gradejunky

First time this type of thing happened to me. As we all know there are many bad sellers touting "NM or better" yadda yadda and you see an example pic with multiples in the quantity, example pic looks legit so you order a couple copies (I needed 2 copies of this issue and another to complete a dupe set). Books arrive in some hacked up cardboard pieces but not secured to them so they can't move, in a Priority envelope in bags/boards not even sealed up etc. Needless to say I've ordered copies of this series several times from different buyers and just keep eating mess copies that are either already not NM before shipping, get beat up in shipping or both. I got these books, and was just over it so I emailed the seller explaining his product/service being lacking and that a 7.0-8.0 is nowhere near NM, didn't ask for a refund or anything. I just started some discourse with some pics so he could see what I meant. It's like he took a pic of the best copy he had, never looked at the others, or did, and knew they weren't anywhere near NM, and just sent them off without a care hoping I couldn't grade a comic book? No response on the email, cancels the order for some stupid reason and refunds me $1.20 on $21 then blocks me. I tried to email him which is how I knew I was blocked when I couldn't. Seller name is dwebwil20004vt2 I'll attach some pics of my "NM" comics. I am not the best at getting good angles and my camera phone isn't the best so just to let you know the full extent of the crapiness of these books might not be apparent (1 I've got at about 7.0 with tons of edge bend cover dents spine stress etc, the other at 8.0 and another at 9.0). You can also see the bags not sealed and the flaps all wrinkled to mess. Looks like the comics and bags came out of a $.25 bin and sent off to one lucky buyer...me!

DCBS has always been pretty good, except when they moved to TN for awhile and the sorters/handlers were pretty much mangling every book they touched. The books you would send back for replacements never came etc. Since they moved back they got a lot better again, but recently I've noticed another downturn starting again. Their packing is always good but the vetting of books to weed out the mess before it is sent o the customers is getting bad. I'm waiting on a response now about some books from my last order that were pretty bad.......still waiting. M&M is pretty good in the sense that the site is usually on point with all the FOC covers and last minute solicits of later printings etc. They do not offer bags/boards and the shipping, while pretty good if not quite confusing to open without destroying your books, is pricey-no flat rate really like DCBS. It is hard to get one really good consistent preorder house that covers all bases well TBH. All I know is TFAW was, and still is trash. They polished up their website, but that doesn't fix their tyness. You can put lipstick and a wig on a hog but it is still a a hog.

This thread is dead sol I'll reanimate it. So I stopped ordering from these -clowns about 2 years ago after I received a shipment from them of about 30 books, thrown into an over-sized box with NO protection, I mean nothing! Needless to say, the contents were completely destroyed. They were having a big sale so I just made a big order. Regardless of the items being on sale, no product should ever be treated with such reckless abandon so as to just destroy it with horrible shipping. Sent an email with pics blah blah blah, get the usual response from all online retailers/ebay sellers etc that they should have never been shipped like that, new worker in shipping dept blah blah blah. They refund me totally but I still have a stack of books that I wanted/needed to complete sets and runs that are total trash; so I was back to square one which infuriates me to no end. I stopped ordering from them after that as it wasn't my first bad experience with them. Fast forward now 2+ years, the site has had a facelift and all so I decide to place some preorders on books I didn't already order somewhere else, or just hadn't pre-ordered at all yet as they have an extended window to do so after sites like DCBS have already switched to the next month's Previews listings. Anyhow, I put in for 2 copies of Thor #5 that just came out and blew up, had order in 2 days before FOC according to the site, get allocated to 1 copy so I email them. Of course the response " Thank you for contacting us. I looked into this matter, and sadly this issue was allocated by our distributor, and we were not able to get in enough to fill all the copies ordered. Sadly we had no control over this matter, and could only get the one copy for you. I do wish there was more we could do to get this for you though. I apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause you. If you have any further questions or concerns feel free to contact us at any time, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Have a great day." I'm calling wildly_fanciful_statement as it is,but didn't respond as I knew I would light him up for thinking I'm a troglodyte that just crawled out of the primordial slime in some cave. Add insult to injury, the pre-order ends up just being 2 books sent in a stay flat mailer completely bent up and the books are not nice. Best part is I have more books on pre-order with them that I'm pretty sure will get allocated because they will be HOT too, and will get smashed in the mail. Can't control what comes out when, andhow many books ship in 1 pre-order so you are at a loss to do anything. I'm just so tired up bad online retailers I could literally fng punch something. Any other boardies have any recent dealings with TFAW??

4.0

yep 7.5/8.0

5.0

I think I've posted this before, but here it is again....masterwork of lighting

3.5/4.0 as it stands after press=5.0? That loose staple/pop hurts but awesome cover!

I'm still beating myself for not buying many books, including this one back in about '04 when I started collecting again.....when books were still pretty cheap.

3.0 I wonder who used to own this book?

yea 8.0 is the mark I think....that rub is what gets it there, but no lower IMHO

9.0/9.2

Looks about 9.0 as is to me. After a press you might be in the 9.4 range but judging by just pics is hard.

Oh yes, already have a "handful" of these ordered through 2 places. Might up the ante a bit more on this one. Rapoza 2nd print might be good as well seeing as that 1st print cover of his is the breakout book from the the regular covers group. The rest were all kinda phoned in to me.

I'm thinking I'm gonna put some $ into the 3rd prints of Hell Arisen 3 soon. 1st print is out of my league already.

spawn 25 2nd print wrap??? Never saw anything of the sort...where is that shown? Are you referring to Venom 25 2nd print?