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Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 27, 2016 18:44:27 GMT -5
My pet peeve has been mentioned already. I hate when the book doesn't have a price on it already. I don't trust someone to "look up" the price. I don't most comic shop workers are qualified to grade books on the spot and it makes me think they are trying to gouge me. Yeah, waste of my freaking time. I tend to be all "Here's x dollars, take it or leave it" just out of pique. (Because I know I'm not paying more than x dollars anyway!) |
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Post by Brandon Hanvey on Apr 27, 2016 19:07:11 GMT -5
What does Randy Newman have to say on this issue?
As for myself, I've mostly given up on going to comic shops. Mostly due to me swithcing to shopping online from Amazon or directly from the publisher/creator or even Kickstater. It just more convenient for me. And when I buy from the creator, they tend to get more of the profit.
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Post by batlaw on Apr 27, 2016 20:06:27 GMT -5
Only real current complaint (though not a new one), is... Smell. Sometimes staff, but usually other customers. How/why is B.O. Seemingly so synonymous with our hobby?!
Other than that, and not counting issues gripes or problems I had with shops years ago, would be the stores that consider themselves museums. You know, full of priceless irreplaceable artifacts. Everything is priced as high as possible. You can't touch that / you can't see this. No you can't open it to look at it. Only I can hold it or only if you're closely supervised can you see this... Etc etc. you're watched like a hawk and God forbid you bring your kids in the store. And of course, the only thing the staff really knows about anything in their store is how rare and valuable it is. No dude... It's just a plastic spiderman bust piggy bank from 2014, not a Ming vase.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 27, 2016 20:21:33 GMT -5
My pet peeve has been mentioned already. I hate when the book doesn't have a price on it already. I don't trust someone to "look up" the price. I don't most comic shop workers are qualified to grade books on the spot and it makes me think they are trying to gouge me. Yeah, waste of my freaking time. I tend to be all "Here's x dollars, take it or leave it" just out of pique. (Because I know I'm not paying more than x dollars anyway!) This is my biggest one as well. There was one dealer at the Buckeye Comicon this weekend who only had about half of his books priced (out of about 10 long boxes). I started looking through the first box and I guess I made a face when I ran across a few books with no price sticker. He noticed and immediately said "Don't worry. Anything without a price, I have a guide back here and will look it up." I walked away and didn't go back the rest of the day. See, sir, I will worry about it. First off, I don't have the patience to look through these boxes, pull books that I'm interested in buying, wait for you to look each of them up, and then determine which, if any, of them I still want to buy after you quote a price. Secondly, I have worked in multiple comic book stores, as well as having been a serious collector for well over three decades, and know how to grade comic books, and the last thing I want to is get into an argument over your instantaneous grading of these books. I'll go spend my money with a dealer who has done his work upfront so that I can judge based on the price sticker if I want to negotiate with him or just pay the asked price. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 27, 2016 20:40:18 GMT -5
Here in the South, a ubiquitous feature of comic book shops is the groups of people seated in the back playing Magic: The Gathering, which is totally cool, except that it always, always includes every member of staff. There is never anyone manning the counter or on the floor, such that customers invariably have to interrupt the game to make a purchase or ask about an item. If you're lucky, they'll hold up one finger and help you in a moment. If you're unlucky, you get the eye-roll and the most cursory, grudging "assistance." Man, ain't this the truth! This must be the same the world over because this is exactly my experience here in the UK, unless you're in one of the big chain comic stores like Forbidden Planet or something. It really is infuriating when all you wanna do is buy some of their wares and the assorted nerds and staff are a) in the way, so you can't get to the counter, or b) seem much too busy to actually serve you in anything approaching a hurry. |
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Post by Phil Maurice on Apr 27, 2016 21:10:01 GMT -5
Man, ain't this the truth! This must be the same the world over because this is exactly my experience here in the UK, unless you're in one of the big chain comic stores like Forbidden Planet or something. It really is infuriating when all you wanna do is buy some of their wares and the assorted nerds and staff are a) in the way, so you can't get to the counter, or b) seem much too busy to actually serve you in anything approaching a hurry. Oh, swell! Here I was thinking this was something isolated to my insignificant little hamlet here in N. Ga., but it's apparently alive and kicking in the UK. Well done there.  |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 27, 2016 21:17:28 GMT -5
In a retail operation with margins as thin as a comic shops, every square inch of the shop has to pay for itself in rent and utilities. If you give up display space, it means each space you use has to earn more money to make up for the unused space, which means you likely have to charge higher prices to make up for the unused space. It's basic retail theory (something far too many comic shop owners don't have a clue about). Several of the more successful comic shops I've been to over the years (including my absolute favorite one -- until the owner got weird and then shut down the store for non-financial reasons) do the opposite, taking on a more feng-shui approach in which the space is more open and less crowded. It makes for an inviting environment, draws more attention to the items that are being displayed (so that things move quickly and nothing becomes white noise), and making it easier to rotate what is displayed. If the walls are plastered with items, your eye is not going to be as repeatedly drawn to the ultra cool premium priced trade collection being displayed that just came in from Diamond. I realize you know this business far better than I, but I've seen some very successful shops take this approach and thrive. I'm always more comfortable in those stores and tend to notice EVERYTHING being displayed. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 27, 2016 21:19:09 GMT -5
What does Randy Newman have to say on this issue? I have never understood Randy Newman, and especially not that song. This helps to explain a lot of it to me: |
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Post by Randle-El on Apr 27, 2016 22:03:46 GMT -5
I've already griped about this before elsewhere on the forum, but I get annoyed when comic shops mess with your pull list. Missing something every now and then is understandable, but if a shop consistently forgets to include books for you then it pretty much negates the point of having a pull list in the first place. I also dislike the tactic of inserting books into your box as a suggested buy based on other books you're getting. I get that shops want to upsell you, but I would prefer that they simply verbally suggest it to you rather than actually putting the title in your box. If it wasn't for the fact that I always always always go through what's in my pull before I pay for it, there would have been numerous times where I would have ended up buying additional books that I didn't want. It just seems sneaky to me that they put the books in there without telling you.
I also find it rather amusing when comic shops still pull out the Overstreet guide when you ask them how much a specific back issue costs.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 27, 2016 22:06:06 GMT -5
I find that a lot of the shops with the less is more approach usually a) focus more on newer products with set margins and regular shelf life turnover and don't need the space to display vintage items that sell more sporadically and need to be seen to sell Generally yes. Key books that came through would be displayed, but run fillers and the like were just sitting in bins in the back where only people looking for them would find them. Most of the revenue those stores relied upon came from new products. There's a bit of chicken and egg in that, though, as a more inviting atmosphere prompts regulars to stick around longer, browse and chat more, and (hopefully) decide there are more items they need to order as a result. These places also looked "classier," which might be more inviting to professionals with a little more money to spend. Less sure about this one. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 27, 2016 22:08:03 GMT -5
I've already griped about this before elsewhere on the forum, but I get annoyed when comic shops mess with your pull list. Missing something every now and then is understandable, but if a shop consistently forgets to include books for you then it pretty much negates the point of having a pull list in the first place. I also dislike the tactic of inserting books into your box as a suggested buy based on other books you're getting. I get that shops want to upsell you, but I would prefer that they simply verbally suggest it to you rather than actually putting the title in your box. If it wasn't for the fact that I always always always go through what's in my pull before I pay for it, there would have been n I talk up my LCS quite a bit, but here I go again: one thing I love about my LCS is that I can edit my pull list via facebook private messages to them. Easiest thing in the world, and that way I also know exactly what I asked for and what I didn't. They've screwed up on me maybe twice ever, and I consider that a good track record. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 27, 2016 22:39:24 GMT -5
To be fair...I haven't been inside a comic book shop in well over a decade. Probably pushing two decades.
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Post by Brandon Hanvey on Apr 28, 2016 1:55:38 GMT -5
Several of the more successful comic shops I've been to over the years (including my absolute favorite one -- until the owner got weird and then shut down the store for non-financial reasons) That reminded me of my first comic shop that I had a weekly saver. In the mid 1990's, the guy closed the place and moved all his customers to a sister shop because he thought the world was coming to an end aka the biblical Apocalypse. Turned out that he was wrong so he sold the shop. And I stayed a customer at the sister shop for close to 15 years. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 28, 2016 4:37:51 GMT -5
Only real current complaint (though not a new one), is... Smell. Sometimes staff, but usually other customers. How/why is B.O. Seemingly so synonymous with our hobby?! Other than that, and not counting issues gripes or problems I had with shops years ago, would be the stores that consider themselves museums. You know, full of priceless irreplaceable artifacts. Everything is priced as high as possible. You can't touch that / you can't see this. No you can't open it to look at it. Only I can hold it or only if you're closely supervised can you see this... Etc etc. you're watched like a hawk and God forbid you bring your kids in the store. And of course, the only thing the staff really knows about anything in their store is how rare and valuable it is. No dude... It's just a plastic spiderman bust piggy bank from 2014, not a Ming vase. LOL. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 28, 2016 4:41:29 GMT -5
Yeah, waste of my freaking time. I tend to be all "Here's x dollars, take it or leave it" just out of pique. (Because I know I'm not paying more than x dollars anyway!) This is my biggest one as well. There was one dealer at the Buckeye Comicon this weekend who only had about half of his books priced (out of about 10 long boxes). I started looking through the first box and I guess I made a face when I ran across a few books with no price sticker. He noticed and immediately said "Don't worry. Anything without a price, I have a guide back here and will look it up." I walked away and didn't go back the rest of the day. See, sir, I will worry about it. First off, I don't have the patience to look through these boxes, pull books that I'm interested in buying, wait for you to look each of them up, and then determine which, if any, of them I still want to buy after you quote a price. Secondly, I have worked in multiple comic book stores, as well as having been a serious collector for well over three decades, and know how to grade comic books, and the last thing I want to is get into an argument over your instantaneous grading of these books. I'll go spend my money with a dealer who has done his work upfront so that I can judge based on the price sticker if I want to negotiate with him or just pay the asked price. Sorry Captain, but I have to call you out. You wrote recently about going to a warehouse and going through thousands of boxes and then have the seller price them as you waited. I don't think I could have bought anything under those circumstances. Or maybe it's different given that it wasn't a con , but still. |
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