So here we are now, 3 weeks into opening the store, and you might be wondering… I wonder how Eric’s doing? The answer is a definitive: ok. I won’t go into yet again how much work it’s been (a lot) or the current state of the comic industry (light growth with potential). I won’t talk about the adventure of learning how to start and run your own business (exciting and complicated).

Instead what I’ll talk about is the sense of accomplishment. Sure it’s nothing big at this moment, but even still, to see what I’ve put out there is pretty awe inspiring, at least for myself. What is even more exciting at this point is that I’m in the process of adding little touches here and there. It might be your overall discount on an item or a subscription, or a few extra preferences/settings that you can now choose. There are some bigger things that I have coming down the pike, but it is SOOOO much different than when I was working to get fundamental areas in place. Back then it kind of felt like “My store sucks until I get this in place.” I mean who is going to shop at a store that can’t do credit card processing, or has to load a 100KB image as a thumbnail on every page. Hardly things to get excited over.

But now… Now when you are adding the little things, I DO get excited over them. Mainly because these are things that a customer might not come to expect, and it feels like a little something extra I am giving my customers that other sites might not even have. Also, it feels like I am almost rewarding my (few) existing customers by giving them these touches that they didn’t already have when they signed up. Quite a good feeling actually. They are these little touches, I feel, that take you from one of the tens of thousands of other ecommerce sites out there, to one of the few that actively develop and improve their site. The last good thing about these little improvements is that the necessity and stress isn’t there. I can actually take a day off from the improvements and not feel like I’m falling behind. Maybe actually take a day to read one of these hundreds of books I am getting in. Or play a game, see a movie, or spend time with Heidi (that should actually be listed first).

So what are the lowest of lows? Hmm.. realizing how much I have sacrificed over the past three months. Not spending as much time with my family as I really needed to. Not taking any time for myself (the last two weekend really have bveen the first time in three months that I have taken one day each off). I have developed a pain in my neck.. likely a combination of stress and sitting at a computer for like 12 hours a day 6-7 days a week. And of course I will always be wishing sales were up.

Ok, well, that’s about all I have. The store is really turning into something special, and I am starting to get in some books that really veer away from the standard super hero/sci-fi/fantasy genres. This week for example I have in Sock Monkey: The Inches Incident #1, Don’t Cry, True Story Swear to God #1, and Line Vol. 1 among quite a few others actually. Of course if you are into the typical comic book fair then there is always Ultimate Spider-Man #100, Justice League of America #2, X-Men #191, and Action Comics #843 in as well.