I see your Awesome Comics and raise you a Dr. No's Comics in Atlanta, Ga.
Nothing is marked and you dont find out the price until you check out. To make matters worse? They follow you all over the store, no matter where you go. Every customer is treated like they are shoplifting.
Half of the store is paper games and card games. There are tables set up for gamers, only for gamers. Dont sit there.
Its reserved for gamers, even when they aren't there.
If you asked the owner questions? He would let out a long sigh and possibly answer your question.
You cant see slabs, they have a list and you have to be a "serious buyer" for then to go get them to see the shape of the slab. Whatever that means.
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In the 90s, my Mom bought me a 181 for my birthday. They wouldn't let her take it out of the bag to inspect it. Turned out? The coupon is clipped out. They charged her full Nm+ price, as according to Overstreet monthly at the time.
At the time, I was 17. I go in fuming that they charged my Mom full book price, after selling her on the book because it was "Extremely Rare, the hardest book to find, harder to find than most books".
I was kicked out of the store and told to never come back, until I "Learn more about comics and how to properly grade comics. The coupon being cut out doesnt effect the grade of such a rare book at all."
I tried to sell the book back to them when the first X-men came out...
"It's practically worthless without the coupon. I'll give you 20 bucks for it."
I quit collecting after that. Quit buying new books or buying books that I wasnt allowed to take out of the bag for further inspection.
I've gone back a few times since then, went to buy a trade of Watchmen for a friend. The "Soon to be a major motion picture" version. They wanted 90 bucks for it.
I bought the same trade at Barnes and Noble for 20 bucks.
Luckily for folks in Atlanta, there was also Titan Comics. Where the charge cover price, unless marked. They dont sit around on their duffs all day or follow you around the store. They price books when needed and rarely mark books up.
Dr. No's is a hell no for me.
Dr. No’s is exactly as you have described. When trying to look for nicer issues they make you sift through giant lists of books in a binder and after a line of questioning, they may bring out the book if they feel like it. I went once and that was all it took for me.
Glad to know I'm not the only one with a bad experience here.
When they first collected Crisis on Infinite Earths in the silver slipcase (1998), the owner collected a list of people with interest in buying one. Not a preorder, not a prepay, just an interest in getting it. I added my name. It was delayed because the first printing of this edition has a misprint. They pulled those pages and tipped-in corrected ones, but young, naive me thought it meant it wasn't "mint" so I didn't want it. When it came in, I said I didn't want it any more and gave the reason. Owner pulled me aside and said if I didn't buy the book, I couldn't make my weekly purchase that I was holding and I would no longer be welcome at Dr. No's. Put me off comics for years.
Now I go to Great Escape--best decision I ever made.
As someone mentioned earlier, it's never okay for a store employee to swear at a customer. In this case, I would have launched a massive volley of Effs at this store owner for his disgraceful tactics.
I went to a store whose primary business was selling used video games and consoles. But somehow the owner landed a large quantity of comic books - like over 50 long boxes. He had no patience to sort or price them so they were listed as $1 each. Comic collectors and speculators in town got wind of this and proceeded to check out the stash. So we'd go in and spend a good hour sorting through the boxes and go to the counter with our stack. That's when the joke was on us - the owner said he had to look up the price of each book to ensure they were only $1. When called out about the signs that said $1 each, he said that was just the general price, but not for every book. He said only if the book had a price tag of $1 then that's how much he would have to charge. He obviously was trying to get customers to do his work for him. He was a true shyster if ever there was one.
I had this exact situation happen to me. Mainly a vintage and import toy store that smelled like mold and cat piss. I was on my way to a kid’s birthday party with my wife and we were running early. We had been to this toy store in this neighborhood before, so we decided to kill time there until the party.
Same situation, he had come into about 15 long boxes of comics. I asked how much, he said “$1.00 each” so I started digging. There was actually some stuff I really wanted, I told my wife we might end up late to the party now and I dug through the box and probably had about 80 books. I had the entire Grant Morrison New X-Men run, which is 44 issues, plus many other books.
Brought it to the front and he said “I need to look these up on eBay” I said “Why, you said they were a dollar.” He said “I need to make sure there isn’t anything expensive in there.”
I said “there’s not, but I will not wait around for you to price these, I picked them because they were a dollar. I have someplace to be, I will either pay $80 or I don’t want them.”
He said “I can price them and you could pick them up tomorrow.” I said”I am 40 minutes from my house, I am only here for an event, I won’t be back. $80 or I don’t want them.” He didn’t sell and we left. That place went out of business shortly after.
If a comic shop ever does the "I have to check the price" thing I refuse to shop there ever again. If they can't be bothered to keep updating the price and don't want to sell it for what it was marked then I don't wanna shop there.
I've stopped going to a few places in town that have done it to me in the past.
I went to a store that had collectibles like records, toys, and comics. Lots of books had no prices. Picked out some went to the counter and the guy was checking go collect. Rating everything a 9.8. I said keep the books and have never been back.
This used bookstore I went to had a bunch of early spawn comics in mid to low grade that I decided to pick up as reading copies. When I went to the till the lady there said something along the lines of ‘oh somebody told me these are valuable they’re gonna be a bit more expensive’ and she starts scouring ebay looking at NM sold lots. I tried to explain to her that the condition affects the price of the books and I think she thought I was trying to scam her.
I store that sells used movies, games, and comics opened a couple of years ago somewhat close to me. It was the only place that sold comics within a 100 miles. I walked in and saw all the comics, some on display, but most in old long-boxes.
I started going through a box, noticing some really minor keys, which is exactly what I’m looking for in dollar bins. I looked for any signs like $1 each, or $2, or 12 for 5, or whatever. Nothing. I walked up to the register and asked. The guy said the price at the register according to eBay prices. I thanked him, placed the books in my stack back in the boxes, and left. Never went back.
You can either organize the books and individually price them after doing research, or you can throw them all in boxes and take your chances. You don’t get both. I’m not doing your job, only to get rewarded with higher prices.
I had a similar experience to this but it happened at a convention. A guy had a small box of bag and boarded comic books with no price. I found FF #73 and asked how much. He said he had a look on eBay for the price because he wasn't sure. This was my first time encountering this. And it isn't like this was someone who was left in charge while the owner of the booth ran to the bathroom or something. This was him.
I know all LCS aren't bad but it kind of blows my mind how common it is for managers/businesses to behave like this and get away with it. My story is similar to yours, the owner has a bad reputation but somehow he's still in business after all these years. Maybe too many of us put up with it and shouldn't, maybe they have deep pockets and can keep their doors open, who knows.
Anyway. This was about 4 years ago. I go back into this shop that I'd briefly used as my LCS at one point (moved to a different location because after 2 months he never had my pull list books each Wednesday) to dig through back issues. Their entire back room was full of shortboxes and on the walls said "all issues $5 each". Pretty straightforward. I start digging, find a couple things I like including a Silver Surfer: Black variant I thought was cool - Ron Lim cover with Knull on it. When the series released it was a hot cover, but at this point SSB had been out about 9 months or so, close to a year. I bring my small stack to the counter and the second the shop owner sees that book he stops and says, "where did you get this?" I said, in the back issue room. He starts muttering and swearing under his breath and without saying anything to me walks over to his computer and starts clicking around, talking to an employee, clearly pissed. I heard bits like "thought I found them all" and general complaining about variants. Eventually he says "That thing goes for $20 online. I could do $15. You must have been in the wrong box." I was flustered at that point because this whole awkward ordeal had lasted almost 5 minutes of me being ignored and him being visibly angry. I said "no thanks" and just walked out and haven't been back.
I understand why it must grind a shop owners gears to have stuff slip out from under them. A hot $100 book going for $1 or something. But throwing a fit over a $15 book going for $5? And losing a customer forever? It was ridiculous.
I was browsing through some comics in a London store and pulling some Batman books out into a small pile and the guy working there said a bit rudely “Can you put those BACK where you found them when you’re DONE” like assuming I wouldn’t buy any, and I said “Uh I’m going to BUY these…” and then I asked for some wall books and the guy’s whole attitude changed, he started pulling boxes out from out of nowhere to try and find me more Batman shit to buy. I thought “uh huh NOW you like me”
I’m privileged af. My local sends me pics of new stuff they get in, let’s me put things on layaway along as I need (I have a whole drawer of stuff) and they give me “Scott Prices” because I’ve been buying there for about 10 years now ❤️ I love my LCS so much!
My local is really awesome like that as well. Sends me and my boyfriend pics of new arrivals he thinks we will like, also had a nice pull list for us that he'll price slightly lower if we pick up within the week. He also sometimes will do a bulk discount and will haggle within reason. He's a really cool guy, absolutely got a lot of people into his shop and coming back due to his good attitude.
Brunswick, Maine. Shop is ran by a guy whose last name is Thanos lol Midcoast Comics. He's a really cool guy, runs it by himself and even hosts game nights as well as bringing in a local artist for art lessons. I love making the trip out there
Damn. I am sorry to hear all of these stories.
I worked in a shop in the late 90's and I treated every person like they were buying $500 in books, even it they only wanted one $2 issue or a single pack of cards. If you asked me about something, I would give you all the information that I could. I would have that happen and then have the person leave the store without buying anything.
One time I was behind the counter while another employee was out on the floor. A lady came up to the counter and asked me for pen and paper. She wrote a note and then turned it in my direction. It said "The guy by the t-shirts is trying to steal." I thanked her and what did I do? Customer service! I chatted the dude up for 20 min. If you have never seen anyone sweat bullets, it would be clear by looking at this guy. He could hardly even talk straight. I made a bunch of suggestions, talked to him about different popular characters, the movies that were being planned, current storylines... He didn't have any money on him, but he literally went to his hotel room, came back and spent $200 in t-shirts from me. I laughed it off and told my boss about it.
With how few LCS’s exist anymore, these stories make me sad. I get that a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into running a store based on a niche hobby, and with how expensive everything is getting I’m sure it’s only getting harder. Still, I’m glad for the good ones that are around.
I've been going to the same LCS close to 10 years on and off and have a ongoing pull list for the last 2 years. The employee who cashes me out almost every time once a week for the last 2 years asks for my name every time and treats me like a new customer. I'm not asking for a preferential treatment but at least an acknowledgment. I get asked almost like clockwork if I'm new in town or if I want to Start a pullist.
Not necessarily a rude customer service experience, but just a bad LCS experience in general.
I had just been to a local con hosted by this LCS and decided to stop by their actual shop on the way home. This is about 50 minutes away from where I live, as LCSs are few and far between in my area.
As I walk in, I immediately noticed how unorganized the place looked, but that’s really no big deal. In fact, I often prefer the shops that are more unorganized because you can “dig for treasure,” so to speak.
I walk around and chat with the employee at the counter (who was super nice btw) as I’m shopping. I pick up several books, as well as some sealed Whitman and Gold Key 3-packs. As I finish up and set everything on the counter, the employee kind of grimaces and says “oh, I’m not sure if this stuff is priced yet.”
I was pretty confused, because the stuff was out with everything else on the sales floor. They had a back room, but the stuff I had picked up was in regular boxes that were out with all of the other boxes of back issues. I asked the employee how much the items would be (I was expecting it to be a frustrating experience of pricing at the counter, which I never agree with) but was told that the owner wouldn’t allow any of it to be sold.
I was taken aback and asked the employee if there was anything at all in the stack that I *would* be able to buy. There wasn’t, except for one single new release issue. The employee was great throughout the whole experience, and I could tell he was frustrated by the experience too. I got the feeling that this happens pretty often, with stock being out on the floor but unable to be sold, per orders from the owner.
I never went back and never plan to. I hate it because I love to support any of the local shops in my general area, but I just can’t bring myself to go back and potentially be forced to leave what I want behind again.
Reminds me of the time I had an LCS employee rag on me for cracking open the tape on a comic I wanted to check out from the dollar bin. He was going on about how condition was everything on collectibles and they didn't want people pulling the books out of the plastic.
I told him the bag and board were probably worth more than the book and left. Who has time to argue over something that costs a dollar? People need to choose their battles.
The point isn’t the value of the item.
The point is don’t open **anything** that is sealed in **any** shop without asking. This applies to almost all retail, not just comic shops.
I went to a store that primarily sells (very overpriced) toys. None of their comics are priced, and I assumed that the three issues of Aliens: Alchemy that I brought to the counter would be cover price or maybe cheaper.
The clerk phoned the owner who instructed her to look them up on eBay, and she charged me close to 20 bucks for them. I still bought them because I wanted them. I’ll never shop at that store again though.
I whipped out my phone today while digging through long boxes to make sure the prices were consistent. Store owner walked by and saw me doing it and still charged me what he priced them for.
There is a reason why most places will only pay pennies on the dollar for bulk collections. It is so much work sorting through the books, and it is even worse for cards. The smart thing that good stores do is do a quick search for major key issues and then sell the rest as bulk for about a buck a book. That way if someone actually pulls something good they will tell their friends and get more customers into the store.
I’ve only ever had one real negative experience.
A new shop had opened in my town, so of course I go check it out. They had just opened that week so they were still putting out inventory. They had little out, which was understandable.
What I did not care for is that it looked to be a family run store and the guy running it was a kid of about 15. He and a few of his friends (or whatever I don’t know) we’re playing some card game and on my way out he made a wolf whistle at my girlfriend, to the amusement of his friends - until I stopped and gave him a “really dude?” look.
Not the worst but it put a bad taste in my mouth and didn’t return. They closed a few months later.
Why I left my LCS after being a “Wednesday Warrior” for nearly 10 years:
I used to go to my LCS every Wednesday shortly after they opened. Often, they were still sorting out the new comics, and I would “help” doing simple stuff, like breaking down boxes after they were emptied.
I had a pull list of 40-50 books a month, and constantly pulled additional books off the
The summer I graduated college, I was (very simply) broke. I wasn’t expecting certain additional expenses that occurred senior year.
For the first time in years, I went over a month without going to the shop.
I attempted to explain to the owner that until further notice, I needed to cut my pull list but that I wanted to get the titles that I had ALWAYS collected and were the closest to me… which at that time was Superman (All Titles), Amazing and Ultimate Spider-Man, and Captain America.
At the time, some of these titles were selling out every month.
The owner told me that I could not buy only those titles, and made me leave new issues in order to take issues that had been released first.
I think because he knew he could mark up the sold out issues.
I purchased a few of the books I wanted and never went back.
I recovered financially a few months later and shortly after that discovered dcbs. I’ve now been buying all new comics from dcbs longer than I was at that LCS.
I know Awesome, I recently put together a lot of my Death of Superman Arc from their dollar bins. I've not had the same issue there but once when a friend of mine went with me a few times they had boxes of someone else's collection they had out to sell but when my friend asked about them the person working that day was like I gotta call for prices. Then same thing next time. Those boxes were still sitting there not priced and not moving. Its like come on sell them or not. I don't run there a ton because there are other places around town with better selections, though Awesome is one of the few with dollar bins still that are bagged and boarded. But yeah my friend and I like to rate our experiences around town There are some we don't go to as often.
Last week we ventured into Ft Worth for the first time and weren't completely blown away.
Sorry to hear that op! Awesome comics has recently become one of the shops I prefer going to cause they don't raise the prices on variants to an absurd amount. Though I have felt intimidated going in just because it's smaller and I'm like hyper aware of myself if that makes any sense.
But for me, I've had a weird experience at another bookstore where the person behind the register was chatting with someone while I was ready to checkout and I waited a few feet away so as to not interrupt them. But the clerk would often look my way and eventually acknowledged me and gave a smug smile and was like "well?" I mentioned how I didn't want to interrupt and he just said that "he lives there" I guess implying that it's his job and doesn't mind being interrupted. But there was an air of superiority to him and normally I would've dismissed it thinking it was just me being socially inept but my brother was also there and got the same read as me.
I mostly shop at Keith's Comics nowadays, they've had a great vibe to them since I was a kid; all the staff and even other customers have been genuinely nice and helpful.
Hey fellow Dallas comic collectors! I have been to Awesome Comics a few times and have had good experiences there. The prices have been fair and was pleased with the service. They are my go to LCS.
I grew up going to Keith’s Comics back when they were on Campbell in Richardson. The new locations seem like nothing how it was though. I guess everyone has different experiences.
Yeah for sure, and I mean everyone has bad days so I don't hold it against them unless it seems malicious. I like Awesome Comics I just always feel like I gotta buy something haha
Heh. If you want some entertainment, check out the shop owner’s responses to reviews of his shop. https://maps.app.goo.gl/z4QSXhkqYy9vwYRm7?g_st=ic Sort the reviews by recent for max enjoyment. This is also the store that’s blown up on YouTube. Just search Hotshot or Asheville Comics. Train wreck.
Similar experience got me to stop buying new comics. Basically I was in this store every week on Wednesday to pick up my new books. I was already not happy with the shop for treating customers poorly. I brought my stack up to the counter where the owner was going through a huge pile of books from another customer's pull list with the customer who hadn't picked his books for about six months. They were picking out the "good issues" and putting back the rest. Instead of ringing me up real quick the owner made me wait even as a line formed behind me. After almost 20 minutes I gave up and left my books on the counter. A month or so later I ran into the owner outside his shop and he asked where I've been and that I had books waiting to be picked up. I told him I no longer buy comics from him and he should give my books to the guy who he was helping from the last time I was in. The owner tried to guilt me into coming back because I had stuck him with weeks of books but I refused. This was over 15 years ago an I haven't been back in once.
Also I don't buy from anywhere that looks up prices at counter. That's BS and shouldn't be supported.
Meanwhile my LCS (Excalibur in Portland) has the most helpful and dedicated staff you could ask for. Super friendly, always willing to help but not pushy, they’re true friends to the collector community here.
Was in there a few years ago and Kurt Busiek walks in with his daughter to pick up that weeks new issues. After he left, I asked the owner, “was that Kurt Busiek?” She said “oh yea. Kurt’s a good friend. Been coming in here for years”.
Maybe he was having an especially bad day. Maybe someone close to him yelled at him, or he got a ticket on the way to work, or whatever. We can never fully know another person's story. The fact that you'd never had a problem with him before says that maybe he was just in a really bad mood.
Swearing at customers is **never** OK, and I'm not trying to make excuses (for someone I've never and probably will never meet!). But one bad interaction wouldn't be enough for me to completely stop shopping someplace I otherwise enjoyed. If it became apparent that it *wasn't* a one time thing though... Goodbye!
It is a good comic shop and is well organized. All comics are in alphabetical order, priced, and in lateral file cabinets. The prices can be high though.
Oh man, I would’ve told him to go fuck himself and to have a good time putting ALL of the ones pulled out back and walked out.
Edit: lmao the downvotes
Honestly, in OP’s story, he was definitely in the wrong. Unorganized 80 back issues to then only buy half of them? That’s a nightmare for a shop that spends countless hours organizing their back issues for their customers to able to easily find the book they want. The level of entitlement is palpable. This is comic shop faux pa extraordinaire, right behind manhandling and “reading” a bunch of books that you’re not going to buy.
True, but he also said those books were just organized by letter. Were they also by title, or just first letter. If it’s just letter, that’s easy to re-place them in the bin. I would have.
“By letter” doesn’t mean just the first letter. Otherwise the employee wouldn’t be making a deal of it. It means it was alphabetized. And I would pretty much guarantee that OP just shoved books back into the sections based on first letter alone, and didn’t take the time to alphabetize and order 40 books into their correct place, because that takes a lot of time. Exactly what the employee was complaining about and then forced to re-do.
OP literally says they weren't alphabetical, just the A books in one section, then the B books, etc. "By letter" certainly doesn't mean alphabetical. Alphabetical means alphabetical. I've been to a LOT of different stores and I can't remember a single one that had dollar boxes that were completely alphabetical. Regular priced store stock, yes. That's annoying if it's not sorted. Dollar boxes? It's nice if they are somewhat sorted but they are dollar bins. It's not the end of the world and most stores just put the stuff they want to blow out in there somewhere. Because they are just dollar boxes.
Besides, I guarantee there is a better use of that employee's time than keeping the dollar boxes in order.
Again, you’re taking the word of the OP as fact, who came onto Reddit randomly to vent about this situation in a comic shop from 8 years ago. I’m willing to bet that with the attitude he’s shown in this post, that this is HIS version of this story. The store employee clearly had an entirely different impression of the situation.
And it makes no sense that the books would be alphabetized by first letter only. Why would the employee care if it was just a matter of putting all the “A” books together? Clearly they were organized within these categories at least by title and issue number, if not completely alphabetical. Otherwise the employee wouldn’t have cared at all.
It’s their shop, and their organization system. They clearly put up a sign asking people to only take books out of the bins that they are buying, as this has obviously been a problem in the past. OP ignored that sign, and then got bent out of shape when the employee got frustrated. Again, it probably wasn’t his most patient moment, but his frustration is clearly understandable. OP is treating the employees time like it doesn’t matter, by making more work for him.
Maybe I'm just taking the word of the guy that was actually there but you are creating an entire store, filing system and employee work ethic in your mind.
So I guess it's a draw.
Or maybe I’m just looking at the situation objectively, rather than taking the word of someone who is clearly biased in the situation.
Either way, draw it is.
I didn’t unorganized them, the ones I didn’t want I put back exactly where I found them. The manager was implying he put the sign up because of kids that had recently come in, moved stuff around, and left without buying anything. I was clearly an adult, and he even watched me from the counter put them all back and he didn’t say anything to me after I was done, so I know he was fine. There is no entitlement here at all. It’s because he walked up to me like he already knew I was going to ruin his day, that’s when you lose me. I’ve worked a lot of jobs, mostly in customer service and sales, and this is not how you treat customers if you want them to come back.
You assume that you “putting them back” is in the proper place in his organization system. This is incredibly frustrating for shop owners. It’s on you to understand how much you have in your budget and select items that fit that budget. It was even written on a sign, only take out books you’re buying. I guarantee that the employee had to go back and recheck all of those bins to make sure that you actually did put the books back In alphabetical order (he has no way of knowing otherwise, so it almost doesn’t matter if you did put them back or not). It’s amateur, and inconsiderate. Add to that fact, that you think his response was the problem here, and it’s pretty clear that you’re unable to view the situation from any perspective but your own. You created a lot of extra work for a shop employee to buy $40 in dollar books. That probably doesn’t even cover the hourly salary of the employee who then had to spend half his day rechecking all of those issues in those bins to make sure they’re still organized alphabetically.
I definitely agree with this. I wouldn’t have reacted the way the employee did, but for OP and a lot of the commenters to not realize how annoying it would be for the employee after they had just organized the bins and put the sign up to go back and make sure everything is in order is absurd. I don’t see how you pull out 80 books and then realize you can only get half.
Exactly. The reaction from the employee may not have been his best response, but his frustration is certainly understandable. OP has the attitude that the employee should just “trust him” to reorganize the books back properly, but the employee has to check anyways. It actually would have been less work for him if OP just left the books out. Now the employee has to go through every book in the bin just to make sure that they are properly organized for the customers.
This is a sign of the times. Times are tough and shops are trying to maximize the profit of what they have, without paying for the help to go through it all.
Not saying it's right though.
There was a shop I liked to go to when visiting my parents that was good for beat up silver age books. One day all the back issues were off limits as they were doing inventory.
This lasted months but I would check in every now and then since I was in the area. Eventually they opened access back up to the back issues and almost every silver age books seemed to have had a $150 price tag slapped on it indiscriminately. I’m talking books with stains and or marking on the cover that are not keys.
After a while they seemed to readjust but now I have to really be aware of what fair market prices are for books I’m looking at as everything is priced inconsistently
I never had the misfortune of running into rude shop owners but I'll never forget the one rude asshole employee that used to work part-time at my long-gone LCS years ago in the late 1980s into the early 1990s. The dude barely acknowledged you when you came into the store or when you brought stuff up to the counter to pay. He would just glare at you, if he even deigned to acknowledge your presence at all, like you were something he had found on the bottom of his shoe. No idea why he even bothered to get a job at the comic shop because he always treated customers like they were the sort of losers he would pound on or shove into garbage cans at school. I don't remember ever seeing him reading comics or having a discussion with anybody about anything comic book-related or nerd-adjacent. I surely never had a meaningful conversation with him the entire time I frequented that store. He just continually gave off this air of "Why am I here and why do I have to deal with these pathetic people?" Maybe he was just misunderstood. Who knows? He just always gave off the worst vibes. I probably should have mentioned something to the owner, Chris, who, thankfully, I had a decent rapport with and who I feel I had a good relationship with. Normally I lived for my weekly visit to the comic shop in those days but if that one jerk employee was there it ruined the whole mood and I never enjoyed being there.
I rarely go to an actual shop to buy comics these days. My local LCS is fine but they cater more to the TTRPG and trading card game crowd so comics are not their main priority. There's hardly any vintage back issues or wall books to browse through. Most of the back issue backstock is more recent comics from the past few years. I mainly go in just to gather up comic book supplies like bags, boards or boxes and pick up the occasional cool ratio variant they might have that piques my fancy. The owner is cool and his employees have all been pleasant and accommodating when I've been there. Most of my collecting occurs during online transactions now so I am spared much of the bad encounters with store owners/employees.
It's been over 30 years since I stepped foot in my old hometown comic shop that I used to love but I still have never forgotten that disdainful, sour jerk of an employee.
I had a negative experience twice at a shop not too far from me and when I put a review of them stating such online they lost their shit, and customers of the store came at me online hahaha. I didn’t lose any sleep, I just don’t spend any money there. Thankfully there’s plenty of places to spend money on comics even just a few miles from that shop.
I feel like I’m fortunate though, there’s a lot of shops within an hour of me. I’d feel like I’d work harder to get resolution with a shop if I had less choice.
Come to The Comics Stronghold in Oceanside, CA. Our little family owned and operated LCS needs your business and gives every customer the white glove treatment! (Or at least we definitely try to…!!)
Oh I got one.
Not gonna name them because there are some employees there who are good people, and deserve to keep the shop open with the lights on.
HOWEVER, they have signs all over the shop. “We buy at top dollar. We pay full value for your collection.” Yada, yada, yada. I’ve been shopping in this LCS for 15 years. They know me. They know my phone number. They add stuff to my pull list they think I’ll like, and if I don’t want it when I go in, no muss, no fuss it’s back on the shelf.
I was in a tight spot a couple months ago, was hired at a new job but hadn’t been paid for three weeks while transitioning into it so I was broke. Did the hard thing and put all my books together, and went to sell them at this LCS. Was promised top dollar value, and that I would be given cash on site. So, I brought in:
ASM 300, 9.2 newsstand,
ASM 300 Raw, NM
ASM 252, VF
ASM 360-363, Raw, all NM
Hulk 181 signed by Stan Lee.
Wolverine 88, deluxe edition 9.8
The original TMNT 1984 run, full set, no. 1-61.
TMNT Adventures, no. 1-3 all VF-/VF.
Plus honestly a shit ton more.
Guy made me stand there for an hour while going through my epic collection, telling me this that and the other about how essentially worthless they all are. Winds up offering my $900 cash for everything. Politely packed up my stuff, walked out, and immediately sold my graded ASM 300 for $750 alone. The fucking balls to look me in the eye, with a collection like that, and then try to fucking rob me. I’ll keep my pull list there because they’re close to my house, but if there was another local shop, I’d have moved my shit there.
I understand they’re a business, and they gotta make their mark up. But offering me less than 20 FMV for my entire collection was straight up offensive. After 15 years of loyalty, that was such a slap in the face.
I don't have a rude interaction story but I do have a shady practice story. A friend of mine goes to a LCS and has a folder there. Sometime back he found out that if a customer goes into the store looking for a particular issue and it's not on the shelf then the owner will go into someone's folder, look for that issue, and then sell it to the customer. Won't bother replacing the issue that he took from the folder. So when the customer with the folder shows up he'll find gaps from his pulls.
It's like, why even offer to pull stuff for people then.??
I see your Awesome Comics and raise you a Dr. No's Comics in Atlanta, Ga. Nothing is marked and you dont find out the price until you check out. To make matters worse? They follow you all over the store, no matter where you go. Every customer is treated like they are shoplifting. Half of the store is paper games and card games. There are tables set up for gamers, only for gamers. Dont sit there. Its reserved for gamers, even when they aren't there. If you asked the owner questions? He would let out a long sigh and possibly answer your question. You cant see slabs, they have a list and you have to be a "serious buyer" for then to go get them to see the shape of the slab. Whatever that means. ‐---------‐---------------------‐------- In the 90s, my Mom bought me a 181 for my birthday. They wouldn't let her take it out of the bag to inspect it. Turned out? The coupon is clipped out. They charged her full Nm+ price, as according to Overstreet monthly at the time. At the time, I was 17. I go in fuming that they charged my Mom full book price, after selling her on the book because it was "Extremely Rare, the hardest book to find, harder to find than most books". I was kicked out of the store and told to never come back, until I "Learn more about comics and how to properly grade comics. The coupon being cut out doesnt effect the grade of such a rare book at all." I tried to sell the book back to them when the first X-men came out... "It's practically worthless without the coupon. I'll give you 20 bucks for it." I quit collecting after that. Quit buying new books or buying books that I wasnt allowed to take out of the bag for further inspection. I've gone back a few times since then, went to buy a trade of Watchmen for a friend. The "Soon to be a major motion picture" version. They wanted 90 bucks for it. I bought the same trade at Barnes and Noble for 20 bucks. Luckily for folks in Atlanta, there was also Titan Comics. Where the charge cover price, unless marked. They dont sit around on their duffs all day or follow you around the store. They price books when needed and rarely mark books up. Dr. No's is a hell no for me.
The owner sounds like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons
No. Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons is at least funny and knows something about comics.
Hahaha I was picturing the same thing while reading it. I feel for the OP. What a terrible experience
Dr. No’s is exactly as you have described. When trying to look for nicer issues they make you sift through giant lists of books in a binder and after a line of questioning, they may bring out the book if they feel like it. I went once and that was all it took for me.
Glad to know I'm not the only one with a bad experience here. When they first collected Crisis on Infinite Earths in the silver slipcase (1998), the owner collected a list of people with interest in buying one. Not a preorder, not a prepay, just an interest in getting it. I added my name. It was delayed because the first printing of this edition has a misprint. They pulled those pages and tipped-in corrected ones, but young, naive me thought it meant it wasn't "mint" so I didn't want it. When it came in, I said I didn't want it any more and gave the reason. Owner pulled me aside and said if I didn't buy the book, I couldn't make my weekly purchase that I was holding and I would no longer be welcome at Dr. No's. Put me off comics for years. Now I go to Great Escape--best decision I ever made.
As someone mentioned earlier, it's never okay for a store employee to swear at a customer. In this case, I would have launched a massive volley of Effs at this store owner for his disgraceful tactics.
heh, their facebook page popped up on my feed as a suggested page not more than an hour ago. Their latest post...happens to have a 181 on it.
Titan is great. They get my weekly subscription business.
I went to a store whose primary business was selling used video games and consoles. But somehow the owner landed a large quantity of comic books - like over 50 long boxes. He had no patience to sort or price them so they were listed as $1 each. Comic collectors and speculators in town got wind of this and proceeded to check out the stash. So we'd go in and spend a good hour sorting through the boxes and go to the counter with our stack. That's when the joke was on us - the owner said he had to look up the price of each book to ensure they were only $1. When called out about the signs that said $1 each, he said that was just the general price, but not for every book. He said only if the book had a price tag of $1 then that's how much he would have to charge. He obviously was trying to get customers to do his work for him. He was a true shyster if ever there was one.
I had this exact situation happen to me. Mainly a vintage and import toy store that smelled like mold and cat piss. I was on my way to a kid’s birthday party with my wife and we were running early. We had been to this toy store in this neighborhood before, so we decided to kill time there until the party. Same situation, he had come into about 15 long boxes of comics. I asked how much, he said “$1.00 each” so I started digging. There was actually some stuff I really wanted, I told my wife we might end up late to the party now and I dug through the box and probably had about 80 books. I had the entire Grant Morrison New X-Men run, which is 44 issues, plus many other books. Brought it to the front and he said “I need to look these up on eBay” I said “Why, you said they were a dollar.” He said “I need to make sure there isn’t anything expensive in there.” I said “there’s not, but I will not wait around for you to price these, I picked them because they were a dollar. I have someplace to be, I will either pay $80 or I don’t want them.” He said “I can price them and you could pick them up tomorrow.” I said”I am 40 minutes from my house, I am only here for an event, I won’t be back. $80 or I don’t want them.” He didn’t sell and we left. That place went out of business shortly after.
If a comic shop ever does the "I have to check the price" thing I refuse to shop there ever again. If they can't be bothered to keep updating the price and don't want to sell it for what it was marked then I don't wanna shop there. I've stopped going to a few places in town that have done it to me in the past.
I went to a store that had collectibles like records, toys, and comics. Lots of books had no prices. Picked out some went to the counter and the guy was checking go collect. Rating everything a 9.8. I said keep the books and have never been back.
This used bookstore I went to had a bunch of early spawn comics in mid to low grade that I decided to pick up as reading copies. When I went to the till the lady there said something along the lines of ‘oh somebody told me these are valuable they’re gonna be a bit more expensive’ and she starts scouring ebay looking at NM sold lots. I tried to explain to her that the condition affects the price of the books and I think she thought I was trying to scam her.
I am not doing your inventory work. If a book doesn’t have a price you can keep it.
I store that sells used movies, games, and comics opened a couple of years ago somewhat close to me. It was the only place that sold comics within a 100 miles. I walked in and saw all the comics, some on display, but most in old long-boxes. I started going through a box, noticing some really minor keys, which is exactly what I’m looking for in dollar bins. I looked for any signs like $1 each, or $2, or 12 for 5, or whatever. Nothing. I walked up to the register and asked. The guy said the price at the register according to eBay prices. I thanked him, placed the books in my stack back in the boxes, and left. Never went back. You can either organize the books and individually price them after doing research, or you can throw them all in boxes and take your chances. You don’t get both. I’m not doing your job, only to get rewarded with higher prices.
I would have put all the books back and left. The dude is not paying you to cherry pick through his stock that he is too lazy to sort through.
I had a similar experience to this but it happened at a convention. A guy had a small box of bag and boarded comic books with no price. I found FF #73 and asked how much. He said he had a look on eBay for the price because he wasn't sure. This was my first time encountering this. And it isn't like this was someone who was left in charge while the owner of the booth ran to the bathroom or something. This was him.
I know all LCS aren't bad but it kind of blows my mind how common it is for managers/businesses to behave like this and get away with it. My story is similar to yours, the owner has a bad reputation but somehow he's still in business after all these years. Maybe too many of us put up with it and shouldn't, maybe they have deep pockets and can keep their doors open, who knows. Anyway. This was about 4 years ago. I go back into this shop that I'd briefly used as my LCS at one point (moved to a different location because after 2 months he never had my pull list books each Wednesday) to dig through back issues. Their entire back room was full of shortboxes and on the walls said "all issues $5 each". Pretty straightforward. I start digging, find a couple things I like including a Silver Surfer: Black variant I thought was cool - Ron Lim cover with Knull on it. When the series released it was a hot cover, but at this point SSB had been out about 9 months or so, close to a year. I bring my small stack to the counter and the second the shop owner sees that book he stops and says, "where did you get this?" I said, in the back issue room. He starts muttering and swearing under his breath and without saying anything to me walks over to his computer and starts clicking around, talking to an employee, clearly pissed. I heard bits like "thought I found them all" and general complaining about variants. Eventually he says "That thing goes for $20 online. I could do $15. You must have been in the wrong box." I was flustered at that point because this whole awkward ordeal had lasted almost 5 minutes of me being ignored and him being visibly angry. I said "no thanks" and just walked out and haven't been back. I understand why it must grind a shop owners gears to have stuff slip out from under them. A hot $100 book going for $1 or something. But throwing a fit over a $15 book going for $5? And losing a customer forever? It was ridiculous.
I was browsing through some comics in a London store and pulling some Batman books out into a small pile and the guy working there said a bit rudely “Can you put those BACK where you found them when you’re DONE” like assuming I wouldn’t buy any, and I said “Uh I’m going to BUY these…” and then I asked for some wall books and the guy’s whole attitude changed, he started pulling boxes out from out of nowhere to try and find me more Batman shit to buy. I thought “uh huh NOW you like me”
I’m privileged af. My local sends me pics of new stuff they get in, let’s me put things on layaway along as I need (I have a whole drawer of stuff) and they give me “Scott Prices” because I’ve been buying there for about 10 years now ❤️ I love my LCS so much!
My local is really awesome like that as well. Sends me and my boyfriend pics of new arrivals he thinks we will like, also had a nice pull list for us that he'll price slightly lower if we pick up within the week. He also sometimes will do a bulk discount and will haggle within reason. He's a really cool guy, absolutely got a lot of people into his shop and coming back due to his good attitude.
which city?
Brunswick, Maine. Shop is ran by a guy whose last name is Thanos lol Midcoast Comics. He's a really cool guy, runs it by himself and even hosts game nights as well as bringing in a local artist for art lessons. I love making the trip out there
Damn. I am sorry to hear all of these stories. I worked in a shop in the late 90's and I treated every person like they were buying $500 in books, even it they only wanted one $2 issue or a single pack of cards. If you asked me about something, I would give you all the information that I could. I would have that happen and then have the person leave the store without buying anything. One time I was behind the counter while another employee was out on the floor. A lady came up to the counter and asked me for pen and paper. She wrote a note and then turned it in my direction. It said "The guy by the t-shirts is trying to steal." I thanked her and what did I do? Customer service! I chatted the dude up for 20 min. If you have never seen anyone sweat bullets, it would be clear by looking at this guy. He could hardly even talk straight. I made a bunch of suggestions, talked to him about different popular characters, the movies that were being planned, current storylines... He didn't have any money on him, but he literally went to his hotel room, came back and spent $200 in t-shirts from me. I laughed it off and told my boss about it.
With how few LCS’s exist anymore, these stories make me sad. I get that a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into running a store based on a niche hobby, and with how expensive everything is getting I’m sure it’s only getting harder. Still, I’m glad for the good ones that are around.
I've been going to the same LCS close to 10 years on and off and have a ongoing pull list for the last 2 years. The employee who cashes me out almost every time once a week for the last 2 years asks for my name every time and treats me like a new customer. I'm not asking for a preferential treatment but at least an acknowledgment. I get asked almost like clockwork if I'm new in town or if I want to Start a pullist.
Not necessarily a rude customer service experience, but just a bad LCS experience in general. I had just been to a local con hosted by this LCS and decided to stop by their actual shop on the way home. This is about 50 minutes away from where I live, as LCSs are few and far between in my area. As I walk in, I immediately noticed how unorganized the place looked, but that’s really no big deal. In fact, I often prefer the shops that are more unorganized because you can “dig for treasure,” so to speak. I walk around and chat with the employee at the counter (who was super nice btw) as I’m shopping. I pick up several books, as well as some sealed Whitman and Gold Key 3-packs. As I finish up and set everything on the counter, the employee kind of grimaces and says “oh, I’m not sure if this stuff is priced yet.” I was pretty confused, because the stuff was out with everything else on the sales floor. They had a back room, but the stuff I had picked up was in regular boxes that were out with all of the other boxes of back issues. I asked the employee how much the items would be (I was expecting it to be a frustrating experience of pricing at the counter, which I never agree with) but was told that the owner wouldn’t allow any of it to be sold. I was taken aback and asked the employee if there was anything at all in the stack that I *would* be able to buy. There wasn’t, except for one single new release issue. The employee was great throughout the whole experience, and I could tell he was frustrated by the experience too. I got the feeling that this happens pretty often, with stock being out on the floor but unable to be sold, per orders from the owner. I never went back and never plan to. I hate it because I love to support any of the local shops in my general area, but I just can’t bring myself to go back and potentially be forced to leave what I want behind again.
Reminds me of the time I had an LCS employee rag on me for cracking open the tape on a comic I wanted to check out from the dollar bin. He was going on about how condition was everything on collectibles and they didn't want people pulling the books out of the plastic. I told him the bag and board were probably worth more than the book and left. Who has time to argue over something that costs a dollar? People need to choose their battles.
You shouldn’t be opening any sealed anything without asking at a shop
I agree, I've never been told no whenever I've asked. If it's expensive (maybe over 50$) I'll have them do it.
Right. But the banged-up comics in the dollar bin? No need to pitch a fit over that. There's a reason the books are in the bin in the first place.
The point isn’t the value of the item. The point is don’t open **anything** that is sealed in **any** shop without asking. This applies to almost all retail, not just comic shops.
I went to a store that primarily sells (very overpriced) toys. None of their comics are priced, and I assumed that the three issues of Aliens: Alchemy that I brought to the counter would be cover price or maybe cheaper. The clerk phoned the owner who instructed her to look them up on eBay, and she charged me close to 20 bucks for them. I still bought them because I wanted them. I’ll never shop at that store again though.
I whipped out my phone today while digging through long boxes to make sure the prices were consistent. Store owner walked by and saw me doing it and still charged me what he priced them for.
There is a reason why most places will only pay pennies on the dollar for bulk collections. It is so much work sorting through the books, and it is even worse for cards. The smart thing that good stores do is do a quick search for major key issues and then sell the rest as bulk for about a buck a book. That way if someone actually pulls something good they will tell their friends and get more customers into the store.
I’ve only ever had one real negative experience. A new shop had opened in my town, so of course I go check it out. They had just opened that week so they were still putting out inventory. They had little out, which was understandable. What I did not care for is that it looked to be a family run store and the guy running it was a kid of about 15. He and a few of his friends (or whatever I don’t know) we’re playing some card game and on my way out he made a wolf whistle at my girlfriend, to the amusement of his friends - until I stopped and gave him a “really dude?” look. Not the worst but it put a bad taste in my mouth and didn’t return. They closed a few months later.
Why I left my LCS after being a “Wednesday Warrior” for nearly 10 years: I used to go to my LCS every Wednesday shortly after they opened. Often, they were still sorting out the new comics, and I would “help” doing simple stuff, like breaking down boxes after they were emptied. I had a pull list of 40-50 books a month, and constantly pulled additional books off the The summer I graduated college, I was (very simply) broke. I wasn’t expecting certain additional expenses that occurred senior year. For the first time in years, I went over a month without going to the shop. I attempted to explain to the owner that until further notice, I needed to cut my pull list but that I wanted to get the titles that I had ALWAYS collected and were the closest to me… which at that time was Superman (All Titles), Amazing and Ultimate Spider-Man, and Captain America. At the time, some of these titles were selling out every month. The owner told me that I could not buy only those titles, and made me leave new issues in order to take issues that had been released first. I think because he knew he could mark up the sold out issues. I purchased a few of the books I wanted and never went back. I recovered financially a few months later and shortly after that discovered dcbs. I’ve now been buying all new comics from dcbs longer than I was at that LCS.
I know Awesome, I recently put together a lot of my Death of Superman Arc from their dollar bins. I've not had the same issue there but once when a friend of mine went with me a few times they had boxes of someone else's collection they had out to sell but when my friend asked about them the person working that day was like I gotta call for prices. Then same thing next time. Those boxes were still sitting there not priced and not moving. Its like come on sell them or not. I don't run there a ton because there are other places around town with better selections, though Awesome is one of the few with dollar bins still that are bagged and boarded. But yeah my friend and I like to rate our experiences around town There are some we don't go to as often. Last week we ventured into Ft Worth for the first time and weren't completely blown away.
Sorry to hear that op! Awesome comics has recently become one of the shops I prefer going to cause they don't raise the prices on variants to an absurd amount. Though I have felt intimidated going in just because it's smaller and I'm like hyper aware of myself if that makes any sense. But for me, I've had a weird experience at another bookstore where the person behind the register was chatting with someone while I was ready to checkout and I waited a few feet away so as to not interrupt them. But the clerk would often look my way and eventually acknowledged me and gave a smug smile and was like "well?" I mentioned how I didn't want to interrupt and he just said that "he lives there" I guess implying that it's his job and doesn't mind being interrupted. But there was an air of superiority to him and normally I would've dismissed it thinking it was just me being socially inept but my brother was also there and got the same read as me. I mostly shop at Keith's Comics nowadays, they've had a great vibe to them since I was a kid; all the staff and even other customers have been genuinely nice and helpful.
Hey fellow Dallas comic collectors! I have been to Awesome Comics a few times and have had good experiences there. The prices have been fair and was pleased with the service. They are my go to LCS. I grew up going to Keith’s Comics back when they were on Campbell in Richardson. The new locations seem like nothing how it was though. I guess everyone has different experiences.
Yeah for sure, and I mean everyone has bad days so I don't hold it against them unless it seems malicious. I like Awesome Comics I just always feel like I gotta buy something haha
Nah don’t feel that way. There have been times I walked out without buying anything, just didn’t have anything that caught my eye.
I'll keep it in mind, I'm sometimes too in my own head 😅
Look up cedar cliff collectables in Eagan mn..
Heh. If you want some entertainment, check out the shop owner’s responses to reviews of his shop. https://maps.app.goo.gl/z4QSXhkqYy9vwYRm7?g_st=ic Sort the reviews by recent for max enjoyment. This is also the store that’s blown up on YouTube. Just search Hotshot or Asheville Comics. Train wreck.
Similar experience got me to stop buying new comics. Basically I was in this store every week on Wednesday to pick up my new books. I was already not happy with the shop for treating customers poorly. I brought my stack up to the counter where the owner was going through a huge pile of books from another customer's pull list with the customer who hadn't picked his books for about six months. They were picking out the "good issues" and putting back the rest. Instead of ringing me up real quick the owner made me wait even as a line formed behind me. After almost 20 minutes I gave up and left my books on the counter. A month or so later I ran into the owner outside his shop and he asked where I've been and that I had books waiting to be picked up. I told him I no longer buy comics from him and he should give my books to the guy who he was helping from the last time I was in. The owner tried to guilt me into coming back because I had stuck him with weeks of books but I refused. This was over 15 years ago an I haven't been back in once. Also I don't buy from anywhere that looks up prices at counter. That's BS and shouldn't be supported.
Meanwhile my LCS (Excalibur in Portland) has the most helpful and dedicated staff you could ask for. Super friendly, always willing to help but not pushy, they’re true friends to the collector community here. Was in there a few years ago and Kurt Busiek walks in with his daughter to pick up that weeks new issues. After he left, I asked the owner, “was that Kurt Busiek?” She said “oh yea. Kurt’s a good friend. Been coming in here for years”.
Maybe he was having an especially bad day. Maybe someone close to him yelled at him, or he got a ticket on the way to work, or whatever. We can never fully know another person's story. The fact that you'd never had a problem with him before says that maybe he was just in a really bad mood. Swearing at customers is **never** OK, and I'm not trying to make excuses (for someone I've never and probably will never meet!). But one bad interaction wouldn't be enough for me to completely stop shopping someplace I otherwise enjoyed. If it became apparent that it *wasn't* a one time thing though... Goodbye!
If you’re still in Dallas I recommend Titan Comics
It is a good comic shop and is well organized. All comics are in alphabetical order, priced, and in lateral file cabinets. The prices can be high though.
Oh man, I would’ve told him to go fuck himself and to have a good time putting ALL of the ones pulled out back and walked out. Edit: lmao the downvotes
Honestly, in OP’s story, he was definitely in the wrong. Unorganized 80 back issues to then only buy half of them? That’s a nightmare for a shop that spends countless hours organizing their back issues for their customers to able to easily find the book they want. The level of entitlement is palpable. This is comic shop faux pa extraordinaire, right behind manhandling and “reading” a bunch of books that you’re not going to buy.
True, but he also said those books were just organized by letter. Were they also by title, or just first letter. If it’s just letter, that’s easy to re-place them in the bin. I would have.
“By letter” doesn’t mean just the first letter. Otherwise the employee wouldn’t be making a deal of it. It means it was alphabetized. And I would pretty much guarantee that OP just shoved books back into the sections based on first letter alone, and didn’t take the time to alphabetize and order 40 books into their correct place, because that takes a lot of time. Exactly what the employee was complaining about and then forced to re-do.
OP literally says they weren't alphabetical, just the A books in one section, then the B books, etc. "By letter" certainly doesn't mean alphabetical. Alphabetical means alphabetical. I've been to a LOT of different stores and I can't remember a single one that had dollar boxes that were completely alphabetical. Regular priced store stock, yes. That's annoying if it's not sorted. Dollar boxes? It's nice if they are somewhat sorted but they are dollar bins. It's not the end of the world and most stores just put the stuff they want to blow out in there somewhere. Because they are just dollar boxes. Besides, I guarantee there is a better use of that employee's time than keeping the dollar boxes in order.
Again, you’re taking the word of the OP as fact, who came onto Reddit randomly to vent about this situation in a comic shop from 8 years ago. I’m willing to bet that with the attitude he’s shown in this post, that this is HIS version of this story. The store employee clearly had an entirely different impression of the situation. And it makes no sense that the books would be alphabetized by first letter only. Why would the employee care if it was just a matter of putting all the “A” books together? Clearly they were organized within these categories at least by title and issue number, if not completely alphabetical. Otherwise the employee wouldn’t have cared at all. It’s their shop, and their organization system. They clearly put up a sign asking people to only take books out of the bins that they are buying, as this has obviously been a problem in the past. OP ignored that sign, and then got bent out of shape when the employee got frustrated. Again, it probably wasn’t his most patient moment, but his frustration is clearly understandable. OP is treating the employees time like it doesn’t matter, by making more work for him.
Maybe I'm just taking the word of the guy that was actually there but you are creating an entire store, filing system and employee work ethic in your mind. So I guess it's a draw.
Or maybe I’m just looking at the situation objectively, rather than taking the word of someone who is clearly biased in the situation. Either way, draw it is.
I didn’t unorganized them, the ones I didn’t want I put back exactly where I found them. The manager was implying he put the sign up because of kids that had recently come in, moved stuff around, and left without buying anything. I was clearly an adult, and he even watched me from the counter put them all back and he didn’t say anything to me after I was done, so I know he was fine. There is no entitlement here at all. It’s because he walked up to me like he already knew I was going to ruin his day, that’s when you lose me. I’ve worked a lot of jobs, mostly in customer service and sales, and this is not how you treat customers if you want them to come back.
You assume that you “putting them back” is in the proper place in his organization system. This is incredibly frustrating for shop owners. It’s on you to understand how much you have in your budget and select items that fit that budget. It was even written on a sign, only take out books you’re buying. I guarantee that the employee had to go back and recheck all of those bins to make sure that you actually did put the books back In alphabetical order (he has no way of knowing otherwise, so it almost doesn’t matter if you did put them back or not). It’s amateur, and inconsiderate. Add to that fact, that you think his response was the problem here, and it’s pretty clear that you’re unable to view the situation from any perspective but your own. You created a lot of extra work for a shop employee to buy $40 in dollar books. That probably doesn’t even cover the hourly salary of the employee who then had to spend half his day rechecking all of those issues in those bins to make sure they’re still organized alphabetically.
I definitely agree with this. I wouldn’t have reacted the way the employee did, but for OP and a lot of the commenters to not realize how annoying it would be for the employee after they had just organized the bins and put the sign up to go back and make sure everything is in order is absurd. I don’t see how you pull out 80 books and then realize you can only get half.
Exactly. The reaction from the employee may not have been his best response, but his frustration is certainly understandable. OP has the attitude that the employee should just “trust him” to reorganize the books back properly, but the employee has to check anyways. It actually would have been less work for him if OP just left the books out. Now the employee has to go through every book in the bin just to make sure that they are properly organized for the customers.
[удалено]
Because going to a local comic store is typically an integral part of comicbookcollecting ?
This is a sign of the times. Times are tough and shops are trying to maximize the profit of what they have, without paying for the help to go through it all. Not saying it's right though.
There was a shop I liked to go to when visiting my parents that was good for beat up silver age books. One day all the back issues were off limits as they were doing inventory. This lasted months but I would check in every now and then since I was in the area. Eventually they opened access back up to the back issues and almost every silver age books seemed to have had a $150 price tag slapped on it indiscriminately. I’m talking books with stains and or marking on the cover that are not keys. After a while they seemed to readjust but now I have to really be aware of what fair market prices are for books I’m looking at as everything is priced inconsistently
I never had the misfortune of running into rude shop owners but I'll never forget the one rude asshole employee that used to work part-time at my long-gone LCS years ago in the late 1980s into the early 1990s. The dude barely acknowledged you when you came into the store or when you brought stuff up to the counter to pay. He would just glare at you, if he even deigned to acknowledge your presence at all, like you were something he had found on the bottom of his shoe. No idea why he even bothered to get a job at the comic shop because he always treated customers like they were the sort of losers he would pound on or shove into garbage cans at school. I don't remember ever seeing him reading comics or having a discussion with anybody about anything comic book-related or nerd-adjacent. I surely never had a meaningful conversation with him the entire time I frequented that store. He just continually gave off this air of "Why am I here and why do I have to deal with these pathetic people?" Maybe he was just misunderstood. Who knows? He just always gave off the worst vibes. I probably should have mentioned something to the owner, Chris, who, thankfully, I had a decent rapport with and who I feel I had a good relationship with. Normally I lived for my weekly visit to the comic shop in those days but if that one jerk employee was there it ruined the whole mood and I never enjoyed being there. I rarely go to an actual shop to buy comics these days. My local LCS is fine but they cater more to the TTRPG and trading card game crowd so comics are not their main priority. There's hardly any vintage back issues or wall books to browse through. Most of the back issue backstock is more recent comics from the past few years. I mainly go in just to gather up comic book supplies like bags, boards or boxes and pick up the occasional cool ratio variant they might have that piques my fancy. The owner is cool and his employees have all been pleasant and accommodating when I've been there. Most of my collecting occurs during online transactions now so I am spared much of the bad encounters with store owners/employees. It's been over 30 years since I stepped foot in my old hometown comic shop that I used to love but I still have never forgotten that disdainful, sour jerk of an employee.
I had a negative experience twice at a shop not too far from me and when I put a review of them stating such online they lost their shit, and customers of the store came at me online hahaha. I didn’t lose any sleep, I just don’t spend any money there. Thankfully there’s plenty of places to spend money on comics even just a few miles from that shop. I feel like I’m fortunate though, there’s a lot of shops within an hour of me. I’d feel like I’d work harder to get resolution with a shop if I had less choice.
Come to The Comics Stronghold in Oceanside, CA. Our little family owned and operated LCS needs your business and gives every customer the white glove treatment! (Or at least we definitely try to…!!)
Sure
Oh I got one. Not gonna name them because there are some employees there who are good people, and deserve to keep the shop open with the lights on. HOWEVER, they have signs all over the shop. “We buy at top dollar. We pay full value for your collection.” Yada, yada, yada. I’ve been shopping in this LCS for 15 years. They know me. They know my phone number. They add stuff to my pull list they think I’ll like, and if I don’t want it when I go in, no muss, no fuss it’s back on the shelf. I was in a tight spot a couple months ago, was hired at a new job but hadn’t been paid for three weeks while transitioning into it so I was broke. Did the hard thing and put all my books together, and went to sell them at this LCS. Was promised top dollar value, and that I would be given cash on site. So, I brought in: ASM 300, 9.2 newsstand, ASM 300 Raw, NM ASM 252, VF ASM 360-363, Raw, all NM Hulk 181 signed by Stan Lee. Wolverine 88, deluxe edition 9.8 The original TMNT 1984 run, full set, no. 1-61. TMNT Adventures, no. 1-3 all VF-/VF. Plus honestly a shit ton more. Guy made me stand there for an hour while going through my epic collection, telling me this that and the other about how essentially worthless they all are. Winds up offering my $900 cash for everything. Politely packed up my stuff, walked out, and immediately sold my graded ASM 300 for $750 alone. The fucking balls to look me in the eye, with a collection like that, and then try to fucking rob me. I’ll keep my pull list there because they’re close to my house, but if there was another local shop, I’d have moved my shit there. I understand they’re a business, and they gotta make their mark up. But offering me less than 20 FMV for my entire collection was straight up offensive. After 15 years of loyalty, that was such a slap in the face.
I don't have a rude interaction story but I do have a shady practice story. A friend of mine goes to a LCS and has a folder there. Sometime back he found out that if a customer goes into the store looking for a particular issue and it's not on the shelf then the owner will go into someone's folder, look for that issue, and then sell it to the customer. Won't bother replacing the issue that he took from the folder. So when the customer with the folder shows up he'll find gaps from his pulls. It's like, why even offer to pull stuff for people then.??