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Local comic book store diversifies to stay alive
By Kalea Hall
WARREN
All American Comics and Cards
Video
Greg Bartholomew, owner of a local Comic Book store is doing what he loves.
Surrounded by thousands of comic books, toys and games, Greg Bartholomew explains his calling to collect and to sell.
“I‘ve been a nerd my whole life. It’s just cool to be one now,” he said inside his Warren All American Cards and Comics on West Market Street.
Bartholomew, 49, opened his first store 23 years ago after he realized the fun of selling comics, and the money behind selling them.
He started collecting in 1974 at age 7 and did so until he was 17. In total, his large collection included 3,000 books.
“I was a traditional Marvel zombie,” he said. “I collected Marvel and Marvel only.”
He started to sell his comics when he went to attend college to become a teacher.
After he graduated, Bartholomew became a substitute teacher.
He decided he wanted to bring a comic and card show to the Youngstown area and did so in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“That was at the height of the first ‘Batman’ movie,” he said. “We had more than 1,000 people.”
At that time, the baseball card industry was taking off. Baseball card shops were everywhere in the area and Bartholomew shared a space with a baseball card seller in Warren.
It was a lot of trial and error in learning how to make a profit from selling comics, especially while working his shop part-time and teaching the rest of the time.
“I am luckily gifted with having a mathematical brain to figure out profit margin,” he said.
His first year, when he sold only comic books, was terrible.
By the second year of business, he diversified his products and started to sell card games, including Magic: The Gathering.
“We starting selling magic cards, dice and posters and toys,” he said.
Two years after he opened his first store, he bought out another store in Austintown and opened a shop there in 1995, which closed in 2000.
While his number of locations grew, so did the number of products.
He had a spot inside Eastwood Mall for three years, but then sold that.
In 1997, he opened a Boardman location on Market Street that is still open today.
“I treated it like a business,” he said. “This was not a hangout. This was my livelihood.”
In the late 1990s, it became his full-time livelihood.
In the 2000s, Marvel started to put out a whole new line of comics called the “Ultimate Spider-Man,” and the first “Spider-Man” movies came out, and then came “X-Men.”
“People started to become more aware of it,” he said.
Then came the “Batman” movies starring Christian Bale, the “Iron Man” movies starring Robert Downey Jr., and “Captain America” starring Chris Evans.
In 2012, came the release of “Avengers,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” opened in August 2014.
A new generation of comic book followers was born with the introduction to characters many didn’t know existed or who just went forgotten.
Bartholomew admits he knew nothing of the plot to “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but did know a few of the characters.
“You wouldn’t believe how many dancing Groots we sold,” he said.
The movies might not mean more comic book collectors, but do translate to more sales of toys and other items.
“Back in the day, this was an old man’s club,” he said.
Not so much anymore. Today, Bartholomew has both old and young, female and male customers.
Dom DiVencenzo, 20, and Corey Shehl, 23, both of Youngstown, are two customers into the games sold at All American.
DiVencenzo came to All American when he was little and started to collect Pokemon cards. A few years ago he rediscovered the shop.
“It’s a hobby I have had my entire life,” he said. “It’s just something that’s a part of my childhood that’s going to stay with me for a long time.”
DiVencenzo is teaching Shehl about Pokemon. Shehl and DiVenzenzo also play Yu-Gi-Oh!.
“I have been playing since I was in first grade,” Shehl said. “It’s something I never stopped enjoying.”
Bartholomew is spending $4,000 a week to refill his stores’ shelves every Wednesday with the latest comics.
“I still enjoy what I do,” he said. “I still get up and come down here every single day. It’s no different now than it was years ago. It’s a story and you can identify with the characters.”
Randy Moy has worked for Bartholomew for 20 years. He’s watched the same customers come in the doors, and watched as new customers come in to buy the latest trend of Pop! dolls.
“When ‘Guardians’ came out, for months I had little kids looking for Groot or Rocket Raccoon,” Moy said. Comic characters “just keep getting more popular.”
The latest Marvel movie, “Captain America: Civil War” just topped $1 billion in international box office sales. The latest chapter in Marvel’s X-Men series, “Apocalypse,” opened Friday.
As for the future, Bartholomew will continue to stay with the times and sell what people want. Luckily, he has Moy and another long-term employee to keep him abreast of what the store needs to carry.
“You have to know the product,” he said. “There’s so many things that are popular now it’s tough to know.”
On July 10, All American Cards and Comics will present All American 7, a comic, toy and art show from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at W.D. Packard Music Hall, 1703 Mahoning Ave. NE.
Admission is $5 at the door. Special guests this year include James O’Barr, the creator of “The Crow,” and Darryl Banks, co-creator of “Green Lantern.”