Comic Book Shop vs. Game Store

Due to some events that have happened in my local area recently, I was inspired to write this and the corresponding post on my RPG4EVR blog.



A few month's ago, I was doing some random Google search's, when I cam across the Google reviews for my LCS; Tony's Kingdom of Comics. Here is the review that caught my attention:

I decided to stop in by recommendation of a
friend as I am new to the area however when I entered this establishment
I wasn't greeted. I figured maybe the help was busy assisting other
customers but after about 10 minutes I finally approached the counter to
inquire about trades on magic cards. I was very quickly shot down with
the response of "It's a waste of our time" in a very short and matter of
fact sense. I can see this place being good for regular comic book
readers and collectible customers however it was made very clear I
wouldn't want to waste their time with collectable card games and to
take my business to Borderlands in downtown Salem.

I would like to reference that I have almost 20 years of customer service experience, and am familiar with how things normally run at Tony's. Though I can't speak to the many possibilities of why this person wasn't initially greeted when they entered the store, I feel that I can speak to the facts around them not wanting to deal with trading CCG cards.



Tony's has a large selection of just about everything a pop culture enthusiast would want. They are also billed as a "comic" store. Yes, they do sell games like Magic: The Gathering... but I don't feel it is right to expect them to also deal in the secondary market. Yes, this may or may not bring in additional revenue, but (speaking from experience) these transactions take a lot of time and space that Tony does not have to offer. Expecting a comic book store to cater in trading CCG cards is similar to expecting to be able to pet the tigers at the zoo. Sure, it may be offered in some areas, but it is not typically the norm.