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DCBS vs LCS
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Where do you primarily get your monthly pulls from?  

13 members have voted

  1. 1. Where do you primarily get your monthly pulls from?

    • Local Comic Shop (LCS)
      8
    • Online discounted retailer (ie DCBS, Midtown Comics, mycomicshop, etc)
      4
    • Other
      1


9 posts in this topic

I have been a loyal sub member/customer at my LCS for nearly 25 years now (asides for the 4 years I was away for college).  I have never ordered pull list books from online because I thought the discounts wouldn't be enough to cover shipping costs.  I probably also wanted to have the ability to pick up my books weekly and what not.  But a while back, my LCS closed one of its 2 locations.  What was once a 5 minute drive on local roads to pick up books was now a 20 minute drive on the freeway.  As a result, I stopped picking up books weekly after work on Wednesdays and now pick up books monthly on Saturday (to avoid traffic).

With some titles now being released twice monthly, and with a slew of one shots and tie ins and events, I picked up 40 books last month.  Needless to say, the cost is getting up there.  In lieu of the DCBS thread, I decided to take a closer look at the prices and boy was I stunned.  40-50% discount on all titles (I currently sub to)?  $0.50 for mylites and fullbacks?  That's a lot of money saved each month.  Of course the downside is waiting 2 months after release to read a title so i'll constantly be behind.  And it won't be as easy picking up titles that might catch my attention.  But I could of course still just hop into my LCS to pick up any books if I see something advertised or posted on a comic forum (cough these boards cough).

Which leads me back to my LCS.  Like I said, I've been shopping there for 25 years so I feel some sort of loyalty to them.  They're a business and do what they need to do to stay in business.  And unfortunately, that's at odds with what's best for me...saving money by buying elsewhere.  But you always hear about how you should support local businesses.  And there's always this push to support local comic shops.  I mean, they even have a Local Comic Shop Day.

So yeah, I'm a bit confused and conflicted.  If I make a list of pros/cons, the scale unanimously tilts in favor of setting up a pull/order list on DCBS.  And despite that, my heart still tugs towards the LCS.  So I'm curious, many of you must be in the same situation.  What are your thoughts?  Where do you primarily get your monthly pull list order from?

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Try to negotiate a better discount with your LCS in exchange for your continued loyalty. If they aren't willing to do that then you need to do what's best for you which is probably going to be ordering them online.

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Buy local.   I know dollars.  But what else do you get....you get to go into a shop, talk to like minded individuals in person (not electronically like here), see new acquisitions that the LCS may have purchased for their long boxes, see up close statues, supplies etc.  I like pulling my own copies off the shelf, so I can make sure they are in NM condition.  I love Wednesday lunch time! 

 If the LCS goes out of business, we lose that.    

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17 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

Buy local.   I know dollars.  But what else do you get....you get to go into a shop, talk to like minded individuals in person (not electronically like here), see new acquisitions that the LCS may have purchased for their long boxes, see up close statues, supplies etc.  I like pulling my own copies off the shelf, so I can make sure they are in NM condition.  I love Wednesday lunch time! 

 If the LCS goes out of business, we lose that.    

I agree with everything here except its easier said than done when the local LCS sells out of everything hot in a matter of minutes and starts raising prices of variants or new books reacting to market pricing.

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3 hours ago, Keys_Collector said:

I agree with everything here except its easier said than done when the local LCS sells out of everything hot in a matter of minutes and starts raising prices of variants or new books reacting to market pricing.

I run into this problem from time to time.  I have a pull list which makes it easier, but with all the variant covers these days, sometimes i prefer one over the other.  I usually have to call in and specify which cover, but sometimes i don't call until after lunch and on a handful of occasions, those books are gone by then.  At which point i'm scrambling and calling up other area shops to see if they can hold a copy for me.

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30 minutes ago, SitDown said:

They don't let you order whatever you want from Previews?

I have a pull list where I give them the titles I want and they place a copy in my folder.  For books with multiple variant covers, they just take whatever cover.  This has become especially problematic with the DC books of late.  I explicitly emailed them and mentioned cover preferences (for example Jim Lee variants for Justice League and Artgerm variants for Catwoman), but they never seem to take it into account.  I wind up just calling each Wednesday to make sure the correct covers are in my folder.

I guess I could ask about ordering from Previews.  I never did in the past because I was afraid of locking myself in to a title 2 months down the road that I might not like.

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6 hours ago, Keys_Collector said:

I agree with everything here except its easier said than done when the local LCS sells out of everything hot in a matter of minutes and starts raising prices of variants or new books reacting to market pricing.

I am actually very fortunate.  My LCS looks out for his subscribers and regulars, limits the flippers, and doesn't react to market prices until the dust settles after a few days. 

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