Comic Book Ink in Tacoma Washington in danger of closing

By Dan Morrill On June 7, 2011 · 2 Comments · In Comic Book News

Famous Funnies #1 (July 1934). Cover art by Jo...

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Making the rounds this morning is the news that Comic Book Ink in Tacoma Washington is in danger of failing. Comics Forge and its affiliates received this unhappy news this morning and is asking all of its readers to think about this for a minute and see what you can do to support them. The comic book industry is troubled; deeply troubled and Comic Book Ink is a reflection of that industry. Hit with a double whammy of business and personal issues it is very hard to keep focused when dealing with both personal problems and business problems. I get that, we have been there when beset by both ourselves in October of last year that caused a major disruption in our lives and in our business.

In an amazingly frank and open letter to their customers, Comic Book Ink posted a message that everyone should read. Not just customers, but other comic book retailers because we are all facing the same if not similar issues with special orders, rents, and the slowing economy. Digital is also going to cut into this, and realistically the problems that Comic Book Ink is looking at are the same problems across the entire retail side of comics. There is nothing new here, other than the plea from the store to help them out.

You can find the Comic Book Ink web site here, they open at 11, make sure you take some time to go down there and at least visit them. Pay cash so that they don’t lose the 3.5% in credit card fees, that is a meaningful amount of money sometimes.

You can read the rest of their open plea here; we have cut and pasted selected sections of it below.

If you can help do, if you cannot, then at least try, comic book stores are worth saving. Comic Book Ink is asking for the below help.

How You Can Help:

Please, pick up your Comic Book Files and/or Special Orders Weekly. We are CARRYING A LOT of FILES & SPECIAL ORDERS right now. There is, more than likely, more than $30,000.00 sitting in the files * special order closet right now.

If you are local, and haven’t received your shipped books, please drop by and pick them up through the summer…even if its once a month. I am so sorry, but shipping has gone way up (and I have been charging you the old rates).

Buy a Comic Book Ink GIFT CERTIFICATE and don’t use it for a while. I would like to do the “Added Discount Bonus” that we have done in the past, but it simply cannibalizes our sales beyond the short term relief.

If you could provide us with a short term loan that you could hold off on for a while or that we could pay back with small payments. It would be appreciated beyond measure.

Buy a Share of Comic Book Ink that I could buy back from you in 2012 or 2013 (in what would be the store’s 10th Anniversary year). This is something I have never done, nor offered, before. I am willing to sell shares of Comic Book Ink Inc for $1,000.00 each…with the knowledge that I could repurchase them back from you at rate of $1,100.00 each in 2012 or $1,200.00 each in 2013. This is limited to a total of 40% of the store’s shares of 100.

If you are an Angel, please continue to be patient. You are a large part of what has kept us here for over 8 years