Comic book retailers know when the economy has taken a turn for the worse.

John Shine has worked in the industry for decades and has seen “recession after recession after recession.”

He knows the signs.

Regular customers cut back on their purchases. Some cancel their weekly subscriptions. Then people start coming to the store to sell their books.

“When you start seeing a lot of people coming in at the same time, you know people are afraid,” said Shine, a store manager at Beyond Comics in Gaithersburg. “My first call this morning was somebody trying to sell me comics.”

The ongoing federal shutdown and the unpredictability of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have been a one-two punch to business at Beyond Comics, both restricting customers’ spending and forcing the store to adapt as tariff prices cut into profits.

Shine and his longtime colleague Jon Cohen, a Beyond Comics manager who mostly works from the business’s Frederick location, have been concerned by the “utter unpredictability” they’ve seen from Washington, D.C.

But they’re confident they’ll weather this storm.

“We’ll weather it fine. I think, ultimately, more placid waters will come,” Shine said. “The issue is just getting through it in the meantime.”

Signs of distress

Beyond Comics has been in business since 1996, selling a wide selection of comic books and merchandise like statues and high-end action figures.

As a retailer in Montgomery County, which has more federal employees than any other Maryland jurisdiction, the Gaithersburg store has long been susceptible to downturns during federal government shutdowns.

Shine said people generally buy comic books because they’re collectors, they’re nostalgic or they’re making an investment. Those in the latter group usually hold on to their comics, allowing them to appreciate, and they sell when they can maximize their profit.

So it’s notable when there’s a major uptick in people selling their comics. Normally, Shine said, he receives about one call per week from someone looking to sell.

Nowadays, he’s getting at least four to five of these calls every day.

The return isn’t lucrative, either. When people bring a few dozen comics to sell, Shine generally values the collection and then offers 50% in store credit, or about 25% in cash.

Customers who schedule weekly comic book orders have also been rethinking their subscription plans. About 90% of Beyond Comics’ book sales are from subscriptions.

Shine said a handful of regular customers who are furloughed federal employees have canceled their subscriptions, at least until they’re working again. Others have trimmed the number of books in their subscriptions.

Shine is worried that if the shutdown drags on, more and more customers will cancel their subscriptions.

Adjusting to tariffs

Tariffs and the shutdown prompted Shine and Cohen to reassess part of their subscription model.

Customers who have a comics subscription at Beyond Comics receive a discount if they buy a certain number of books. One of the first conversations the two men had about adapting to the shutdown concerned whether to rescind the discount.

They haven’t had to cancel the policy yet, but the decision could hinge on how future tariffs affect the prices Beyond Comics has to pay for its books.

The U.S. has historically exempted books and other “information materials” from tariffs.

Cohen, though, said he’s remained on alert because “we have an administration that likes to break the rules.”

He said tariffs on comic books — most of which he said are manufactured in Canada — would affect the vast majority of Beyond Comics’ products. He would also have to absorb any added costs, considering comics are subject to a manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

Cohen said net profit would drop at least 20%. For now, he doesn’t think the president will enact such a policy.

“We’re always walking the fine line, trying not to get noticed on that one,” he said.

Tariffs have already taken a toll on merchandise at Beyond Comics, particularly toys and action figures.

Cohen said his store specializes in expensive statues, which can cost around $1,000, and high-end action figures, which generally go for $250 to $500.

The products offer small markups, so local retailers like Beyond Comics generally pass along the added costs of tariffs to consumers. While the average tariff on merchandise may not be exorbitant, perhaps just a few dollars, increasing prices even a little bit makes it more difficult to compete with large chain stores.

Absorbing the costs of tariffs would also cut substantially into the business’s bottom line.

“If I ate those tariffs, I’m out a salary. I have to let someone go,” he said.

Cohen said that in recent months, he’s seen sales of some merchandise drop, and he’s noticed that customers have been more particular about their purchases, leading him to reconsider which merchandise he continues to order and which he stops carrying.

But he also can’t compromise his business’s identity, which has been based in part on offering a wide selection of merchandise. For now, he’s still selling the high-end action figures, but he’s pretty sure he isn’t making a profit off them.

“We want to be a store that carries a broad range of products, and we still commit to doing that — at a detriment,” he said.