First Midtown cancelled my Thor 5 1:25 preorder 3 weeks after release.
Just opened my TFAW box where I had 4 copies of Thor 5 cover A coming…3 of the 4 are damaged.
Out of my 41 books in the order, 35 are banged up. Not sure if the box was dropped or not, or if their packing peanuts shifted as it was all the same corner. Never had this happen with TFAW as usually their boxes are pretty good. Most are out of stock (like Thor 5) so I won’t be getting replacements and there’s a bunch I can’t replace for the price I paid.
Tough loss on a $220 order. Those $2.79 refunds on Thor 5 don’t help much. Ha.
On an unrelated note, had another box where I got 4 Miles Hip Hop variants very cheap, 2 of the 4 got damaged too. That was a 67 book order and about 1/2 were banged up. Been a rough patch with damages lately. I paid cheap for everything so I still made out good with 2 NM ones, but I would’ve preferred 4.
Unless u were slabbing those books can still sell. Hit Mercari or ebay. Trust me. Mark %20 cheaper than highest priced and ur gonna have buyers. TFAW been shitty for me lately on deliveries. Stopped ordering a couple months ago.
My Thor was damaged as well the guy shipped it in a bubble envelope no cardboard came with two ticks maybe they are not coloring breaking I’m not the best at telling. So I found a 1:25 and got that. Kept the regular copy anyways.
You were having issues with their boxes or the flimsy mailers?
I changed my preorders go every 2 weeks so I wouldn’t get those flimsy mailers. I’ve been okay with the boxes so far and I’ve been using them for several months now.
This is my first real problem outside of a couple random books that they quickly replaced for me. Those werent damaged in transit though.
Haha. It’s funny you say that as I ordered 4 very early in the process. They changed it to one per well after I ordered so I wasn’t sure what I would get. I was pretty happy when I saw they shipped me all 4. Now not as happy. Maybe that was their payback. Ha.
Wish it was just the Thors though. Majority of the 41 got hit. Some weren’t bad. But 20 got hit pretty hard. On top of the Thors, Batman 93 1:25, a few $7-8 books, There will be blood, All-America Comix, Let Them Bleed, etc…
Some people just pack do poorly. It’s tough these days.
I got a clean cover A and 1:25 from my LCS too so I’ve got good copies. And even though I buy multiples, I don’t flip books. It’s all PC. So even though these are banged up they will sit in the box with the others.
That blows. I have a bunch of new shipments coming from multiple places so will be watching closely. Just got one in from Midtown and was a good batch.
The Thors might press as I don’t see a color break, but I don’t trust myself to press. I don’t grade much so I wouldn’t likely be having cgc press. Not sure it’s worth the risk anyways on a book like this as it’s 9.8 or bust.
Unfortunately most of the others got jammed up which won’t press.
Both. A monthly order box came all banged up and the mailer was bent on half. Books were ok. A couple back issues I bought but once I found unknown for preorders I left TFAW and my unknown orders came in fine.
Dont let her fool you… She loves Cates… Biggest fan he has. I know how the ladies operate, the more smack they talk about you, the bigger crush they have.
Sympathy sent, I will say you can still sell them on eBay and make out ok. Not as good as you would have done but can still sell for multiple times cover price. I will grab a hot book in lower grades if I see them sitting on the shelf and still do well with them. Had a Strange Academy #1 that had a bent back corner on the cover. Sold it for $16. 4x what I had paid.
So the comics just sat in packing peanuts? Nothing else like bubble wrap to protect from shifting and impacts inside?
TFAW sells to readers, not collectors, when it comes to comic books. Their shipping practices are not very robust like other online shops. One of the reasons I rarely use them.
They use larger Polly bags to group the books in stacks of 10-15 then inside a large box filled with peanuts.
Typically there’s enough peanuts so they don’t shift around and the box is pretty big so the books aren’t near corners.
This one was a little light in peanuts but not bad at all. I’m not sure how they all shifted so hard. The thors I posted pics of were actually some of the least banged up. Others got jammed real hard.
I’m open to suggestions if people have other places that are better. TFAW I like as I can pre-order stuff all the time and not have to pay shipping every time I pre-order like with unknown comics. Midtown has been a mess. And I’ve heard DCBS had been rough lately too. MCS you can’t pre-order.
I order 10-15 books a week so I need somewhere that goes deep on their preorders but won’t charge me shipping every time I pre-order.
To follow up on how they package, I had a second box from them that just came in. (I typically wait a few days to open boxes as my 89 year old dad lives with me just to be overly cautious).
I just opened it and despite the box being roughed up a bit, everything was fine. This one was packed much tighter and the books werent able to shift. Peanuts were tight on all 4 sides. Much better and more what I’m used to. This was around the same number of books (40ish).
I think the other one just had the Thor 5 curse for me. Ha.
My boxes from TFAW have always been packaged great. I order from several companies and the books I get from them are usually in great condition. I would say the condition of the books I get from TFAW are always high grade. They do charge ALOT for shipping though.
My last order from TFAW was only partially filled because they were “shorted” (Venom #25 retailers variant). Of course they sent the single copy in one of those not for comic book, crap mailers and the book arrived beat up. They refunded my money and let me keep the book but still, they really need to get their freaking act together with how they ship! I was able to press the comic but it was really beat up and it is now probably a 9.0/9.2 at best…which for a brand new book, not so great.
This isn’t the first time I received damaged items from them due to poor packing. I am ordering from them less and less because I just know one out of four or five times I will be dealing with a headache. They really should know better and just seem to be going on the cheap with their packing.
Their 1-3 book mailers suck. I’ve gotten lucky in that the 4-5 I’ve gotten them they were okay but I can see why so many people have had problems With them. That’s why I switched my orders to every couple weeks so I get a box. This was the first time I’ve had trouble.
Overall I’ve found the new books I’ve gotten from TFAW and MCS are usually higher quality then Midtown and Unknown…packing aside.
Unknown i just opened a 3 book order of Venom 25 2nd. They packaged well in a Gemini, but all 3 books were low quality. 2 had white blunted corners, and the third had a color breaking crease on the bottom right cover. None were due to shipping.
