I’ll tell you this…I personally will never use Mercari. That site is frustrating as hell. I think I’ve tried to make purchases about 10 times total and have ultimately had 2 go through/actually end up being worth the trouble. Most of the times I either never hear a thing/item doesn’t ship/no response and a refund is issued…or the seller cancels the transaction.
May be a good site for non collectibles but I deleted the stupid app and account. Waste of time.
Those books have more ridges than Ruffles potato chips…
I thought I was the only one who knew of Atomic Empire, but I must sadly admit I’m not using them anymore for similar reasons, they can’t pack it well if their lives depended on it. They have great stock though- I got three copies of Batman 77 1st print last time I ordered. The box got crushed, but still…
They’re pretty nice though and very humble when there’s a problem, in contrast to the ignorant jerky Texans we’ve discussed at length here. And anyone’s better than Chuck/“Betty” at this point lol.
I can’t say anything bad about Mile High as I’ve never ordered from them. I have communicated via email with their customer service a few times about information on modern newsstands and they took the time to answer all my questions and were very informative. This is when I became obsessed with post 2000 Marvel Newsstands as well as Image Newsstands.
Mile High is alright. IMO their problem is they are too big and have too much inventory and not enough employees to properly take care of it all. When ordering online it takes up to a week before your order is filled. From what I can gather hey have online only inventory but they also take from their brick and mortar stores for everything listed, so by the time your order is filled, it that book was in a store and not in the warehouse it may very well have been sold by the time they get around to you. I have had that happen multiple times over the years. Very annoying.
They also have a huge amount of back stock. Probably in the millions. The thing is many of those books were stored in long boxes decades ago without backing boards, just bags, so when a one time dollar bin comic gets hot, that NM book from a while ago has a strong chance at being a VF now due to not being stored better. It is still listed as a NM though. Of course that isn’t he case with every single book, but it does seem to happen more than it should.
Chuck (the owner) seems way too involved with other matters and really should pay more attention to customer needs, upgrading his website with its poor online inventory tracking and long turn around times when ordering.
That being said there are sill some positives with Mile High. There can be deals to be had if you look and the packing is top notch! I have never had a damaged book due to poor packing. Far more often than not the customer service is very good and very friendly. Over the years I have only had one person give me a hard time. He was very rude when I tried to have some miss graded books replaced. I called him out on his attitude and he tried to have me banned. He failed. That was almost five years ago and the only problem with customer service I have had.
So, I take Mile High with a grain of salt when ordering online. It is what it is. It could be better but I guess it could be worse as well. With a little time and effort…and a little money they could be an amazing online comic book store.
Westfield is good. Great online and actual paper catalog they send you. Then theres always those apps like Offerup and Letgo. I’ve found great covers and even greater prices on those apps. theres always a mom,girlfriend,wife etc selling whoever elses comics without knowing a thing about what it is their selling and actual value. So theres always that.
I’ve had many issues with Newkadia orders getting damaged as they use their own boxes where the books corners are tight to the corner of the box. So any ding to the box corner dings the books too. They are good about returns but it seems almost half my orders from them get banged up. Customer service is good though.
Midtown I’ve had mostly success but several times books were damaged preshipping. If it’s a couple books they refund after sending pics. I’ve tried getting replacements but they made me reorder so I had to pay shipping again. I did have one order get damaged during shipping damaging about $19 in books. They refused to refund me unless I shipped the books back and would not pay return shipping. So it cost me around $6 to get $19 back. I pointed out the inconsistencies in making me ship them back and they said every return is a case by case basis.
Westfield is great! They are snazzy for preordering stuff too. I have never had anything I ordered ahead canceled unless it is canceled by the publisher or such.