In 1980, this used bookstore opened up. It was one of those places where you could trade in books towards store credit on purchases. They also sold cigarettes.

Anyway, a few months in, there was a box of comics in the back of the store. The owner's son decided to sell off some comics of his. Within a year that one box grew to several and they shop was selling and offering subscriptions to new comics.

Within another year, the comic part of the store became dominant and they moved over the border to Salem, NH, which sucked for me, because I had no way of getting there at that time.

Gradually, the used books and cigarettes went away and within a few years, it was solely a comic shop. I always thought it was weird that a comic shop was selling cigarettes, but the parents were still running the shop. Eventually, the son took over and that shop is still in business today.

I eventually got my license and made my way up there, subscribing to comics and being there every Friday for the new comics. That's how old I am -- comics were released on Fridays back then!

It's just funny thinking how that was thirty years ago and man, how time flies. But it's weird how the shop started off as one thing and transmogrified into another.

That's much like the history of my old LCS, although sans cigarettes. Started out as "Book World", a used book store that also sold comics. Eventually it went all comics (and rpg stuff) and today is the largest comic shop in the area. When I started shopping there regularly it was already 95% comics but the pricetags still said Book World on them.

My hometown shop started out as a used book store run out of a home. Each bedroom was converted into a different book department, including a hardbacks room, paperbacks room, comics room, and old dirty magazines sold in the front. After they moved to a proper retail building, their counter girl bought the place. She hung onto the paperbacks section for decades before finally conceding that she had been a comic book shop all along. I've seen that a couple of times, book stores that didn't want to admit that they were comic shops.

In the case of my comic shop, it overtook the used book business by leaps and bounds. This was right around the time the direct market was starting and it just exploded. The used books were a tiny part of the business before they phased them out.

Did they change their name?

The book stores in my hometown still go by "Book Store", even though they have huge paintings of Batman and Captain America beside their signs.

I think the name of the shop originally was Paperback Book Swap. But eventually, it became Chris's comics. They changed the name when they moved, but they still sold used books (and the cigs).

Yeah, it's shame was has happened since those glory days. I remember my excitement when a shop opened in my area.

The first time that I walked into our first local shop, two young geeks had camped themselves next to the cash register and taken it upon themselves to explain the comic shop concept to everyone as they checked out. "They get all the new books every Tuesday! He gets like every comic! He'll order stuff for you and hold it for you!"

There was a used book store that I went to that started to have a few comics,
then they suddenly had a lot of comics. The guy would pencil in the prices he
wanted for the used comics on the first page of the book (generally less than
cover price). It was annoying to me that he would write in the books. I tried
erasing them, but that hurt the paper if he wrote them in too hard.

He also had a single box with bagged comics. I wanted many of them. But,
he marked them all the MINT condition Guide price for those issues despite
most of them being VG to Fine. He wouldn't listen to me. The same comics sat
there for years. Idiot.

THe store still exists, but no longer has comics.

Those guys still exist. I overheard one guy at a small show explain to a kid about the Overstreet guide, and how it was the Bible for pricing. Ten seconds later he's telling a different kid that he won't buy the kid's books for anything over penny's, "No matter what the Overstreet Guide might say."

My favorite shop went corporate. It was slightly grungy shop called the Book Barn. They were resellers for books, movies, toys and music but also sold comic related stuff. The employees were a mix of types including some ex-hippies. It was inviting, a cool corner of the world to browse and look for a bargain.

Then they became Vintage Stock and went very mainstream. They built a new place and raised the prices. The crew is almost all college kids. They still sell the same stuff but it's not the same. I took a look at their web page. http://www.vintagestock.com/ It's depressing to read "Vintage Stock wins Dynamic Dozen award as it becomes the nation's second-hand giant." Yes, they are successful but something feels lost.