[Batman]

So, fellow geeks, where do you go to get your fix? What do you like or dislike about it? Is it the only choice around? If not, why is it your choice?

When I was a kid, when my Mom and I went to the Twin Cities, she'd sometimes treat me by taking me to Midway Books and Comics. I don't know if it was the only comic book shop around, but it was the only one that we knew about.

When I lived in St. Paul for one summer, I went there regularly. But now I live in Minneapolis. And if you live in Minneapolis, you don't go to Shelbyville if you can possibly avoid it.

In Minneapolis we have an embarrassment of riches for the geek, between Uncle Hugo's SF bookstore, Dreamhaven with both SF books and comics, The College of Comic Book Knowledge, Shinders, and Big Brain Comics.

I've been to Comic College a few times, they always have funny stuff printed on the paper bags they put your purchases in.

When I first moved to Minneapolis, I was loyal customer at Dreamhaven, because an artist I liked, Phil Foglio, was part-owner. A few years later, one of the clerks there who I got on with pretty well decided to start his own store, Big Brain. The location right downtown was very convenient, and it was nice to help support a young guy trying to be his own boss.

A couple years back they had to move (god damn condos!) and their new location isn't nearly as convenient, but I still get over there every couple of months.

The really nice thing about the place is that if a comic doesn't sell out, he keeps them on the stand at cover price for months, rather than bagging them and putting a collector price on them. So I can usually get caught up with the books I follow even though I don't get over there too often.

So how 'bout y'all?

[The Canadian Content]

Unfortunately, there's only one shop in my town. It's not bad, but the backissue selection leaves a lot to be desired (my Thor collection is bigger than theirs).

The guy who runs the place is a good guy, though, and it's usually not too busy in there, so I can go get my pull list and leave without too much hassle.

What I miss is the Silver Snail in Toronto. Two floors filled mainly with comics, although they also had a lot of sculptures and toys and shirts and whatnot. Aside from the thousands of books on-site, they also have a huge warehouse. I never asked them to bring in a book that they didn't have. Now, it's just not worth the drive to the place for me. I'll have to do my backissue shopping online.

[Batman]

psychofish said:

Now, it's just not worth the drive to the place for me.

What changed that it's not worth it anymore?


Pull lists never really worked for me. If there was a crappy fill-in issue I was committed to buying it, so I just can't see the advantage over simply subscribing. I just take the chance that my book might sell out. It doesn't happen often enough that I really worry that much about it.

[docx]

I live in Racine, WI, which is not exactly a booming metropolis for a comics fan. To my knowledge, there is only one shop here, Legendary. Not a bad place, but the owner is unreliable for making sure that reserved copies get held, special orders get placed, etc. Also, the regular fanboys are obnoxius to the point that I won't go in on shipment days, because they make me want to kill.
If I want to make the drive to Milwaukee, there's a place called Lost World of Wonders that has a sensational selection, but the owner of that place is the kind of comic snob who makes you feel like a real dick if you don't know who Batman defeated on page 6 of issue 34. Not worth it.
My favorite is Collector's Edge, in Milwaukee. Small shop but they still have really good selection. They're super dependable about making sure you actually, you know, receive what you order. And the owners and employees just talk to you. They tell you what they like and what they don't like, and why. And they're not Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Just real cool nice people in a laid back shop.

[The Canadian Content]

sergeial said:

psychofish said:

Now, it's just not worth the drive to the place for me.

What changed that it's not worth it anymore?


Pull lists never really worked for me. If there was a crappy fill-in issue I was committed to buying it, so I just can't see the advantage over simply subscribing. I just take the chance that my book might sell out. It doesn't happen often enough that I really worry that much about it.

What changed is that I moved. I'm now living about a two-hour drive from the store.

I disagree about the pull lists. If you know an issue's going to suck and you don't want to buy it, don't buy it. They set it aside for you, sure, but how hard is it to throw the thing back on the shelf if you don't want it? There's no commitment at all.

[Batman]

Different stores, different policies, I suppose.

The first and only time I ever had a pull list was at a store called "the Daily Planet" in Frisco, CO. They had a cool-ass sign:

Which . . . I was going to show you a picture of, but my scanner is on the fritz.

Well, anyway, I tried the pull list thing, until one week I didn't want one of the books, and the owner acted like I was asking for his wife and daughter. "How much for your women?"

I didn't go back there, again.

When I got to be a regular at Big Brain, I asked the owner about it, and he said that their policy is also that you're obligated to buy your pull list.

So I don't do pull lists.

[The Canadian Content]

Wow. That's bullshit. I mean, I can understand if you're pulling obscure titles that they ordered in and that no one else will buy, but if you decide you don't want ASM one month, what's the big deal? They can stick it on the shelf and sell it no problem.

Of course, I guess if they let one person do that, they have to let everyone, and they could wind up with a huge overstock of a particularly crappy issue of something.

[OpTard]

the big deal is retailers base their orders on these pre-orders. i've been working in comic book retail for literally over half my life. i can tell you, extra comics are not a good thing.

there's no returns in comics. you order what you think you can sell, and what you don't sell, you eat. when you sign up for a pull list, you're telling the retailer you plan to buy those comics and he adjusts his orders accordingly. it's bullshit to pre-order something then put it back on the shelf.

now, this isn't a huge issue really anymore as fill-in issues are a rarer and rarer thing. comics tend to move from one story arc to the next. but there are those rare cases. for the most part, you should get what you order, but if there is an isolated incident where you're not interested in a specific issue of something you normally would get, a good retailer (and if you're a good customer) would probably let you put it back on the shelf. it's really not the end of the world. and in some cases, a good retailer should be able to anticipate this and order less. a great example of this is the 2 issues of teen titans that rob leifeld did. while we could've said "hey, you reserve teen titans, you gotta get these," we knew that many of our customers who read teen titans will likely not want those issues, so we ordered less and didn't really give people a hard time for putting them back. but the rob leifeld issues are a special case. that was something we could anticipate, adjust, and make an exception to the rule. same thing with annuals and "secret files" type books. we'll throw them in the folders of people who reserve those titles, but no one's required to buy them, and we adjust our orders based on the idea that many of the ones in folders will end up back on the shelf.

but as far as not wanting a random issue of title you reserve because you think it looks dumb, well in that case you should either buy the or stop reserving the title.

[Batman]

That still begs the question, what's the advantage over subscribing?

Don't get me wrong, I prefer to shop at the comic book store. I like to look at a book and flip through it before I decide whether or not to buy it.

So I just take my chances something might sell out.

But hypothetically, if you were trying to sell someone on getting a pull list, what are the pluses for the consumer? "You're guaranteed a copy, and . . . you get to pay me for it. You want me to have a store, right?"

[The Canadian Content]

I stick with the pull list because I'm only buying the big books right now (New Avengers, Omega Flight, Justice), and there's no way my shop's going to bring in enough copies to make me feel comfortable enough that I'm going to get one. And, like I mentioned, that store's the only option anywhere near me.

Tard, thanks for the retailer perspective on the issue. I'd never thought about it like that before.

[Batman]

Yeah, Y: the Last Man never sells out. I've missed a couple of issues of Fables, though. It just meant that I had to switch to TPB for a while.

Omega Men is a "big book"?

These goofs?

[OpTard]

not omega men. omega flight. the new post-civil war version of alpha flight. it's only had one issue so far, but it sold huge.

and as far as advantages to pull lists, well first of all most stores offer a discount off of cover price if you're a reserve club member. that's probably the biggest advantage (aside from being guaranteed a copy) over just pulling from the shelf. comics aint cheep. discounts help. as far as advantages over a by-mail subscription, well there's just the timeliness. the books you read will NOT show up in your mailbox the wednesday they're released. in fact you probably wont get it till a week or 2 after that. not to mention there's no guarantee of the condition it will arrive in if it comes by mail. not to mention if it's not a marvel or DC book, subscription isn't even available. nor a subscriptions available for mini-series or special requests like "all civil war" or "all batman" or "ultimate spider-man trade paperbacks" or something like that. and also there's the fact that you have to go to the store to pick them up, which means your not only limited to reading the books you subscribe to. you can see whats out and pick up other books you're interested in.

now i'm not saying pull lists are for everyone. we have plenty of customers that don't have a list who buy tons of books regularly. they tend to be in every wednesday like clockwork, so they don't really have to worry about things selling out. really just shop however works best for you.

[Lucky]

Yeah, I've subscribed in my younger days and I got quite a few fucked up copies. I also remember it being very common for me to see the issue sitting on the racks before I got it and I know I had multiple copies of a few books because I didn't want to wait for God knows when my book would show. I've never done a pull list so I'm not sure, but I'd think that you'd also be able to take a book off your list while you're locked into a subscription for a set amount of time. If its just big books you always follow I guess its not a big deal, but if you're interested in a new title and after a few months find it isn't for you I'd think the pull list would be preferred. Unless of course I have it wrong and the stores make you commit to a certain amount of time.

[Batman]

Good point about mail mutilation. I subscribed to ASM for a year when I was a little kid, and I think they used to roll them up in a tube back then! Not so great. They probably have a more collector-friendly method these days, but there's still no guarantee with the mail.

Timeliness isn't an issue with me, as I usually only visit the shop every couple of months. I'm pretty sure that with pull lists you can cancel anything that hasn't yet been solicited for. I think that would mean that if you're unhappy with a book, you'd want to let the shop-owner know pretty darn quick if you didn't want to get stuck with the next issue. But that's still a lot less commitment than a subscription.

While I like the flexibility of deciding if I'm going to buy something after I've taken a look at it, I can see where if I was buying books that really had a good chance of selling out, like ZodFluffer (see what I did there? He "kneels before Zod!" Ha!) does, I might feel differently about it.

[OpTard]

sergeial said:

...like ZodFluffer (see what I did there? He "kneels before Zod!" Ha!) does, I might feel differently about it.

that joke was terrible. you're banned for a day.

[williamssl]

[docx]

[The Canadian Content]

[Charlie Brown]

Nobody appreciates subtle humor anymore.

[Schroeder]

I'm sorry, Charlie Brown.

I guess nothing has been written for piano and cigar-box banjo.

[Batman]

How weird! I just mentioned how many great options the geeks in my area have for all their geek needs, and it looks like a local institution, Shinder's, is very likely going to go under, on account of legal problems of the new owner. Link.

It figures after almost a hundred years of getting along just fine, that it's likely going out of business within just a couple of years of being sold out of the family.

[Loki]

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day. Awesome.

[Stu]

There aren't a lot of comic shops in Glasgow. Two are in the city centre, one (which I know Mark Millar has used) is a little further out, and I don't know the exact location of it, while one's a mystery. So of the two in the city, I go to A1comics, because it's literally round the corner from where I catch the bus back home, it's quieter and roomier and a bit more friendly than Forbidden Planet (in so much as if I browse at a particular section for an extended amount of time, I don't get unsubtle members of staff hovering nearby watching me to see if I'm out to steal anything). It's also on this street which has a row of cool collectible type shops, and an affiliate tabletop strategy place that tends to have some cool displays in the window (there was a replica 300 shield for instance).
That said, we get the short end of the stick in the UK. Our comics come out on thursday, not wednesday usually, and friday if the monday of that week was a bank holiday. It's so bloody stupid.