My god, new fixtures are expensive! They're the big dog gobbling my budget. There's a reason most comic shops have used fixtures, I guess. There just ain't enough money in 2.99 comics to pay for these monsters. I haven't even figured out the trucking costs, which must be horrendous.

I was hoping to have consistent style and look, clean and crisp and fresh, and for it to be modular. Everything four feet wide, everything pretty much the same color scheme. Slatwalls are easy, four feet by 8 feet. I intend to fill almost every wall.

It's the middle of the floor fixtures that are killing me. The glass cases, the register stands, but most especially, the magazine racks. These just aren't to be found used, very often, and are incredibly expensive. Bookshelves, we found a source that we fixtured the Bookmark, and they look nice.

The last time I started a store from scratch, we had our fixtures designed and made. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, even though they looked great, they were huge and heavy and overwhelmed the little 300 sq. ft. space. But that was a small store -- the new one is going to be 2200 sq. ft. !

Nothing can kill a store buzz faster than looking empty and sparse. The trick is to look sufficiently full, and still give yourself enough room to improve and expand your selection, once you know what direction the new store is going to go.

Even knowing all the tricks, which shortcuts I can take, which fixtures can be made to fill the space and so on, it's intimidatingly expensive. I'm going to do something different this time, and order just one of each of the fixtures I'm eyeing, and see how they really look and whether they'll work. Nice to have time to do that.

I'll keep my eyes open for any stores that are liquidating in the next couple of months. And meanwhile, I thrashed out a budget with the catalogs last night with new stuff that I think will do the job, look nice, and not cost the farm. I'm not kidding, though, that anyone who hasn't had the experience I've had would probably spend twice as much just getting started.

And then there is the inventory. The nice thing about comics these days is that there are hundreds of evergreen books that sell over and over. The bad thing about starting a new comic book store is that you have to buy hundreds of new graphic novels that are evergreen that sell over and over. The 'old days' of starting your store with your own collection of back issues and this months comics are long gone.

I used to be able to buy a case (twenty boxes) of sports cards for 200.00; and since there was only Donruss, Fleer, and Topps to buy, I could get them all. Break a couple of boxes for singles, and you were in business. Now you can barely buy a single box of cards for that, and there are literally hundreds of brands. I was offered a box of cards this week for 450.00, my cost, with a single pack of cards. "What are they, made of gold?" She laughed, and said that everyone she had called had said the same thing.

Card Games are close to 100.00 a box, boardgames run around 40.00-80.00. Don't even get me started on new books; I was able to bring in new books little by little at my downtown store, but I never intended to carry thousands of titles, just the low-growing fruit, the very, very best, the stuff that everyone asked for but rarely came in used. There is dice, miniatures, rpg's, and all the accessories.

I'm good on back issues, older cards, used books. But I don't dare start a store with those, anymore.

Toys are going to be fairly easy. They come in cases with multiples of the same toys, which are usually just stuck in storage. I can almost replicated the downtown store, one on one, without spending a whole lot more.

The bar to opening a new store has risen much much higher. No wonder not too many new stores are opening. The return on investment just isn't there. I think I can pull it off because; I have a hefty portion of good material that is duplicated in my store; I know how to swing some beginning deals with my suppliers, all of which I have good credit with; and I know exactly what to carry, what's selling and what isn't; and because I have enough time to get it ready. Again, anyone starting from scratch would probably have to spend twice as much, and make many mistakes along the way. (For instance, looking at the lists of comics best-sellers and ordering on that basis would KILL any new store. I have titles that are in the top ten that just don't sell, and other titles way down the list that sell like crazy....")

Experience counts.

I enjoy this process. I want the store to look nice. It would defeat my purpose if I were to throw a hodgepodge of fixtures and product in there and hope it's adequate.

I think because Linda's store came together so easily, I thought I could do the same thing. But we'd spent years accumulating books, knew about how to go about getting more, and never had to invest in new, retail product. We really only needed to buy one type of fixture, bookshelves, and we found an affordable source of nice looking and modular shelves.

P2 is way more complicated. I'll have to finally go and get a cell phone, it might make sense to buy a used pick-up so that product can be transported from store to store, I'll need yet another computer. This time I'd like to put in a fridge and a microwave and so on and so on.

I let myself design and plan without limit, then I go back and ask myself what I really need and can really afford.

I'm not opposed to using used fixtures, if a good source popped up in the next month or so. Because it would save thousands of dollars initially. I could buy one third new modular, and then replace the fixtures as I can afford them. (Can't do this downtown, where everything fits together within half an inch. Replace one fixture and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. I do that about every year or so...)

As I said, this is actually the fun of doing this. Going online, as IHTBYB has encouraged me to do just bores the daylights out of me. It's the physical nature of creating business that I enjoy.