Where do you buy your books-multiple places4709
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I know we've discussed this before... Where do we buy our books? There's Local Comic Shops, online subscription services, gap-fill options for back-issues, and a lot of things in-between... I wanted to discuss some of the options out there and see what people think of them. Why can't we review what people think of what's out there and come up with a good list for people? LCS - Everyone is going to have their own favorite comic shops in given regions, but who is the best on pull lists, bagging and boarding, offering discounts, getting variants and not charging an arm and a leg, etc... ONLINE SUBSCRIPTIONS - For online subscription services, who has great customer service, allows you to "browse" Previews-style with covers, subscribe to books, great discounts, select different options for books (condition, modifiers for bags and boards), control when you ship, free shipping options, to the point of ABSOLUTE control. NEW COMICS ONLINE (OTHER) - For "gap-fill", I mean it's Monday (today) and I want to order books for this week I know I didn't order ahead and time, so I'm going to place an order for this week and maybe some books I missed over the last couple of weeks, and who may have had them... These places may offer subscriptions, but you don't go to them for that. OTHER OTHER ONLINE - These places offer specialty variant covers, the cool 1:5, 1:10, 1:whatever variants stores may not hit the thresholds for, and other things you might not find anywhere else, even graded books, signature series, signing opportunities, etc... WHAT ELSE - What other categories are there, or how else can we make this list "granular"? To keep this specific, I'm going to reply back with my answers... |
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
| LCS - For me, I shop mostly in person at SoCal Games and Comics in Temecula, but am also known to go to Ryan's Comics from time to time in Murrieta and Knowhere Games and Comics in San Marcos. I LOVE finding new shops, though, and check out shops in new areas. I come from San Diego County, and had favorite shops in that area... ONLINE SUBSCRIPTIONS - I've used www.g-mart.com for ten years now and LOVE them... Good discounts, options for condition (only high grade, mostly high grade, or whatever), bag and board options, shipping options including only ship if free and only ship when I authorize, great backorder selection, and the customer service has been stellar for the entire decade I've worked with them. They're not a HUGE store in the Chicago area, so sometimes they don't hit thresholds for some variants, but I have gotten MOST of what I want. To give you an idea on condition, since I have my setting that I want mostly high grade, when I send things in, they hit 9.6/9.8... no exceptions. If anyone had questions on them, I'd be happy to answer. NEW COMICS ONLINE - For gap fill, I usually go to mid-town in a pinch, since they have pretty good discounts, reasonable shipping, and their normal variants are also priced fairly. I never place SMALL orders, though, because I don't want books to come to me damaged. There are a lot of places you can order from, but I go there... OTHER OTHER ONLINE - lots of options... Lots of places I've gone... krscomics.com - Lots of exclusives, lots of variants from other stores they swap exclusives with and they get a lot of the 1:5, 1:10, 1:whatever variants, and things you wouldn't expect... They also go to a lot of Southern CA cons, so they get some amazing signature opportunities you won't see elsewhere. igcomicstore.com - I HAVE ordered from these guys twice... AMAZING customer service. They started on Instagram, thus the name, but are now one the interwebs as well... great selection of exclusives, but they partner with other sites as well, and get a lot of great products. If you follow their IG feed, you'll see some HIGH quality limited stock comics. Check them out. comicxposure.com - What do people think of them? I haven't ordered yet... unknowncomicbooks.com - What do people think of them? I haven't ordered yet... scorpioncomics.com - I keep seeing amazing Venom covers, but I haven't ordered from them yet... Thoughts? What else is out there? Who do you like? |
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 Suck it up, buttercup!!
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KatKomics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| LCS Conventions Ebay Proxibid Heritage Auctions |
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Hcanes private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Midtown comics - Times Sq and Grand Central are both a 10 minute walk from my current job site. When I forget how bad traffic is, Zapp! Comics in NJ. If it's a "wall book" I usually save up and wait to shop at a con and get a deal. |
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 I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
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kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| LCS - I fired my overpriced variant hustling small tiny hole-in-the-wall comic book store. She couldn't even get 1:100s of anything. I overpaid $10-$25 variants that are worth $3.00, too. ONLINE SUBSCRIPTIONS - Jetpack Comics using comixology, which is going away soon but they are going to take over all my pulls as if I were local and ship them directly to me. NEW COMICS ONLINE (OTHER) - ebay OTHER OTHER ONLINE - sometimes I'll get a hard to chase variant from midtown comics or comixposure WHAT ELSE - I have bought from a few members here on the board. whowill, poka, jwkyle immediately come to mind |
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 I had no way of knowing that 9.8 graded copies signed by Adam Hughes weren't what you were looking for.
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drchaos private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Hcanes Even though a couple other stores are closer to my house Zapp! is basically my LCS. When I bring books to cons to get signatures alot of them have Zapp! price stickers. | ||
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| 90%+ of what I buy now is bought at a local comic show. Mainly a one day show that is run a few times a year. The local shops nearby don't usually have anything that interests me, so I get bored within a few minutes. I don't even like visiting them. There is one shop that will order extra treasury sized comics. I'll stop in there periodically and buy those. It's a little bit of a further drive, so I often don't feel like making the trip. | ||
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I had no way of knowing that 9.8 graded copies signed by Adam Hughes weren't what you were looking for.
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drchaos private msg quote post Address this user | |
| For the first time I tried an auction from My Comic Shop. Very pleased with the results. Winnings are in the other thread. | ||
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poka private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Where I live there is only 1 LCS and he doesn’t get any variants. I preorder fr9m TFAW, Midtown, DCBS and INwgraphics depending on the comics. I buy from Heritage, metropolis, milehigh (they actually improved their packing dramatically over the past few months), eBay. Comicconnect, metropolis as well as a few dealers I know. |
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jrs private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I got some killer stuff from krs once and the customer service was top notch. No questions asked and courteous. | ||
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I forgot about tfaw... I've used them, too, and like them. For me, all known pre-orders that are standard covers are g-mart. If I get an inkling of exceed variants, I'll ask them, knowing they're not a guarantee. Weekly, I'm looking for things I missed, including rarer variants, and I'll hit up my LCS on Facebook (friends with the owner and a couple if employees). The last few weeks, as an example, I've used Midtown every couple of weeks to plug holes in lenticular covers I wanted or a sold out A/B cover I didn't think to ask about one week while pre-ordereing for the next week. Today, I ordered last week and this Wednesday. I also hit up KRS recently for some Venomverse because I love Deodato and IGComicStore for the same reason. |
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I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
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kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| tfaw can't ship or package anything properly, so i never will use them. the packages i've seen from my friends tells me to avoid them like the plague | ||
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poka private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @kaptainmyke they are ok as long as you order more than 5 s9 they ship in a box. | ||
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conditionfreak private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Since I don't buy modern books. And I try to always buy books already graded and slabbed. I mostly buy all of my books from private owners. But some do come from the big auction houses. You have to find them to buy them. |
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
If I'm not sure, I order a couple of floppy comics and a couple of trades for them to pack between (look at the clearance trades).  |
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OrbitCityComics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I was buying from midtown,but they were horrible with their packaging, so I switched to comic cartel, but then had the same issue. Currently I'm using Atomic Empire, and so far so good. My only LCS is Bedrock City Comics, but I hate going in there and dealing with teenagers running the store who think they know everything. Eventually, I'll open my own store. It's costing me a small fortune every year to keep my website name and another small fortune for copyright protections for my logo and name. |
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dpiercy private msg quote post Address this user | |
| LCS - 2 in town that I frequent on Wednesday w/another 2-3 I hit every once in awhile. Ebay - for stuff that slips thru. CBSI shops - I have a shop here; it's comic fans selling to comic fans. https://shops.comicbookinvest.com I've bought stuff at Midtown before and am curious about a service like DCBS. |
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Hcanes private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by drchaos Same here!!! Now that I think about it close to half the deals at NYCC this year were from the Zapp booth. |
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by OrbitCityComics With anyplace I'm ordering online, I try to make sure I'm not ordering "small" unless I've heard they have good packaging. I've gone so far as to order from Forbidden Planet UK to get exclusives and stock when they have it. Paid the price once on minimalist packaging and lots of "touches" on the boxes along the way. Another time, the box came completely fine. I'm jealous of anyone who lives close enough to midtown to shop there in person, but if you're shopping online, I think they will pack in a bigger box if you order more than $20-ish at a time. My last order (not this week), was around $30, maybe six books, and it came in a decent box, bubble wrapped inside around a Midtown paper bag, books inside were bagged and boarded. My wife asks, "how many books did you order?" When I opened the box, it was like they were protecting explosives. @OrbitCityComics , are you just doing eBay right now, and are you just re-selling right, or have you gotten to the point of opening a Diamond account? What's your web site? |
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DarthKribs private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Thanks for the heads up on Krscomics.com. I just ordered the GI Joe 246 Chad Hardin Variants. :o) | ||
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @DarthKribs No prob! Did you see the Philip Tan Astonishing X-Men covers and Venomverse variants on there? Love the Deodato, but I made my feelings clear, ha ha... The "favorite" set they've done, I think, is Venom #3 by Tyler Kirkham, an homage to the Infinity Gauntlet. https://krscomics.com/collections/krs-exclusives/products/venom-3-krs-comics-exclusive-tyler-kirkham-color-variant?variant=23050407685  |
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DarthKribs private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @thelastbard I did see it. Right now I am reading mostly DC books at the moment. The Marvel books I am reading are Punisher Platoon and the Star Wars titles | ||
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @poka Ha ha, yes those! June 23... Vegas? | ||
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poka private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by dpiercy Do you actual sell anything through CBSI? DCBS is good but you have to preorder 2 months in advance. they don't carry stock and they do give "warnings" if they feel you buy too many of the same copy. Also - their variants do not come cheap |
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poka private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by OrbitCityComics Maybe even more expensive if you do decide to open. But if you do go ahead - all the best - let us know so we can support! |
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poka private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by thelastbarddid it through Matt/Trinity - like seems like everyone else - lol |
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by poka I struggle on places that charge too much for variants and places that charge over cover for "exceed" variants... The lenticular covers, for example, were supposed to be cover price. Same for the venomized covers. Same for the Phoenix-ized covers coming in November. But, some retailers raise the covers to make up for the fact that they had to buy more copies of the regular to get to the exceed variants. If it's reasonable... $1 more... I guess it's not too bad, but when they go higher, it just ticks me off. |
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JLS_Comics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Let me jump in here too with my answers: LCS - I am blessed with being in an area where there are multiple shops. I have one shop where I have my pull list. It's a smaller shop so they dont always get the higher ratio or incentive variants but it's a place I can go shoot to poo for a while and I like the staff. Another is like a Walmart version of LCSs, they get everything. If I'm in the area I like to stop in and see what's what. Another I hit sometimes on my way home from work. They get new books but they're always picking up collections and I like digging through the new stuff (back issues that just came in) for deals ONLINE SUBSCRIPTIONS - I have used MidTown in the past and I like that you can order so far in advance. Shipping was super slow though and the one time I did have an issue with a book being damaged they were super communicative and remedied the situation rather quickly. Would use again. NEW COMICS ONLINE (OTHER) - I order exclusives from eBay, KRS Comics, Brain Trust, Unknown Comics, Dynamic Forces, ComicsElite, comiccollectorlive, Instagram and a few others here and there WHAT ELSE - If I am on the hunt for a specific book I will look at multiple sources to check availablitly, price, condition, shipping options |
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thelastbard private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by poka Gotcha... I guess the advantage of being in So Cal is I get access to some of the creators, but not all of them. Some only seem to travel around the East Coast and ignore us out here!!! Tyler is at a lot of cons here. |
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