How to Shop: By Comic Nerds

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From Comics Buyer's Guide #1613's "Longbox Manifesto" column is a list of "Don'ts" that customers should recognize when shopping at their local comic shop.
Don't...

1. Charge it. Retailers have to pay a processing fee for each charged transactions.
2. Show up irregularly. A retailer prepays for his books, so he doesn't see a return until someone buys that book. So, pull customers shouldn't let months of books pile up between visits.
3. Browse then buy online. This means scoping out stuff you like at the comic shop and then ordering it online because it's cheaper. (Especially applies to gamers. Don't play tournaments at the shop and buy your pieces elsewhere.)
4. Haggle. The "suggested retail price" is not for you to decide.
5. Wait for the trade.
6. Vanish. If you're gonna stop going to a shop be sure to empty out your pull file first and then cancel it.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 December 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

1 & 2 are bullshit.

3 & 4 I agree with.

5 & 6 I agree with too, but I've totally done those.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 30 December 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

3, 4 & 6 are okay.
#1 is the most asinine thing I've ever seen (and the reason I posted it). If you don't want to accept credit cards, don't. Someone else will be glad to take your customers' money. 5, whatever. Don't sell trades then. Y'know?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 December 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

No shit #1 is garbage. The fees retailers are hit w/ for having to process credit card transactions are far outweighed by the convenience it offers both the customer and the retailer. Unless you actually enjoy dealing with checks.

#2, however, I do agree with, esp. if you're like me. If you're just saving 10 books / month, ain't no thing. If my dead ass doesn't show up for a month, tho, all hell breaks loose (and I've seen it happen).

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 December 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

i only buy trades because i believe in the european model of comics publishing

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Friday, 30 December 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

2,3,5 are fine by me. But then it's not as if I have a local comic shop.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 30 December 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

There needs to be a How To Run A Shop list:

DO NOT:

1) Ignore pull or anti-pull requests from your customers; this includes writing notes on scraps of paper huddled around the register that are invariably forgotten.

2) Pilfer other customer's pulls when asked by another customer for a certain sold-out issue, no matter how much you like that customer.

3) Only stock Marvel & DC books, you very bad man.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 December 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

Who haggles in the US? Besides us IMMIGRANTS??

― c(''c) (Leee), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

fuck rules for shopping! sorry but you're not going to guilt me into not "showing up irregularly" at a comic book store!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

I imagine haggling over back issues happens a lot. Haggling over the cover price of a new issue, tho, is some wacko chump hoohah.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

WAIT A MINUTE, do they mean haggle over NEW comics or back issues?
Cuz I'll fucking haggle over back issues. This guy wanted to charge me 8 bucks a pop for the Adventure Comics run with the JSA stories where Batman of Earth-2 dies, which was total bullshit, as those copies were NOT NM, or even NNM.

xpost

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Maybe it's haggling over non-pamphlet stuff (like toys)?

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

"If you think I'm paying $30 for a Brak cookie jar..."

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

How to shop for comics: When yr mom gives 45¢ a day to buy milk at lunch at school, drink water! That way you can buy three more comics a week! (in 1987).

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

W.T.F.
http://www.comicbookfonts.com/

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 December 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

This list is kind of crazy! Why should I care to subsidize my local comics shop to the point of paying list price for a trade I can find on sale for ten or fifteen bucks cheaper on Amazon? Plus, usually when I charge things it means I'm spending more than I intended to when I entered the store-- I'n not going to leave to look for an ATM! My local shop has a $20 minimum for charging things because of the fees-- I think they can take care of themselves. And "don't wait for the trade"? Maybe more things should be published as trades only if it's such an issue! (I assume the point of said rule is to keep continuing series afloat-- why do we need indefinitely continuing series in pamphlet format, anyway?) And 2, 4, and 6 are all things that any decent retailer already has policies against! (I've done 6 too though, when I was getting stuff on my list that I was "obligated" to buy that I hadn't asked for.)

― Chris F. (servoret), Friday, 30 December 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

(I've done 6 too though, when I was getting stuff on my list that I was "obligated" to buy that I hadn't asked for.)

I handled this move by taking my stash & politely putting the Wolverine / Captain America mini-series I didn't want back on the shelf.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 December 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

Huk, you totally want that Sean Phillips font, don't you?

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 December 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

1. Fucking ridiculous.
2. I'm an irregular, but don't buy too much - I don't think they've ever had more than single-figures quantities pulled and waiting for me, so don't think I'm a serious problem there.
3. Yes, disgraceful behaviour by and large.
4. I wouldn't do this on most things - I might make them an offer on some big pricey item that they've had in stock a while, something that is in shop-soiled/worn condition, or expensive back issues.
5. WTF? So should comic shops stop selling trades?
6. Bad in proportion to your size of order and how they have treated you. I wouldn't do it with Gosh, especially, since an old friend of mine is long-time staff there.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 31 December 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

I'll charge my purchases if I goddamn please (and they're above 15 bucks)
I'll buy my books whenever I goddamn please (and I don't have a pull list)
I'll direct people to buy gifts from me by way of my Amazon wishlist for convenience's sake if I goddamn please.
I'll haggle on back issues if I goddamn please (but rarely bother with anything but quarter boxes)
I'll wait for the trade if I goddamn please.
I'll vanish to stay one step ahead of the FBI if I goddamn please.

And I haven't even been rereading SIN CITY, but goddamn I don't like being told how to buy books.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Saturday, 31 December 2005 15:05 (twenty years ago)

Seriously, fuck that "show up irregularly" thing. People have lives, for one thing.

I have a hell of a lot of comics shops to choose from in NYC, and I don't have a regular shop - I try to go to Midtown most often cos of their "free $20 for every $100 spent," but it really just depends on where I am on the day I want to get some comics. I don't have a pull list and never have in my life, so I have no reason to be loyal to anyone.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Saturday, 31 December 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Browse then buy online. This means scoping out stuff you like at the comic shop and then ordering it online because it's cheaper.

This might actually be the one I disagree with the most. Just because I'm browsing and looking for something to buy at one store doesn't mean I shouldn't buy it someplace else, especially if another store has it for less money. Seriously, this is nuts - imagine applying this concept to any other product!

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Saturday, 31 December 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

To be fair, it seems like the "irregular" thing only applies if you roll with a pull list.

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 31 December 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

even so... a pull list means the retailer is guaranteed business from you every week, something not many stores can claim. with that should come some flexibility. it's not like they're doing YOU a favour by ensuring you buy a certain amount of product a week.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 31 December 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

They are doing you a favour by saving things for you, albeit obviously so that they can sell them. They also give me a discount, but that's a separate point. I think it's kind of a contract: they do you the favour of ensuring you don't miss anything you want, you do them the courtesy of buying the things they have put aside for you. I don't know where the line is between tolerably regular visits and not - probably depends on how much you order.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 31 December 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Policy at the store that I shop at is for pull list people to try to show up at least once a month if you're getting monthly books, which only seems fair to me. If they haven't seen you for a while, they'll try calling you to make sure they don't end up stuck with unsold product.

I handled this move by taking my stash & politely putting the Wolverine / Captain America mini-series I didn't want back on the shelf.

Yeah, if I'd actually been an adult at the time, I would have handled this differently. But this was when I was a teenager going through my "comic books are uncool" phase, so I just wound up dropping out of the comic book scene entirely for a few years (coincidentally, at the same time that everybody else in the US stopped buying comics too: 1994-1997).

― Chris F. (servoret), Saturday, 31 December 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

i think they're only doing you a favour insofar as a restaurant is doing you a favour by taking your reservation.

(on the other hand, it IS rude to skip out on a reservation w/o cancelling beforehand.)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 31 December 2005 22:34 (twenty years ago)

this whole list is bullshit! i can see how a few of them would be reasonable and polite if you'd been going to just one mom and pop store for a few years (and in which case you probably wouldn't need to be told not to do these things) but who would actually follow any of these when dealing with some random store?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 31 December 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

I'm just kinda wondering what kind of income the person who put this together is pulling down, or possibly rather what sort of living expenses they have.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:01 (twenty years ago)

the person who put the list together is obviously a comic store owner!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 1 January 2006 01:01 (twenty years ago)

Oh, yeah, obviously!

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 1 January 2006 01:26 (twenty years ago)

No-- I think, more sadly, that the list maker is just some fanboy who thinks that the continuing existence of comic book shops and the superhero-oriented direct market as it currently exists is U & K. (And on brief google, the author in question is in fact a fanboy who has written mainstream superhero crap and Star Wars tie-ins-- obviously, the kind of stuff that needs to exist in this world, dammit.)

― Chris F. (servoret), Sunday, 1 January 2006 10:47 (twenty years ago)

i can understand the anxiety on the part of the list-maker tho - that comic shops are perilous businesses, and that he thinks the comic book audience should support these places over the chains that offer discounts, etc, because these smaller stores offer a service the bigger stores cannot match. but that said, i have trouble getting behind any of these (tho the thing about keeping up to date with your pull list seems fair, as you're tying up their sellable stock by keeping it off the shelf but not paying for it).

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Monday, 2 January 2006 10:51 (twenty years ago)

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