Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Books in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about the ways that an investment in equipment can pay off for your store:

Upfront I should mention I'm fiscally conservative, especially when it come to somebody else's money, so I'll never casually advise you to go out and buy something.  But if you do just happen to have a couple hundred dollars in your budget that's not already been earmarked for something, I'd suggest you go out and buy yourself a second computer.

I'll assume you already have the one, somewhere in the back, but when it's in use one of your staff gets benched for the duration (or, worst case scenario, there are days when your staff consists of you and since you can't be in two places at once working on the computer gets pushed back to after business hours).  Now, there are definitely computer related jobs requiring your complete attention and minimal interruptions (doing orders, crunching numbers, putting things on eBay, etc.) but there are also dozens of minor tasks to be done during the course of a day that could be done while you're on the floor.

I've long wanted a second computer for Dark Star but it always seemed like a luxury we couldn't afford; it took our manager, Tad Cleveland, to convince our owner Mary Alice Wilson it wasn't a luxury but a necessity.  So for a relatively small investment we bought a second computer, flat screen monitor and printer and placed them behind the cash register.  We've only had them for a couple of months but it's hard to imagine what life was like before we got them.

Now, you'll need a high-speed Internet connection to perform some of these 'tricks,' but to answer the question 'What would I use it for?'...

Frequently Asked Questions

Dark Star also sells new and used books so our top Frequently Asked Questions involve either the author or title of a book, which hopefully gets followed up by 'Do you have it, Is it in print,' and 'Can you order it for me?'  Those questions also apply to graphic novels and a couple seconds on line can give you your answers -- instead of having to wait for the next available Diamond representative.

Even when a customer's question doesn't lead to a sale they can be an opportunity for you to learn something.  Recently one came in asking about a comic book about the Civil War; Mr. Know-It-All me would have sworn there was no such a thing, then I punched in 'Civil War Comic Book' and out popped a link to the Virtual Liberty Belle Museum which was selling copies of Epic Battles of the Civil War -- produced by Marvel!

Next Week's Invoice

There's no more need to print it out; a touch of a button brings it up for both you and your customers.  Plus having it so readily available makes it easy to set prices and discounts for specialty items ahead of time instead of waiting for Wednesday (which, I'm sure we'll agree, is already a busy enough day).

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

Signage is important but it can also be time consuming.  Say a new series of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards comes in and you need to make a professional looking sign with the price on it, but you have to wait until someone goes back to work on the computer.  Not any more.

Doing the Comic Reserves

No more having to make time to update a customer's reserve files or sniff out the special request amongst the incoming trade paperbacks.  Additions and deletions to a file can be done immediately, and on Wednesday, instead of fumbling through a print-out, you can type in a title and find out who gets what.

And Now the News

For you and your customers it's a handy way of checking out the various comic book news Websites; along with keeping yourself informed about what's going on, it's a way of getting customers excited about upcoming projects.  We're constantly getting questions about when the next Hellboy mini-series is coming out, or if there's going to be a new Crow.  A couple just came in and asked when Frank Cho was going to publish a new issue of Liberty Meadows; thanks to an interview with him on Newsarama, I was able to tell them.

And here are a couple of cool audio/visual things Tad set up:

Slideshow/Sideshow

Capture images online from upcoming Marvel/DC solicitations and put your screensaver on 'slideshow' and you have a constantly changing promotional montage that's right in your customer's faces.

Let There Be Music

I've always believed a truly cool comic shop requires comic music playing in the background.  But deciding what to play can be an arduous task, since to keep the peace you have to take into consideration the musical tastes of your entire staff (plus your customers').  So instead of taking turns you can create MP3's of everyone's favorite songs, create a play list then put it on 'random,' and no-one has to listen to too much of anyone else's music.  It's also a great way of getting customers to ask, 'What CD are you listening too?'