UK Boardies - a little Midlands Help Needed.

[Ken Aldred]

Travelling Man in Manchester does new comics, trades, lots of indies and manga. Nice people there.

 

FP, just around the corner, is pretty much one of their generic stores, so you'll already know what to expect. I'm bored already.

 

Both are about 5 minutes' walking distance from Piccadilly rail station.

 

Nowhere around here stocks older back issues anymore.

 

Liverpool-- the same.

[Boozad]

Thanks for the input Ken. Why is the UK so for good comic shops? Hmm, that sounds like a thread title...

[Flaming_Telepath]

Thanks for the input Ken. Why is the UK so for good comic shops? Hmm, that sounds like a thread title...

 

Because stocking back issues in any depth is a sure-fire way of going out of business. The economics no longer work, Gav. You only have to attend one of the London Sunday shows to realise that back-issues (and by that, I mean stuff prior to 1990) hold little attraction for the majority of punters. Instead, most tables are stacked high with cards, busts, TPBs and jarg DVDs.

 

eBay was pretty much the death of the back issue market and to devote prime high street square footage to boxes and boxes of 30 year old comics is commercial suicide, unless you already have a devoted and affluent client base for that sort of thing.

 

Sad but true.

[Flaming_Telepath]

Travelling Man in Manchester does new comics, trades, lots of indies and manga. Nice people there.

 

FP, just around the corner, is pretty much one of their generic stores, so you'll already know what to expect. I'm bored already.

 

Both are about 5 minutes' walking distance from Piccadilly rail station.

 

Nowhere around here stocks older back issues anymore.

 

Liverpool-- the same.

 

And I do owe you a PM, Ken.

 

One of those cases where I read your last one, meant to respond, but because it wasn't flashing at me next time I logged in, I forgot about it.

 

[nmtg9]

Thanks for the input Ken. Why is the UK so for good comic shops? Hmm, that sounds like a thread title...

 

Because stocking back issues in any depth is a sure-fire way of going out of business. The economics no longer work, Gav. You only have to attend one of the London Sunday shows to realise that back-issues (and by that, I mean stuff prior to 1990) hold little attraction for the majority of punters. Instead, most tables are stacked high with cards, busts, TPBs and jarg DVDs.

 

eBay was pretty much the death of the back issue market and to devote prime high street square footage to boxes and boxes of 30 year old comics is commercial suicide, unless you already have a devoted and affluent client base for that sort of thing.

 

Sad but true.

 

Yeah it seems the internet has hit comic shops in the way that it is supposed to do with other types of high street stores. Because the market is small it has been one of the first to suffer. Sad but true.

[Boozad]

I see your point. I went to Birmingham today and popped into Nostalgia and Forbidden Planet. I was very surprised by both.

 

I'm going to start a thread about them, as classing them as comic shops is a very loose premise. Let's show our Yankee buddies the we have to put up with.

[Flaming_Telepath]

I see your point. I went to Birmingham today and popped into Nostalgia and Forbidden Planet. I was very surprised by both.

 

I'm going to start a thread about them, as classing them as comic shops is a very loose premise. Let's show our Yankee buddies the we have to put up with.

 

But what would you suggest, Gav?

 

Tell me...where do you buy most of your back issues? Here and on eBay, I would imagine?

 

So you (and me, and Garry, and :blahblah: ) are actually the ones who made the shops this way. (thumbs u

[Boozad]

Nick,

 

Don't forget I was out of collecting for ten years. Back then I had about six LCS to choose from. Most only stocked back issues from the last ten years, but you had the places like Bridge Street Comics and Nostalgia that actually went back a lot further over a wide range of titles. In fact, I'm positive Nostalgia had a handful of CGC books (old label obviously) the last time I went in before quitting collecting.

 

So roll forward ten years or so and I get back into comics. Arrival has disappeared from Wolverhampton replaced by FP. Bridge Street had gone from Walsall, replaced by nothing. Nostalgia is now a subsidiary of FP. So in a nutshell I had no choice but to turn to eBay.

 

Then I found these boards and the Comicopolis forum, and I've got to admit it was like a mini heaven. I'd had nobody to talk to about comics face to face since I'd started again and it was driving me mad that I couldn't share my passion with somebody over a pint or two, or even over the counter while buying books. The deeper I've gotten into collecting again, the more I want to browse through hundreds of back issues and talk to the guy who's selling them which I always had at Arrival and Bridge Street.

 

I personally can't take any of the flak for moving my purchases online as opposed to my LCS, that transition took place while I was out of the hobby. But I can say that I miss my decent LCS.

 

On a plus point, the guy I spoke to in the miniscule comic section in FP Birmingham today actually knew his stuff and showed a genuine interest in my collection. In fact I had to move away from him in the end as I didn't have much time left. That was a breath of fresh air.

[Flaming_Telepath]

Well, when we get up and running towards year end, you'll get an invite to the office. (thumbs u

 

There won't be any busts/cards/statues, but there will be 45,000 old comics!

[Boozad]

Well, when we get up and running towards year end, you'll get an invite to the office. (thumbs u

 

There won't be any busts/cards/statues, but there will be 45,000 old comics!

 

(worship) (worship)

 

I'll get the beers in

[Comicopolis]

You guys are talking about a golden age of comic shops that never existed in the North East.

 

All we had up here were the local newsagents that stocked a random array of modern DC and Marvel but there was never any continuity of numbers or titles.

 

Back issues came from the rarely spotted market stalls mixed in with the cheap clothes, fruit & veg and occasional home made pickle.

 

For the braver teenage souls like me you could take the dark walk into the ‘adult’ book shops that lay hidden away down narrow streets and sandwiched between terraced council houses. Inside these book shops they had comics dumped in boxes in no particular order, right next to the paperback books and glossy magazines that I was far too young to buy but sometimes distracted my attention away from Howard The Duck, Jonah Hex and various men in spandex.

 

All of these outlets for comic books had long died before the internet and EBay arrived so the argument that online shoppers helped to erase the high street comic shops doesn’t hold up for the frozen northern wastelands of England.

 

 

The good old days of the 1970’s.

[nmtg9]

I remember those shops on Teesside Andrew.

 

When growing up in Leeds we had Odyssey 7 and Skyrack. Skyrack shutdown as the guy became ill and Odyssey 7 became FP

 

Boro and Stockton never had anything like these two shops, except maybe Books n Comics, which was overpriced IMO

[gaz973]

.

 

For the braver teenage souls like me you could take the dark walk into the ‘adult’ book shops that lay hidden away down narrow streets and sandwiched between terraced council houses. Inside these book shops they had comics dumped in boxes in no particular order, right next to the paperback books and glossy magazines that I was far too young to buy but sometimes distracted my attention away from Howard The Duck, Jonah Hex and various men in spandex.

 

So what's your excuse for going to the adult book stores now?

[Comicopolis]

.

 

For the braver teenage souls like me you could take the dark walk into the adult book shops that lay hidden away down narrow streets and sandwiched between terraced council houses. Inside these book shops they had comics dumped in boxes in no particular order, right next to the paperback books and glossy magazines that I was far too young to buy but sometimes distracted my attention away from Howard The Duck, Jonah Hex and various men in spandex.

 

So what's your excuse for going to the adult book stores now?

 

They have all gone as well now

 

The internet certainly killed that line of consumerism on the high street

[Boozad]

So it wasn't just comics...

[Comicopolis]

[Boozad]

I thought you were talking about adult books

[Comicopolis]

I thought you were talking about adult books

 

What's an adult book?

 

Something by Alan Moore you mean?