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The Metropolis Collectibles Story, continued
“I had set a goal when I graduated from college: I wanted to be the biggest comic book dealer in the world. I wanted to be the number one dealer in the country and the biggest in the world. That was setting the bar pretty high. I broke up my business, and I struggled…really, really worked my butt off… to get where I am.”
Vincent’s original company had been called ‘Vincent’s Collectibles,’ and in addition to selling on the streets of New York, he already had an Internet presence and was a popular vendor at conventions. His friend (and now partner) Stephen Fishler dealt in vintage movie posters and collectibles, and had a showroom in Manhattan.
In 1999, Vincent and Stephen decided to merge their companies and take their business to the next level. The Manhattan showroom now does double duty as their office and a gallery to showcase one of the finest collections of vintage movie posters and comic book art in the country.
But the gallery displays only a small portion of what they have to offer: “The stockroom is filled with over 100,000 vintage comic books.”
After the merger, Vincent reviewed the Metropolis Collectibles website and decided that it wasn’t quite up to par with the volume and caliber of the items they were selling. He sought solutions that would make it easier to track their inventory, and make it easier for his customers to find exactly what they wanted.
The site had an initial makeover and re-launch in late 1999, and another in October 2001. In order to promote and market the site, and expand their customer base, they joined forces with TIAS.Com, “The Internet Antique Store.”
“TIAS host stores in an online antique shopping mall. We met them at an EBay convention in Ohio. They were based all over the country, but the president of the company worked out of Long Island, New York. We liked what they had to offer, and we got on board.”
What I like about this part of the story is that it highlights how Vincent continues to check out avenues for getting to his customers.
He puts as much thought into how to connect as he does into what to collect. He constantly evolves his assumptions as the workings of the marketplace change.
TIAS provides templates to their members to help them easily build online stores. All the back-end technology and programming is handled by TIAS, so members don’t need to hire an Internet consultant or have a computer guru on their staff to make a successful, working shop.
Members create the look-and-feel of their site and add information about their inventory, and for a monthly fee, TIAS handles all aspects of maintenance.
Vincent is also displaying courage in a very everyday sense. I’m referring to the opposite of the deadly sin of letting what you don’t know keep you from doing anything. He investigates.
He digs in and finds a way to get what he needs. Sometimes that means relying on outside help, not in a knee jerk way, and not just anyone. He finds a way to make his vision become real.
That’s leadership. That’s one reason why he has risen to the top in an area of business that is full of little stores hanging on by a thread.
“We had always thought of ourselves as the Amazon.com of vintage comics books, and we realized our site needed a look that would reflect that.
“It was clear that our customers wanted to shop quickly and easily, so we have multiple search options. You can search by title, by issue number, by genre, by publication.
You can search for CGC comic books, which are encapsulated, third party graded comic books, so people who are novices when it comes to knowing how to grade a comic book can buy comics that have been graded by a professional, impartial company.”
“We’ve taken our search features to the next level. I believe our website, for comics, is the finest of its kind on the Internet. I don’t think any of our competition has everything we have, and that has shown: in the last year, our sales have gone up 93% on the Internet, and that’s a tremendous jump.”
Vincent clearly understands that when people can by comic books from a number of sources, Metropolis has to offer more - more than he did before, or than his competition, or both, if it wants to maintain a competitive advantage.
He didn’t just create a site and sit back. He didn’t simply reference himself against himself. It’s his passion for what he does that continues to provide his energy. In the leadership profile (Link) we talk about the necessity of being excited about the business you’re in, about being eager to get to work and get started each day.
I think that this story shows a man with that kind of passion and the success that it can fuel.
When it came to creating a website design that really appealed to his customers, the old adage ‘Nothing succeeds like success’ came to mind:
“We created a new look for our site based on the top 10 most visited sites on the Internet. I’ve always worked that way; I’ve looked at the people I admired the most and I’ve emulated them, whether that was my father or friends or teachers.
I tried to find out what made them tick, what made them successful, and then tried to incorporate those things into my own regimen.
“Model yourself after someone you admire. It doesn’t have to be someone in the same business… it doesn’t even have to be someone in business! It could be someone in politics or sports, an actor, anything.
Find out how they’ve done what they’ve done, what their formula was, and incorporate that into your strategy for your business.
“When it came to business, it’s a natural direction to take: when you want to be the best, you look at who’s the best, and you try to copy or incorporate what you can from them.
Absorb what is useful and discard what is not.
Take what you can use and make it your own.
And that’s what we’ve done with both our business and our site."
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