Daily Archives: December 31, 2013

The Collector’s Corner-Double Play of Burlington, NJ is a bust for this Comic Book Guy

A few months ago I ended up at the Burlington Center Mall in Burlington NJ in my travels. It was a little depressing walking around the mall; I stopped counting empty stores at 10. I have been to this mall a few years ago and I remembered there was a comic book store in the mall, so I went looking to see if it was still in business. The Collector’s Corner-Double Play was still open and I really wish it hadn’t been.

I have never been a fan of comic book stores in malls. They are usually too small, cramped and it seems they don’t have much storage space for surplus inventory, things not being used or old merchandise not for sale anymore. I can’t count the times I have been to a comic book store in a mall and the owner of the store has the vacuum cleaner stored in the corner because there is no closet or storage room. So stuff is usually piled up in the corners or behind the counter. The other issue is that when the owner realizes that comic books aren’t really selling they start adding other products such as sports memorabilia, sports trading cards, gaming and other non-comic book merchandise.

So I ended it up in the Collector’s Corner-Double Play in the Burlington Center Mall and right away I realized that this store really needs to change or close. There were boxes piled up all over the place. The aisles were hard to get through and that made it hard to look at any of the back issues and other merchandise in the store. It seemed very cluttered and not well-organized or clean.

When I walk into a comic book store I like to be greeted and made to feel welcome to the store. This didn’t happen when I walked in; the gentleman behind the counter (who I am guessing was the owner) was on the phone the whole time I was in the store and seemed more concerned with his fantasy sports team then making a sale or making prospective customers feel welcome.
Collector's Corner-Double Play
There was another “customer” in the store who seemed to want to ask the sales person a question about a comic book and was totally ignored and left without making a purchase. As I stated it was hard to get to the back issues boxes. I will say that the new comic books were laid out nicely and he had a good choice of titles. The one thing about the way the new comics are displayed is that he did it on shelves that had the comics lying flat; I am a person who thinks that displaying them upright is a better way, but that is a personal bias.

I have been in comic book stores all over the NJ/NY/PA area and the Collector’s Corner-Double Play made the top 10 list of stores I would not go back to; its at about a 5 on that list. I would go back if I am at the mall but I will not be going back to Burlington just to go to the Collector’s Corner-Double Play.

Wise Words..well almost all of them, but they really do hit the nail on the head

This post was written in April, 2012 and has sat in the draft folder ever since.  So enjoy.

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I saw this posted on Google+ and thought Penn Jillette hit the nail right on the head (well except for the Grateful Dead Part).  You can’t look or listen or read something for five minutes and dismiss it as crap or something you don’t understand.  You have to take the time to learn about it and maybe you will like it.  I never said no to my daughter when she wanted to try something new.  Sure I gave her a hard time about the music she listens to, but that was because she doesn’t take the time to sit down and listen to the music that came before it. Of course I have heard some of my music leaking out of her room so maybe she is starting to listen to the roots of music.   So for any of you “NEW” parents out there don’t shut down your children’s likes, try to get them to learn and take in as much new things they can as well as the old things that the new things were built on.

As I write this I realize that my parents really did let me pick up things and run with them and didn’t say no to what I was into and wanted to do.

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