Pulp this!

Pictured is the cover the the Galaxy Magazine, October, 1952, my birth month. Except the cover to the copy I own is actually much more pristine that this. 

I'm on the verge of selling most of my pulp books and magazines. The deal may still fall through--the buyer is coming by the house this afternoon. But I'm hoping to find a home for these rare and beautiful books. I'm 70 years old, and while there is always a chance I might open a used bookstore someday, (I have all the fixings, books and fixtures, in case anyone is interested in starting a used bookstore for an extraordinarily reasonable price), it's looking less and less likely. 

I'll retell the story about how I got these books. Some guy came in the store a year or so ago, and wanted to know if I was buying books. I told him no. He told me the story of his father owning a market on the west side of Bend for over 50 years and telling his family that the books he was setting aside would someday be worth "a fortune."

However, the family couldn't find any buyers.

Then he said the magic words. "Pulps."

"Do you have any with you?" I asked.

"Oh, I can bring a box by if you want to see what they are."

He left, and I didn't think anything more of it, but somewhat to my surprise he came back with a box. And it was a treasure trove. Not only full of great covers, Bad Girl Art, Westerns, Science Fiction, but they were in great shape, anywhere from excellent to mint.

Let me tell you, that is truly rare. In the 43 years I've been at the store, I've been offered only a handful of pulps and most of them were in terrible shape.

So I agreed to go to their storage unit and check it out. 

Out of the 40 or so boxes they had, only about 5 or 6 actually had pulps in them. Most of the rest were pretty junky 70s and 80s books that would be very hard to sell. 

But the 5 or 6 boxes of pulps, to me, were worth what they were asking. It was also pretty clear to me that they were on the verge of chucking them all out and that would have been a tragedy.

I had them all moved to my garage and dipped into them a little more, looking them up online. By and large, the pulps were "worth" anywhere from $5 to $100. But I've done this long enough to know that is a very loose measure. What really counts is how much you can actually get.

Thing is, these books truly are a treasure, but I have no way of proving it except by a long hard process of establishing my reputation for quality online. Meanwhile, I'd spend half my time trying to find a price between what I'm being offered and the price I think their worth. Plus handling and postage and time spent online. 

I should probably say here, I'm very allergic to dickering. The sports card phase of my business was so unpleasant, I have a case of something very like PTSD. I don't buy collections from the street, which is a bit of a competitive disadvantage when it comes to owning a book/comic store. IF someone presents a collection to me at a reasonable price, I might consider it, but that almost never happens.

So back to the pulps. I was still thinking of someday opening a used bookstore, and have already having set aside about 20,000 books, so in my mind, I saw a "Wall of Pulp" behind the counter at this store. That would look spectacular.

As a lark, I grabbed a handful of pulps and took them to the store and put a $6 price tag on them. I purposely chose a random sample, because selling only the best or the worst doesn't establish a true value. 

Somewhat to my surprise, they sold. At first I sold about 10, and then a few days later, 5 more, and then all 30. I refilled and sold another 20 or so. 

Admittedly, most of these sold to one customer, but there were also a couple of other buyers. 

That one customer is coming by today. He has proven his bone fides to me, and I'm willing to let him have the books for a reasonable price. I won't let myself be cherry picked--I'm hoping he'll buy them all but about 20 I'd like to keep for myself. In my mind, I need at least a "retail markup" from what I paid, so I'll draw the line there. But anything he offers at or above that markup, and they're his. He seems a bit younger than me, and he's shown by purchasing the books that he values them. 

I really want these books to find a home with someone who appreciates them. 

LATER: He was really only interested in the Bad Girl covers, so I still have the SF and the Westerns. I told him he might be missing the most valuable stuff, but he isn't a speculator, but a collector. 

He bought a little less than I hoped, but combined with what he had already bought at the store, I probably hit keystone, with 90 of the stuff still mine. 

Fair enough. I don't mind still having those books and pulps. He also got tired looking through 60 big cardboard boxes full of books so started leaving some pretty good Bad Girl covers too. So I can continue to show them off in the store. 

The other stuff was worse than I expected. A bunch of 70s and 80s junk, hardcovers without covers, and so on. If I ever sell the entire backstock of books, I'm going to have to explain that the first 50 boxes of books or so are junk, the good stuff is in the back of the storage unit. Heh.

One card to rule them all.

Dreamed all night about the new Lord of the Rings cards from Magic. I'm at some tournament, trying to figure out how it's all going. I run into some guys who see some of my old sports cards and comment about how they "are worth something." (Not my store, but it's a dream...so make little sense.)

Part of this is the anxiety of knowing that my competition will be selling the new cards today whereas I have to wait until next Friday. (I don't have playspace nor do I sponsor tournaments, so I don't qualify.)

Weird how this is preying on my mind. I ordered roughly five times the normal amount of Magic this time, partly because I do love Middle Earth, but also because I think it will be a hot item.

On the other hand, the stuff was available right up until today, so that makes me wonder how hot it could actually be.

In other words, I gambled, and now I'm wondering if I gambled too much, or  too little. 

I have a kind rule of thumb: If a product is hot, no matter how much you ordered, you won't have ordered enough. If a product is cold, no matter how much you ordered, it's too much. 

I usually go my own way on pricing. I usually try to keystone most of what I carry. I make the simple declarative statement: "I''m a retail store."

On the other hand, the only product that I actually offer discount on is Magic. This is because of competition, basically. I have tried to distinguish our store from other stores by having a very wide selection. We have over 60 brands in stock, which is considerably more than most places. But this isn't quite enough.

But, because Magic is everywhere these days, I also make a gesture toward discounting by offering "Buy five packs, get the sixth pack free." This amounts to a roughly 20% discount.

What I don't usually do is offer boxes at a huge discounts, unlike lots of stores, and especially unlike what is available online. But I've ordered so much LOTRs that I'm thinking about putting that 20% discount on a few boxes as well. 

Oh, decisions, decisions.

Probably the best thing to do is put the stuff out at normal margins and see what happens.

To repeat:  "If a product is hot, no matter how much you ordered, you won't have ordered enough. If a product is cold, no matter how much you ordered, it's too much."

Slow writing and staying out of my own way.

Summer is almost here for the store. I'm counting this Friday as the start, more than midway through June. It used to be so easy to keep track of summer. Labor Day through Memorial Day, simple as that. But over the years, the school year has expanded (as have, to be fair, the number of out-of-school days in the school year.)

Like Christmas, it's always a little daunting to see how much money we need to make per day to make it all work. It seems like an impossible number, but as I always have to remind myself, summer always arrives and the Sheriff of Nottingham hasn't yet successfully cancelled Christmas. 

I just have to keep the faith. 

I have lowered my expectations. We are still far, far above what we were doing pre-Covid, but not as high as we were at our peak.

The main thing for me is to let it all happen. The store is completely stocked, top to bottom. It is time to let all the new customers and tourists find what we have and not try to so hard to chase them. I just need to keep the inventory at the current level and not gamble. Just let summer be summer, and hopefully at the end of the season, we'll have made the money we need to make.  

I'm not writing every day the way I did when I was on my tear. I thought perhaps I was done, but I still get the creative urge, so I have a world I've started to create, allowing myself to do so very slowly. 

Slow writing. 

I've never succeeded at this before, and it's too early to know if this is going to work this time. But I think the concept will hold up to long delays between entries, and so far it feels pretty natural. 

And besides, compared to George R. R. Martin, I'm on a streak!

The strategically small store.

While ordering books, I ran across the title, "The Strategically Small Church: Intimate, Nimble, Authentic, and Effective" 

I loved both the title and the thinking behind it, but I applied it to my store instead of a church. In fact, I'll just take the description of the book below and type in "store" instead of "church" with a few other small changes. (The words in bold type are changed.)

The author of this book..." helps owners understand that a smaller store is sometimes better than a big one. He demonstrates the strengths of small stores, including that today's..."shoppers" want services that are local, personal, and intimate. Also, small stores provide space to nurture close relationships across age and lifestyle barriers, and they facilitate a higher level of commitment... And small store budgets are often more effective because of greater efficiency. The Strategically Small store will encourage small store owners in their businesses and challenge them to play to their strengths. "

Well, there you go! That's what I've been trying to say! 

I look around and see stores trying to get bigger, with more employees, more space, more complexity. And yet, I have a strong feeling that this isn't what they really want, they just think that's the way it should be. 

I know there are many store owners who want to get big, but I suspect that there are also a lot of owners who only wanted to follow their passions, to be in control of their own lives. 

The irony is; the bigger they get, the less they can follow their passion, the less control they have over their own lives. 

I've come up with a corollary to the Peter Principle: Store owners will expand to their level of incompetence. 

There is an overwhelming ethos in business in America that bigger is better, that you must constantly grow and expand or get left behind. But think about it. A small business owner is there talking to his customers, getting a feel for what's happening, enjoying the everyday business. A big business owner is in an office, managing other people, not talking to customers except through intermediaries and not really getting to do the everyday stuff. 

It seems to me that a small one to three employee store can manage things down to the smallest levels, have complete control over their policies and budgets and feel the day-to-day flow of the world. They can make friends with their customers, they can know their customers wants and likes. They can enjoy the casual banter, lean up against the counter and be an equal. They can go around and adjust things, do things spontaneously. 

At some point you maximize what one person can earn. You have to decide if you want to expand your offerings, your space, your time. Either you do it yourself or you hire someone.

Do it all yourself and you risk burnout.

Hire someone and you may just be handing over the extra profits you were trying to earn.

I'm not saying you don't have to work hard. There will be times when you are tired and stressed, but you can keep it to manageable levels. 

There is a happy medium to all this. A level by which you can keep the everyday enjoyment, earn a decent living, and not burn out. The owner controls how big their business gets, by how big the store is and how much inventory or services offered. No one cares as much about a business as the owner and a small crew who identify with the business. We can keep up the quality of service and appearance that we want.

I've tried to keep the store at a busy level, to the point where both Summer and Christmas can be almost too busy for just one person, but where for most of the year, it is manageable. This is what I want. I will turn down money if it means too much work or too much stress. I'm not sure, though, that I'm not a hell of a lot more efficient and effective with a small business than I would be at two or three times the size.

In fact, I know I would not be because I did it. I had four stores and it was awful. So I asked myself why I got into business, what I was doing, and how I could change it. Basically, I jettisoned all the stuff that made me miserable, and kept the stuff I liked. It took time to pivot, and I had to build back up from a pretty small level, but eventually we got to that happy medium, where I was doing what I wanted and still making a good living.

For example, if I was willing to trade or buy collections, my business would probably be more profitable. But I would be miserable. Instead, I turn my attention to what I can get through wholesale, shaping the inventory so that is profitable without being a hassle. I'm not saying that you'll love everything you sell or do as a service, but you can try to turn it that way as much as possible.

A small store may be just what you want. 

Who the fuck wants to be a nasty billionaire anyway?

We'll have tons of Lord of the Rings cards on June 16th.

My love of Middle Earth overcame my better judgement and I ordered about 5 times the normal amount of Magic cards. I mean, at worst we'll be able to sell them over the next few years. I'm hoping there'll be mad demand for them. Even 43 years of up and down experience hasn't quite broken me of my gambling predilection.

Because we don't have play space, Pegasus Books has to wait until the 23rd of June to release them. 

Wizards of the Coast has created One Card (of the Ring) To Rule Them All, which people are already offering a million bucks for. We have to almost hope no one finds it too quickly. 

Anyway, it's the start of summer and we should start seeing crowds soon. 

With four times the normal cards, I sure hope so. 

 

Old School Cool and Instant Nostalgia.

I've been grabbing, at random, a supply of old pulps to bring to the store.

To me, they are awesome. They are very cool. They are evocative of another era, and yet somehow appropriate to this era. "Bad girl" art covers, goofy 50s style SF art, Golden Age Westerns. 

Most people don't even glance at them, but every once in a while, someone will perk up. 

"What's that?" they ask.

I tell the the story of the old grocery store on the west side of Bend where the owner had boxed up the paperback books and pulp magazines for 70 years or so. How he had told his kids that they would be "worth a fortune," but how when the time came to cash in, it was harder to find a buyer than they thought.

Until I found out about it. They offered the books for $300, and I paid them $400...because I knew I was getting a real prize.

So, yeah. It was a real prize, but I ran into the same problems they did. Who the hell will buy these things?

I know for sure that there are people out there who would fall all over themselves to get these pulps if they saw them. They are in "Fine" to "Near-Mint" in condition. Just their existence is incredibly rare--being in that condition is almost unheard of. The problem is getting them out there so that the people who would be interested could find them.

Now my store is functioning very well right now without any online presence. To establish an online presence right now would require knowledge, time, and patience I don't have. So I thought...OK. I'll take a few handfuls of the books to the store and see if anyone is interested.

I priced them at $6, though online they probably would go for three or four times that much, to the right customers, who believed me when I told them the condition, and so on. Sabrina had some plastic bags she'd purchased for our manga, and they fit the pulps perfectly. Once in the plastic, the wonderfully evocative covers to the pulps, just popped. Beautiful, instant nostalgia. 

To my great surprise, we sold out of the first batch. I mean, it was probably only two or three people, and one person in particular who bought them up. That may be a one-time occurrence, but it's still encouraging that someone out there saw the appeal. 

I want to find these beautiful books a home. I've pretty much already got back what I paid for them. I love looking at them, but I've got enough to satisfy me. I guess we'll find out if there are other people who appreciate these books as much as we do.

How much can I pack into the store before it bursts?

I tend to think I over order on a regular basis. But every once in a while I get a hint that maybe there is a method to my madness. 

Sabrina and Ashley have decided to takeover one of our book racks and create thematic displays. This removes space for about 20 books or so.

Just 20 books, but there is absolutely no place to put them. What's strange is that I get hundreds of books a week that I manage to find space for, but these 20 books seem to be a step too far. Which means, I think, that subconsciously I'm calibrating the flow of books to a fine degree. 

I've always felt that I have a spacial talent for figuring just by looking how much or how little product a space will hold. Along with an ability to make the most of the space we have. The joke in the store is that every week or so, at some point in the process, I'll look up from trying to find space and say, "That's it. There's no more space. We can't order anything more." To which Ash and Sabrina will roll their eyes. 

Funny thing is, it's been true for a long time, but it just keeps happening. The other joke is, "I've got to find a way to suspend books from the ceiling," to which Ash and Sabrina will usually agree and start brainstorming ways to do it. Ha.

 So I'm just going to say it. We're out of room. I got to quit ordering stuff....

My finger hovers over the order button. Nah....I'll figure it out...