Today we’d like to introduce you to Howard Chen.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Howard. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
When I was a 10 years old my favorite cousin would come visit the family and drop off comics for my two brothers and I and that’s how we all fell in love with comic books. My cousin was entering college and decided to give up the hobby and he gave his collection to me. At the time I was 15 and going to a monthly comic book convention working for a dealer there. With this new found bounty of comics I said I can sell these at this same convention too! From there, I was selling to fellow students through junior high and high school out of my locker and back of my house. Attending CSUN after graduation I had a part time job working for a local comic shop in Glendale called Heroes for Sale. The owner had opened another branch in Valencia and was planning to move there as well so he looked to sell his Glendale store and offered it up to me. With a loan from my loving parents that’s where it all started. I dropped out of college at 19 years old renamed the store Legacy Comics and Cards and have had this shop in the same location in Glendale for the last 26 years!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been a very smooth road luckily for me. I put everything I had into the shop working 80 hour weeks when it first started and having comic book selling experience from the convention scene it prepared me for my storefront when it came to ordering. It also helped that the store I purchased had a 6 year base of customers.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Legacy Comics and Cards – what should we know?
We sell not only everything comics and manga, but we also sell trading card games (Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon), sports cards, Pop! toys, action figures and statues from Hot Toys and Sideshow among others. We have gaming tables for our weekly tournaments for our trading card games that are so big they spill onto the sidewalk!
I’m most proud of having the greatest customers a store can possibly have some of whom have been with me all 26 years and counting!
I believe our diversity and organization has made us last this long and the reason why there have not been other comic book or trading card shops in the city for decades.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I owe everything to my parents, especially my mother Yuen Chen who had passed last year. If it wasn’t for her I probably would be in a completely different field of work and definitely not the happy business owner that I am now.
Contact Info:
- Address: 123 W Wilson Ave
Glendale, CA 91203 - Website: legacycomics.com
- Phone: 818-247-8803
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legacycomicsandcards/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/legacycomicsandcards/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LegacyComicsCA
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