An update on my most recent TFAW order. The X-Men 12 3rd prints that came in dingy with dirty spots & color rubs are being replaced completely free and I keep the dingy ones as well. I spoke to Allison, who I’ve spoken to several times both before placing an order and when I’ve had any questions or problems, and she’s been excellent. Beyond excellent and deserves a raise or a free lunch or something for her excellent and professional service.
I’ve been very critical of TFAW in this thread in regards to their packaging. I did have my first order arrive damaged but it was taken care of quickly. My second order had the dingy books that are being replaced. I have enough confidence that I’m now doing my preorders through them and am upping my orders through the next three months. I’m not dropping tons of money but just under $100 a month. Actually just placed a regular order this morning as well. @RipCityGamer I figured you should see the good stories as well.
I ordered on Monday the Boba Fett 40th Anniversary from a website called https://dorksidetoys.com/. It arrived today and was very happy with both the price and the shipping packaging. A++ to them.
Is anyone else still waiting on their end of December DCBS shipment? I usually do twice a month shipping (week 2 and 4), and it’s been sitting there so long that Dark Nights Death Metal 6 and 7 are now both in the same shipment. I also found some variants in stock that I wanted a bunch of and loaded up and now my shipment is going to weigh a lot more than I’m comfortable with. I emailed them Thursday to see what’s up but you know how their response time is…
Also got a small TFAW shipment in flimsy mailer this week and it was bent at the corner. They used silver bags/boards and it saved the two books (Warhammer Marneus 1 2nd ptg)
Yes. I ordered some “in stock” books on December 21 that haven’t shipped yet. I figured there would be a delay due to the holidays, but to not have it ship at all by now – 3 weeks later – is not like the service I’ve received from them in the past.
My fear of them taking on all of DC’s distribution, and the potential for their service to buckle under the strain, was a contributing factor to moving my pre-orders to TFAW. Also, they cancelled one of my books that I ordered at $2.99 and now have it listed at $10. That’s never happened to me before, either.
I was just coming in to this thread to ask about DCBS. Wanted to give them a try since they include posters and such in the preorder. Wanted some posters for upcoming issues.
I would have (and I’m sure I did either upthread or somewhere else on the forum) wholeheartedly recommended DCBS before. This is the first time I’ve hit a snag with them. Their prices are usually unbeatable and they have always packed well in my experience. But I did worry about them taking on the entire DC workload.
Waiting a few more days to see if I get a shipping notification.
DCBS reliability has dropped. Previously always well packaged and timely. Now, slow with deliveries, more damaged books and missing books. they also may cancel a book at any time before FOC or after FOC. No longer the best but still a solid option.
I have used DCBS for a very long time without any issue, but as some of you stated, I’ve seen a serious decline to the point I’ll likely quit using them.
Severe reduction in offerings overall, severe reduction in variant offerings, poor communication, slow service, etc.
Perhaps the biggest thing is the cancellation of orders. They’ve cancelled a few hot books on me now. No excuse for the FOC thing given you have to order sooooo far ahead. They also put up some Ronin #1s, charged me when I ordered, had my money awhile, and suddenly cancelled.
Too risky to order any books you really want now. Kind of a shame as I really did recommend them at one point.
I’m really serious! I look at what there charging me for bags and boards for smallish orders and I could literally go and buy 100 of each for a lot less than what we’re being charged. I understand it costs money but every other big shop provides them for free.
My main issue is I refuse to ship or have books shipped not bagged and boarded. I can’t count the number of times the board has saved corners from impact creases or bends. I also have to rebag and board them when I get them into mylites2 & Fullbacks. So those bag and boards are useless to me and it’s not worth the time to list them for sale. I’m basically more than doubling my shipping cost every order on bags and boards that I don’t use.
So I’m actually going to send a message to their customer service suggesting it. If any others feel or do something similar I recommend you do the same. Probably no chance but eGerber is half the price of other Mylars.
If they offered a complete concierge comic service, then you probably have a great idea, but that doesn’t sound reasonable. Granted, $.25 is high, but they don’t have to do it, and you don’t have to buy them, even if the life is protected by having them. I get where you are coming from, but then someone will want to have a specific size, or they will want 4mil over 2mil; they will never make everyone happy.
I am a huge proponent of B&B. Even though I do spend the money on them at TFAW, I purchase my own because the size varies. While that may not bother some people, I guess as I have aged, my OCD has aged as well, and I cannot stand different sized B&B. I store my comics front to front, so varied B&B allow them to slip off and potentially create spine roll, even though I do not pack them tight at all, it is still a fear of mine.
With all that being said, how many of us would pay straight cover price with no discount, which would include shipping, to be able to choose how we wanted our comics B&B, packaged and shipped? Would you choose a site like that to do your online purchases? That may actually be appealing to some of us. Imagine getting 10 copies of SWHR #1, all B&B the way you want, packed the way you want, all showing up at the time you want…
