Frankly, my experiences thus far have been pretty discouraging. From Midtown to TFAW to others.
The situation with Midtown is simple - won’t be ordering from them again unless they refund me 100% for the damaged books I got this week - I’m not interested in paying for return shipping - that’s just ridiculous. What if only one book meets their criteria for returnable damage? Let’s say the book cost $4.99… I pay the cost to return the book (let’s say $5 shipping) only for them to refund the cost of the book ($4.99) and where does that leave me? With no book and less than ~$5 from where I started. LMAO what? Do these guys even think through their policies? Why would any customer agree to this? It’s as if I’m handing over the comic I bought and not getting the money I used to pay for it in return! hahaha
Then there’s TFAW - I have an order with them (3rd one) that’s on the way and should be here next week. I’ve had two orders from them prior to this one - first one had damages that were refunded - no hassle and customer service was pleasant to work with. Second order wasn’t terrible but wasn’t completely satisfied with it either, as it had a nasty color breaking dent on the back cover of Shang Chi #1 - cover was all black so super noticeable - all other books were passable but this one defect kinda ruined it for me cuz it looked terrible. Did not reach out to their customer service about it.
If the TFAW order that is currently en route doesn’t show up in good shape then I’ll be taking them off my list of online retailers as well and cancelling any open preorders that I have with them that have yet to lock in. Just can’t remain a customer if I’m unable to shop with confidence.
Now… my first order from My Comic Shop was excellent. Shipping was quick and arrived in excellent shape, so I am currently building a pre-order with them for December books - hopefully the positive experience with this retailer continues. They also claim to have a no-damage guarantee so that should help…
All of the above said, LCS is a crap shoot too - only difference being if I don’t like the condition of the books that I come across then I don’t buy, so I never end up with something that I’m unhappy with. Today, I came home with two books only - Werewolf BN and SIKTC 11. Was planning to purchase a whole lot more but the quality of the rest of the new books that I was interested in just didn’t cut it.
I figure a lot of people on this forum buy in bulk - 10, 20, 50, even 100 copies… so receiving one or two damaged books doesn’t ruin an entire experience, but when you are more of a collector, only order a handful of books, and they arrive with damages then it is a pretty discouraging buzz kill.
My experiences with MyComicShop are about the same as everyone - well packaged, often undergraded books. I know others have had issues, but I’ve ordered probably at least 50+ times and have yet to have any issues with MCS.
I don’t usually order more than 5-6 books at a time and the last time I did that from TFAW, it came in a comic mailer. Definitely up the number of books so they can’t use the envelope mailer. That said, I’ve seen plenty of pictures of the large stacks of books (50+) that come wrapped in paper and surrounded by peanuts that end up damaged. Sorry, but too much room to slide around in the peanuts and ding the corners. I get it - loading up 100s of orders of 50+ books is time consuming, but I’m not sure I’d trust that many books to TFAW. Great service and much thanks to Brendon for being available to chat with, but that method is just asking for trouble more often than not.
Shout out to Matt’s Collectibles. Ordered 50 gemini for $40 total. 25 from Gemini direct is $40 and they are both essentially the same product (Gemini might be a hair more rigid, but I always supplement with extra cardboard anyways). Fast shipping from Matt’s as well.
I check in with Westfield now and then. They have awesome $1 specials on new books sometimes, bought 20 copies of Thor 6 for $20. All but one copy arrived in NM+ or better condition. Same thing, though, no individual bags or boards, but packed together surrounded by bubble wrap.
I also grabbed some SIKTC #s 10, 11 and 12 for $1 each as well.
Speaking of My Comic Shop, anyone know why all of the new release incentive variants that they have are listed with a specific grade of 9.2? Where as regular covers are listed as NM?
I’m assuming this is more of a CYA approach to selling these books since they go for several times cover price, and so listing the books in this fashion is basically saying that they guarantee that they arrive in 9.2 or better condition - it doesn’t mean that the books are (at best) 9.2s and so they could end up being an even higher grade than what they’re listed as.
Anyone have experience with this and can chime in/confirm here?
Well guys/gals, it’s only right that I share the following resolution for the Midtown issue.
I sent a follow up email to them this morning because I never noticed their response to my initial inquiry 2 days ago - apparently they did send one though, as I see it now as part of the email thread with their customer service.
Midtown responded within minutes to my email this morning, apologized for the “less than stellar” condition in which the books arrived, and promptly issued refunds for 3 out of the 6 books on my order.
One of the books on the order was not damaged at all, and the remaining two, although clearly impacted, have such little corner damage that frankly, I can live with it.
So shoutout to Midtown. I’ve read nothing but negative feedback in regards to customers that have received damages from them and who ultimately were not given full refunds or were forced to pay to have the damaged items shipped back, so this was a welcome surprise to say the least.
Still iffy about ordering from them again - didn’t get any portion of the shipping costs refunded so $4.99 split across 3 books kinda sucks, but anyways… I’m sure I will eventually give them another shot.
Figured I owe it to them to share this positive customer service experience after putting them on blast on CHU forums for the damages that I received.
If you’re getting stuff on sale this week from them on street date, I’d be careful about mentioning that publicly, as they’re violating Diamond’s policies unless they live in your town and are hand delivering it.
I do know for a fact the policy is supposed to be multiple comics are in a bag or wrapped with paper (if it’s too large of a bundle for a bag). We’ve been hiring some new warehouse staff to help with the holiday orders so it might be an issue of a new person who didn’t do it right. If you shoot me a PM with what your order number was I can let the warehouse know so they can make sure the person who packed it knows now they should be bagged or wrapped.
It’s funny you should mention DCBS- I order from them and the comics usually arrive perfect, but I had the exact same issue as you this last time. Sloppiest shipping they’ve ever done, it was like a different company packed it, and it got a little dented in the mail. No response at all from them. I sent another more strongly worded reply mainly pissed since all I asked for was bag and board credit, and still nothing. Something must be going on with them, I thought I was just unlucky and this was their way of telling me to go screw, but had no idea it happened to other people.
Part of it may be Lunar (which is DCBS) becoming the sole DC distributor. They’ve probably had a lot more going on behind the scenes than usual and either less time, less staff, or new staff.
That would definitely be a concern going forward with DCBS. I have always been impressed by their packing, and that could be at high risk now if they have to take on all the DC product.
Same thing happened with me with my last DCBS order but I didn’t care because historically they are the best online comic seller in the industry. Should we be worried?
Unknowncomics delivery today. Wrapped nicely. books arrived in great condition black cover no ticks or edge distortion. I wish everyone got the same quality as I have been getting so far.
Yeah, there was some chatter about this issue on CHU forums. I think Mike C even reached out to Diamond about it and got the “printer issue” response… Damage was wide spread.
My copies from TFAW were more or less perfect but for a few tiny ticks on the back, roughly same area as the pics you have shared. Yours at least only show one tick each.
