The Local Comic Shop Experience

Topic

This is a thread to talk about your experience with local comic book shop(s)

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So DC’s bullshit is starting to sink in.

I live near Vancouver, B.C. (“Lower mainland” “Greater Vancouver regional District” – GVRD)
With Diamond it’s very common for all the stores to drive to one location (Surrey, think suburb, but it’s a huge city and in the GVRD) to get their weekly comics. Cuts down on the shipping costs.

Now they still have to do that, plus wait for a FedEx shipment from Montreal.
The Fuck? Comics cross the border into Canada to one major city in the East and then single direct shipments, no chance to cut down your costs.
This week every DC book was an extra $0.75, and worse for the shop when it reduced the savings of everything else.

They said locally someone is trying to make it easier and cheaper.
A wharehouse near where they get the Diamond shipment, and they’ll try to replicate what they had before.
And good on this person/people for the vision, will to make it happen, and love to take the chance.

But why should someone have to do that? And what about others?
Bumf*ck Manitoba? Probably worse for the Yukon and Alaska.

Not a good time to do this. I can take the bite for a little bit.
But we’re already at the point where you have to ask for something to get it.
Maybe “Death Metal” has extra copies, but lots of DC titles (without Batman on it) do not get even one copy for the shelf.
Fill the subscriber boxes, that’s it.

F*ck, I wasn’t going to go here, but the more I type, the madder I get.
If Covid didn’t kill you then DC has pulled out the knife.

I know, I’m in that “end of the world” talk again.
But if people like me go, there is no younger replacement.
Surviving stores are already diversified and may have to start selling bicycle and vacuum parts.

I’ll take myself off the stage here.
Unsure how to wrap up, and dwelling on the negative…

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DavidM, Todd, njerry

That sucks, Sean. I know the profit margin for small businesses in general is low, and probably lower in a niche market like comics, even before DC went and shook everything up. It’s unfortunate that they are currently owned by faceless, soulless businessmen who only care about corporate and personal profits for them, regardless of how it hurts the local comics shops and fans. I hope the distribution/shipping problems improve soon. Best wishes.

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Sean Robinson, Todd

I posted some comments from the manager of my LCS in the DC Thread. She absolutely hates what DC has done.

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Sean Robinson

My comic shop was recently in the news:

Sci-fi superstore is a dream for comic book lovers

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njerry

Some stores will buy your old comics at x cents on the dollar. Personally at this point, I just want to clear up space in my apartment. The stores will buy them off you if they can flip or resell them. As things are now, business is slow.

They also offer store credit.

Anyone ever went for the store credit option?

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Todd

In appraising your comics collection, do any go by Ebay prices for its going rate?

It’s not a bad way to see what people are currently paying for something. But do it by looking at the sold items, not the current listings, as sometimes asking prices can be a little ambitious.

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Al-x, Todd, garjones

True…

Comics these days are an expense not an investment. I ask the lcs if they are buying and it is mostly vintage 60’s 12 cent comics. Anything after that would be a special event comic like the first appearance of a popular character (Punisher, Wolverine etc.), the first issue of a title, debut of an artist or writer, things like that… or Bruce Wayne’s d*ck.

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JRCarter, Todd

[garjones]

Invest in Lego. Apparently higher returns than gold.

Comics back issues ceased being a big deal with trades. In the 80s and 90s if you wanted to read any storyline you mostly had to buy the issues (there were some haphazard reprints but not many).

Now that’s no longer an issue then everything is more realistically based on rarity. Pre WW2 comics will make you millionaire because most were pulped, early 60s Marvel has a very hefty return because it invented the idea of collectors market.

X-Men #137 is worth little more now than it was in 1985 because people then needed to buy to read it. Now unless you want venture into illegal areas you can read the whole run for $6 on Marvel Unlimited or an ‘Essential’ for not much more.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by garjones.

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Todd

Al-x wrote:

Bruce Wayne’s d*ck.

D*ck Grayson?

3 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, JRCarter

[garjones]

garjones wrote:

Invest in Lego. Apparently higher returns than gold.

Comics back issues ceased being a big deal with trades. In the 80s and 90s if you wanted to read any storyline you mostly had to buy the issues (there were some haphazard reprints but not many).

Now that’s no longer an issue then everything is more realistically based on rarity. Pre WW2 comics will make you millionaire because most were pulped, early 60s Marvel has a very hefty return because it invented the idea of collectors market.

X-Men #137 is worth little more now than it was in 1985 because people then needed to buy to read it. Now unless you want venture into illegal areas you can read the whole run for $6 on Marvel Unlimited or an ‘Essential’ for not much more.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by garjones.

The owner of my LCS has said that even some of those very old comics aren’t as valuable as they once were simply because there isn’t the demand for them. Younger generations of collectors aren’t interested in owning them.

My experience is different. I’ve happily spent the last 20 years trying to complete full runs of silver and bronze age Marvel titles, and it seems to me prices are at an all-time high. Awareness of these characters is greater than ever thanks to the movies, and prices have gotten ridiculous, particularly on anything that can remotely be called a “key” issue. Nowadays, that applies to the first appearance of almost any minor character, or an issue where something of significance happens.

For instance, the moment Avengers Endgame opened, the price of Thor #390 shot up, because it features the first time Cap lifted Mjolnir in the comics.

Often prices will spike, but you can still pay $50 for a good copy of that – a book from the late 80’s by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, two creators who have never exactly set the comic world alight.

So with the exception of a few special comic formats like The Three Jokers, I am pretty much out of comics these days. I can remember MW when Millar was on the Ultimates and everyone had big pull lists but I digress…

My LCS doubles as a comic and baseball card and memorabilia store. Comics alone won’t do it. Is the situation the same with your LCS?

Al-x wrote:

I can remember MW when Millar was on the Ultimates and everyone had big pull lists

I’m definitely in this category. I’d be buying dozens of comics each week but now my pull list is the weekly 2000ad, monthly Dredd Megazine, and the occasional mini series (the Hellblazer one and The Boys ones currently). I don’t have the time, money, storage space, or interest to be buying that volume of comics anymore.

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Todd

Al-x wrote:

My LCS doubles as a comic and baseball card and memorabilia store.

Is the baseball card thing a typical LCS sideline stateside?

My local does a few statues but their main sidelines are board/caard games and wall art of various descriptions (they’ve a ton of LP sized metal (material) metal (genre) pieces in currently).

What about Funko Pops? Are they still a plague in comic shops or has their time passed?

Bruce wrote:

What about Funko Pops? Are they still a plague in comic shops or has their time passed?

My LCS still devotes around a quarter of its floor space to them, so not yet.

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Todd

I’ve never really seen a comic shop that deals only in comics, going back 35 years. Some may exist but going to Forbidden Planet’s flagship London store in 1985 they had a lot of merch like T-Shirts, toys and also a big sci-fi book section. Now the proportion of the store selling comics is smaller but mainly because the one they have now is a lot bigger – there are still as many comics as there used to be.

While that’s a big franchise my small independent shop in Swansea opened with an upstairs that sold role playing games and wargame miniatures and still does. Especially since the recent back issue market died away with trades (while some still command a decent price most don’t) then it just makes sense to move away from heaps of longboxes with little commercial value. Which isn’t a bad thing really, the availability via trades makes them a lot more accessible to a more casual reader.

It’s also a good thing that the newer FP in London doesn’t have stuff flying through the window all the time like it did in the 80s.

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Todd

garjones wrote:

I’ve never really seen a comic shop that deals only in comics, going back 35 years. Some may exist but going to Forbidden Planet’s flagship Lodon store in 1985 they had a lot of merch like T-Shirts, toys and also a big sci-fi book section. Now the proportion of the store selling comics is smaller but mainly because the one they have now is a lot bigger – there are still as many comics as there used to be.

My nearest comic shop growing up was mainly non-comics stuff, a lot of metal/rock merchandise and clothing, a big section of videogames and a large collectibles section downstairs. The comics section was really just one small wall upstairs.

garjones wrote:

It’s also a good thing that the newer FP in London doesn’t have stuff flying through the window all the time like it did in the 80s.

I knew about the Captain Britain one, but what issue is the second FP appearance from? I thought FP had moved away from Denmark Street by the time Alan Davis was doing X-Men.

The Denmark Street FP is the first comic shop I ever went to, in 1980. I felt like I’d found Aladdin’s Cave. I can even remember what comics I bought that day.

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Todd, Bruce

Bruce wrote:

What about Funko Pops? Are they still a plague in comic shops or has their time passed?

Midtown Comics has had two on-line Friday events in the past couple months where their entire stock of Funko Pops were being sold for $7 each (as opposed to the usual $11). That suggests their popularity is on the wane.

Steve Sensible wrote:

I knew about the Captain Britain one, but what issue is the second FP appearance from?

It’s New Mutants Annual #3. The internet tells me the release date was Sept 1987.

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Steve Sensible

Comics and only comics. No toys, no games, no stupid big head figures, just two floors of comics. Well, and a few pulp magazines. But basically, a shop that’s thriving by selling comic back issues and nothing else:

Currently only operating mail order because of Covid, but it’s in Putney if anyone wants to go and see what a pure comic shop looks like when it’s open again.

(Full disclosure: owned by friedns of mine, so I’m biased. But still…)

 

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Dave, garjones, Steve Sensible

Maybe a different business model to most to be fair. They are an old and rare comics specialist, which is great (and I’d love to go and browse), but maybe not sustainable up and down the country.

Thanks for that, David. I think I’ve bought from them in the past but I’d forgotten all about them recently. I need a good online comics shop for back issues now my favourite, Quicksilver Comics, has sadly shut down (not sad for the owner, Richard, who’s retired, but sad for me.)

I’ll have to give 30th Century a try…

I posted a link to my store upthread. My LCS (Third Planet Sci-Fi Superstore) bills itself as a “sci-fi and fantasy superstore”. They have comics (old and new), trades, action figures and toys (domestic and import), cards, games, and more. (Way back in the day, they used to have vinyl records.) They have been in business for over 45 years.

Made it to my LCS today for the first time in many months – their new location isn’t great but the premises are really well presented and laid out. They have a little video posted to Twitter:

<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;”>https://twitter.com/KingsComicsAU/status/1288970369194323969?s=20</span&gt;

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Todd

I mentioned baseball cards and stuff in my local LCS as comics won’t do it alone. I am curious about most European stores. Since they obviously aren’t into baseball and cards like the US, what else are these comic stores specializing in? Are Europeans into autographed photos of soccer players and so on?

I have to go to Europe someday.

They do soccer sticker albums and cards but to be honest there’s zero crossover with comics shops, the UK at least.

It all tends to be generally sci-fi and fantasy based, cards would the Magic: The Gathering type stuff. Sometime there’s heavy metal themes stuff that tends to go into fantasy and horror imagery.

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Al-x

DavidM wrote:

Comics and only comics. No toys, no games, no stupid big head figures, just two floors of comics. Well, and a few pulp magazines. But basically, a shop that’s thriving by selling comic back issues and nothing else:

Currently only operating mail order because of Covid, but it’s in Putney if anyone wants to go and see what a pure comic shop looks like when it’s open again.

(Full disclosure: owned by friedns of mine, so I’m biased. But still…)

So, I emailed 30th Century about some back issues listed on their website two days ago (which is apparently the only way you can buy stuff from them since they don’t have an actual ordering mechanism), and have yet to receive a response. Are they still operating..?

Definitely still operating, I heard from Rob just a couple of weeks ago and he was really happy at how the mail order business was going . They never set up proper on-line shopping as they never needed it before this year, they would answer queries personally, so it’s possible they’re simply swamped. I’ll drop the guys a line and check whether everything is ok.

 

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Andrew, Steve Sensible

Don’t worry… I sent a follow-up email and the moment I sent it, GMail informed me there had been a reply that for some reason had gone to my spam folder! So I had to send another follow-up email apologising for the first…

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DavidM

So with the new Lockdown in the England, I assume we’re going to see another break in comics shipping over here. Just as shops were getting back on their feet. Hopefully they’ll be able to survive and be back before Christmas.

I think they’ll still ship, last time also had the Diamond shutdown problem.

My old comic shop in Swansea has been in lockdown for a week and they are posting out new comics to customers.

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Vikram

I have some books I want to buy, but I haven’t made it to my LCS lately. I’m holding off and not buying them on amazon though; these comic shops really need our support right now.

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Al-x, Bruce, DavidM, Vikram, garjones

Christian wrote:

I have some books I want to buy, but I haven’t made it to my LCS lately. I’m holding off and not buying them on amazon though; these comic shops really need our support right now.

I strongly believe that, which is why I’ve been buying hardcovers and TPBs from my local shop rather than buy via Amazon or Barnes&Noble. I’ve already paid for CRIMINAL DELUXE EDITION Vol 3 and will pick it up from them this weekend.

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Christian, DavidM, Bruce, Dave

I support my LCS even as they support my habit… I unloaded a box of comics and trades to clear out my apartment and they took it off my hands for store credit. Now and then I use the credit to pick up some of the special issues like the recent DC Black Label books.

Thing is I don’t go often because there hasn’t been a good comic run to follow imho. I will go more when the baseball season resumes and pick up cards and so on.

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Vikram

It was a weirdly somber visit to my LCS today. Coronavirus related lockdown #3 has just taken effect here in the UK, and will likely be in place until March. My comic shop guy doesn’t know what he’s going to do about it. If he’s going to keep getting deliveries, if he will stay open for “click & collect”, or if he’ll just throw in the towel. I told him to take a few days and let me know whatever he decides. I’ve been a customer for almost 3 decades – I’m not going anywhere.

I recognise that he’s also likely speaking from a position of higher vulnerability – he’s got to be in his late 50’s/ early 60’s, and he isn’t exactly fighting fit. So, being open and coming into regular contact with lots of others is probably not something he wants to do either.

Strange times.

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njerry, DavidM, Dave, Todd

Yeah, I have been holding off on buying the next books because I wanted to buy them at my LCS, but now our lockdown has been extended. Luckily, they do offer sale and delivery by mail, so I can still buy my books there and don’t have to worship at the altar of amazon.

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Vikram, Todd

Speaking to my LCS guy before Christmas, he was resigned to another lockdown and his only unknown was the length. One month, he can soak up as that’s his expected sales cycle anyway, meaning that a lot of his customers (like me) only come in and pay for their comics once per month anyway. Six weeks and it’s bad. More than six weeks …

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Todd

My friends at 30th Century Comics moved to entirely on-line business during the first lockdown, and never re-opened the shop. I’m not sure if they ever will. They deal exclusively in back issues now, not regular monthly pull lists, and they’ve never been reliant on people dropping in to impulse buy stupid-big-head-toys or whatever other fad of the moment, so on-line seems to work for them.

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Vikram, Todd

I’m lucky that my LCS is a fairly strong chain (Midtown Comics) that already had an on-line sales setup in place during the retail lockdown in the first wave of COVID, so I was able to support them throughout the pandemic and get my comics regularly. So far NYC has not gone into a second shutdown (except bars and indoor-dining restaurants). Still, I imagine even Midtown is feeling the pinch after 10 straight months of this.

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Vikram, Todd

Really felt the value of the personal touch in my LCS today. I’d taken my daughter in with me as she is getting very into manga-style drawings and animation lately, and she wanted to check out their (fairly extensive) manga range.

But I don’t know much about most of these series and (being conscious that there’s quite a spectrum of content) wanted to make sure we found something appropriate that she would enjoy.

After speaking to the two early-20s female staff at the desk we ended up with numerous recommendations – including for some anime shows to check out on Netflix, as well as three #1 volumes for her to try. They went well out of their way to help us and she loved seeing that comics were enjoyed by people like her as well as people like me.

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Todd, njerry, Sean Robinson, Ben, garjones, Rocket, DavidM

Dave wrote:

They went well out of their way to help us and she loved seeing that comics were enjoyed by people like her as well as people like me.

That’s a great and positive story. At the other extreme…

I recently wandered into a local comics shop that I used to frequent around 15-20 years ago. 5pm on a Friday, no other customers in the shop, two guys behind the counter. I said Hi and told them I was a past customer, then wandered around the space looking mainly at action figures on the walls. Not once did either of them ask if there was anything they could help me with or if I was looking for anything in particular. Nothing like “Let me know if you have any questions.” Not a thing. After a few minutes, I walked back out onto the street, thinking maybe this is why I stopped coming here 20 years ago.

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DavidM, Sean Robinson, Ben, Dave, Todd

Today I was downtown and went to Forbidden Planet.
I found out that the new comics come in different days now. It used to be all in Wednesday but now because of COVID…

Anyway, I talked to staff and said regarding the Loki show that the TVA was really a black owned business etc. and the female Loki was a “Karen” who was on this quest to get to the head manager…

The guy cracked up over how it fit the show.

I then said the last episode with the castle was like a final boss fight ina video game.

It was fun. I said to look forward to the Hawkeye shows and the Matrix movie later on in the year.

It used to be to go to the LCS on Wednesday to catch all the new titles.

Now it is Tuesday and Wednesday.

Also:

We would go to the long boxes for back issues. But with more readers going the online digital route, what will happen to all those floppies?

Will digital kill the LCS?

Al-x wrote:

Will digital kill the LCS?

You mean it hasn’t already?

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Todd, Al-x

JRCarter wrote:

Al-x wrote:

Will digital kill the LCS?

You mean it hasn’t already?

😂😂😂

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JRCarter

Al-x wrote:

It used to be all in Wednesday but now because of COVID…

It’s not quite because of COVID, although it happened during the COVID lockdown. The short version is that DC Comics switched from using Diamond as their distributor to two smaller companies, UCS and Lunar Distributing. As a result, DC’s books are released now on Tuesdays, while the other books are still on Wednesday.

If you want the longer version, CLICK HERE

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Todd

[Al-x]

I am in the Time Square are these days so now my LCS during my lunch hour is Midtown Comics…

Across the avenue from that bronze statue of the guy sewing and this huge statue of a needle through a button!

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Al-x.

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Todd

Al-x wrote:

Across the avenue from that bronze statue of the guy sewing and this huge statue of a needle through a button!

Seventh Avenue from W. 41st Street to W. 31st Street is nicknamed Fashion Avenue, and the area is still referred to as the Garment Center because of all the clothing designers, sweatshops, and fashion accessory stores that still blanket that area.

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Todd, DavidM

njerry wrote:

blanket that area

Ho ho ho.

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njerry, Todd

You know…

All the Midtown Comics locations (ie 40th, the one near Grand Central, and the Fulton St. one) are all one flight walk ups.

Cardio…

I see all those detailed statues with some going for even 500 and above, and I’m like “Who will take that off their hands for 500?”

Al-x wrote:

All the Midtown Comics locations (ie 40th, the one near Grand Central, and the Fulton St. one) are all one flight walk ups.

The flight of stairs at West 40th Street is exactly 20 steps. I’m obsessive like that.

What happens if someone in a wheelchair wants to buy comics?

DavidM wrote:

What happens if someone in a wheelchair wants to buy comics?

That’s why God invented on-line ordering: Midtown Comics On-line

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Al-x

DavidM wrote:

What happens if someone in a wheelchair wants to buy comics?

To be fair to Midtown they have an incredible address and location, they are just off Times Square, close to the Disney store and all that, but the rental payoff is a property upstairs. To get on-street access they’d likely have to move very far away.

Forbidden Planet in Shaftsbury Avenue you’d also have to go down 20 or steps to get comics in the basement.

Oldish buildings are shit for disabled access.

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Todd

IIRC, the Midtown Comics location in the Wall Street area, which used to be on Maiden Lane, was at street level; but they moved from there to Fulton Street a short distance away, and as Al-X notes above you now have to go up a flight of stairs to get to the sales floor.

I found out that the Grand Central store on Lexington Ave. has an elevator, but most just take the stairs.

As for Time Square, I bought a few titles last week, and now I noticed that the huge sewing needle and button statue across the
avenue has been removed!

Exciting eh?