Lit Hmm. I'm wondering if going through comic book stores isn't such a good idea after all

After deciding to get involved in the new EU that is starting I chose a comic book store to go through and created a pull list for them. The first time I went I asked them about the Darth Maul comics and they said they had three and four on them and could order one and two for me and it would be there in a couple weeks. So I bought three and four and waited for one and two to come.

That was around a month ago. Since then they called me and said one of the Darth Maul son of dathomir comics they ordered arrived and they were still waiting on the other and it should be here by a certain date (which happened to be today).

Well I went over there to pick them up (because I knew that at least one of them was there) and also order some Walking Dead volumes because I am wanting to catch up on TWD comics. Well when I got there I told them my name and they went over to my list to get it and it wasn't the Darth Maul comic at all but instead a legacy comic and they said neither Darth Maul comic had arrived yet.

That is very poor on their part regardless but the fact that they called me and told me Darth Maul son of Dathomir had arrived when infact it wasn't Darth Maul at all was very fishy. Either they are incompetant or they were just flat out lying for some reason.

So I am beginning to wonder if it is better to just get comics through amazon then any comic book store. The reason they gave for the reason I got legacy was because I put down on my pull list all the upcoming Star Wars comics to be released through Marvel and since those aren't available yet things got mixed up. Not sure if that is a legit explanation or not but even if it is that still doesn't explain why the guy called me and told me Darth Maul was there when infact it wasn't there at all and instead it was legacy.

I wonder if some of the people who work at comic book stores just aren't very good at running a business and you will run into stuff like this if you try to deal with them too much.

 

You could also try a different comic shop. Support your LCS, etc, etc.

 

Can deny - while one or two mix ups happened in the store I go to over the last seven years, they were generally good at their business.

 

Another reason why it might be better just to go through amazon is that it seems to take weeks for orders to come to the comic book store while online you can generally have that order within a week.

 

Seems to be a problem specific to the store. Presuming you're in the USA, country of publication for all this stuff - I'm on a different continent, and the shops I've been to normally meet release dates to a tee. Sometimes the distributor messes up or something only arrives in the following week... backorders have been tricky from time to time if stuff needs to be reprinted first. But basically, I'd say you seem to have the fortune of a particularly unlucky and/or bad shop.

So yeah, if there's no alternative store, I suppose you'd have to check for online options. You could get TPB collections in regular book stores, though (if those haven't all imploded to coffee micro-breweries with ebook reader showcases in your area yet). But isn't there a possibility for online subscriptions of monthly comic books...?

 

Most of the time small shops are only as good as the people who are working there. And the fact that they called me and told me something that was either a flat out lie or completely untrue isn't a very good sign. I would hope that people who are working in a comic book store and deal with comics on a daily basis would know the difference between the darth maul comics and the legacy comics and put forth the effort to make sure it was the right one before they called them and told them it had arrived.

 

Sounds like a crap store.

 

I don't have a local comic shop here (UK) so I tend to go for the trades/omnibus editions. I can get those locally or via Amazon UK.

 

My comic store is pretty good at stocking things and having all the new comics. When I can't go to the store, I order them from midtown comics. There in NY and deliver very good. Everything else, like the TPB and Omnibuses as well as novels I buy from amazon. They have a great selection and you can find a lot of the stuff there. I do remember back in the day several comic shops that I use to go to that are no longer in existence that sucked. Some even resembled those old porn stores from yester year.

 

The only book/comic story nearby is Hastings. They seem good about carrying books and comic books. However things like trade and omnibuses, which is what I tend to get, they are not good about getting those when they come out. Last month I ordered Legacy II Volume III: Wanted: Ania Solo. The day it was supposed to come out they didn't have it. It didn't arrive for over another week.

 

I love going to comic book stores, but don't really speak to the people working there...there is this great used book store though does comics and people well. If I can't find a comic in stores I always order it somewhere online myself.

 

I haven't had a problem with my local comic shops, and I've had pull lists at several shops (mainly due to moving or shops closing).