Kind of a quick survey here.
Of those of you who pre-order through your LCS (pre-FOC), how do you add comics? In person, phone call, email, online/website, other?
And if you have an LCS, would you say you pre-order most of your books (pre-FOC) from that LCS or somewhere else online (TFAW, MCS, etc), and why?
I’ll go first to kick this off.
LCS Pre-Order: To pre-order from my LCS, I have to either have a pull list, or speak to them in person (or email). They do not have the option to order from them electronically in any way.
% of Pre-orders through LCS: Despite having an LCS, I order probably 90% of books pre-FOC from online sites. (10% from my LcS, from just 2 books on my pull list).
Why? Because every special order or change to my pull list (I.e., swap out cover A for B variant that month) I have to physically reach out to them. It’s more work for me to give them a detailed list of what I’d like to pre-order each week, and then because it’s manually entered when they get it there’s a chance they will forget or order the wrong book.
So online is just more secure…and with better discount’s pre-FOC shipping is basically a wash.
I would like to support them more, but their archaic system means I’m putting in the work to give them my money.
They have recently cut back significantly on new books…so basically I’m not even picking up new books post FOC anymore for the most part (unless I arrive when they open most new books I’m interested in are gone…and dianonds delays make it a crap shoot when books get put out). So I’m wondering if their new comic book business model is flawed by not providing their customers a more convenient way of pre-ordering…and relying on pull lists and the occasional walk in…who they only have one shelf copy for each new book at this point.
I have a very close to me LCS but they require all pre-orders to be in Saturday night and it has to be in person/by phone/or email, no website version. I usually haven’t even started looking at the books yet before their deadline, and I can’t make choices without the article here! So mostly I have a pull for the series I collect for my PC and if I know its something I want early (example Ascenia #29) I’ll order from them but mostly it comes from a couple online sites that have hold boxes and I ship them every month or so (unless it is some hot spec and I just pull trigger and get it mailed out) because they have Monday 8pm deadlines and I like being able to look through the covers on the website.
So percentage wise, my pre-orders that aren’t pulls, I would say 90% are not with my LCS. I have recently been trying to get on it earlier to support them but it is effort and not nearly as fun as looking through the books on a website on a lazy Sunday afternoon
My LCS closes early Sunday, not to re-open until Tuesday. So even if I give them my list on Saturday they may not even get to ordering the book, depending on who’s checking email/Facebook messenger.
Like you, I wait until the end of the week, and lists come out, people talk about interesting books, and some covers get revealed late. And I am on a budget so I sometimes will change my mind late after I have all the books for the week laid out.
I had an LCS that used an online service to submit pre-orders. It was also very archaic but at least I could order books and didn’t pay for them until I picked them up. They closed a few years ago but it was great for ordering variant covers of a series each month instead of a pull list of cover A.
I would pay upfront, like with MCS, if my LcS offered an online option. But they seem to like still doing things on paper. And I see their business suffering possibly because of it. I know with me it is. I can’t be the only one.
Another thing, my LcS could have 900% more revenue from me if they had an online option. I know it’s likely an initial effort to get going and trained on…and maybe a monthly fee…but it’s gotta pay for itself. Other shops have to be doing this.
Thats another question I’d like to know from people, if your LCS uses an online ordering method for pre-FOC, what program/website do they use?
My LCS is Third Eye Comics. They have an email blast that goes out pre-foc including their highlight picks for that week. More times than not I place an order with them (through email and not through their site) to order and pull books. Like stated I was doing a lot of my pre-orders from TFAW but found damages and cost of shipping usually eat up any discount I would get. I would gladly trade discount for good quality shipping.
I stated elsewhere I am 100% moving away from TFAW in April/May and will support my LCS way more.
I order 100% of my new books from my LCS. I get a 20% discount, and they use League of Comic Geeks system, and it’s absolute bliss. If I add a book to my pull list (which is literally just a click) pre-FOC, I always get it. But, even if I order post-FOC, if they have a shelf copy, it goes in my pull list first before hitting the shelf.
I had to talk them into using this system, but I told them that I was ordering via TFAW.com for most of my stuff. I told him I’d move all of that to him, which I have done. I think a few other customers now use it as well. The shop owner seems to really like using it, and it’s definitely brought in more revenue.
Talk to your shop. Tell them to modernize their damn business, as you mentioned @D-Rog. They are just losing money by not doing this. If I had to call or email/text for every addition, I’d buy 10% of what I buy now.
I just click a button to add a book to my pull list. They have a great website interface. I can click through and see which books I’m going to get by week, such as yesterday:
That’s all I do. It gets fed directly to my LCS, and they order and pull my books. 5 stars. 10 out of 10. It’s incredible. Again, it took some convincing, but stay persistent.
That looks absolutely sublime, wish my LCS was running something like this.
