January, 2012 results.

We beat January of last year by 2%. Pretty tiny increase, but a win is a win, I guess.

I feel the weather really hammered us this year. We had some incredibly slow days. My guess is sales would've been at least 10% better without the horrid weather.

Normally I hate blaming such a random factor, but this slop was the worst kind of customer turnoff. (A reminder to me that that exact same kind of weather could've hit mid-December to devastating effects -- which is why I need to hedge my bets instead of going all in.)

The 20% increase at Christmas was great -- except so many of the bills come due in January.

That makes 7 months in a row I've beaten last year, which equals the previous increase that I had in the middle of the recession. As I've said before, these increases are usually built on decreases -- I will really only believe the recession is over when I have increases over increases.

***Comics were strong. The continuing effects of the New 52.

***Books were up. This is the first month I've kept tract of used versus new books, and I was astonished that new books by far outsold used books. I'm guessing that I sold a few more used books than the register showed because of old habits -- the new books button used to be just the "books" button.

Still, it's pretty clear I was overestimating my used book sales and underestimating my new book sales, which makes me feel a bit better about spending so much on new books.

I'd thought the used books were supporting the new books, but the new books have been performing all along.

***Cards were up slightly.

***Card Game were down significantly. It kind of feels like the new interest has leveled off. I also think my main competitor has gained throughout the year as he's become established and found by the gaming community. (Plus, he seems to have decided on a discounting strategy.)

***Games were up slightly.

***Graphic Novels up slightly.

***Toys about the same.

I should be able to beat last year in February, knock wood, because I have an extra day to get there.