I did a fair amount of black friday/xmas shopping with new online stores for the first time. My report:
Dreamland Comics - All books ordered were delivered in good condition. They shipped within 2 business days. No issues. Their prices are typically a little higher than other places, but sometimes they have books that are downright hard to find and not all books are overpriced. I’ve never had a problem with them and would use them, somewhat sparingly.
Midtown - I used to skip Midtown because of all the shipping issues I used to have. I go to the city about once a month so I’m taking advantage of their in-store pickup. Apparently they still have to “ship” the books to the store location, but I’m now satisfied with the order process and the books. I placed about 5 separate orders and they all were processed and ready for pick-up within days. Seems like they’ve cleaned-up their act. I won’t ship with them still though. Wait for their “big” sales on back issues and buy then.
Comic Book Relief - First time I used them. Wasn’t the greatest experience. On the one hand, they package their books really well and shipped out the next day. But the order was wrong and I was charged an arm and leg for shipping. I bought anyways thinking I could defray that shipping cost on some cheap key finds. Of course, those cheap key finds ended up NOT being the books advertised. I filed a claim with my credit card company and we ended up coming up with an acceptable compromise. CBR has a decent inventory, but you can’t take it at face value. Email/Call them and make sure they have the book first. Also, the owner told me they can ship cheaper, but you have to call them first (makes no sense to me). Use sparingly.
Linebreakers - First time using them. They ended up cancelling about 30% of my large order due to lack of inventory. ANNOYING. Just issued a refund out of the blue and didn’t even give me any warning or apology. Still charged me the full shipping cost quoted too. Maybe it’s just me, but if I’m running a business and I made a mistake, I’d at least throw something in for free or also refund the shipping or something as a courtesy.
Packrat Comics - I liked my experience here, but the prices are all basically $3.99 or $4.99 for back issues, so you really have to want the book you are buying. Shipping rate is very good (I think it was $7, even though I ordered about 30 books). Packaged and shipped within days.
Hip Comic - I don’t usually buy from them, but they had a promo running for $100 off of $500 (or $500 off of $2,000). I had a few slabs I’d been wanting and it magically added up to just over $500 so I bought. The experience will differ depending on who you buy from, but mine (Quality Comix) was very good. Shipped within days and packaged very well. It took about 5 days for the $100 credit to show up (I did follow-up once).
Impulse Creations - Similar experience as Comic Relief and Linebreakers. They didn’t have several books I ordered. At least they reached out to me first though before refunding a portion of my order and shipping the rest.
Zeus Comics - Exact same experience as Impulse Creations. Half of my books were unavailable to begin with! I’m growing REALLY TIRED of places that can’t keep up with their inventory and honor the books ordered.
Marvel Unlimited - totally unrelated, but I finally bit the bullet and signed-up for Marvel Unlimited with their $30 discount off of the Annual Plus membership. The deal is still ongoing (just google it, the code is on their landing page). Totally worth it!!! The freebies you get alone will pay for the membership (look up the comps on ebay).
