Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Comics

Diamond Comics shipment arrived: Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Hunter First Death #2 of 2 is in stock now.

Breif overview of sales for the first 5 months

We're SoCal so the rent is on the high side of national average, the strip-mall location is slightly off from the corner, which I didn't think would be that big a deal, but if I were to do it over (gah!) I'd attempt to get a more street visible spot. And something with a higher ceiling, and west facing if I could find it (I can handle the morning sun better than the evening), and ... ah well, There are, of course, a multitude of things I'd do differently, but overall it turned out fairly well.

It's been slow going these first few months, but things are starting to pickup, albeit slower than I'd hoped.
June = made rent, and maybe half the phone.
July was 6% better than June
August was 34% better than June
Sept was 22% better than June
Oct was 55% better than June (helped considerably by finally getting the internet sales going) and almost broke even with expenses ... So it shouldn't be too much longer before I can start claiming it's been successful.

Several Boxes shelved, HardBack Comic

Managed to get several boxes priced/listed & shelved.
Diamond Comics shipment arrived the other day, after some delay.
including Joss Whedon's Serenity Comic in HardCover

Did online orders in the morning, and not a lot of pricing/listing/shelving after.

William S. Burroughs

Got a couple of boxes done, came across a bunch of William S. Burroughs books.

Door to Door Theif

A Door to Door Salesman selling toys and junk came in the other day, stayed to look around, and stole a DVD. It had to be him no one else was over in that section, I just noticed it today.

Priced/shelved/listed 2 or 3 boxes, so managed to get a bit done, anyway.

Came across an intriguing book.

Well I'm in a better mood at least :)

Air quality is clearing up a bit.
Got a few orders online.
Managed to get a little pricing/listing done.

Some days it just doesn't pay to get up in the morning...

$395 charge for fixing the roof where All American Sign installed the storefront sign. All American Sign obviously didn't finish their install and left a very poorly covered hole. When it was brought to my attention I called All American Sign and they said they'd have someone right out to fix it, as it was forecast to rain and the hole would have certainly allowed water into the roof. Well according to All American Sign their guy came out and there was already someone up there doing work, so apparently he left and _never mentioned this to me_. I thought All American Sign had come by and fixed the problem, as they should have done when installing the sign months ago. But no apparently the landlord had someone up there and they did it, but never told me what they were doing either. I had no idea what had happened until I was charged for it with my rent this month. Very annoying, All American Sign won't pay of course, even though they are at fault. They said they would have fixed it, but... The landlord wants the payment and I can't blame him for that, but $395 is a bit much for patching a hole. And in all likelyhood I'm gonna be stuck with it. grrr. And I was 'this' close to breaking even this month before...

Got a call from a customer about an online order they want to return, their fault more or less, but I'm not going to dispute it. Still a $250 is going to put a bit of a damper on the online sales. Some days it just doesn't pay to open the store... :}

Posted everything listed in the database (as of today) on a blog here for direct sales.

Online listings and some new stock shelved

Did internet sales.
Fixed some errors in the online database the AOB that I'd made earlier.
Finally got around to pricing/shelving/listing some stuff this evening.

So-Cal is like a giant ashtray

Still smells like an ashtray outside, not too bad in the store 'tho.
Spent most the day doing bills.
2 more online sales.

dust devils and smoke daemons

Windy, dry, dust devils blowing dust & daemon smoke particles all over, it's like living in the middle of a desert or forest fire or something... oh yeah...

Finished pricing & putting out 'new' old bookmarks.
2 orders online.
mostly trading in today.

DVD's, Anime, Bookmarks, more Railroad Books

Really windy.
Shelved/priced/listed another stack of rare Railroad books.
Put out some New DVD's, and some anime and other VHS Tapes, Blakes' 7, Animaniacs.
Bookmarks - used and new.
and an old Kriegspiel game from 1970 that's never been played.

1019 is gone

Priced/listed a few things, got a few boxes emptied.
Sold Jeffery Scott's book.

More books on the shelves

Shelved a stack of Nancy Drew modern glossy yellow cover hardbacks, and a stack of Trixie Belden paperbacks, and some other young adult chapter books.
Shelved a pile of Audiobooks, a stack of them on CDs and a 4 stacks on tapes, lots of Unabridged.
Shelved some Guitar Tab books of 80's 90's rock.

bah still under the weather

Sick and groggy all day.
Priced/listed a few things. a couple DVD's Kern photo book.

Fencing, Comics, sick

More fencing books arrived.
Diamond comics shipment arrived.
Rotten sick... bah.

Railroad and lots of trades

Duane stopped in dropped off a collection of Left Behind books.
Messed with MySpace a bit.
Lots of trading, 2 boxes of paperbacks & a stack of audio tape & CD traded in.
Traded for a collection of Railroad books.

paperwreck

Sill sick.
Listed a few things, worked on bills and paperwork, and dealt with some fraudulent charges to my AMX :(
Getting Darker
The sign lights up well now.

Closed for Fencing

Fencing

Signed books, Manga

Still sick :(
Listed some signed books & some Manga.
Traded in a box of paperbacks, received some of the Fencing books I'd ordered.

Online orders & ads

Still sick.
Processed 5 orders online today.
Put a classified ad in the OC Weekly / LA Weekly & Pennysaver - see if that does anything.

Closed - Sick - bleah

Signed Graphic Novels

Shelved/Price/Listed some signed Graphic Novels.
Terry Moore Strangers in Paradise
Phil Foglio Girl Genius
Signed Dave Stevens Betty Page Bettie Paige

Kathy stopped in and dropped off some stuff.
2 people came by to sell books, but didn't like my offers.

Damn I'm catching a cold. :(

Diamond comics arrived. Brian Jaques Redwall by Bret Blevins Wallace & Gromit Magazine back in stock
Edward Gorey Gashlycrumb Tinies Lunchbox

Leatherbound

Baker & Taylor order payment.
Added ACOB to Yahoo Local.
OC Weekly online ad.
Listed some Leatherbound books.

Money & Taxes - and signed books

Paid PS Storage.
Input end of month stuff into QuickBooks.
Paid BOE taxes.

Priced/Listed/Shelved a couple signed books.

the Horror of Comics

Priced/Shelved/Listed some comic books, old Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, the Prez, Conan the Barbarian, and a bunch of old Horror comics from the early 1970's.

More Paperbacks on the shelves & New Racks

Yesterdays Post was a total pain to do, timed out crashed, wouldn't load, what the H#!!

Price/Shelved 2 boxes of fiction paperbacks, there some newer stuff for the racks too, and a box or so of other books.

Knives from 1981-1995, and Survival Knives.