I had the coolest job for a 16 year old ever thanks to Gord and Brian during the Bid Time Returns era. I started on the shop on Queens, helped open both the downtown and White Oaks Endless Adventures, moved to the Dundas street store, and went on to Heroes with Mike and Sean.
I still have awesome memories of the Queens Ave store, and I remember the day that I found out the name of the shop was actually a line from Shakespear’s Richard II (Act III, Scene 2): “O call back yesterday, bid time return.”
Brian taught me about doing shows, and I had a blast driving to Toronto with him. We were similar in personality, and both of us could just quietly enjoy the silence. He had an awesome old 1950’s Ford that was so great to ride in, despite the fact that we were driving into the sun both ways. Gord taught me a lot about the business part, just through osmosis. He taught me about ordering, inventory, and I cashed out more nights than I care to think. I learned a ton about games, and I amassed a huge comic collection, going so far as to take my own collection to Toronto on weekends to do one-day shows in the early 90’s (when you could buy the latest issue of “Puma Blues” on a Friday in London, and turn it over for $20.00 on Sunday in Toronto). I started doing rudimentary inventories, and kept track of my sales in a ledger.
During the down times, and after the doors closed, Gord would engage us in long conversations about society, philosophy, and he introduced me to stuff I would never have read on my own. As I got older, those conversations greatly shaped my own worldview, and coloured my own philosophies.
In 2005 I started my own online comics shop, All New Comics, with the intention of providing the same level of service that we gave every customer at Bid Time Return back in the day. Owning my own shop was cool, but it still pales in comparison to my time in the four colour trenches of my youth.