Buying toys with a vengeance.

I tend to cycle through my product lines at Pegasus Books, paying close attention to one at a time.

These last few months, it's been toys. I'd sort of neglected them over the last few years, picking up one or two, here or there.

When I finally got around to doing something about it, I kind of went crazy. I ordered mostly off the liquidation lists. The weird part about liquidation lists, and this is true of new books as well, is that the stuff I can order there at a steep discount probably range from 00 to 80% desirable, while if I was ordering new toys at regular discounts, the desirability range is 00 to 100% and I try to order the 90 to 100% toys anyway.

In other words, other than absolute standouts, there is no point not ordering a decent toy every time it is offered.

But inevitably, there are more decent toys than I can afford, and even more importantly, than I can make room for.

It occurred to me the other day that the way my store works is that I consistently OVERLOAD it with product, to the point where I have to be very creative in how I display, or I let some overflow spill out into places that it shouldn't probably be, or I am forced to remove older product.

This last option is always there, but the overflow generally stops just short of that.

Not this time. This time I told Cameron to just remove any old, dusty, or yellowed toys to make room for the new ones. It should brighten up the store. It's not that the new toys are any more likely to sell. I find with toys, posters, T-shirts, and other accoutrements that it's very difficult to know WHAT will sell and that I'm continually surprised.

Yet another reason to buy toys that are being taken off the lists by the wholesalers.

Another reason to buy this discounted product is that by the time I get it, it has cycled through the bigger stores so...ironically, I'm likely to be the only one who has them. The long tail theory that I just need that one person who wants that one toy.



Meanwhile, I had the brainstorm of asking my Facebook friends and followers what new books I should order. I had five books I wanted to order, and I needed to push that to twenty books, so I had an open call.

Boom. Great suggestions, one after another, and as soon as it started I decided to order every single book suggested if possible with the thought that one person's all time favorite book is probably a worthy book.

I was hugely gratified that I already had about 2/3rds of the suggestions in stock, which if I may say, means that I have a pretty good sense of what people are looking for. But it was a fun exercise and I'm going to do it again soon. Maybe should try that with games, or graphic novels, as well.




Finally, enamel pins are a thing, especially in comics, but I noticed that there were enamel pins for books as well. I found an outlet with 40 different titles, from Lord of the Rings to Pride and Prejudice, all great books. I couldn't resist and ordered 20 of the titles and they are now in the store.

If you love books, you should check them out. They are very cool.