Board game nights
The shelf of board games is already there. A night means the table is set up, someone teaches the rules, and you do not need to own the box to play.
A marketplace cannot seat six people at a table.
Thirteen years of this
Board game nights · art shows · signings · a book club
Board game nights, art shows, signings and a book club — thirteen years of them, in the shop's own words. None of it is anywhere online right now. This is the part of the shop a marketplace cannot copy, so it gets its own page.
Art shows
The walls have hung other people's work for years — and Kirk's own ink drawings among them. An opening night is the cheapest reason to walk in for someone who has never bought a comic.
No website ships an opening night.
Signings
Toronto is full of creators, and a signed copy is worth more than the same book online — because you were there when it was signed.
A signature is the one thing that cannot be drop-shipped.
Book club
One book a month, read by people who then come back to argue about it. Thirteen years of this is why the shop has regulars and not customers.
Nobody has ever joined a book club on eBay.
What's on
Seats held with a deposit · everything else, just turn up
Your nightBoard game nights
Example — your date goes here
Learn-to-play table
Six seats. One of them is kept for whoever turns up alone and does not know the rules yet.
6 seats
Comes off what you buy that night
Your dateSignings
Example — your date goes here
A Toronto creator at the counter
Two hours, a stack of their books, and a line that goes out onto Queen Street if the timing is right.
Free · just turn up
Your eveningBook club
Example — your date goes here
One book a month
The book is chosen in the shop and bought in the shop. Everyone who joins buys twelve books a year without being asked to.
12 seats
Free · just turn up