Thought this was worth posting: Want to keep LCS in business? Pick up your stuff 1 1

[fullerjason]

On 7/30/2017 at 10:07 AM, tv horror said:

The very same thing happened to my Cap 25 I had been with the shop for 20 years and was collecting the Civil war collection of titles and Boom everything but was in my box. I closed my account but not before writing a letter to the owner telling him how loyal I was as a customer when I could have been using a cheaper service and this was the way I was treated. He personally apologised and gave me both my copy plus the variant for cover price, the teller at the time just shrugged his shoulders at me closing my account as it did not matter to him. The laugh is he thinks that HE is going to run the shop one day, which he might do for a week no longer as he is witless.  

I had something similar happen that caused me to close my pull box at an LCS. I got back into collecting with the re-launch of Valiant in 2012. I hadn't been to my LCS in a few years but when I stopped by they had some of the newer Valiant stuff available but there were still some issues I had to buy which I did via eBay. The owner of the store ordered very few copies of Valiant which I believe prior to me opening the pull box was five copies of each title and two of those went to two pull boxes. Once I was caught up I started a pull box and told them I wanted everything Valiant. I was told no problem and for about 6 months everything was great. I stopped by every Wednesday at lunch, paid, and left with my books. After that a large amount of my comics started to come in damaged; rips, large amounts of spine dings, color breaking bends that went through the entire book, creases, etc. I told them about it and nobody seemed to care. I was told it was not them causing the damage that it was the distributor or the vendor. I was not getting any discount and was paying full cover price and was expected to buy the damaged comics. After three months of that I bought what was in my box and closed it and haven't been back since. I spent anywhere between $150 to $200 a month on comics and supplies and I got the shoulder shrug too when closing the box. When I explained that I like the comics without these issues because I get some signed and graded I was looked at like I was a trouble maker or wanting something for free even though many of the books had significant damage. I told them I would wait for the book if they wanted to send it back and get a new copy sent back and they didn't. I ended up moving to ordering from Midtown and have had only one issue in two years that they fixed immediately. The store is still open and I wish them the best. I think a large chunk of their income comes from card games and tabletop games and while comics are sold there, they just aren't the priority they used to be.

[OldGuy]

I picked up my books every week from my LCS for over 15 years but recently the owner decided that rather than selling to me at a small discount he would rather I spend my money on-line and get a large discount with free shipping.

[tv horror]

That's the sad fact these days the LCS don't make it easy, I've found that they are no more than a walk in display area, I see what I like compare the prices and end up either waiting for it to reduce or buy online. I considered myself a very loyal customer as soon as the order for the week arrived it was bought and that was for over 20 years here in Ireland. I may add I never got a discount ever.

[Ken Aldred]

8 hours ago, fullerjason said:

I had something similar happen that caused me to close my pull box at an LCS. I got back into collecting with the re-launch of Valiant in 2012. I hadn't been to my LCS in a few years but when I stopped by they had some of the newer Valiant stuff available but there were still some issues I had to buy which I did via eBay. The owner of the store ordered very few copies of Valiant which I believe prior to me opening the pull box was five copies of each title and two of those went to two pull boxes. Once I was caught up I started a pull box and told them I wanted everything Valiant. I was told no problem and for about 6 months everything was great. I stopped by every Wednesday at lunch, paid, and left with my books. After that a large amount of my comics started to come in damaged; rips, large amounts of spine dings, color breaking bends that went through the entire book, creases, etc. I told them about it and nobody seemed to care. I was told it was not them causing the damage that it was the distributor or the vendor. I was not getting any discount and was paying full cover price and was expected to buy the damaged comics. After three months of that I bought what was in my box and closed it and haven't been back since. I spent anywhere between $150 to $200 a month on comics and supplies and I got the shoulder shrug too when closing the box. When I explained that I like the comics without these issues because I get some signed and graded I was looked at like I was a trouble maker or wanting something for free even though many of the books had significant damage. I told them I would wait for the book if they wanted to send it back and get a new copy sent back and they didn't. I ended up moving to ordering from Midtown and have had only one issue in two years that they fixed immediately. The store is still open and I wish them the best. I think a large chunk of their income comes from card games and tabletop games and while comics are sold there, they just aren't the priority they used to be.

If you’re OCD about condition and ordering a book that an LCS might only get a few copies of, then this scenario is more or less inevitable.  I do empathise, because I’m pretty much the same.  Diamond can send books through damaged, covering this with the statement that they supply "in saleable condition", not necessarily as close to perfect as we’re looking for.  That said, I’ve seen a lot of material, including expensive hardcovers, with very bad half-inch-or-more spine and corner dings, on the shelves at full RRP, that wouldn’t even deserve a place in a seconds / remainder / clearance store.  

Eventually, either you select the books yourself or accept that the situation isn’t working and find an alternative source, be that another store, LCS or online, or go digital.
 

Edited August 1, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[FineCollector]

4 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

If you’re OCD about condition and ordering a book that an LCS might only get a few copies of, then this scenario is more or less inevitable.  I do empathise, because I’m pretty much the same.  Diamond can send books through damaged, covering this with the statement that they supply "in saleable condition", not necessarily as close to perfect as we’re looking for.  That said, I’ve seen a lot of material, including expensive hardcovers, with very bad half inch or more spine and corner dings, on the shelves at full RRP, that wouldn’t even deserve a place in a seconds / remainder / clearance store.

The comic boxes from Diamond were tight, but some of the books were still dinged and damaged.  I remember early Ultimate Spider-Mans that had two 2" pinch marks on the open edge of the book that were non-returnable, and every copy at my LCS had it.  The best part is when you sent back a damaged book, you'd have to eat a restocking fee, and you had no guarantee you'd get another book back.  I can empathize with a store who's been through the returns procedure and been told no, but a good store would hopefully work on the damaged book a little more until it was "unsaleable."

How big an account do you have to be to be able to send back returns without penalty?