Retailer: Still a market for CDs

Ten years industry experience. More years of purchasing inventory. Three years searching for the right location. A three-month training course. David Calkins did his homework before starting a business.

Yet he admits the concept of a used CD store is contrary to common sense at a time when the youth market is busily buying mp3s online.

"A lot of people ask me, why are you doing this during the online download frenzy?" says David Calkins, owner of Discology. "The aspect of the treasure hunt is alive and well. The reason commercial stores are closing is they carried new merchandise."

Besides, he's not looking to woo the 20-somethings from their iPods. Rather, he expects an older clientele to frequent his store, situated above Satellite Lounge at California and Plumas streets. Some of those people can even remember the Beatles.

"You can't get the Beatles catalog online yet," he says. "And, people are still looking to fill holes in their catalog."

A big factor in launching the business was finding a location, he says. He searched for a certain type of traffic flow and synergy of surrounding businesses. And Calkins feels he found it with what he calls "hip, swank joints" such as Satellite Lounge and Blue Moon pizza.

"I'm on California Avenue, which is really starting to pick up." Plus, he signed a one-year lease, with a capped renewable clause, in a market where three-to-five years is average.

Discology, Calkins says, combines two passions in his life: music and Egyptology. Heiroglyphics crawl up the Sahara-sand walls of the 675-square-foot space. Initial stock is about 1,000 discs.

"I did a lot of purchasing over the years, knowing I would do this," he says. "The price, $8 to $10, is perfectly fair. Those CDs still retail at $18." He will buy, sell, or trade.

The idea was hatched 10 years back when Calkins worked at Tower Records, where a friend suggested that they should own their own store. "That planted the seed," he says. Since then, he had worked as manager in each of the Warehouse Records stores in Reno and Sparks, which closed about three years ago. And, he took the 12-week series of courses at Nevada Microenterprise Initiative, a program for business start-ups.

The goal of Discology, he says, is to be something in between the busy clutter of the second-hand shops and the structured concept of the corporate chains. And to sell product.

"I must sell 23 CDs per day to make a go of it."