[ClevComicMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cidman911

ClevComicMan's rant was a little depressing to read.

I'm all about nostalgia but I still don't feel too bad when a few of my childhood comic shops, record stores or video rental places went out of business. A lot of my memories of those places was pretty crappy so I'm happy my future kids don't have to deal with stores that won't accept a refund because the CD has a minor scratch, $5 per day late fees on a video game rental, and comic shops that won't exchange an item because we opened it and something was wrong so now we're stuck with it. People like corporate owned stores because it's easy to get an exchange or refund on something like $3,000 tv. Pretty much no questions asked if want to return a tv I had 2 days from wal-mart. If I try return a $20 toy that came factory damaged to a comic shop...well...we already know what most of them will say.

I'm finding myself caring less and less about comic shops, there's maybe 3 in my area that have decent service. I'd like to help them in business but with high prices and snobby service, I can't justify giving them my money.

And the Free Comic Book Day with me was just stupid. I wanted 2 books...just 2. No more. And they gave me attitude about buying an annual membership ("You come in here a lot...you need it anyway"). That's what pushed me over the edge to stop giving Comics N Stuff in San Diego my business.

IT does sound like Comic N Stuff was trying to do a cash grab. I think you just need to shop around for a better LCS. We are a single store, and don't do refunds, but we will do an exchange or gift certificate for a return. That's just good business practices as I would never want to lose a customer over a single sale.
As far as memberships go, we offer one as well that gives a discount on all purchases, free entry into any contests, giveaways or tournaments, as well as VIP access to our autograph signings. It also gives the member priority for requested variants and limited edition stuff. A membership is not a bad thing if it is worth it, and I can understand a store promoting it, but to give someone attitude about not signing up is poor form. I am sorry you had such a bad experience, just realize that most of the stores and store owners I have met are not like that.
Me and my staff pride ourselves on not being "the comic book guy" from the simpsons. We may have the geek knowledge to argue for hours on what type of underwear does superman wear, but we also want everyone who walks through our door to feel welcome and not intimidated. When someone we don't know comes in we greet them and show them around the store, pointing out where everything is, as we know it can be overwhelming. We offer free classes on comic collecting 101 once a month, as well as grading classes for a small fee. We have free tabletop and D&D gaming nights as well as pay CCG and video game tournaments. We try to make it as accessible to a novice collector as well as all of us jaded collectors and gamers as well.