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Alternatives to DCBS?
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109 posts in this topic

After years of using their service, I sadly may be done with DCBS. They used to offer top notch quality, but the rate of damaged items received has skyrocketed in the last six months or so. The last straw for me was my most recent shipment where they sent all of my books unbagged/boarded despite the fact that I have been paying extra for bags and boards for years. It seems they no longer care about quality and, as a result, I no longer care to use their service if I can help it.

Any good alternatives to DCBS? The caveats being:

1) Consistent delivery of NM+ books on a monthly basis.

2) The ability for me to pre-order multiple copies of books without any hassles

3) The ability for me to pre-order variants covers, including incentive variants in quantity (This is the feature that initially attracted me to DCBS in the first place).

I'm hoping there is a good alternative out there.

Edited by MadGenius
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7 minutes ago, ComicCollectorMatt said:

Never had a problem. Have you contacted them ?

Yes. They've generally made things right, but not always in a timely manner. My main problem is these "mistakes" have gone from isolated incidents to occurring on a semi-monthly basis. If I have to email them every other month because I'm receiving damaged merchandise, then that's a hassle I no longer want to deal with.

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5 minutes ago, MadGenius said:

Yes. They've generally made things right, but not always in a timely manner. My main problem is these "mistakes" have gone from isolated incidents to occurring on a semi-monthly basis. If I have to email them every other month because I'm receiving damaged merchandise, then that's a hassle I no longer want to deal with.

When you say "damaged", are you talking about books not in NM+ condition ?

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Not looking for a guarantee because nobody will provide that. What I do expect is AT LEAST 9.4 books. Anything above that is a bonus, but if they handle the books properly and ship them properly then the NM+ books will be there. I don't like receiving Fine or Very Fine books when NM is the expectation.

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18 minutes ago, MadGenius said:

Not looking for a guarantee because nobody will provide that. What I do expect is AT LEAST 9.4 books. Anything above that is a bonus, but if they handle the books properly and ship them properly then the NM+ books will be there. I don't like receiving Fine or Very Fine books when NM is the expectation.

Sorry to break it to you, but NOBODY will guarantee a grade on pre-orders.

Granted, Diamond has improved the quality of shipping and finding NM books nowadays is pretty easy.

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1 hour ago, ComicCollectorMatt said:

Sorry to break it to you, but NOBODY will guarantee a grade on pre-orders.

Granted, Diamond has improved the quality of shipping and finding NM books nowadays is pretty easy.

I just said I wasn't expecting a guarantee on grade, but I do expect to not received damaged items on a regular basis. Trust me, I'm not new at this. I've been ordering from DCBS for 8 years now. Never a had problems until very recently. It's been mentioned in other threads that others have had similar experiences since DCBS moved their warehouse location to TN. However, I've reached the point where I'm no longer willing to give them a pass for declining service.

Edited by MadGenius
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1 hour ago, MadGenius said:

I just said I wasn't expecting a guarantee on grade, but I do expect to not received damaged items on a regular basis. Trust me, I'm not new at this. I've been ordering from DCBS for 8 years now. Never a had problems until very recently. It's been mentioned in other threads that others have had similar experiences since DCBS moved their warehouse location to TN. However, I've reached the point where I'm no longer willing to give them a pass for declining service.

There's a very good chance that's how they receive them from Diamond. 

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34 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

There's a very good chance that's how they receive them from Diamond. 

On their website, they claim to weed out damaged items prior to sending them out to customers. I believe they did this consistently in the past as I had no issues for nearly 8 years. Something has happened in the last few months to cause the quality to take a nosedive.

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Lately I am not receiving books and having to ask for a credit. My latest shipment, today, had everything stacked pyramid-wise as normal, but no board underneath, so everything rolled up on corners. Seems since they moved the quality has gone down. Sad to see this happen. Time to hunt another vendor. 

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I will say that the last straw with DCBS was when my April preorders arrived bound with a rubber band. I do pay extra for bags and boards, so thankfully no damage occurred to the books, but I feel like this practice is a disaster waiting to happen.

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On 5/11/2018 at 7:40 PM, MadGenius said:

I will say that the last straw with DCBS was when my April preorders arrived bound with a rubber band. I do pay extra for bags and boards, so thankfully no damage occurred to the books, but I feel like this practice is a disaster waiting to happen.

I've commented to them twice now about the rubber bands.  They have yet to respond to my request to stop using them on my orders.  Additionally, my last two monthly shipments have contained more damaged books than I have received over the past 2 years.

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I dumped them shortly after they moved locations.  Books were awful.  They used to be so consistent.

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19 hours ago, Pirate said:

I dumped them shortly after they moved locations.  Books were awful.  They used to be so consistent.

Who are you using for preorders these days?

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34 minutes ago, MadGenius said:

Who are you using for preorders these days?

My LCS.  Just paying full price for the 10 titles i get a month now.

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