Need MTG shop ideas.

[Dire Sloth]

A comicbook/heroclix/MTG card shop opened not too long ago in the area. It's a nice little shop, but it's a bit plain and has a lot of empty space. The owner was telling me he wanted to, eventually, make the place look a lot nicer, but wasn't really sure what he was wanting to do.

I tried some quick searches already, but nothing especially spectacular came up. So, I thought I'd ask on here.

Any ideas? Or even pictures of other shops for inspiration?
Some suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[RaikuFA]

I thought of this a while ago.

Blood donations for cards. Donate blood to the red cross, get a pack of the latest set.(and cookies) They get customers and do stuff for a good cause.

 

[madwarper]

Have him contact WotC to become an event organizer [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/sanction/becommingato]. iirc, they'll send him some free promotional posters and things if he starts FNM.
Also, if possible, have him, one of his employes, or a local player test to become a rules advisor [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=judge/resources/rulesadvisorprogram]/judge.

 

[Dire Sloth]

He's good to go with official FNM, and we have a judge.
The store itself is just very plain. A few posters on the walls and one tiny glass case that can't hold all of his pricier cards.

Have him contact WotC to become an event organizer [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/sanction/becommingato]. iirc, they'll send him some free promotional posters and things if he starts FNM.
Also, if possible, have him, one of his employes, or a local player test to become a rules advisor [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=judge/resources/rulesadvisorprogram]/judge.

This sounds awesome!

I thought of this a while ago.

Blood donations for cards. Donate blood to the red cross, get a pack of the latest set.(and cookies) They get customers and do stuff for a good cause.

 

[Evil Smurf]

May I ask where is this shop? Perhaps people from the forum want to visit it. As for decoration, paint the walls with the mana colour: red, blue, black, green and white.

 

[Dire Sloth]

May I ask where is this shop? Perhaps people from the forum want to visit it. As for decoration, paint the walls with the mana colour: red, blue, black, green and white.

It's Coffey's Comics & Games. You can find it on FB. It's in Cape Girardeau, MO. Small shop for a small town.
I don't know any Escapists that live near here though. Would be cool if there were!

Also, that is a really badass idea. I love it!

 

[J.McMillen]

When you say empty space, do you mean the walls or the floor?

If it's floor space that's easy. A 6' folding table and some chairs. Plenty big enough for everything from MTG, board games, or even playing a tabletop RPG (like D&D). Giving people a place to meet and play can encourage business.

As for wall space, if he sells comics he gets them from Diamond. Diamond Previews (their monthly catalog) contains dozens and dozens and dozens of posters from pretty much every corner of geekdom. Comics, games, anime, movies, TV shows, and fantasy/sci-fi artwork. With his wholesale discount, he can get them cheap.

 

[Sam Hellerstein]

A place close to me is filled with very nice looking posters and art from the cards/universe. On one wall they have a set of official art of the 5 land types, and in the bathrooms they have stencil murals of those recent storyline planeswalkers, among other things. It also has trophies from events the local players have placed well in, but thats probably not something you have access to quite yet =P. If there's enough space, you might also put up some consoles and try to attract other audiences(the card place near me also doubles as a fighting game tournament host, for instance.) Hope that helps!

 

[Evil Smurf]

May I ask where is this shop? Perhaps people from the forum want to visit it. As for decoration, paint the walls with the mana colour: red, blue, black, green and white.

It's Coffey's Comics & Games. You can find it on FB. It's in Cape Girardeau, MO. Small shop for a small town.
I don't know any Escapists that live near here though. Would be cool if there were!

Also, that is a really badass idea. I love it!

No problem, unfortunately I don't live anywhere near there so can't visit.

 

[Dire Sloth]

It's like that for the most part.
I'm starting to think that maybe it's just cause it's such a small store. And it is still fairly new. I think he opened in April maybe?

If I were opening a comic/gaming shop I would follow the lead of this local shop and divide my store into two sections. One of them would be a nice store front and the other would be a gaming area. Because I promise if you can get a good steady stream of people showing up there to play in tournaments or just hang out and play cards in general they will eventually spend money there.

This is something I'd like to see.
Magic floor! [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1206]

 

[Evil Smurf]

This is something I'd like to see.
Magic floor! [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1206]

All those magic cards! Why? Also what deck are you running with? I'm building an aggressive red deck.

 

[Dire Sloth]

This is something I'd like to see.
Magic floor! [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1206]

All those magic cards! Why? Also what deck are you running with? I'm building an aggressive red deck.

A mean, green Selesnya populate token deck.
Centaurs galore!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My local comic book/mtg shop has a special area in it that's basically like a library, where they rent out graphic novels. It fills space, plus it's much cheaper to rent a graphic novel for a dollar and read it in a day or two than to spend $10-20 to buy one (or way more depending on how rare some of them are), if you're not interested in collecting.

Also, a lot of the space is just filled by shelves with comic book memorabilia and the like.

The type of stuff that stores just kind of collect over time.

 

[Dire Sloth]

The type of stuff that stores just kind of collect over time.

The hell is that?
And thank you for your input.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The type of stuff that stores just kind of collect over time.

The hell is that?
And thank you for your input.

It's a Crypt Keeper head. What's it look like?

Spoiler

No, but seriously, I have no fucking idea what that thing is.

 

[Evil Smurf]

This is something I'd like to see.
Magic floor! [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1206]

All those magic cards! Why? Also what deck are you running with? I'm building an aggressive red deck.

A mean, green Selesnya populate token deck.
Centaurs galore!

I just bought a 2012 deck builder's kit. Tomorrow I'm going to sort it out.