I Swear I’m not Trying to Steal Your 20-Sided Dice

A trip to a comic store proves to be more than just card sleeves and comic books

I walk into Zombie Planet and am suddenly surrounded by people in their early to late 20s working on miniature toy sets and looking through comic books. Jeffery Beach, who has worked at Zombie Planet for seven years, stands behind a counter full of dice as he rings people up as customers buy booster boxes, deck boxes, and comics. He’s a large man, around six feet tall, with tattoos all over his arms, and a long, dark beard. You would expect someone with this description to be intimidating, but as I spoke with him, he proved to be very approachable.

I hope that was her son and she wasn't just a cougar who didn't believe in statutory rape.

When you think of a comic book place, the first thing you would probably think of would be Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. He’s obnoxious, has a vast knowledge on comic book culture, and spends his time on internet forums for his various game groups.

You also only really see men in comic book shops since they are the unofficial rulers of comic book culture, while women are the minuscule niche on the comic book culture pie chart. (Much like in any other part of entertainment or politics or law enforcement.) And when entering Zombie Planet, it reflects that.

During my time there, I saw about eight or nine women come into the store. Granted, two of them were a mother bringing in her four-year-old daughter, and another entering with her teenage son; at least, I hope that was her son and she wasn’t just a cougar who didn’t believe in statutory rape. But very few women came into the store of their own accord. A few women did come in to buy comics for themselves and even card games. One even sat at a table while she played a card game that was either Magic the Gathering or Force of Will.
 “What else do you guys sell here besides trading cards?” I asked Jeffery, surprised by how quickly he replied.

“All the big trading card games, Magic, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Force of Will. We also sell board games, both European and American. A good mix of more complicated games and casual games like Guillotine and Flux. Not to mention role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. We also sell miniatures like Warhammer 40k, Fantasy, and War machine. We also sell pre-painted stuff like X-wing, Star Trek Attack Wing. We pretty much run the gambit of everything and try to carry a little bit of everything,” he said.

Yeah! D&D! I know that one. I mean, I’ve never played it and don’t really intend to, but I’m aware of it much like I’m aware that I should recycle more often but don’t. Pathfinder sounded familiar but I figured it was just another Dungeons and Dragons. I did dabble in Yu-Gi-Oh when I was younger, and re-dabbled in it this year with my roommate and our friend, Phil. I even put together a deck and dueled Phil (that’s what it’s called when you’re playing Yu-Gi-Oh); I thought I had the game locked in for a win with my Power Ranger-based archetype deck, but I left myself open for an attack with no way to cover myself. I had already been low on points, and on Phil’s next turn he took me out and then some. It was embarrassing.

He was eyeing me while I was near merchandise, almost as if he thought I was trying to shoplift.

“What do you think is your biggest customer demographic?” I asked Jeffery. He had to ring up five people who were all buying more comics and trading cards.

“I don’t think we have a dominant demographic. It’s really pretty much well-divided between card games, mini games, role-playing games. I mean Magic is a good percentage, and card games in general, is a good percentage of the sales but by no means the majority. So it’s really having all the various games and comics. It’s all about the diversity of the product,” he answered. 
And he was right.

Product diversity is important, and they had plenty of it. One part of the store is all trading cards, another is accessories for card games like card sleeves and card mats and dice, and another is miniature sets and model building. There are even tabletop shelves and racks for their comics and a second floor just for comics.

However, there wasn’t really any diversity in the people at the store. Not only were there not really any women there, but there also weren’t many people of color. There was one Asian guy who looked like he was in his early 20s, and then me.

The hardcore ones are always the ones you want to feel sorry for.

As I was waiting to interview Jeffery, I hung back and waited for his line to clear, but while he rung people up, he was eyeing me while I was near merchandise, almost as if he thought I was trying to shoplift. I’m the least threatening person I know. If anything, the most intimidating thing about me is the fact that I’m 6 feet 2 inches — three inches if I’m wearing my shoes — and even if my height was an issue, I have the least threatening tone of voice ever. I sound like the plainest piece of white bread to ever exist, which is helpful for if I’m ever on the phone with 911, but once 911 shows up and sees me I’ll go from needing help from the immediate danger, to becoming the immediate danger.

Then I wondered if there was any customer demographic that reigned supreme at the store.

“No, no, that’s a big thing here. We definitely try to appeal to everybody, casual gamers and comic book readers, and people that are more competitive or… hardcore, for lack of a better term. We try to appeal to everyone the best we can but it’s always hard to please everyone. For casual gamers and comic readers, it’s always easier in general to satisfy than someone that’s a hardcore competitor or collector,” Jeffery said.

The hardcore ones are always the ones you want to feel sorry for. They’ll shell out big money for cards and card cases in order to be the king of the nerds. But that’s only made-up as part of their trope, right?

“Do you ever see people shell out a lot of money for cards?”

“Oh yeah. Especially when there’s a new release. We’ve had guys pre-order three to four boxes or more. I mean, we’ve had people pre-order cases, like six boxes of cards. One guy pre-ordered two cases, so that’s 12 boxes. Generally, we’ll have guys buy one sealed box, but we’ll also have guys buy two or three sealed boxes and then maybe booster packs and accessories like card sleeves or deck boxes. So it’s not uncommon, but happens more often when there’s a new set out.”

For those of you who are not sure why that is such a big deal: A structure deck for Yu-Gi-Oh, that contains 40 cards, is $10. So, people have shelled out anything between $60–$120 in cards. Sets usually come out once a month, so you’re shelling out anything between $720 — $1440 a year… That’s not a wise financial decision, if you ask me.