It’s kinda surreal to be hitting my 20th anniversary. I opened the store on a wing and a prayer. In 1993, Sandi and I were at Eat ‘n Park having dinner (because our stove had died) and she looked at me and asked me what I wanted to do with my life. Not in a bad way. Just in a “what are we doing” way. She was a substitute teacher. I was selling cars at John Seretti Chevy/Buick in Moon. Neither of us doing what we wanted to be doing. I said “I don’t know.” She asked if I had ever thought of opening a comic book store.
Well… no. I hadn’t. It had never really crossed my mind. I had an 8 long box collection sitting in my mom’s attic. Not really that big. But, for some reason she brought it up. Unfortunately, in the car business, there is a whole lot of down time. So my mind wandered. I would draw the floor plan to the store. I would think up what kind of sales and stuff I could do. I got the order catalogs from Capital City and Diamond Comics. I read everything in them. Unfortunately, I was not making cold calls or catching people on the lot because of this and my sales dipped and they said buh-bye. No great loss, other than a paycheck. I did not love it.
A co-worker mentioned that he had worked during the holidays at Radio Shack and made good money. So, I headed there. I eventually moved up from associate to Asst Manager to Manager of 2 stores (New Castle and Lettsdale). I never would have guessed how valuable that experience would be. We did a few shows (the Great Eastern Conventions at Station Square) I loved doing that, but it was a lot of work. I also learned that I did not have to sell everything. I sold my Daredevil #3-5 and then spent years replacing them. That lead to the keeper boxes that are still in my basement.
Before getting into management, I was looking around at storefronts. There was one right in the shopping center near where we lived. I was seriously considering leasing the spot. Then Marvel bought Heroes World. I knew that when ordering from distributors, the more you ordered, the bigger your discount was. And if I had to order Marvel from them and everything else from someone else, I’d be getting the least amount of discount. That would not be the best way to start out. So, I put my store on the back burner.
I wish I could say that moving up in management was intentional, but it wasn’t. Just kinda the next part of the job. But I had to deal with customers. I had to order. I had to be profitable. I had to deal with employees. I had to work by myself. Those years were super important to me being able to do this ow for 20 years. A lot of comic shop owners do not have those skills, it shows, and they don’t last long.
Then we moved to Chicago so that Sandi could get her doctorate. We moved in with my mom. I got a job working for my high school friend who had just passed the bar and was working at his family’s law firm. Well, doing that was far more interesting than finding another Radio Shack job. That lead to another crossroad. I still had the store in my mind. Maybe in Chicago. Well, rent was certainly more. So, it just simmered. But I started buying more in bulk. Shows with “Fill a long box for $25.” That became a big part of my opening inventory. After a while, Mom’s garage was filling up.
After a few years, I was doing more than I should have been in court, so a decision was needed. Go to law school or open my store. It would all be determined by how I did on the LSAT. Well, I did well and got in to law school. OK. Store on the back burner again. Got through law school, we moved back to Pittsburgh with infant Katie and I looked for a job. I ended up working nights. Not awful.
Then my mom got sicker and could not live alone anymore. She came out to live with us. As it got near the end I started thinking more and more about the store. My Dad had died of a heart attack at 50 never doing a job he loved. Mom always wanted me to do something I really loved. Which brought the idea of the store back. Working nights, I’d scour the internet for info about opening and running a comic book store. I found a blog by a guy opening a store near Harrisburg. It’s why I have laminate flooring because he had someone was though the freshly blacktopped parking lot and then across his carpet. I also found Brian Hibbs’ articles on Newsarama. (And had an embarrassing moment when I printed them all out and forgot them on the work printer. Had to turn around and go back at 3AM).
I wanted to know what I didn’t know. I didn’t want a surprise. I found out Brians earlier articles in the trade magazine Comic and Game Retailer had been collected in a book. Well, I quickly got that and devoured it. Then things started getting real. Mom passed in September of ’05. We sold her house and were able to get a house in Peters Township, where we wanted the kids to go to school. I was able to take the money we made off the sale of our townhouse and put it aside for the store.
Now it was becoming real. I set up the LLC. I got the sales license. I started doing the Toy Show (which became the Steel City Con.) I was doing what I could to get my name out there. It was getting real. We’d drive around looking for stores for rent. Online wasn’t great for that. So we drove and drove. I was looking at a spot in Donaldson’s Crossroads but there were issues. The complicated lease scared me. Triple Net seemed daunting. Plus, they were evicting the tenant and I could not actually get in to see the spot. I gave up after a while and went back through my notes. I came across my current spot again and called. The were in the end stages of completely remodeling the building. I went and looked. What a quirky spot. I always assumed I’d get a rectangle store and all of my plans were for a rectangular spot. This spot was an odd diamond with almost no right angles. OK. This could be interesting.
I called and said I’d take it. Uh oh. Someone else also wanted it. The first person to get the security deposit there would get it. Well, I didn’t get a ticket, but not for lack of speed.
So now I have a space. Aahhhh. It’s really getting real. I put in my notice at work. I’d go down and paint. My father-in-law and I put in the flooring. I started ordering product. I decided opening in September worked. It didn’t make sense to open right before a holiday, so I figured I’d open the day after the holiday, Labor Day. September 5th. A banner day for me. I sold a long box that day. Totally forgot to keep the first dollar. Ah well. But its kept on going from there.
3 years later, I took over the space next to me and expanded the store. A year later, I left New Dimension and became Pittsburgh Comics. I had opened under the New Dimension group because I readily admitted that I had no idea how the store would do and it was a safety net. After 4 years, we were going in different directions and we split. 3 years after that, I bought the building.
I’d love say that it has all been a breeze, but it hasn’t. We’ve had a lot of tough months and years. Many many sleepless nights. Too much missed time with the family. Running your own business can be all-consuming. But I honestly wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else these last 20 years.
I grew up on comics. I was an only child. My Mom’s best friend moved when I was little, and her 2 teenage sons left me all of their comics. (Guessing their parents said you are not taking those with us.) I read those comics so many times. And I would occasionally get comics at convenience stores. Much later, I was talking with a friend up at my grandmother’s house. He handed me Daredevil #181. “You have to read this!” I did. Very good. I had a passing knowledge of Daredevil, but Elektra and Bullseye were new. I ended up buying the rest of the Miller Daredevil’s from a classmate with my lunch money (Thanks Scott!) Then I found out about these things called comic book stores. And conventions. And that was all she wrote. The first place I drove to when I got my license was the comic book store. The first time driving alone into Chicago was to go to a convention. In junior high, I had subscriptions to a bunch of Marvel Comics (from an ad on the back of an action figure) and I would gleefully check the mail every day getting home. My Dad would sneak my want lists and check stores out of town when he went on business trips (Thank you Hennepin Comics in Minneapolis). He had gotten me a bunch of Daredevils filling my collection all of the way back to issue #2. He passed away my sophomore year of high school while I was in DC at a band trip. When I got home, the house was no place for me. Lots of family and work friends milling around. I was sad about the band trip because I would be missing the Chicago Comicon. Well, Mom asked a friend of y Dad’s to take me to get me out of the house. There I bought my Daredevil #1, finishing my collection.
Comics have in been in a blood since an early age. But the thing I never really had was someone to talk to about them. I spent $50 on that Daredevil #1. I showed my mom and all she said was “You spent how much on a comic book?!?” (Not the reaction I was hoping for.) One of the great joys of having the store is being able to talk about comics. There is nothing better than talking with someone who is excited about a book. We’ve done over 700 podcasts because I love this part of the business so much.
It was frustrating trying to find early pictures. When I opened there was no Facebook. Or Twitter. I had a MySpace page. Luckily, I have an old computer and lo and behold, there were my opening day pictures. So, I am attaching them here so that you can see how much the store has changed over 20 years. It’s kind of funny too. I still have the same counter. The original 4 red bookshelves are still there, And the white shelves. Same display cases.
I’ve had my share of disasters too. The water line to the toilet let go flooding part of the store. And I am still thankful how many people came out to help move books so that we could replace the flooring (Thanks, Pat!) Of course, I had a car come through the front window, which led to the new wall and the moving of the counter. And the heart attack and quadruple bypass.
But overall, it has been a great 20 years and there isn’t much I would change or have done differently. I want to thank every single person that has ever walked through the door. I took a flyer on this, I hoped that that if I built it, people would come. And you have. It makes me happy and proud that I’ve made it this far. Most small businesses don’t. I want to thank Tim and Pat for making the store work. Running it solo was a whole lot of work. Sharing the workload has made things a lot better. Plus, I’m not talking to myself anymore. I want to thank Sandi for believing in me and letting me do this. Quitting my job to open a comic bookstore made zero real world sense. I still remember her Dad going “How are you going to pay the mortgage selling $3 comics?” Well, I did it. Some months better than others.
I thank Carolyn for not going “You own a comic book store?” and walking away to find a real grown up. I think the new in-laws have also come around on it.
I do think that one of the best things I ever decided to do was to get Harry and bring him to the store. Then Marley. Then Rex. Then Snoopy. I can’t think of what the store would be without the dogs. This is year 7 of having Marley. Crazy.
So, thank you everyone who has ever had anything to do with the store. I thank everyone who has ever done a signing or a Nerd Rock show there. Thank you to all of the people who say nice stuff about me to their friends and online. It truly means the world to me. This was my dream for a long time and it’s been a reality for 20 years. I am still happy to go to the store every day (I was not allowed to say I’m going to work, when all I had to do was read comics all day.) Those days are behind me, but it’s still my happy place, most days.
