Greetings to... THE PEOPLE.
It's been a lot longer than I'd have liked -- but for good reason. In these last ~4wks that I haven't made a blog post, I have been working at a frenzied pace to prepare myself for a comic book show (The C4 Comic Con) and the grand opening of my flea market spot!
The show was lovely. There must have been 2000 people who attended, it felt very busy! The Caboto Centre here in Winnipeg is a great venue for such an event; tons of parking and lots of space indoors for vendors to setup. The hosts, Troy and Mark of Stringbean Comics were gracious and did a great job. I had a pretty successful outing, but mainly I was there just to get the word out that I was now off on my own and opening the flea market booth.
This past weekend was the grand opening of my flea market spot. I slapped a new coat of paint on the booth, got a second table, and hauled as many comics in there that I could price out in the short time I had.
I want to give a special shoutout to my girlfriend who helped me out with both the C4 Comic Con and prepping the booth on opening day. I couldn't have done it without her. I'd also like to acknowledge Ashley, of 204Comics fame, who was gracious enough to do a co-promotion with me that resulted in some great crossover business. Happy Anniversary to 204Comics!
I was blown away at how the grand opening went! My booth is small, so you can reasonably fit maybe 4 people in it at a time... I had dozens of folks stop by to support me! I wasn't expecting it, but many of my friends who are not even into comics came by to say hi and picked up a book or two. Many of the local comic guys had posted their pickups on our local facebook groups too!
It's hard to put to words how it feels to have all of these people from my life come out to support me. I am unsure of how to properly express myself, but just know that I am eternally grateful for every person coming into my booth or shopping on this website! Every purchase is another meal, a car payment, rent, helping with bills, and/or helping me acquire new inventory. Every purchase shows me that maybe... just maybe this thing will work!
The success of these past two weekends has really motivated me. So, here is a list that fans of Mr. Hollywood can come to expect over the next little while:
- The booth needs some shelves. I'm hoping to get that done this week!
- The booth needs a banner. I'm gonna work on that. I know a guy who does vinyl banners, so I might be able to get something cool done up.
- The booth needs more comics. You folks depleted my inventory a bit, but luckily I have lots more at home + purchased a few collections over the last week. Big restock incoming!
- The website also needs a proper restock! I'd love to get a minimum of 50 new books per week on the website beginning next week, Apr 8th and beyond!
- The website needs... work. It's not in a place right now where it flows very well or looks how I'd like. Whether that means I need to put work into the existing design, add some new elements, or go in a completely different direction, I'm unsure. I think we can expect some minor changes over the few weeks, with potential large changes coming in May.
- It's time to drum up another revenue stream! I have a lot of newer books that sometimes heat up due to speculation, low print runs, etc. I'd like to get the most out of them that I can. This means turning to the devil that I know. I'll be starting to sell on ebay as of next week as well.
It's an exciting time out here! At the outset I felt like I was unsure if this business had legs. I just wanted try my best and see how far I could make it. With all of the support, hard work I've put in, and plans I've got cooking... It looks like the future is exceedingly bright.
Until next time!
-Bobby.