Post by Admin on Jan 28, 2014 16:41:05 GMT
From the outside, Trade A Tape Comic Center might look like any locally owned corner store.
But when stepping inside, not only do you see its walls, racks and bins of colorful comic books and vintage magazines, but you also meet Katie, Herbie and Grace – three day-dreaming cats curled up and basking in the glow of the store’s fluorescent lamps. They grew up in the shop, along with store owner Larry Lorenz who took over the business when he was 19 years old.
Trade A Tape Comic Center is a locally owned shop at 145 S. 9th St. that still exists more than 30 years later, with a warm and relaxed atmosphere, its horde of vibrant comics and the faithful customers.
Lorenz knows some of the regular shoppers by name.
“Would you grab Scott’s stuff,” Lorenz said to an employee as a white-haired man approaches the counter. “That’ll be $75.15, Scott.”
The electronic cash register beeps as Lorenz rings up Scott, the only customer left in the store. After grabbing his bag full of comics, he shuffles out. Scott has been coming to the store since 1975 when Trade A Tape Comic Center opened.
This isn’t unusual.
“It’s really cool watching little kids grow up buying comics and then grow into adults and have kids of their own,” John Doan, an employee, said. “I have established a lot of relationships working here.”
Lorenz became the owner of the shop on the corner in 1977 when the former owner was looking to sell. The former owner, Lee Aronsohn, was trying to get to Los Angeles.
Lorenz doesn’t want to rehash the history, but he does so anyway.
“All right I’ll tell the story,” Lorenz said. “(Aronsohn) is the co-creator of ‘Two and a Half Men,’ the man who used to own this place. So he’s doing OK. He didn’t really like retail, and he didn’t like to interact with people all that much. Although how he dealt with Charlie Sheen, I don’t know.”
Before Lorenz could get his driver’s license, he had already started collecting comic books. Some of his favorites were “Fantastic Four,” “X-Men” and “The Amazing Spiderman,” but, in order to buy Trade a Tape Comic Center, Lorenz dealt his entire stash.
“(Aronsohn) sold my collection a long time ago, but he’ll be getting checks for the rest of his life from his TV shows,” Lorenz said. “He’ll live to be 95 and still be getting checks from them. So, that’s what he’s doing. He didn’t like Lincoln. He was kind of a snob at that time.”
At that time and as part of the forked-over collection, Lorenz had the “Fantastic Four” issue No. 1, which he paid $250 for and sold to Aronsohn for $1,000.
“It wan’t a big deal to have all of those comic books back in 1977, but now it would be worth quite a bit,” Lorenz said. “I don’t like to think about how much they would be worth. The ‘Fantastic Four’ issue No. 1 I had would probably be worth at least $100,000 now because it was almost in perfect condition.”
“When you’re 19, you don’t really have a lot of money, or at least I didn’t,” Lorenz said. “He was really desperate to get out, but I don’t really think that I needed to give him all of my ‘Spiderman’ and all of my ‘Avengers’ and all of my ‘X-Men’ comics.”
While places like the mall may be packed with shoppers on a Saturday, the weekends are not particularly busy at Trade A Tape Comic Center.
“Wednesday’s the day,” Lorenz said. “Wednesday is new comic book day, and that is always the best day of the week. That is where you see all of your regulars.”
On Tuesday, the store gets in all of the new episodes of the comic book series and stocks the shelves for Wednesday. Although the comics are in ahead of time, Lorenz doesn’t sell the comic books until the next day in respect to other stores. After stocking the shelves, he tapes a piece of cardboard in the front so that customers can’t sneak peeks at the new issues. Although, some comic book collectors still do.
“It’s kind of this agreement between everybody to not sell them until Wednesday so that we don’t create a competition,” Lorenz said. “But we are the only comic book store in Lincoln around here, so I still wouldn’t have an edge.”
Some customers even try to buy the comic books on Tuesday.
“They send out secret shoppers to try and get you to sell to them when you aren’t supposed to,” Lorenz said. “It’s only happened twice, but I am really not sure.”
About 75 customers pre-order the comic book issues to pick up on Wednesdays. Lorenz said his store’s patrons are mainly males, ages 18 to 40, but he does see women come in occasionally, too.
But for himself, after four decades, Lorenz isn’t really into comics anymore. Instead he’s more of a “film guy” who watches movies from the ’50s and ’60s despite the recent blast of super hero movies in the past decade.
“After you do something for 40 years, it’s not quite the same as when you were younger,” Lorenz said.
Doan’s interest also took hold at a young age.
“I was 5 years old in 1970,” Doan said. “My memory is being at a babysitter’s place, and she had an Uncle Scrooge comic. I read that, and I was kind of hooked from that moment on. I can’t say why it hooked me so much, but it just stuck with me.”
Though, as the years rolled on and he spent more time with the medium, Doan’s passion also wore to some degree. Specifically, he doesn’t buy comic books anymore – despite his long-held adoration.
“Working for a comic shop five days out of the week doesn’t make me want to go home and read comics or watch comic book movies,” Doan said. “I kind of leave that at work. I still like the industry, and I like the new things that are coming out. They’re still enjoyable, but I don’t buy them; I read them here.”
And Lorenz and Doan aren’t the only ones not buying comic books anymore.
“Comic circulation isn’t huge like it used to be,” Doan said. “If you look at the numbers, in December there were like four titles that made it over 100,000 copies.”
“Which in the early ‘90s there was a comic that sold over 7 million copies: X-Men,” Lorenz said. “It’s was way different than today.”
Lately, comic books are being released online and through websites such as ComiXology and even on e-book reader stores. Comic book digitization is a threat to all stores such as Lorenz’s because the price is cheaper, he said.
“I don’t really trust them that much, but we will see what they will do,” Lorenz said. “They could mess with price points or (digital comics) could give you exclusive content that you can’t get on paper.”
Even though digital comics might be appealing because of the cheaper prices, instant accessibility and the possibility of exclusive content, Lorenz remains as relaxed as his three cats lying on their towel beds next to the cash register, flipping their tails to leaving customers.
“I think as long a people have a choice, they will choose paper over digital,” Lorenz said. “But really they could just pull the plug on us at any time.”
But when stepping inside, not only do you see its walls, racks and bins of colorful comic books and vintage magazines, but you also meet Katie, Herbie and Grace – three day-dreaming cats curled up and basking in the glow of the store’s fluorescent lamps. They grew up in the shop, along with store owner Larry Lorenz who took over the business when he was 19 years old.
Trade A Tape Comic Center is a locally owned shop at 145 S. 9th St. that still exists more than 30 years later, with a warm and relaxed atmosphere, its horde of vibrant comics and the faithful customers.
Lorenz knows some of the regular shoppers by name.
“Would you grab Scott’s stuff,” Lorenz said to an employee as a white-haired man approaches the counter. “That’ll be $75.15, Scott.”
The electronic cash register beeps as Lorenz rings up Scott, the only customer left in the store. After grabbing his bag full of comics, he shuffles out. Scott has been coming to the store since 1975 when Trade A Tape Comic Center opened.
This isn’t unusual.
“It’s really cool watching little kids grow up buying comics and then grow into adults and have kids of their own,” John Doan, an employee, said. “I have established a lot of relationships working here.”
Lorenz became the owner of the shop on the corner in 1977 when the former owner was looking to sell. The former owner, Lee Aronsohn, was trying to get to Los Angeles.
Lorenz doesn’t want to rehash the history, but he does so anyway.
“All right I’ll tell the story,” Lorenz said. “(Aronsohn) is the co-creator of ‘Two and a Half Men,’ the man who used to own this place. So he’s doing OK. He didn’t really like retail, and he didn’t like to interact with people all that much. Although how he dealt with Charlie Sheen, I don’t know.”
Before Lorenz could get his driver’s license, he had already started collecting comic books. Some of his favorites were “Fantastic Four,” “X-Men” and “The Amazing Spiderman,” but, in order to buy Trade a Tape Comic Center, Lorenz dealt his entire stash.
“(Aronsohn) sold my collection a long time ago, but he’ll be getting checks for the rest of his life from his TV shows,” Lorenz said. “He’ll live to be 95 and still be getting checks from them. So, that’s what he’s doing. He didn’t like Lincoln. He was kind of a snob at that time.”
At that time and as part of the forked-over collection, Lorenz had the “Fantastic Four” issue No. 1, which he paid $250 for and sold to Aronsohn for $1,000.
“It wan’t a big deal to have all of those comic books back in 1977, but now it would be worth quite a bit,” Lorenz said. “I don’t like to think about how much they would be worth. The ‘Fantastic Four’ issue No. 1 I had would probably be worth at least $100,000 now because it was almost in perfect condition.”
“When you’re 19, you don’t really have a lot of money, or at least I didn’t,” Lorenz said. “He was really desperate to get out, but I don’t really think that I needed to give him all of my ‘Spiderman’ and all of my ‘Avengers’ and all of my ‘X-Men’ comics.”
While places like the mall may be packed with shoppers on a Saturday, the weekends are not particularly busy at Trade A Tape Comic Center.
“Wednesday’s the day,” Lorenz said. “Wednesday is new comic book day, and that is always the best day of the week. That is where you see all of your regulars.”
On Tuesday, the store gets in all of the new episodes of the comic book series and stocks the shelves for Wednesday. Although the comics are in ahead of time, Lorenz doesn’t sell the comic books until the next day in respect to other stores. After stocking the shelves, he tapes a piece of cardboard in the front so that customers can’t sneak peeks at the new issues. Although, some comic book collectors still do.
“It’s kind of this agreement between everybody to not sell them until Wednesday so that we don’t create a competition,” Lorenz said. “But we are the only comic book store in Lincoln around here, so I still wouldn’t have an edge.”
Some customers even try to buy the comic books on Tuesday.
“They send out secret shoppers to try and get you to sell to them when you aren’t supposed to,” Lorenz said. “It’s only happened twice, but I am really not sure.”
About 75 customers pre-order the comic book issues to pick up on Wednesdays. Lorenz said his store’s patrons are mainly males, ages 18 to 40, but he does see women come in occasionally, too.
But for himself, after four decades, Lorenz isn’t really into comics anymore. Instead he’s more of a “film guy” who watches movies from the ’50s and ’60s despite the recent blast of super hero movies in the past decade.
“After you do something for 40 years, it’s not quite the same as when you were younger,” Lorenz said.
Doan’s interest also took hold at a young age.
“I was 5 years old in 1970,” Doan said. “My memory is being at a babysitter’s place, and she had an Uncle Scrooge comic. I read that, and I was kind of hooked from that moment on. I can’t say why it hooked me so much, but it just stuck with me.”
Though, as the years rolled on and he spent more time with the medium, Doan’s passion also wore to some degree. Specifically, he doesn’t buy comic books anymore – despite his long-held adoration.
“Working for a comic shop five days out of the week doesn’t make me want to go home and read comics or watch comic book movies,” Doan said. “I kind of leave that at work. I still like the industry, and I like the new things that are coming out. They’re still enjoyable, but I don’t buy them; I read them here.”
And Lorenz and Doan aren’t the only ones not buying comic books anymore.
“Comic circulation isn’t huge like it used to be,” Doan said. “If you look at the numbers, in December there were like four titles that made it over 100,000 copies.”
“Which in the early ‘90s there was a comic that sold over 7 million copies: X-Men,” Lorenz said. “It’s was way different than today.”
Lately, comic books are being released online and through websites such as ComiXology and even on e-book reader stores. Comic book digitization is a threat to all stores such as Lorenz’s because the price is cheaper, he said.
“I don’t really trust them that much, but we will see what they will do,” Lorenz said. “They could mess with price points or (digital comics) could give you exclusive content that you can’t get on paper.”
Even though digital comics might be appealing because of the cheaper prices, instant accessibility and the possibility of exclusive content, Lorenz remains as relaxed as his three cats lying on their towel beds next to the cash register, flipping their tails to leaving customers.
“I think as long a people have a choice, they will choose paper over digital,” Lorenz said. “But really they could just pull the plug on us at any time.”
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