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Do you have good LCS's?

Started by Rob,

54 posts in this topic

Rob

Rob

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I spent today visiting the Phoenix metro areas comic shops. It's been a while since I've been to the ones across town, and today I was reminded why. Most of the shops have all the latest comics (minus anything hot), and Fair-VG copies of silver and bronze age comics. Yuck! I asked one guy if they had bronze age Batman, and he gave me a stack of about 20 VG comics. After looking through them, I handed them back saying that I'm looking for higher grade comics. He looks at me and says, "Higher than VG?!?!?" As if he'd never heard such a notion. I said, "Yeah, more like VF or NM, but I guess the days of finding those in your local shop are long gone." I was so ready to come home and search eBay.

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Rob

Rob

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Nope... My LCS sucks...

 

tongue.gif I would just like to walk into a shop, and see 5 or 10 things that I'd like to buy. Some gold, silver, or bronze keys. Maybe a few VF comics. Or even a slabbed comic. I visited about 7 shops today, and saw nothing of interest.

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blowout

blowout

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I would just like to walk into a shop, and see 5 or 10 things that I'd like to buy. Some gold, silver, or bronze keys. Maybe a few VF comics. Or even a slabbed comic. I visited about 7 shops today, and saw nothing of interest.

 

The internet has pretty much killed back-issue sales for brick and mortar stores. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

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lighthouse

lighthouse

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Nope... My LCS sucks...

 

tongue.gif I would just like to walk into a shop, and see 5 or 10 things that I'd like to buy. Some gold, silver, or bronze keys. Maybe a few VF comics. Or even a slabbed comic. I visited about 7 shops today, and saw nothing of interest.

 

Of course, I have no way of knowing whether I would have anything you would want to buy either...

 

But I feel bad if I have fewer than 50 books on the Gold and Silver wall worth more than $100...

 

And if I can't put 100 Bronze and Modern books on the wall that are worth more than $25 there is something horribly wrong... confused-smiley-013.gif

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aardvark88

aardvark88

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Vancouver, BC area may have the best comicshops due to it being a retirement community for the rest of Canada. Bring your old books, comics, mags, pulps to the Westcoast. They all surface because the cost of real estate is INSANE here so all the seniors are forced to downsize. NO earthquakes or mudslides here. smirk.gif

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Rob

Rob

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I'm not particularly looking for >$100 books. Just something of interest. I was actually looking for something in the $25-$50 range.

 

Another gripe I have is when the "good books" are in the back. I hate to ask for them to bring books out from the back, because I feel like a tool when I don't buy anything. On that note, unpriced books suck too. One guy brought me a box of beat up Daredevils, unpriced. He said, "If you see something you like, let me know and I'll price it." He had a Fair run of Daredevil 2-10. My interest is dependent on the price. I may be interested in a Fr Daredevil #4 for $10, but not $25.

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ericc123

ericc123

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My local comic shop is Eides Entertainment and it is amazing. They have tons of Silver and Gold. They also CGC their good books so they can sell them on ebay (not good for people trying to get a good deal but smart for them) check out their site and if you buy anything tell them Eric gave you the link. wink.gif

 

www.eides.com

 

Have a good weekend,

Eric

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DiceX

DiceX

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I don't mind the expensive books being out of reach of the "normal" people.

By observing the way they handle the new books, I sure as hell don't want them touching the back issues.

But that's me. confused-smiley-013.gif

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xrcst

xrcst

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The ones in KC pretty much suck.

 

Ive been to three here, all three charge taxes on new comics, which I thought was illegal. Two of the three seemed friendly enough, unfortunately those are the ones a little bit away from me and are right across the street from one another.

 

O well, I long for my old comic shop back near St Louis. Its always good going into a shop for 15 plus years, and being a customer of the shop owner from before that when he only did flea markets.

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blowout

blowout

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Another gripe I have is when the "good books" are in the back. I hate to ask for them to bring books out from the back, because I feel like a tool when I don't buy anything.

 

This practice I can perfectly understand, if you owned a store would you keep all your higher grade better books on display for people to constantly thumb through? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

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FFB

FFB

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Brian's Books in Santa Clara and Lee's Comics in Mountain View have some books in high grade, but most of them are up on the wall. There are relatively fewer Silver/Bronze books in high grade in the bins (and no real silver age keys in the bin), although I did pull that Sgt. Fury #50 that I put up in the grading forum out of a bin at Brian's Books. But Brian's Books has some super sweet mid- to high-grade Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America #100, FF (though the FF's are #48 and later, and other issues, all priced at Overstreet and graded strictly. The owner hates the idea of selling on ebay, so these books sit on the wall and call to me every week.

 

Lee Hester of Lee's Comics is also a very strict grader, although he doesn't have as many high grade books on his wall right now that interest me, as I think he tends to sell the good stuff on ebay. He did have an interesting golden age comic on the wall the other day though, but I can't remember exactly what the name was. I think it was Bozzy #70 or Bizzy #70 or something like that. It was only a couple of bucks, but I figured "Who'd want a comic about a teenager from the 40s?" so I passed on it. wink.gif

 

Speaking of ebay, I think that this is part of the reason that most comic shops don't have high grade keys available like they used to. In most areas, comic stores are not funded well enough these days to purchase major collections (because readership is way down when compared to where it was ten years ago), so the big-time dealers in large metropolitan (no pun intended) area get most of the good collections that are for sale. When regular comic stores do get in high grade stuff, they usually can't afford to keep the cash tied up in an expensive book for very long so ebay is the best way to get the book to a large, interested market in a hurry.

 

I spent today visiting the Phoenix metro areas comic shops. It's been a while since I've been to the ones across town, and today I was reminded why. Most of the shops have all the latest comics (minus anything hot), and Fair-VG copies of silver and bronze age comics. Yuck! I asked one guy if they had bronze age Batman, and he gave me a stack of about 20 VG comics. After looking through them, I handed them back saying that I'm looking for higher grade comics. He looks at me and says, "Higher than VG?!?!?" As if he'd never heard such a notion. I said, "Yeah, more like VF or NM, but I guess the days of finding those in your local shop are long gone." I was so ready to come home and search eBay.
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Rob

Rob

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Another gripe I have is when the "good books" are in the back. I hate to ask for them to bring books out from the back, because I feel like a tool when I don't buy anything.

 

This practice I can perfectly understand, if you owned a store would you keep all your higher grade better books on display for people to constantly thumb through? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

I put "good books" in quotes, because they're not 9.4 silver age examples. That's my point. The Fair Daredevil run had to come from the back. They're called good books, in the sense that they're better then the Micronauts comics they have out for the public to sift through. I would totally understand putting the NM ASM 129's in the back.

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FFB

FFB

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I totally agree about the books in back pet peeve. They should be on display on a wall or in a glass display case where people can see them (not under flourescent lighting, if they can help it) with a clearly visible and accurate letter/numerical grade, not kept in the back. That is a crappy way to sell back issues because most people feel the same way that you do -- i.e., it's too much of a hassle to ask for the employee to bring the books out, especially if you don't buy the thing once you've looked at it.

 

Another gripe I have is when the "good books" are in the back. I hate to ask for them to bring books out from the back, because I feel like a tool when I don't buy anything.

 

This practice I can perfectly understand, if you owned a store would you keep all your higher grade better books on display for people to constantly thumb through? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

I put "good books" in quotes, because they're not 9.4 silver age examples. That's my point. The Fair Daredevil run had to come from the back. They're called good books, in the sense that they're better then the Micronauts comics they have out for the public to sift through. I would totally understand putting the NM ASM 129's in the back.

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Rocketeer

Rocketeer

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I have a local dealer,..who will only show me books if I call first, even though his shop is open to the public,....and none of his staff members are allowed to quote prices or show me books unless he is there..... frown.gif

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Mephisto

Mephisto

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All the shops that were within 10 minutes of me closed down by the time the new millenium came around. The only plce left was 20 minutes away in New Paltz 893whatthe.gif(Yes the place where the mayor was arrested for marrying gay couples). I hated driving in the town because the traffic sucked and it's a college town. Half the side streets don't even have paint down so you can't tell where the hell your supposed to be. Now that the town has become a media circus it must really suck. I stopped going to the shop there when they stopped putting boards in back issues. They must have had 3 ASM's that were probably at least VF/NM when they were put in the back issue box but after kids went through them they were more like F to F/VF copies. tongue.gif There might be a shop or two I don't really know about in the area but since I don't know about there possible existance I doubt they would really be worth going to.

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