to afford and the store needs to be at least 16 feet across with 20 being optimal. This will allow for side by side gaming tables of 8 feet long on either side (or 6 feet if only 16 feet across) *I've finally gotten a logo and had a sign made up for shows as well as business cards with my facebook, instagram, website, email, and cell #, no address obviously, but something to hand out at shows etc. *I did my first event as Genesis Comics and Gaming. It was a Magic the Gathering event (Vintage and Modern tournaments) at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, former location of Eternal Con. I brought a helper with me to see how he did....he will by my first part time employee, he is very into the Magic the Gathering community and I did an extra few hundred in sales, based on him recommending certain cards and helping people to build new decks. I also had a good personal friend there, keeping an eye, just to make sure he was trustworty. All went very well. *One of the biggest concerns I had was when Moondog had mentioned I needed $150,000 to start. I had done some preliminary work and I was not really close to that number. I really started to dig deep into the numbers, and while I would love to have $150,000, that is not realistic. I spoke to a number of people who have opened shops in the last few years, only one had over $75,000 when they started and everyone else had less than 50 with 2 having less than 20!! All have succeeded, so I felt a bit better about that once I spoke to them. Plus, I already had a good amount of inventory to start. Not discounting that the more money they better, but I've seen success with less. *I did however spend some time looking at my inventory and seeing what I had and what I wanted my store to be! I had a picture in my mind of what I would have and how I'd be different! I ended up purchasing about 12k-13k more stock. I was lacking in current books so I picked up a 20 box unbagged collection of dealer overstock from a good friend of mine who has had a shop for 20+ years. Dealer overstock is probably not the right word, it's modern books from the last 4-5 years and included good runs of all titles, there was about a short box of variants and a good number of minor keys. Paid less than 33 cents a book. Also picked up 3 short boxes of high grade bronze/silver books from a friend who picked up a collection...collection was cheap so the boxes I got were as well...some examples were Marvel Premier 15, Adventure into Fear 19, Jimmy Olsen 134, Marvel Spotlight 2, solid early runs of Tomb, Werewolf, Swamp Thing. Books ranged from fine to NM and there were probably a good 50-60 Neal Adams books ranging from Batman to the horror titles. A good number of high grade, possible CGC worthy...books were mostly from 1967-1972. Also picked up some silver age books and copper keys for "wall" books. I also always pictured my store as having a great selection of Magic the Gathering booster boxes to sell packs out of as well. While I had about 20 different boxes, mostly in the last 5 years, I did not have the older stuff that would make me stand apart from the competition, so I picked up about 25 older booster boxes. My plan is to always have at least 50 different packs available for sale! I've been spending time organizing and having inventory ready to "move in" if I find a place soon. From the new product I've purchased to doing shows and boxes moving back and forth, things have gotten more mixed up that I thought. I also picked up 3 Magic the Gathering collections, 1 with vintage cards, and the other two with modern staples. *I've researched POS systems and have decided to start with Comic Suite as my system. I also have researched the crystal commerce and while I think it would be useful as well, I believe the information I can gather from the Comic Suite system related to new comic sales, is invaluable. Plus they start you out with a good number of trades for free! Most of the shops I spoke to both on Long Island, and the ones I visited in Florida when I was down there on vacation, told me that the biggest struggle they had in the beginning was new comics and over ordering. One of the Florida shops had comic suite and spend time with me going over it's pro's and how it helped him. Another shop I visited in North Carolina had crystal commerce but hadn't really delved into it entirely and couldn't really give me pros/cons. *I've decided to organize the comics by age into 3 categories, Silver, Bronze, and Copper though Modern. In each of those categories they are divided into Marvel, DC, Independent. Independent is divided by publisher Valiant, Image, Dark Horse, and probably IDW, I've separated out signed books, pedigree books, and the high grade bronze and silver from the lower grade stuff. I think I'm going to organize the comics in the Copper-Modern by character...ie Spider-Man would have Amazing, Spectacular, Superior, Web, McFarlane Spidey, etc and characters related to Spidey, Venom, Green Goblin, etc. All Spider-Man related books in one place. Wanted to know what people thought of that or if straight up alphabetical would be better? I'm at the point where I'm ready to do this so please let me know how your LCS does it!! *I've been on the lookout for cheap glass showcases, but one of the issues I'm running into is I don't want to buy things that I won't be able to use, plus storage is a bit of an issue as I have 3 rooms in the house taken up with inventory already...thank god my wife is patient ...I've found a good wholesaler of showcases/shelving etc here on the island that has a lot of nice pieces that I would look to purchase once I get the place. I check out Craigslist every day and have people in the comic community keeping an eye out for me for display pieces/racks/showcases/shelving etc. *I've spoken to a few comic and MTG artists and am hoping to have a few come out for the grand opening as long as their schedule allows...lot's of people live on Long Island and in the NY area so hopefully I can get some big names in to kick off the opening! * I will be setting up at Eternal Con this year (being held in Nassau Coliseum on July 1st and 2nd this year). I will be running some sort of incentive to like and share my social media, giving away free comics or magic the gathering to get my name out there in the community. Please keep up with the advice and suggestions! I really appreciate all the feedback! This is tiring and exciting at the same time, it's a labor of love. I've run into a few issues here and there, but nothing so major that it made me change my mind. Thanks for reading!!

So Crystal Commerce is a seperate POS system? Like ComicSuite for gaming cards? Or is it software for a POS? It is a software/website integrated POS. It is the only POS that works directly with Tcgplayer. Awesome...I did not know about this...now only if there was one that worked with TCG and Diamond...that would be great...

Thank you for taking the time out for a well reasoned articluate post! Lot's of gread advice and insight! Much appreciated

So Crystal Commerce is a seperate POS system? Like ComicSuite for gaming cards? Or is it software for a POS?

Thanks for the links...I'll definitely check them out!

Suffolk...currently looking in the Patchogue/Medford area and also plan on looking in the Ronkonkoma area

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I'm familiar with Aloha/NCR as I've working in the restaurant industry for 20+ years...echoing the comments it's way too much for what I'm doing, but I do appreciate the comparison and the financials involved I am currently taking a look at comicsuite offered by Diamond...it was mentioned earlier in the thread although I already had it on my list of things to look at...I have yet to find a shop in the area that uses it. If anyone is on Long Island (preferably) or somewhere between Long Island and Boston and you have comicsuite and wouldn't mind me stopping in to chat you up about it, please send me a PM!! It seems like it would be very helpful and time saving but the cost is high (although it appears if you get a certain level of software there is a 3500-7000 credit towards certain trade paperbacks which is nice....I plan on calling this week to get the details) They offer a payment plan which I would have to work into my ever increasing monthlies The key will be finding the right place at the right price...looked at a few spots this week...all were over my budget (but I figured they would be...just trying to gauge all different size places and see what a few hundred more gets you). This week is finishing up the "paperwork" involved for a business, learning more about comicsuite, continuing to organize my MTG cards and comics for sale (everything had gotten mixed up after my last show (had some friends help to pack up and things are everywhere ) and hopefully getting my logo back from a friend who's working one up...unfortunately Dr. Balls is retired Maybe I'll check out a couple of storefronts if I have the time as well. Thank you everyone for your feedback...it is appreciated!! Keep up the comments/advice/warnings etc!

I've started reading them already...some very good information there. As someone mentioned earlier I also have watched all of "derium" opening a game store videos as well...there are a few others I've watched that I can't remember off-hand...also ordered "The business of gaming retail" book and read through that entire blog as well... I'm doing as much research as I can before opening the doors...there is a wealth of information on these boards alone, which I appreciate...I've driven around town and spoken with local comic and gaming shops and more than a few have offered advice as well as assistance if needed. This week I'll be getting in touch with Diamond to find out more about their ordering limits/programs etc...I watched the tutorial on the POS and find that interesting as well...definitely considering that, although it is expensive, seems like it could pay for itself over the course of the first few years.

I'll definitely check them out...thanks!

If I got just 1 book greggy would have purchased...this was all worth it these are the dregs he tossed back after the pre-sale PM