Dragons, and dinosaurs, and ooze. Oh, my.

Went into a toy store while in Crescent City.

First thing the clerk said, "We carry stuff the big stores don't."

They certainly did. It was almost all brands I never heard of. Heavy on the dinosaurs and ooze and stuff like that. It was kinda cool. Reminded me of Merlin's Toys downtown, which always had lots of cheap toys that were fun. I always wondered if I should carry a few brands.

This summer has convinced me. We constantly have the pre-teen crowd looking for something cheap to buy. (Sadly, not interested in books.) We have blind packs that are 6.99 each, which is a little pricey for most parents.

Anyway, this toy store had little mini pokemon figures that they sold for 2/1.00. They had dinosaur eggs that you put in water to hatch. 1.00 for the small ones, 5.00 for the big ones. They had lots of ooze and slime. 

I've been racking my brain for something to put where our last sports cards reside and I've decided to try some of these toys lines that I can sell for a dollar or a few dollars each. Just as an experiment. I won't try more than maybe a dozen brands at first, just to see if it's something we want to do. They could be more hassle than they are worth. I expect a fair amount of damage, but the stuff is price-pointed where it should still be possible to make good money.

I'll fill the sports card section with non-sports and be done with sports cards forever. Good riddance.

Meanwhile, the toy store. It was a little too linear, not a lot of imagination in the displays. I'm not sure how you shake that up, I just know that it works to break the linear line of sight. Also, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to carry a few branded names to mix in, so that it doesn't look completely alien. I tried to interest them in Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride.

"Just try one of each and see what happens," I said.

They seemed skeptical.

My store is morphing a little again, just because of the large volume of foot-traffic downtown. I have lots of young families come in where they wander around as if they should be interested, but they aren't really into reading and most of the toys I have are too specifically comic related and or too expensive for the parents.

So those are lost opportunities, I think. I tried candy, found out I eat most of the profits. So having little five dollar dinosaurs and dragons and such might not be such a bad idea.

Then again, it could be a terrible idea.

I guess we'll find out.