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There's a few metal fans around here so I thought I'd see what ya'll think...

So I've been thinking about opening a game store for a while now. Been in the planning stage and I probably wouldn't be ready to open till probably next year. Got lots of advice from other shop owners, talked to distributers and all that. The only thing I lack is the personal funds to open it myself, I have a good chunk but I was really hoping to not have to put my house on the line to get a loan.

I do know that I want to have my own business built around something I love. And then I started thinking, I also love metal. So recently I started thinking, what if put the game store on the way back burner, and put my efforts into a Metal Shop?

It would start off as an online store, which is something I can't really do with games if I want to make a profit to live off of and sell GW. (I own my own home, not living in mom's basement anymore), with the eventual plan to open a retail store too. I'd sell all things metal. CDs & DVDs from poison & rush to slipknot and cradle of filth, books, band shirts, patches, posters and all that stuff. memoribilia like Eddie statues or whatever. Really anything metal related that I can buy wholesale and resell to people. I'd build and maintain the online store myself (I'm a web designer now, so it's a no brainer for me), and hopefully keep little in stock (at first anyway) and just order from the distributors as people order from me. I could also set myself up on Amazon so people can buy from me there. The eventual retail store wouldn't have to be huge compared to a game store (since I won't need a gaming area) so my rent and that stuff wouldn't be as bad.

Question is, in this day and age of Al Gore's Interwebs, would a glorified record store be able to stay in business?

Dunno. I would rather shop at a Mental Store:

I think with the massive new swing towards low-fi systems and more quaint, indie mediums (look what people are doing with cassettes) a real record store could do brilliantly, if it was properly done. I mean, there's the experience with a CD/Record that's the same with a book - you have it, you can hold it, it's yours. Not a few bytes on a shiny screen, it feels manmade and that's why it's deliciously good to have something like that. Don't make it too mainstream, don't make it too shiny. Show your passion and it'll pay dividends.

*goes and turns on walkman*

sA

Depends if you really went for it or made it more mainstream. If it's a real metal shop I would spnd a lot of time in there.

Wait... Are you saying Metal and Wargaming/40K couldn't go together?


HERESY!




I say go with what you want to do most. There's a huge market for minis/modelling/wargaming supplies, and there's a huge market for Metal CD's/clothing/posters.

Either way, you'll make good coin, especially over the Interwebz.

Yeah they could go together, or right next door to each other My thought is just that doing music and stuff, it would be easier to start small with a smaller investment, I didn't do any research to back that up though, but just a gut feeling.

it would definitely not be mainstream at all. I mean, yeah, I'd sell Metallica CDs, but they'd just be listed under M along with every other band that starts with M. But if mainstream you mean a shirt place like hot topic in the mall, hells no.

And I agree it's nice buying the actual CD or DVD, but I'm 38 and that's what I'm used to. Just dunno if the kids will feel the same when they're old enough to have jobs and buy their own stuff.

Necros wrote:There's a few metal fans around here so I thought I'd see what ya'll think...

So I've been thinking about opening a game store for a while now. Been in the planning stage and I probably wouldn't be ready to open till probably next year. Got lots of advice from other shop owners, talked to distributers and all that. The only thing I lack is the personal funds to open it myself, I have a good chunk but I was really hoping to not have to put my house on the line to get a loan.

I do know that I want to have my own business built around something I love. And then I started thinking, I also love metal. So recently I started thinking, what if put the game store on the way back burner, and put my efforts into a Metal Shop?

It would start off as an online store, which is something I can't really do with games if I want to make a profit to live off of and sell GW. (I own my own home, not living in mom's basement anymore), with the eventual plan to open a retail store too. I'd sell all things metal. CDs & DVDs from poison & rush to slipknot and cradle of filth, books, band shirts, patches, posters and all that stuff. memoribilia like Eddie statues or whatever. Really anything metal related that I can buy wholesale and resell to people. I'd build and maintain the online store myself (I'm a web designer now, so it's a no brainer for me), and hopefully keep little in stock (at first anyway) and just order from the distributors as people order from me. I could also set myself up on Amazon so people can buy from me there. The eventual retail store wouldn't have to be huge compared to a game store (since I won't need a gaming area) so my rent and that stuff wouldn't be as bad.

Question is, in this day and age of Al Gore's Interwebs, would a glorified record store be able to stay in business?

Personally, I think you should do the metal shop because It's hard to find CD's these days (at least in my town) plus the music industry has been hit hard and it's shops like these that will help it last longer. Also I wouldn't make it

exclusive to metal, include rock too because not only will it widen your fan base, but also it's an equally awesome genre. Remember to give the address of the store, I want to see it.

eh,it would be a wierd crowd if metalheads and 40k Geeks were in he same store....Owait..

Samus_aran115 wrote:eh,it would be a wierd crowd if metalheads and 40k Geeks were in he same store....Owait..

Sort of reminds me of this one wargaming site that starts with a "D" I can't remember it's name though, hmmm...

I agree with Samus.

The majority of the down to earth war gamers are metal-heads, least so I find.

I'm one of them for example.

Shadowbrand wrote:I agree with Samus.

The majority of the down to earth war gamers are metal-heads, least so I find.

I'm one of them for example.

Well I'm a ex-wargamer but I like metal, though I wouldn't consider myself a metal-head because I like rock as well plus, I'm not obsessed about heavy metal, don't dress in metal paraphernalia, don't have any metal posters, don't talk

about it much (with the obvious exception of DakkaDakka of course), etc, etc...

Well I also stated that was just my opinion.

I'm quite sure theirs different musical tastes among wargamers. Some of the tourney gamers listen to jazz and classical.

If you were somehow able to get t-shirts of metal bands in big and tall sizes, that would be awesome. I have looked all over the internet for them, and they don't seem to exist. I wear size 5X, extra long. I don't actually need them that big, but that's what I like. If you stock metal t-shirts in that size, I would buy loads of them. (Dimmu Borgir, Cannibal Corpse, Warbringer, Megadeth, SLAYER!!!)

Shadowbrand wrote:Well I also stated that was just my opinion.

I'm quite sure theirs different musical tastes among wargamers. Some of the tourney gamers listen to jazz and classical.

Temporary Thread Derailment:

Shadowbrand, you really need to start a thread that contains all your avatars and lists them with the date you changed it. It's very confusing. This way I could find out who you're posting as each time I log on, and you'd also get to share your awesome collection of creepy avatars with the rest of Dakka.

Rerailing Thread....

@Warpcrafter: I've noticed a significant lack of these sizes as well. Hear, hear. Again, not because I need them, but I like a bit of room.

I would definitely shop at a store like that, simply because i can't find the CDs i want anywhere. all walmart has is top 40 garbage. It took me a few weeks to find a place that carried the Falconer CD that i wanted and even then they had to special order it so costed extra.

I would probably stop in there for a while and browse the selection once or twice. maybe more... I don't know, things are kinda in the air and I don't have alot of money.