They use silver age size bags and boards. They slide around. I wish they would use tighter modern bags. I got a damaged order from them last week with some ratio variants. Their customer service staff made it right though.
Any order with 100+ is gonna be hard to package and keep secure without a lot of extra effort. I did an ebay order for 50 books and I spent a good 20 minutes to make sure it’s secure. So I can get the reason why they’re not gonna spend that much time on one order and instead take their chances with it…
This is part of it. That many moving books is a lot of things to pack together and keep 100% secure no matter who you are. And the heavier a package gets, the rougher it likely gets treated by the PO/delivery company in terms of them just setting it down heavily or dropping it. If there isn’t much of a price difference in the shipping estimates, it might be worth trying the opposite carrier option(s) than delivered it this time. (So if you had FedEx, trying UPS. Or USPS, trying FedEx. etc.)
If you noticed any consistency in how things were damaged (a consecutive group of them on one corner, all on one side, etc.) that could be feedback I could give the team. It sounds like based on your description they didn’t bubble wrap the pile of comics, so that’s one thing I can bring up and ask them to start doing on the larger stacks that might help offer a bit more protection.
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Most of the damaged book are on the bottom. I asked tfaw to use bubble wrap and separate in bunches of 25 however the tfaw rep stated it is the discretion of the packer. So again the books came wrapped in newspaper which offer no protection. i understand that books get damaged in transit however i can only return book if they are VF or worst. geez maybe the solution is to just buy less books 100 down to 5.
We’re probably screwed then, I’ve never packed more than a couple of comics myself!
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I’m not sure what the policy is on the bunches and I imagine there’s a lot of scenarios that could come into play if there was a set number.
But I did send a message to our warehouse lead to ask them about adding bubble wrap, so I’ll see what I can do there first.
Maybe it’s just the all powerful giving you a sign you’re just spending way too much money on comics… 
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yes the comic gods have spoken. only ten books a month now.
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Using bubble wrap would make a huge difference. thanks.
Or, have the books shipped more frequently to lower the number of books? Since TFAW ups the price with each book you ad, with that many, it might not cost you significantly more to ship weekly or every other. You can change your settings, then check the shipping estimate to find out exactly what it’ll cost you.
This is also an option. It’s likely with the added weight of them all coming at once and shipping charges increasing this month at every carrier, splitting it into two smaller ones costs less than one big one.
I just got my first order from Westfield Comics. I got 22 comics in all. 11 from last weds, and 11 that went on sale today. And, the package arrived. I don’t know what time travel wizardry they used to pull that off, but holy damn. Only had to go from WI to MN, but still!
They don’t bag or board anything, and it’s just a box with all books in a single bag with some bubble wrap. And, the books are all in really solid condition. I would call these LCS shelf condition. And, a bunch of these were Something Is Killing #11 B, which is a black cover. I expected these to be beat up.
Overall, processing and shipping speed was incredible. Off the charts. To get these books the day they were released is amazing. And, despite not a ton of protection, 22 books arrived in great condition.
A+
I’ll use them again.
thanks for the recommendations. i will try bi monthly shipments.
Just a tidbit, Westfield comics do bag and board all back issues and incentives. I’ve received many back issues and incentives from them.
Yes! Good callout. Pre-orders are not bagged/boarded, but everything else is.
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The buyer has gotten more suggestions on how he can assure his comics are shipped to him without damage from tfaw than tfaw has on how to ship stuff better. This is some Bizarro backwards stuff for real. lol
The obvious solution to me would be to stop ordering from them if they aren’t fixing things for you. I can tell you that’s what I will do if it happens to me.
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Yeah, I am going to spread out my orders with some of the other online stores.
My experience comes from 2 online shops that I order almost all my books from now. They are DCBS and TFAW. I have used Midtown a few times and it’s really hit or miss with them as some have arrived in nice condition and some were terrible so I have pretty much wrote them off as a place to order from. I have used DCBS for most of my preorders for about 3 years now and they are usually good quality when I get them as they seal them in plastic bags containing about 20 comics and I have recieved over 100 in a box several times without any apparent damage to them. My last shipment from them however, was just packed in plastic bags and taped with a total of 50 books in the two bags. They used the expanded foam on all four sides but you could tell the comics had slid around in the bags a lot and half or more were eat up with spine ticks so I emailed them but had not recieved any reply the last time I checked! This was just a few days ago and that was the worst,quality wise, that I had ever gotten from them. I will see how this next shipment arrives before I give up on them because I have been satisfied with their service for the most part. The other company TFAW has also for the most part supplied me with quality books but the last three shipments varied a lot as the first of the three were packed in a box with packing peanuts but the books themselves were just stacked in the box individually with only the peanuts around the outside edge of them. Several had some blunted corners as you could tell they moved around inside the box a lot while in transit.I emailed and left them a message about the damage and also asked if they could wrap them in plastic or something to keep them from sliding around inside the box. The next shipment had the comics placed into some bags and taped with the packing peanuts and they looked good to me. The third and last order I recieved a couple days ago again were shipped just laid in the box individually with the spines alternated and packing peanuts around the outside of them. They were delivered by Fed Ex and just set on my front porch with the box standing up on end instead of flat. The box had some impact damage on the corner and I thought for sure my comics would be damaged but from what I can tell they are ok. I do think they should at least wrap newspaper around the comics or put them in bags like they did my second shipment to help protect the corners. Laying the comics in a box with some packing peanuts around the sides is not going to protect and keep them from sliding around and damaging the corners very well. I will say that TFAW has the best customer service when it comes to writing you back or trying to make it right. DCBS has not replied to anything I have emailed them about but the quality has been good except for this last shipment I recieved. This is just my experience with those two companies for anyone interested. I will keep buying some from both as long as the quality stays fairly consistent but if not I’ll try somewhere else. I hope this is not too long to put on the forums but I just wanted to tell of my experience with the online stores. Thanks!
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I got a recent order this week from Frankies. I ordered 5 copies of Thor 6 2nd print. Received only 1 copy plus a freebie (Immortal Hulk 16). Finally got some resolution today, as they stated the remaining 4 will be sent this week.