I'm about to re-open Captain Cosmos

[Goofateer]

Things are finally starting to fall into place. In 24 hours my shop will open it's door's again.

For those that don't know I'm about to reopen Captain Cosmos. It's got a long history. Originally open in October of 1991, it was the biggest, best, and practically ONLY comic shop North Mile High Comics in Denver. The first location was Laramie Wyoming, and we actually had repeat business from New York. We had a good 3 1/2 year run starting with the week Super Man died, and closing 1 month before Marvel announced their near industry destroying distribution system.

At the time we would move every time Mom got a promotion. So we closed with the intention of reopening in a new city. The promotion took much longer than expected, 1 year rather than the usual 2 to 3 months. So the lay dormant in storage. In the mean time things changed as they often do. My parent's moved to Tennessee with half the stock, while I sat on the rest in 3 storage units in Wyoming, always with the intention of reopening. For a long time I had my eye on a very cool old gas station on a large corner lot out side of Fort Collins Colorado. That area is now heavily developed and would have been so perfect. But I simply could not get a bank loan, so that plan never worked out.

Mean while Dad was selling stuff at weekend flea markets all over Tennessee.

2 years later my parents moved to Delta, Colorado. That's basically the ass end of Colorado. Their ain't nothin' there except migrant workers, and tumbleweeds. But I soon followed. Did our best to sell stock at garage sales, and eBay was just getting started. In 1999 we moved to our current location in Kentucky. The Government moved my parent's, but I was no longer covered. There was no way in hell I was staying in Delta Colorado. So I had to move with them. Couldn't afford a truck big enough to transport all of the remaining stock, let along my personal collection. So we had a HUGE garage sale, that included 1000's of comics. By chance a local preacher showed up that liked Green Lantern. We ended up donating something like 100 boxes of comics to his church, and took a 5000 tax brake. Still couldn't move everything. So me and Dad completely packed our van with collectibles, and I mean COMPLETELY, front to back, under the seats, and to the roof. We barely fit ourselves in there. There where about 20 boxes of comics, 3000 MIP figures from various lines, T-shirts, posters, and standies. Then we made the 6 hour drive to Denver.

We hit every comic shop we could find, saving Mile High for last because we knew they would take it all, but give us sh*t for it. I completely unloaded and reloaded that van about 6 times that day. We where able to unload about $500 worth of shock, some in trade, but mostly cash. Then we hit Mile High. The van was still quite full. They gave us $600 cash, and I think $300 in trade. Out of probably $6000 to $10,000 worth of stock we made $1500. Talk about a bit hit. Captain Cosmos seemed to be dead.

We made the move. I still need a 20 foot truck just for my stuff, and still had to leave some stuff behind. At least I was able to keep my personal G.I. Joe collection, another 100 or so long comic boxes, all of the Star Wars collection, and most of the vintage toys.

Once in Kentucky we found a local Flea Market that was ran more like a store so that we didn't have to man the booth everyday. We eventually ended up with 3 booths, and Captain Cosmos at least existed in some form. Then I went to the Norfolk GI. Joe convention and brought my entire modern Star Wars collection. Sold all 600 MIP figures, and 20 or so vehicles, for $300 in trade to Toy Cave. Got some sweet Japanese G.I. Joe stuff though.

Not long after that 2 friends opened a comic and game shop in Florida. They needed stock. Though they were partners in the business, I technically only made the deal with 1 of them. Unfortunately he turn out to be the one that would skim off the top, and force the business under then declare bankruptcy. In the end I got about $1000 for 70 long boxes, all the rest of my game stock, some toys, and $700 car bill that he had originally agree to pay for. Granted, had I sold those same comics to any of the local shop's I would have only gotten about $200. Still, another huge hit to old Captain Cosmo's.

Then about 4 years ago, Mom decided to buy a run down, historic downtown building here in Winchester, Kentucky. After sinking a ton of money into the building we got it up to the point where it was livable, and moved in last year. We almost immediately re-opened as Captain Cosmos Crafts and Collectibles. We were open for about 3 month's and had something like 20 customers the entire time. We finally realized that we had far to much to do at the time to finish the building, run the apartment's, and keep a failing shop open, all while I was at work 10 hours a day. We closed for "remodeling."

That was about 6 months ago.

Since then we've gotten a ton of stuff done. I've expanded the actual store area by more than double what we started with. I've organized and sorted out a bunch of stuff from my collection, and bought a bunch of stuff on clearance here and there. We bought a professional sign that will go up next week. We have a commercial coming in June thanks to the Downtown Business Association. So I might just survive unemployment just long enough to start making money on my own.

Tomorrow we reopen our doors to a whole new Captain Cosmos. Mom has her half with crafts, scrap booking, and stamping, while I have my half with G.I. Joe. Star Wars, Star Trek, DC, Marvel and various other figures, and the remaining 40 or so short boxes of comics mostly from the original store. We also have some random things like a huge pile of kids clothes I found on super close out, some antique furniture, and Fiesta Ware dishes.

I still have a bunch of stuff to do today. But I just had to let everyone know what was going on with it all. Sorry to post such a long message. I was just basically going to say that we where about to reopen. Didn't sit down with the intention of typing for an hour.

Roger

[jamarmiller]

Good luck to you! I know how hard it is to run your own business, so best wishes! and Thanks for sharing !

[The Baron]

Have a great Opening Day! Sounds like you've paid your dues and fought your way to a plateau - good for you. Hopefully it'll be downhill from here, mixed metapohors aside

Good luck!

[andyturnbull77]

Best of luck on opening day and for the future.

Andy