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Support your LCS! But why?
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177 posts in this topic

I don’t know, it seems like you all have wonderful local shops with great deals and knowledgeable staff and the back issues and/or moderns you want. I can hardly even remember even being in a shop like that, usually out of town. I can name the dozen nearest shops and not a single one is up to par for me. Not in price. Not in selection. Not in staff knowledge. Not in any single category. Every time I leave a shop I leave disappointed, either empty handed or with a purchase made just because I wanted to bring something home, something I paid too much for and didn’t really want. Oh, I know where two shops I really like are at. The one close enough for me to actually occasionally be in town for I support every chance I get (A Shop Called Quest in Downtown Redlands, 65 miles away). The other I had visited just once to meet Jaime Hernandez at a book signing (Comics Factory in Pasadena, 125 miles away). I feel like the rest could do the hobby and the industry a service by simply going out of business. I shouldn’t be more knowledgeable than them (they are usually criminally unaware of anything that isn’t the current hottest DC movie tie in crossover event or the most limited Campbell cover). I shouldn’t have a larger inventory than them, especially since my collection is fairly modest (last shop I visited stocked maybe 20 current titles, had about 10 longboxes worth of back issues ridiculously spread out on unnecessary shelves just to make the store look full, and a single shelf of trades). And they should at least attempt to price somewhere within the realm of reality. The argument is they can’t compete with online because they have overhead. Every single brick and mortar shop competes with online. Many of them retail online as well as in the shop. The large online retailers have overhead as well. That’s not an excuse. 

 

Good shops deserve our support. Not just any shop for the sake of the hobby.

Edited by dupont2005
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2 minutes ago, dupont2005 said:

Every time I leave a shop I leave disappointed, either empty handed or with a purchase made just because I wanted to bring something home...

I've been there dude.

I stopped going to the closest shop because they don't carry new books/TPBs, and why shell out $5 for new single issues when I can get 6/$10 when they hit IST?

I stop at the shop half-way between work and home sometimes, because they also carry tons of books, some movies and games, and other comic-related stuff. It's a good place for me to find new TPB series that I'd be interested in reading or collecting. They have at least 5-times the amount of back issues as the shop mentioned above. They buy used issues all the time and put them at the front of the isles.

Sad story is, why stop in there when IST has everything 40%+ off? When you're reading stuff all the time, it doesn't matter that you get it a week later.

I've even moved on from buying the new Action/'Tec/Superman/Batman issues to just waiting for the next Rebirth TPB Volume to be printed and sold. There so much money saved for encapsulated comics that way.

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The shops here (in Vancouver, Canada) all have a lot of inventory of new stuff, TPBs etc. Not much to speak of in terms of bronze, silver or gold back issues (hard to compete with the internet for those). And I don't buy a lot of modern stuff anymore, but if I do buy any I always make sure to get it from my LCS only because I am a condition nut (I get nervous even watching the sales staff handle the comics I've selected when they're ringing them up, bagging/boarding them, etc). Every time I have bought new releases over the internet I have almost always been disappointed in the condition when received.

So for me, when it comes to new releases, my local LCS still gets my vote and my support.

 

 

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21 minutes ago, TwoPiece said:

I've been there dude.

I stopped going to the closest shop because they don't carry new books/TPBs, and why shell out $5 for new single issues when I can get 6/$10 when they hit IST?

I stop at the shop half-way between work and home sometimes, because they also carry tons of books, some movies and games, and other comic-related stuff. It's a good place for me to find new TPB series that I'd be interested in reading or collecting. They have at least 5-times the amount of back issues as the shop mentioned above. They buy used issues all the time and put them at the front of the isles.

Sad story is, why stop in there when IST has everything 40%+ off? When you're reading stuff all the time, it doesn't matter that you get it a week later.

I've even moved on from buying the new Action/'Tec/Superman/Batman issues to just waiting for the next Rebirth TPB Volume to be printed and sold. There so much money saved for encapsulated comics that way.

Wow, TBL I'd RDW if EWQ wasn't SPYT.  

Edited by bababooey
It's just gibberish, don't even try!
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The two shops here only stock new comics, no old back issues.

Forbidden Planet is a miserable place, with one or two good members of staff, with the remainder always tending to be extremely sulky, rude and occasionally overtly abusive.  I haven't been there in a decade and a half, sensible having heard that there's been little staff turnover during the interim, and many local collectors wouldn't care less if the store just vanished.  

Travelling Man is better staff-wise, more courteous and helpful, but again limited in range and also a gaming store.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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11 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

The two shops here only stock new comics, no old back issues.

Forbidden Planet is a miserable place, with one or two good members of staff, with the remainder always tending to be extremely sulky, rude and occasionally overtly abusive.  I haven't been there in a decade and a half, sensible having heard that there's been little staff turnover during the interim, and many local collectors wouldn't care less if the store just vanished.  

Travelling Man is better staff-wise, more courteous and helpful, but again limited in range and also a gaming store.

There is a shop near me with no back issues but they seem to stock every current mainstream title and a good selection of trades. I do go there on occasion for trades for the kid. They will order anything in print they don’t have, I never take them up on that though. If I have to wait for something in the mail it can just come straight to my house for 40% less. I’ll impulse buy trades and first issues of interesting titles there, but again that’s an example of buying something just because I wanted to buy something 

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Another interesting thing is for decades there was just one shop serving the entire area made up of a dozen small cities and towns in the desert. That one closed during the recession, leaving us with none. A few years later a new shop opened. Now we have three that I know of and wouldn’t be surprised if another one or two popped up. Not a single one as good as that pre-recession shop that had been in the desert longer than me, that I used to spend my allowance in on Friday afternoon when I was a kid. Partly nostalgia for sure, but the industry has changed and so has the successful comic shop business model. Not for the better in my opinion

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The truth is, I haven't come across a perfect shop.  Every shop has it's own set of problems.  I went to one shop in LA that had friendly knowledgeable staff and every book was bagged/boarded, but the back issue section was small.  I have a shop nearby which provides CGC service and has a large selection of back issues, but the store is a mess and the modern weekly books are laid out and appear prone to be damaged by other customers.  Then you've got places like Mile High which have HUGE stock, but the price of the books are, as the store name implies, mile high.  I mean, I get that there are costs involved with doing business and that running the perfect shop in all likelihood would mean less profits.  But at the end of the day, when i sub to 30+ books a month, it's better for me to just buy via DCBS and save myself 40%.  I shopped at my LCS for 20+ years, but there came a time where I just had to look out for myself and save some money (so I could buy more graded books).

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The reason shops have been able to survive is because they know they deal with people who behave like addicts. The attitudes, the demeanors, the shoddy lack of attention or care would never fly in a competitive market.

I cannot tell you the last time I went into a store. Maybe last December, to buy a hundred boards, because I was there? Why would I? Whether it's overpriced, overgraded garbage, or restored books undisclosed (thanks, House of Secrets in Burbank, CA!), there's nothing there that I want.

The refrain is always the same: if I can buy what I want online, for cheaper than it costs from you, there's no reason to shop with you. And that goes for convention dealers as well. If you balk at GPA, and complain that you have "costs" to setting up...costs you would have to pay whether I buy anything from you or not...then I'm not going to buy from you. I pay eBay's 10%, and I can be negotiated down to GPA (or less) and offer free shipping...so I understand overhead. 

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lol I agree... 

Last fall when I made a facebook post seeking advice for a snowblower, one of my friends "strongly" advocated supporting local business. They made post after post whenever someone would link me to something at Home Depot or Lowe's about how local businesses needed support. 

I found the same snowblower for a few hundred dollars cheaper at Lowe's than the local mom and pop.  The mom and pop offered no perks worth spending a few hundred dollars more.   

It may be local business but it is my money. 

 

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43 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

The reason shops have been able to survive is because they know they deal with people who behave like addicts. The attitudes, the demeanors, the shoddy lack of attention or care would never fly in a competitive market.

I've had numerous experiences suggesting that my enthusiastic nostalgia was being interpreted as an addictive dependency, and an easy opportunity to exploit, whether to be verbally or socially abusive to me in a retail environment, or to assume that any price could be demanded and I'd just desperately go along with it.

A classic example occurred just before I left London in 1990, during the big speculation boom period.  One shop owner there made the somewhat self-flattering, empowered and delusional comment that he was putting his prices up, and if I didn't want to pay them, I could go and collect something else. That was to give up comics, not go to other stores, and exactly the dealer-addict dynamic being discussed here: total, supremely-confident control, not brinksmanship.

Instead, I just quietly thought about how glad I was to be moving far away.

I'm much happier reading digitally now; much more cheaply and at even greater distance.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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29 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

lol I agree... 

Last fall when I made a facebook post seeking advice for a snowblower, one of my friends "strongly" advocated supporting local business. They made post after post whenever someone would link me to something at Home Depot or Lowe's about how local businesses needed support. 

I found the same snowblower for a few hundred dollars cheaper at Lowe's than the local mom and pop.  The mom and pop offered no perks worth spending a few hundred dollars more.   

It may be local business but it is my money. 

 

I worked at a local hardware store. They paid less than Lowe’s, offered no benefits, and employed the kind of that couldn’t get hired at Lowe’s. The owners wife and kids bankrupted the store by collecting large salaries and only showing up to work to shop on the company account.

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My favorite go-to LCS for many years has really taken a turn the past year, back issues are top-$ nowadays (can often find much cheaper online now even for non keys) and the service has sagged IMO due to a business-related change in their direction. Sorry to see that happen, this shop was always a great place for finding back issues at reasonable prices, now it's all top-$ prices. 

 

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I remember one shop I added Love And Rockets to my pull list at. This was back when it was an annual. The next issue rolls around and it’s not in my basket. He says whoops he forgot. He doesn’t use software to track his subs. It’s all scraps of paper and memory. He also lets me know he had never even heard of Fantagraphics and never looks that deep into Previews. So a little while later I find Love And Capes in my box. I tell him it’s the wrong title and show him what I’m talking about. A year later, I’m reminding him ahead of time that it’s coming out and time to order, and again it doesn’t show up. That’s the last time I stepped foot in that store. Same store used to stock the shelves on Wednesday and then fill the boxes from the shelves throughout the day. Any time a hot issue came out it would sell out before it went in my box. Then he would apologize and offer to buy one off eBay for me at $50 or whatever. No thanks. I know how to work the internet. Thanks for the incomplete run of Afterlife With Archie though, even though I’m a subscriber and regular customer 

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I really like George (owner of Comics Factory) and support his store. I've got a special order of Seth's Clyde's Fans collected works that I could buy on Amazon for 25$ cheaper, but like I said, I really like George and his store. He doesn't do back issues cause that's not his thing so it's pointless to complain about it. It's like going into McDonalds and complaining they don't serve sushi. Everyone working in his store has always been nice to me and greet me by name. They let me know what's up in the reprint department and know I don't care about new stuff. When I asked about new stuff, they fill me in. I'm not an expert on new stuff so I can't really comment if they are experts on new stuff.

P. Dot's collectables is great. Just up Lake Ave. in Pasadena, but technically in Altadena. Lawerence, the owner and his wife Stacey are super cool. He has back issues and nicer back issues in a glass case. There aren't any AF15s or Xmen 1s for everybody to kick around and comment on, but he's got some interesting stuff. If I want something more valuable in the way of back issues, Lawerence usually finds it for me. I've volunteered to Lawerence to help him set up at local cons to get an idea of what it's like to experience a con from the other side of the table and I can certainly see why dealers can get grumpy. Man some customers are obnoxious and a drag. But then I do spend money at P Dots so he does know I'm just not someone talking his ear off. I make it worth his while. Regardless, give him a try.

As has been mentioned here, House of Secrets in Burbank is a s-hole in every sense although their history is semi interesting with this character named Bruce who puts on cons in the LA area and owned the store before current owners although it was up the street a bit on Olive Ave. I've tried to get at Bruce's collection to get him to sell with no luck. He always runs around before the convention opens its doors and scoops up cool books and he's been doing it since 1988-ish so needless to say, he's got a nice collection. I went to a con of his in 1989 at the time of the first Batman with Keaton and Keaton was there. A near riot kicked off with waves of people about to kick in the hall's glass doors until it became a free for all. I honestly thought Kent State was gonna happen again. Or it was a Butthole Surfers show. Again, to be clear, HOS is a waste. Don't go.

The jury on Rocket Blast (or Blast Off or ?) in North Hollywood is still out. Owner Josh is interesting to talk to although his prices are high. Very high. I think his reasoning is "the Hollywood crowd can afford it." If you want to look at books like ASM 1 or DD 1, go here. 

Carr (owner of Earth 2 in Sherman Oaks) is super cool and has a nice, but medium sized to smallish, back issue stuff. He'll work with you on prices. Try him if you haven't.

That's about it that I know of. I like back issues so mainly I ignore stores that don't carry them.

I sometimes feel everything is a race to the bottom and the results of that race aren't going to be good. "But I can get it a couple of bucks cheaper here!" Cool. I hate hardware stores and home improvement sh*t and there's a Mom and Pop in Altadena I go to because I don't have to search a vast warehouse for someone. They just get it for me. I'm sure it's more expensive than Home Depot. If I go to a Mom and Pop and they're rude, I don't go back. It's in a really pretty part of town. Old fashioned town looking. It's pretty. Films are always shooting there to keep the fantasy alive that we haven't become a nation that's lost its way paved over with architecturally bland corporate warehouses filled with cheap sh*t from China. 

Edited by NoMan
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