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The Taj Mahal of Comic Shops

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Rockblazer

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Last October on the way back from a mini vacation in Kentucky I stopped in four Cincinnati area comic shops. I'd been in two of the four before. One of them Up, Up and Away Comics said they had opened a new shop in the suburb of Blue Ash . It was on the way home and just off the interstate so I pulled off and proceeded to a really nice plaza. I saw the sign and walked in the door.

To my surprise it looked like I walked into an upscale store of some kind.  A young lady walked up to me and asked if I need help and I said "Is this Up Up and Away Comics? I thought I went in the wrong door outside. She said it was and I said I have never saw a shop look like this one.  She explained that it was a former design center that went out of business.  So instead of the landlord remodeling the owner said why change something that looks so nice.  The Silver age comics were in a small well lit glass room near the center of the store. Very upscale.

One feature which was unusual was a huge Lego bridge which was a scale version of an old bridge over the Ohio river. I have attached a picture of it and the main hallway of the shop.

Not your average shop.

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10 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

Wow! 

Thanks for sharing this. I have to say, the opulence is quite typical of UK comic shops which are very upmarket indeed. Here's one of ours @Rockblazer

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That reminds me of the smallest comic shop I've ever been in, now defunct, here in the UK.  Two shelves, small space in between. 

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It was in Bolton, to the north of Manchester, during the early 90s. Can't even recall its name now.

Very claustrophobic, and the shop reeked a bit.  I figured out why - the owner’s dog was farting.  Extremely off-putting.  

I only went back one more time, the dog persisted with its noxious air pollution, and I just gave up and left.

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15 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

It was in Bolton, to the north of Manchester, during the early 90s. Can't even recall its name now.

Very claustrophobic, and the shop reeked a bit.  I figured out why - the owner’s dog was farting.  Extremely off-putting.  

I only went back one more time, the dog persisted with its noxious air pollution, and I just gave up and left.

And the owner couldn't figure out why customers wouldn't come back lol

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4 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

It was in Bolton, to the north of Manchester, during the early 90s. Can't even recall its name now.

Very claustrophobic, and the shop reeked a bit.  I figured out why - the owner’s dog was farting.  Extremely off-putting.  

I only went back one more time, the dog persisted with its noxious air pollution, and I just gave up and left.

Classic - thanks Paul, I needed a chuckle.  It reminds of a bird hunting trip we went on.  It was like a three hour drive to the land we were hunting on and one of our bird dogs had the worst gas I had ever smelled.  We carried our dogs in their kennel cages in the van and you want to talk about an odorific van...

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5 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

Ahh.  Farting dogs and enclosed spaces rarely make good bedfellows in my experience.  I wonder how CGC would grade a book that was irrevocably impregnated with eau de dachshund? hm

 

5 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

I suspect unfavourably. 

It's regarded as one of the worst defects imaginable, so horrific to contemplate that it doesn't really ever get discussed.  CGC have various tests, as you know ; black lights, trimming, colour touch, added pieces to covers, but when a submitted book has been exposed to this and tests positive, well, it really is the end, and time to put the comic out of its misery.

It's little known that the only defect that CGC hammers the grade down on even more harshly than staining is canine flatulence.  A book with a 9.8 presentation that tests positive for exposure is lucky to be awarded a good, 2.0 label : completely unsaleable once the truth is known, even on Craigslist.

It's generally considered better to keep such a book raw rather than suffer possible humiliation by getting it slabbed.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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It has gone a little off topic, admittedly.  So, apologies to the OP. 

I had to answer the question about what shop, and where.  A classic case of 'too much detail'.

Despite its flaws, I still struggle to rate the store as worse than Forbidden Planet in Manchester, though.

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No, I'm all for the free exchange of ideas.  I was on a business trip to Detroit the last few days and actually got out early enough to visit two shops in the Detroit area . One quite large and one of average size and picked up a few goodies which I may write about later.

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On 26/05/2017 at 4:09 PM, Marwood & I said:

@Ken Aldred it's not the one that used to be in an alley round the back of the original Forbidden Planet at Tottenham Court Road is it? That was tiny. 

Paradise Alley. Very much your old school comic shop, only a scaled down version.

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