Comics
Back at the start of October I started to look into switching comics services. By the 23rd I'd chosen a new service and placed my first order with Mail Order Comics. (Okay, not the most imaginative business name, but it certainly pegs their business.)
So far, so good.
The general, individual discount is 38%, though some items are discounted a little less while some are discounted as high as 75%. Obviously, all of that gets eaten into depending upon the shipping method and frequency chosen. Even at the worst (UPS, twice-monthly), though, my final discount remains well beyond 20% -- even more as I consider the state tax I'd be paying were I picking them up at a local store.
I've gotten two shipments so far -- another one will presumably be sent next week. I wasn't sure how they were going to handle this 5-comics-day month, but since I didn't get a shipping notice this week apparently they're going to send the first three weeks worth of comics together. It's going well, with the only marginal downside being that they're not quite as sharp with getting them on their way, and since they're using UPS there's no shot at Saturday delivery, so the comics tend to arrive the following Monday. Eh. They're marvelously well packaged and thusfar I've been very pleased with the condition.
Meanwhile, back with my all but closed Westfield account, various slippages by the publishers along the way have resulted in seven items technically on my backorder list. They're all currently listed as Shipping, but not sent. Presumably they're waiting until the point in the month when they send the once-per-month orders. The irritating thing about it is that if they don't send them soon, in several cases I'm going to get the subsequent issue (from Mail Order Comics) before I get the earlier one. Hurm. Maybe I'll drop them a note, though as essentially a former customer it isn't as if I have much leverage. It'll sort itself out in a few weeks no matter what.
As for what I'm reading... I'm not sure I'm going to get into that at this point tonight. I promise I will get to it -- it'll be something I can get mileage out of both here and in my Legends zine, and it's a good idea to write at least a little about each of them as I go. It's a useful mental exercise in and of itself, can't help but bring a little more concentration to what I'm reading, and should help keep me from continuing to order something I'm really not enjoying. That's a problem for most of us comics fans; there's a tendency to want to keep an unbroken chain, and this can lead to an accumulation of crap. Worse, since comics publishers ultimately only pay attention to the bottom line issue of sales, continuing to buy them while waiting for favorable changes is foolish. Buying crap only encourages them to produce more crap.
That's something for me to at least start taking a stab at this weekend. The next Legends deadline is February 2nd, so that should work out well.
Back at the start of October I started to look into switching comics services. By the 23rd I'd chosen a new service and placed my first order with Mail Order Comics. (Okay, not the most imaginative business name, but it certainly pegs their business.)
So far, so good.
The general, individual discount is 38%, though some items are discounted a little less while some are discounted as high as 75%. Obviously, all of that gets eaten into depending upon the shipping method and frequency chosen. Even at the worst (UPS, twice-monthly), though, my final discount remains well beyond 20% -- even more as I consider the state tax I'd be paying were I picking them up at a local store.
I've gotten two shipments so far -- another one will presumably be sent next week. I wasn't sure how they were going to handle this 5-comics-day month, but since I didn't get a shipping notice this week apparently they're going to send the first three weeks worth of comics together. It's going well, with the only marginal downside being that they're not quite as sharp with getting them on their way, and since they're using UPS there's no shot at Saturday delivery, so the comics tend to arrive the following Monday. Eh. They're marvelously well packaged and thusfar I've been very pleased with the condition.
Meanwhile, back with my all but closed Westfield account, various slippages by the publishers along the way have resulted in seven items technically on my backorder list. They're all currently listed as Shipping, but not sent. Presumably they're waiting until the point in the month when they send the once-per-month orders. The irritating thing about it is that if they don't send them soon, in several cases I'm going to get the subsequent issue (from Mail Order Comics) before I get the earlier one. Hurm. Maybe I'll drop them a note, though as essentially a former customer it isn't as if I have much leverage. It'll sort itself out in a few weeks no matter what.
As for what I'm reading... I'm not sure I'm going to get into that at this point tonight. I promise I will get to it -- it'll be something I can get mileage out of both here and in my Legends zine, and it's a good idea to write at least a little about each of them as I go. It's a useful mental exercise in and of itself, can't help but bring a little more concentration to what I'm reading, and should help keep me from continuing to order something I'm really not enjoying. That's a problem for most of us comics fans; there's a tendency to want to keep an unbroken chain, and this can lead to an accumulation of crap. Worse, since comics publishers ultimately only pay attention to the bottom line issue of sales, continuing to buy them while waiting for favorable changes is foolish. Buying crap only encourages them to produce more crap.
That's something for me to at least start taking a stab at this weekend. The next Legends deadline is February 2nd, so that should work out well.
Comments
I did some searching (even some posting on my blog) and thanks to Mark Gibson found a good mail order site called Badger Comics that offered 40% discount on most books, no sales tax, and cheap shipping ($5 on less than $40 order, $2 if more than that) I placed an order with them on stuff I could wait on and stuff that I could get a deal on, with ordering the stuff I couldn't wait on wanted right now with my LCS.
I checked my order with him the past few months and the latest thing I have on order with the LCS is the middle of April. I'm thinking about breaking it off at that point and stuff ordered from May on with Badger Comics.
The real bitch is the gas. The LCS is 27 miles from my house, and with my gas mileage I'm looking at $10 to go there. But it's something to look forward to and a chance to get out of the house, so there is some additional benefit to those trips.
Tony C.