Painters tape really is the unsung hero of comic book shipping. It is also the most commonly left out things.
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That or the people packing themselves. No one hesitates to send emails to stores when there’s an issue, but almost no one ever sends emails just saying “Hey no issues, just wanted to thank you for packing this well!” 
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Also very true.
Dude, I need to work for TFAW so can get those huge stacks of comics.
Hey @RipCityGamer, my last two orders that arrived a few days ago were spot on, no issues, pristine condition… Cheers!
Gotta move to Oregon… let’s do it, it’s on my possible list of places to live anyways!
I can say the exact same thing. 
I’m just going to ping @RipCityGamer everytime a package arrives in perfect condition until the point he just tells me to stop it cause it’s gonna start bugging him… 
I guess I could start letting the warehouse know when people are happy, too. I usually just report when stuff is wrong
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Well, could you imagine if you send out 10k packages each month and the 200 that come back to complain, you got 9,800 other emails of just… “thanks, comics arrived in great shape”…
You might not want every response of a happy customer, cause someone has to vet the emails to see if it’s a problem or not. 
Well to be fair the emails don’t go directly to the warehouse. But CS usually lets them know when they get people sending positive things. Usually it’s people who used to read comics but had local stores closed and just found out about ordering online, or people who move to/live in other countries and are happy to be able to get comics again.
That is true, but something that can be done in a lot of cases that is not is giving positive reviews. Google/Facebook reviews are huge for businesses (especially small ones).
I looked back through the thread and didn’t see any review of Atomic Empire, so I figured I would give some details on them because they have been great for me. I have been using them for years along with some of the others mentioned here. For me this has been hands down the best service for my regular monthly pulls. They have a discount program:
0-4 Monthly Titles: 5%
5-10 Monthly Titles: 15%
11-20 Monthly Titles: 20%
21-30 Monthly Titles: 25%
31-50 Monthly Titles: 30%
51+ Monthly Titles: 35%
Note that not all titles qualify as monthly titles, but it is pretty clearly noted which are and which are not. They have a great website for selecting titles and once you select a title you can go in a select which cover(s) and the quantity of each. They also have a decent ratio bid system, which I believe starts at 1/2 ratio price. You just put your max bid and they have a bid cutoff a couple weeks before where you can then see if you qualified to receive that item or not.
All comics come bagged and boarded (no extra cost). I have only had one instance in the past 3-4 years of a shipment where the box was clearly dropped hard and some were damaged. I was immediately sent new copies if they were in stock and/or refunded if they were not.
The only downside I have encountered is that they have a system for distributing copies if there are more orders than books received. Its an order time priority. So, if they have more orders than copies received, the books are distributed by a first to order until the books are gone. So its best to select your items early and do not change it later (by adding additional copies or switching covers) because that changes your “order” date. This doesn’t happen to me too often. Usually you know when something like this could happen - a comic coming out soon is heating up so orders pour in at the last minute. So in the event I want more copies or a different cover of such a book that I had already placed an order for, I usually head to one of the other services listed here and try to grab one there. Or if I haven’t ordered any of that book at all, I submit an order and see if I get lucky.
I posted some pictures of the packaging below (if the pics come through).
(upload://9zCkWErfGKUSUVqg6dVEqeyAemy.jpeg) ![AE3|445x500]
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Nope, gonna have to upload again or link to them. We limit to 1MB size files.
Welcome by the way
Oh def tell them when you get the good comments. Goes a long way and people tend to listen more to the complaints when they also know good ones are also told. Otherwise it just gets drowned out. Well, at least in my experience in management.
I rarely will get a compliment on eBay about my boxes. I like to use document mailers that measure 12X9X2 as they can’t be bent and if you stuff them full of extra paper and such the comics are nice and secure. People sometimes go, “Where did you find this kind of box?” I like compliments.
Exactly how hard is it for comic store that’s been in business for years to learn how to properly package comics? I see nothing but reports of badly packaged books and excuses. It seemed to improve for a minute before going back to crap. Exactly how hard is it to communicate with employees that this is the new packaging procedure? These are the things you want to do and these are absolute no-no’s seems a far cry from say rocket science.
TFAW is 0-1 in shipping to me. If my next shipment is damaged they will be canceling every last order I have whether I’m locked in or not. Having great prices is only part of what we want. We want those well priced books to arrive as described too.
I feel strongly that TFAW has earned a chance to improve things. I really appreciate Brendon being on the forum. Their customer service has been exceptional. Yeah, I’m bummed about the books, as some probably are sold out and not replaceable. But, I’m confident they’ll fix that particular issue as best they can, and I’m hopeful that things will improve in the short term.
My next order will start “processing” soon, which means it’ll be packaged and shipped within a week. I’m eager to see that one, as it should have the new method in place.
Also, let’s keep in mind that Brendon is marketing, not customer service or warehouse. I don’t want to direct all of our angst at him, as he’s not the responsible party. That he’s relaying this info and helping change happen is pretty great in my opinion. How many other shops are doing that? None that I can see.
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I got a box of 30+ comics in today from my order 2 weeks ago. books not wrapped and variants not separated like last time, books were all in great condition when they got here. Coast to coast took about 8 days which is a lot of time in transit, but all the books were beauties.