How many people in your community play these types of games? If it's only a handful, you can't survive on a local market.
I'm in a BIG METRO area. The biggest in the world besides Toyko. There aren't many card stores / comic stores here either. I think this is an online kind of business.
As for Bob's advice. In theory it would work but people who are reading comics and playing role playing games aren't usually the most social.
If you hope to make enough money to live on from "just" a comic book store, then I fear you'll go out of business soon. At the very least you'll have to sell on the internet, too, and this will probably be where you make most of your money.
As a place to hang, it's not a bad idea, but to get the most out of it I suggest you incorporate a cafe or coffee shop (with suitable drinks for children) so that you can encourage comic fans to buy a comic then buy a few lattes as they read it. You might also get some passing trade from other members of the public who just want some refreshment. Add free wireless internet and you might have the elements of a working business.
You need to treat this like any other business plan. Research your demographic and selling area, scout retail space and suppliers, and go into this with your eyes open that this sort of business has very tight profit margins and requires a relatively large investment for inventory. Visit the local colleges and check in with their game club, check out sites like Meetup to see if there is a local roleplaying group. A game/card/comic shop can be a successful small business but you need to treat it as a business and do your homework to make it successful. Check out a local one to me called "The Sentry Box" I think it's what you are thinking of, and is very successful.
I have been wanting to open a comic book store for a long time. I live in upstate sc there aren't any comic book stores in my town but there is one a few towns over and another about an hour away. I have visited both of them and noticed while they all sell lots of comics each
of them also have there niche. One focuses on Magic the gathering (a card game) and the other focuses on warhammer 40,000 ( table top strategy game). None of the shops focus on my passion which is pen and paper RPG's. Games like D&d, pathfinder, chill, gamma world, call of cathulu etc...as a matter of fact all my friends have to order our d&d stuff online we wish we had a place to hang and buy our books and minitures. Im just curious if opening my own shop sounds like a good idea to you guys. Im struggling with weather or not I should bother opening one im worried I might fail because everyone already has there spots. Im hoping that with focusing on the Pnp rpg aspect i may attract those fans. Any advise at all is greatly appreciated. ......ps. I live near three colleges.
