Dan Veltre of Dewey's Comic City in Madison, New Jersey, saw John Riley's recent comments on back issues (see 'Sharpening the Sword--Back Issues, Part 1' and 'Back Issues, Part 2') and also found that reducing the selection of back issues was a good for his business:

I've been enjoying the back issue discussion currently taking place on ICv2.  At Dewey's Comic City we removed the vast majority of our back issues about seven years ago (we still maintain a small 2' x 6' rack, mostly for conversation reasons).  We found, like John, that they simply weren't paying their way considering the amount of floor space and the work they required.  Also, like John, we found that most back issue purchases taking place in our store were for recent books as buyers caught up with a given series.  So our solution to back issues was to keep about six to 12 months worth of a series, bagged and boarded, behind the two most recent issues.  Our POS system tells us what sells, and every weekend we replace the sold books.  (Before we had a POS, we tagged each book, pulled the tag when they sold, and replaced each sold book each weekend.)

Here's the surprise: our back issue sales numbers, while never great, actually went up!  We now sell more in total dollars then when we had 250+ sq. ft devoted to back issues!   Here's another benefit: every few months we drag out a few boxes, label them a buck or two each, have a big 'sale' and find that they fly out the door.  It works for us. 

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