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Alternatives to DCBS?
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109 posts in this topic

 

Just got this email from DCBS:

Dear DCBS customer,

After careful consideration, DCBS has decided to move our warehouse back to Ft. Wayne in order to return to our previous level of quality of shipping and customer service. The move to Memphis was much researched and InStockTrades was able to maintain their level of service and continue to grow after their move there 4 years ago. The IST team is much smaller than the DCBS team and they handle a smaller spectrum of products. We have worked very hard over the last year attempting to train and retain good staff, to no avail. We made some great changes in processing while in Memphis, such as scanning items as they are picked, and adding the shrink machine that cuts our processing in half and creates consistent bundles. Those changes will continue at the Ft. Wayne warehouse.

We have assembled a small but elite team in Ft. Wayne, which includes previous managers and the best from our current team. The move was made last week, the warehouse has been rebuilt, and the team is currently working on processing month end shipments. The packing machines and shrink machine have not been fully re-installed, so this week's shipments will be sent in bubble wrap until they can be put fully in place. We have been using bubble wrap as an option recently, and have received great feedback from customers who have received their shipments with it.

A warehouse move is a very costly and grueling process that we do not take lightly. This decision was not easy, but necessary. Please note that starting this week your shipments will be sent out from the Ft. Wayne warehouse. You should see a considerable improvement in accuracy and condition of your shipments going forward.

Thanks for hanging in there with us and we are very appreciative of your business!

Sincerely, 
The DCBS Team

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Looks like I'm back in with DCBS. I'm happy they have finally addressed the issues they were having since they move to TN.  I've been using Midtown for the past few months and they've been mostly okay. Received a few books not in the greatest condition, but not terrible overall. The things I like the least about Midtown's service are 1) the bulk mail service used to ship and 2) the way they pack their books. Haven't received a damaged shipment yet, but those shipping boxes are awful tight and I'm not crazy about the way they wedge the books in with the bubble wrap.

DCBS' packing has always been top notch and if the books aren't going to be manhandled prior to shipping, then it's a win-win.

Edited by MadGenius
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54 minutes ago, MadGenius said:

Looks like I'm back in with DCBS. I'm happy they have finally addressed the issues they were having since they move to TN.  I've been using Midtown for the past few months and they've been mostly okay. Received a few books not in the greatest condition, but not terrible overall. The things I like the least about Midtown's service are 1) the bulk mail service used to ship and 2) the way they pack their books. Haven't received a damaged shipment yet, but those shipping boxes are awful tight and I'm not crazy about the way they wedge the books in with the bubble wrap.

DCBS' packing has always been top notch and if the books aren't going to be manhandled prior to shipping, then it's a win-win.

Midtown shipping is also quite high comparatively... and they provide the same amount of inventory that DCBS does. For example, several Budd Root Cavewoman covers aren't offered through Midtown and DCBS always offers them.

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If they have done this I'm in with them again moving forward.  I don't really like Midtown as far as discount, or the way they pack.  As stated above, I've had no real issues with condition as of yet, but the way they put the books in those paper bags is sketchy.  If the shipment is somewhat larger the books just smash right through those bags and keep slamming up against the bubble wrap, and damages are very likely.  I too give DCBS props as far as making that move again.  That has to be a HUGE pain in the !  Good though when a business understands a mistake, a big one in this case, and corrects it like this.

Edited by gradejunky
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20 hours ago, NamesJay said:

Midtown shipping is also quite high comparatively... and they provide the same amount of inventory that DCBS does. For example, several Budd Root Cavewoman covers aren't offered through Midtown and DCBS always offers them.

Giving a 'Like' to this comment simply for the Budd Root reference. Love me some classic Cavewoman.

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"Tax Time:"

Email from DCBS

Sales tax for DCBS, InStockTrades, and Tales of Wonder

 

Wed, Sep 26, 2018 3:46 pm

DCBS Customer Service (customer.service@dcbservice.com)To:you (Bcc) + 1 more Details

 

Hi,

Because of the recent Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., regarding sales tax for online orders, DCBS, InStockTrades, and Tales of Wonder will be required to charge sales tax on order payments for certain states beginning October 1st. Sales tax for these states will automatically begin appearing in the shopping cart for orders placed on or after October 1st. For DCBS and Tales of Wonder orders that have been placed before October 1st but are unpaid, sales tax will be applied on October 1st to the unpaid portion of the order.

A list of states with an October 1st start date are:

Colorado

Hawaii
Illinois
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
New Jersey
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin

 

Sincerely,

The DCBS Team
The InStockTrades Team
The Tales of Wonder Team

 

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So DCBS is safe to order monthly subs from again? I posted a new thread on this and was directed to this one. Part of my problem with my LCS and why I want to order online is the poor condition many of my books are in when I get them due to Diamond's shipping / damages problems. I am tired of paying $4-5 dollars or more for books that are supposed to be brand new in NM condition, not VF or even less. I do not expect my books to be 9.6's to 9.8's but come on anything less that 9.2-9.4's for brand new books while paying full retail is ridiculous and outrageous. Also paying full freight to me is overrated, this is the first time I have made any kind of in-store retail purchases on a regular basis in 20 years as I have dealt in e-commerce myself for longer than that and everything is always cheaper online, the discounts online are not only much cheaper than buying in-store but they allow people to buy more books due to the savings. I love supporting any local business any time I can but when the condition of the product is poor whether it is their fault or not then its just plain stupid to pay full price, also I can wait to get my books every month I am in no rush. I have a lot of subscriptions and I just cancelled the majority of them at my LCS and told them I would be ordering online when they asked why and they were fine with it, they understand and I had told them for a while I was going to switch. They simply cannot compete with a 30% almost 50% discount, nor would I expect them to but the way I have it figured buying from them has cost me an extra $2-300 dollars a month that I could have spent on back issues or slabs, or whatever.

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On 5/15/2018 at 10:54 AM, Pirate said:

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

Never mind. They moved back to their old location. Sale tax online is everywhere right now.  It sucks.

Edited by JollyComics
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I'm not a regular advance order guy but want to put in a spec order soon. DCBS or Midtown at this point? Mainly looking to not get shorted (books are not variants) and for the books to arrive in nice condition. As far as condition is it a must to pay for the bagged & boarded upcharge? Appreciate any guidance.

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32 minutes ago, boomtown said:

I'm not a regular advance order guy but want to put in a spec order soon. DCBS or Midtown at this point? Mainly looking to not get shorted (books are not variants) and for the books to arrive in nice condition. As far as condition is it a must to pay for the bagged & boarded upcharge? Appreciate any guidance.

Split your order between them to reduce the problem of getting shorted. 

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17 hours ago, ExNihilo said:

I'm looking to officially make the switch to DCBS, but a lot of the variant covers are unavailable for viewing.  Is there a site that shows the variant covers or do people just order the variants and cross their fingers that it'll look good?

I don't collect many variants, but I *do* collect Daredevil variants... I had to stop ordering them from DCBS though.  I can't be paying $50, $100, or more for books that show up in 9.0.  I rarely have ever *not* gotten a variant I ordered, but I feel like I'm better off looking on ebay after the fact now as something just isn't working.  I ordered the cheap variants on DD 1, so we'll see what happens in that shipment.  As of now, however, I'm not paying those premiums. (most problems on on the spine... either due to the small bags/boards they switched to a while ago or maybe rubber-banding instead of taping...)

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1 hour ago, Schmakt said:

(most problems on on the spine... either due to the small bags/boards they switched to a while ago or maybe rubber-banding instead of taping...)

Can you elaborate on the rubber banding vs taping?  What part of the book are they rubber banding?  Also, are these issues with conditions from a few months ago when they were shipping out of Memphis?  Or has this been persistent since moving back to Fort Worth?  (ie the original talking point of this thread).  I looked around on Reddit and didn't see any mention about issues with condition.

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1 hour ago, ExNihilo said:

Can you elaborate on the rubber banding vs taping?  What part of the book are they rubber banding?  Also, are these issues with conditions from a few months ago when they were shipping out of Memphis?  Or has this been persistent since moving back to Fort Worth?  (ie the original talking point of this thread).  I looked around on Reddit and didn't see any mention about issues with condition.

I'll see if I can find you a good picture when I get off work, but basically they are stacking the books with 2 halves of the stack facing each other (good!), but then they started wrapping rubber bands around the stacks (whereas before they would put the stack in a larger bag and tape the bag tight).  So if the rubber bands are too tight and the boards don't extend far enough past the spine, then the rubber band seems to be pinching the book in half almost the same way you'd get off a shelf when people would flip the tops of the books down to get a copy from the back.

The most recent example of this was with the Jae Lee variant of Marvel Knights #4, which came in last month's shipment... I just haven't uploaded the scan yet - not really sure if it even shows up, but I'll take a look this evening.

 

EDIT:

Actually, you can kind of see it on this DD612... not as pronounced as I've seen it on others and - honestly - it doesn't happen *that* much.  I don't order that many monthly books though, and a lot of them are variants, so even a small percentage hurts when some of those variants are so over-priced...

612-NM-.thumb.jpg.6bf753bed47014b2d767fcf3e372b75b.jpg

Edited by Schmakt
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As far as DCBS is concerned, my last 2 shipments have been very good again.  No more King Kong finger indents all the way through the book etc, and the shipping is top notch as usual.  My last shipments have all been 9.4+ books with the exception of maybe 2 books in a 50+ book order.  Crossing fingers they stay consistent again.

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39 minutes ago, gradejunky said:

As far as DCBS is concerned, my last 2 shipments have been very good again.  No more King Kong finger indents all the way through the book etc, and the shipping is top notch as usual.  My last shipments have all been 9.4+ books with the exception of maybe 2 books in a 50+ book order.  Crossing fingers they stay consistent again.

I'm crossing my fingers my next order looks this good!  Will see how I do picking up the variants I skipped off of ebay and see what happens... 

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