LCS closing, any good online retailer suggestions?

[WallyWest78]

Our only LCS in Ottawa, Canada, that still carries Valiant books announced today they owe $150K in unpaid taxes and are probably going to close

Any suggestions on good online retailers to buy Valiant books from?

[IMJ]

Our only LCS in Ottawa, Canada, that still carries Valiant books announced today they owe $150K in unpaid taxes and are probably going to close

Any suggestions on good online retailers to buy Valiant books from?

You can try DBCS (Discount Comic Book Service). Several of the board members here use them, myself included. The discounts are generally good enough that you'll find that you can buy books with bags & boards and shipped to you for less cost than going to the LCS and just buying the books for cover price. However, there is a threshold for this math. Here are two examples:

Example Comparison of a Low Volume Order
LCS = 3.99+3.99+3.99 = $11.97 say for that month's Iron Man, Star Wars and Witchblade comics and you go home with 3 comics.
DCBS = 2.39+2.39+1.99+7.50+.36 = $14.63 for that month's Iron Man, Star Wars and Witchblade comics + the shipping and the 36 cents is because you want them shipped bagged and boarded.

And to someone even this might be worth it because their books are bagged and boarded and you aren't driving to the LCS. But on the other hand, you can also see that if you buy more than three books a month, the discounts are so steep that you are saving money.

Example Comparison of a Mid-Low Volume Order
X-Men Blue, X-Men Gold, Witchblade, Iron Man, Star Wars Adventures, Star Wars & Astonishing X-Men
LCS = 3.99 + 3.99 + 3.99 + 3.99 + 3.99 + 3.99 + 3.99 = 27.93
DCBS = 2.39 + 2.39 + 2.39 + 2.59 + 1.99 + 1.99 + 2.39 + 7.50 + .84 = 24.47

In the example just above, you bought 7 books that month which would have cost you $27.93 just for the books from the LCS, but DCBS got the same 7 to your house bagged and boarded for 24.47. It was cheaper and had the added value of being bagged and boarded.

I've already established the patterns with the examples above, so you can see how a high volume order would increase the savings.

The down side is similar to stuff we are actively discussing here: you aren't window shopping at the LCS, you aren't thumbing through for the copies you want, and basically anything else you consider to be a benefit of physically going to the LCS. But the truth is that you could find a Mail order service that you like and nothing stops you from still going to the LCS to check things out.

I'm not really pimping DCBS, by the way. It's just who I use, so I ran with the example to help you out.

[jeremycoe]

I also had good experience with DCBS, but I'm not sure how expensive their shipping to Canada would be. atomicempire.com was another service I liked. They had more flexibility than DCBS, but cost a little more.

It sounds like there are other shops in Ottawa, are they not willing to put them in a hold for you?

[WallyWest78]

Awesome, thanks IMJ!

Haven't ever had to purchase online before. Being in Canada, ordering from the US, after currency conversion and shipping, has always been too expensive. It looks like there's no alternative now though.

[WallyWest78]

It sounds like there are other shops in Ottawa, are they not willing to put them in a hold for you?

We have 4 other shops in the city but none of the other shops will carry Valiant books

One store I refuse to deal with anyways because of the staff/customer service I've experienced there.

[IMJ]

Awesome, thanks IMJ!

Fer sure!

[paradise]

Awesome, thanks IMJ!

Haven't ever had to purchase online before. Being in Canada, ordering from the US, after currency conversion and shipping, has always been too expensive. It looks like there's no alternative now though.

There are several Canadian mail order comic places. Quick google search gets all of them including:

https://allnewcomics.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The biggest problem for shipping to Canada from US (tons of transactions here to VF members and others on ebay, amazon, our site...) is that everything over 2lbs is Priority mail, so it's automatically expensive, plus your customs often add fees. I would offer our services but it's not really effective for Canada, unless you are buying a lot of books.

[IMJ]

Awesome, thanks IMJ!

Haven't ever had to purchase online before. Being in Canada, ordering from the US, after currency conversion and shipping, has always been too expensive. It looks like there's no alternative now though.

There are several Canadian mail order comic places. Quick google search gets all of them including:

https://allnewcomics.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The biggest problem for shipping to Canada from US (tons of transactions here to VF members and others on ebay, amazon, our site...) is that everything over 2lbs is Priority mail, so it's automatically expensive, plus your customs often add fees. I would offer our services but it's not really effective for Canada, unless you are buying a lot of books.

Boom! There's some authentic dealer knowledge for you, right there!

[FormerReader]

Awesome, thanks IMJ!

Haven't ever had to purchase online before. Being in Canada, ordering from the US, after currency conversion and shipping, has always been too expensive. It looks like there's no alternative now though.

There are several Canadian mail order comic places. Quick google search gets all of them including:

https://allnewcomics.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The biggest problem for shipping to Canada from US (tons of transactions here to VF members and others on ebay, amazon, our site...) is that everything over 2lbs is Priority mail, so it's automatically expensive, plus your customs often add fees. I would offer our services but it's not really effective for Canada, unless you are buying a lot of books.

If you decide to pick up a lot books at a time I can say from personal experience Ed, Paradise Comics is a great place to buy your books from. The books are always in terrific condition and well packed, and you never have to worry about missing a book from month to month.

[IMJ]

If it is a better situation for Canadians to order from Canada, a quick google search turned these up:

All New Comics {there homepage explicitly discusses their mail order service to the various areas of Canada]

Timestream Comics (I linked to their shipping info page)

Just a head's up that this was just a quick google-fu. I haven't had any experience with either of those two sellers at all whatsoever.

[nwoslave]

Mycomicshop.com

I preoder a few books if i think my lcs might have trouble getting a particular book.

I buy the majority of back issues from them. Been using them since 2015.

[raiden]

News to me! This shop is kind of the heart of the comic shop scene in Ottawa and where I first found VEI books.
Hope all works out for them and they can avoid closing.

For those interested, more info here: https://www.gofundme.com/save-the-cbs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[IMJ]

News to me! This shop is kind of the heart of the comic shop scene in Ottawa and where I first found VEI books.
Hope all works out for them and they can avoid closing.

For those interested, more info here: https://www.gofundme.com/save-the-cbs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ehhhh... reading that narrative, I don't know if that's the kind of go fund me that many reasonable people would support. What he really needs to do is contact a tax attorney, maybe file bankruptcy, consolidate his inventory and try to reopen somewhere else. The kinds of mistakes he is talking about would get you fired without unemployment at any other job than one you manage yourself. And you wouldn't get to collect unemployment for it, but the owner here wants a GoFundMe as a bailout?! He paid the taxes, but not the fees? A tax attorney should be able to negotiate that for him.

I don't know about that one, man.

[raiden]

Ehhhh... reading that narrative, I don't know if that's the kind of go fund me that many reasonable people would support. What he really needs to do is contact a tax attorney, maybe file bankruptcy, consolidate his inventory and try to reopen somewhere else. The kinds of mistakes he is talking about would get you fired without unemployment at any other job than one you manage yourself. And you wouldn't get to collect unemployment for it, but the owner here wants a GoFundMe as a bailout?! He paid the taxes, but not the fees? A tax attorney should be able to negotiate that for him.

I don't know about that one, man.

I thought the same reading about it. Not sure how debt consolidation or bankruptcy would work in this case, but there seems to be some financial mismanagement. A gofundme page may not be the best way to get out of this situation. That said, the owner seems open about everything and welcomes any questions. Has been a pretty up front guy in the few dealings I've had with him. Would be a shame for the city to see the store go - would leave a big void to fill.

I'm not looking for donations on their behalf. Just sharing the story.

[raiden]

dbl post

[grendeljd]

Our only LCS in Ottawa, Canada, that still carries Valiant books announced today they owe $150K in unpaid taxes and are probably going to close

Any suggestions on good online retailers to buy Valiant books from?

The last time I was in a comic shop in Ottawa was over 20 years ago, but it was a Silver Snail franchise... how long ago did that place close down there?

[WallyWest78]

News to me! This shop is kind of the heart of the comic shop scene in Ottawa and where I first found VEI books.
Hope all works out for them and they can avoid closing.

For those interested, more info here: https://www.gofundme.com/save-the-cbs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I bought a ton of stuff during the boxing week back issue sale (went in 3 times actually). I went back in the week after and nothing had been restocked and I thought it was really weird. Then the gofundme campaign was announced.

I've been going to the comic book shoppe since I moved to Ottawa in 2005. Pretty upset it looks like it'll end up going under (especially since I refuse to go to Kobalds in Kanata). The gofund me has pretty much flopped.

[WallyWest78]

The last time I was in a comic shop in Ottawa was over 20 years ago, but it was a Silver Snail franchise... how long ago did that place close down there?

It closed years ago. I kind of hated going to it because of the location and lack of parking (same problem with the comic book shoppe's sister store on Bank which may also close)

If these 2 close we're basically down to 4 stores I believe. Most of them focus more on fantasy role playing game stuff really and not comics. None of the 4 sell Valiant books.