Philly Comic Fans

[Foolkiller]

Normally, I heavily criticize Fat Jack's Comicrypt (on 20th and Sansom) but I wanted to let you guys know that if you're in the area, you ought to stop by. I'm not sure if they aquired a new collection or they actually went to their warehouse to restock in the last few months because of a perceived resurgance in back issue buying, but they've got a ton of new stuff in their bins, and a lot of it is pretty good. Some of it is heavily undergraded, and thus underpriced. The rest is slightly undergraded, and at worst, a great deal of the inventory is simply priced accurate to guide.

 

If you live in Philly, stop by and flip through the bins... you might be surprised at a lot of the bronze (no real silver to speak of) found in the bins. I've gone through the bins, but haven't really looked carefully, and am off back issue buying for a while. Just thought I'd throw this out there.

 

They also acquired a low grade Daredevil #1... They also seemed to have improved their attitudes and customer service a small amount, but still one of the least friendly comic shops I've ever been in.

[arexcrooke]

They have any decent priced Bronze Thor in vf or better?

Would you be willing to look for me?

[Foolkiller]

Arex,

yes of course. I will tell you that I think the answer might be no. That's always a book I will always look at for myself... only because I like the book... but I didn't see any right off the bat, but didn't look that carefully.

 

People looking for late silver/early bronze DDs, X-Men and even some FFs... you'd have better luck...

 

send me a PM with range of issues you're looking for.

[Larryw7]

Thanks for the heads up, I was wondering if the store had improved any lately(I haven't been there since August).

 

Do they have any new stuff on their wall, or is it still the same old [#@$%!!!](overpriced Disney's, etc.)?

[Foolkiller]

Most of it is still garbage. They have a DD #1, but it's low grade. A few scattered books here and there that are decent.

 

But their pricing on their bin books is pretty good. They look like they do assembly line pricing, so if you're patient and you look the book over well, there are gems to be found.

 

Here's an example:

 

X-Men 109, the book is a nice VF+ or even possibly a VF/NM, at worst, a VF...

 

their price $19.

 

Not too shabby.

 

So if you look through the bins, you are going to find fine/fine+ prices and some nice VF/VF+ books...

 

for me, especially in bronze stuff, worth a look... plus they've had some other good finds too... bins only though... wall books are still shotty, unless you catch them during their 50% off sale... then they turn into bargains.

[Larryw7]

I'll have to check out the Batman and Detective bins, thanks!

 

 

Fat Jack's hasn't had a 50% sale in awhile, have they? I got some wonderful stuff during those sales.

[Foolkiller]

They had one fairly recently... a couple of months ago... loaded up on back issue stock...

 

I picked off some Batmans... a few nice Tecs... there's still some decent stuff in the bins... but you may only find a few books there... I noticed they've been slower filling some of the DC stuff... but it's still worth a look.

[whomerjay]

Mike Ferraro, the owner of Fat Jack's is a good guy who works quite hard. I've known him since the mid 80's when he served as a sub-distributor for almost all Philly and Philly suburb shops. He was always a professional when I dealt with him personally. I'm sure he took a bath in the early 90's with the changes in distribution and the demise of lots of shops, because he had friendly payment terms for each week's books (and probably lots of dealers owed him $ as they bellied up).

 

I think there are some difficulties trying to hire good help within Center City Philly. At least for wages one might pay a comic shop employee.

 

Regarding his new stock, I know several years he lost of ton of merchandise due to flood damage at an offside storage location. Really bad luck. Beyond that, he has also accumulated overstock books for at least 25 years (and probably never aggressively moved them) so maybe some of that has come of age. But I'm just guessing.

[Foolkiller]

I'm sure Mike (is he the guy with curly graying hair?) is a good guy, but to be honest, Fat Jack's is known almost universally as having a bad rap for customer service...

 

Nonetheless... I just notice lately even some of their older staff members are just making more of an effort. Simple stuff like saying 'thank you' after a purchase. Look, comic stores pay badly everywhere. Fat Jack's was for a long time the replica and the embodiment of everything you don't want in a store in terms of service. They got lazy without competition.

 

But, I wanted to give them credit because I think recently they've been getting better, and making more of an effort in updating their back issues, and are pricing them very fairly. I didn't think it was fair to always rip them, and then when they make a positive change, not recognize it.

[whomerjay]

No Mike has (had) brownish reddish hair with a beard, glasses. The curly graying hair guy seems to be the knowledgeble back issue guy. I've only dealt with him once, he was OK.

 

Mike is an accountant with good business sense, but I don't know his attitude about personnel. Perhaps he underappreciates the value of customer service (prob not) or maybe he just threw his hands up after a while and gave up trying to find good people. I have not been in Philly for a couple of years now but I bet the turnover at Fat Jacks is high.

 

I have my opinions about both the typical Philly employee and the typical Philly customer as well. Both tend to have really bad attitudes. As a business owner I don't care to interact with either, and that's one big reason I don't own a store. Plus I personally am a lousy salesman because I don't suffer fools well and could never buy into "the customer is always right".

 

Another thing in defense of Mike's business is that I never experienced the "comic book guy" jive at Fat Jack's, or at least with Mike. He is honest. Never hyping stuff, never a sense of trying to con you into something as an investment, never blatant attempts to rip you off. Perhaps a byproduct of the indifference that also causes bad service. But I still prefer that to talking to comic book guy.

[Foolkiller]

Well, I wouldn't say there's a need to defend Mike per se, because I've seen him in the store, but he isn't the part of the problem that I identify.

 

I certainly agree with your assessment that the customer is not always right, but I think I'm describing some fairly basic things. Plus, if I was the only person to take notice, I'd agree that the Philly customer might be the problem. And if the other comic shops in Philly were the same, I might agree that the hired help is the problem. But Showcase on South Street exudes a MUCH better attitude and always has than Fat Jack's. Sure, they're less knowledgable, but they're much more fan friendly.

 

The turnover at Fat Jack's is relatively high, but some of the employees have been there at least a year... others turn over more quickly. Since the owner doesn't appear to be there all that often, my complaints are directed more towards his hiring choices, not him per se. Perhaps if he could be there more often, then the store's attitude would improve. I'm not really sure... what I do know is that common courtesy is a part of customer service.

 

I'd rather not turn this into my perceived negatives about Fat Jack's especially since I think the direction they're going in right now is a marked improvement.

[Larryw7]

I used to love going to Comic Investments on Bustleton, and it was also a great store when it turned into Comic Cards. The two guys who ran that place were great. I always wondered what happened to them. The other comic book store close to me is Comic Collection in Feasterville. The proprietor of that store is a nice fella, but the place is way too small, and it's hard to move around customers and look at the boxes(plus, some of the prices on his wall stock is way over OS, and this is on low and mid grade SA stuff).

 

Fat Jack's has had some customer service problems, but the last time I was there(around August) they seemed friendlier.

[Foolkiller]

Ahhh... Comic Collection... been there as well. Actually a couple of times. You know, the interesting thing is, I once found a run of Avengers from 101-120 that were all 9.2 - 9.6 priced at whatever top of guide was. Other than that, I found my experience to be exactly the same as yours. But the guy out there is nice, but the store is so jammed, you can't move. As for the prices... the owner there seems fairly open to negotiation if you have $ to spend.