www.ComicBookPage.com

Lone Star should also get some credit for updating the software they use. Mile High hasn't had any sort of major overall for about a decade now. Hopefully Lone Star will adjust the pricing in the coming months.

ATOMIC AVENUE REVIEW

I am cross-posting this from an Amazing Spider-Cast forum post by Travazz:

Chris, I was listening to the Comic Book Page Podcast talking about back issues. On there you said that you just found out about mycomicshop.com. Well I wanted to spread the word about another great site I have recently started using within the past couple weeks. It's http://www.atomicavenue.com Since I have been bitten by the binding bug recently, I've had to find just random issues to complete a story arc. I have used MyComicShop a ton, but I think I like Atomic Avenue a little more. One the prices are great and the second thing is you purchase directly from a person. I was looking for 3 issues of Gambit that I couldn't find, and found that one of the sellers on there had all 3. Atomic Avenue is especially nice if you can purchase multiple issues from one person. You can combine shipping from one seller and get all the books you need in one fell swoop.

My Reply
I have looked at Atomic Avenue before, and the things you see as strengths I see as weaknesses (at least for the books I am usually looking for).

Let me clarify. I generally try to pick up books below guide price. Atomic Avenue folks tend to sell their books for full guide price or even more (they are even provoked into it by the software which gives price guidance). Add to that that:
* you are taking a chance on the accuracy of their grading,
* the search feature on the site is somewhat lacking,
* there do not appear to be actual pictures of the book you are buying, just generic pictures.

I just scoped out some early Amazing Spider-Man books, and the above is what I am observing. I would much rather get books similar to these off eBay, where I can often get books for 50-70% of guide (sometime even less than 50% of guide). Another eBay advantage is seeing a picture of the book you are actually buying so you can judge the grade yourself.

Another advantage to mycomicshop.com is free shipping on orders $50 and up (I usually will hit this on an order, again, not an advantage if you just want to get a few issues of Gambit).

I just checked out ASM #121. Atomic Avenue has 1 copy available in VG for $135 (which is a bit over triple guide price for that book in that condition). MileHigh is selling that book on eBay right now for $67 (which is 1.5 guide). Checking some earlier ASMs, I see a copy of #7 in VG for 125% of guide and a copy of #14 in a "restored" G condition for 170% of guide @ $285.

I have not done an exhaustive review of Atomic Avenue, but I have yet to see a book I am interested in going for less than guide. You may be buying direct from other collectors, but those collectors seem to be wanting top $ for their books.

All that being said, if there are a few books you have been looking all over for, and you can find them on Atomic Avenue, GO FOR IT! If I was in the market for issues of Gambit, this may be a great place to get them.

In any event, my review of Atomic Avenue (based on my years of on-line comics buying) is that while it seems to have excellent selection, it does not seem to be the best place to get good deals.

EDIT: Did some other searching. I too have been bitten by the Comics Binding bug, and have been building extra runs of Crossgen titles to get bound. I have found almost all of these books on other sites for prices ranging from 75 cents a copy up to about half cover ($1.50). On Atomic Avenue, I am seeing the vast majority of Meridian, Sojourn, Mystic, etc all being sold for a minimum of full cover price ($2.95). This does not seem like a good deal to me. YMMV.

Bob,

I have purchased from Atomic Avenue and was very happy. I purchased some early silver age Flash books and got them below guide. I usually find the books below Overstreet for the most part and if you pick someone with a good rating (just like ebay) they know how to grade. I was very very happy with the 20 + books. I just received an email about free shipping from the site but have not read up on the details.

Mike M.

comicm wrote:Bob,
I have purchased from Atomic Avenue and was very happy. I purchased some early silver age Flash books and got them below guide. I usually find the books below Overstreet for the most part and if you pick someone with a good rating (just like ebay) they know how to grade. I was very very happy with the 20 + books. I just received an email about free shipping from the site but have not read up on the details.
Mike M.

I guess I have not been looking at the right sellers. So far everyone I have gone after have had high prices. I guess I'll have to look around more. Maybe you can post up some recommended sellers, Mike.

While I'm not as strict to guide as some of you guys are, some of atomic avenue's sellers have the issues I'm looking for and at a pretty affordable price, especially since I can't find either on ebay.

I just want to say that I appreciate this thread for opening my eyes to shops that I may have missed since back issues aren't a big factor in my LCS's business model.

Bob and I were talking the other night when he mentioned that he'd heard that Mile High Comics had a 50% off sale and a free $10 credit. I dug up the recent emails from Mile High and confirmed that was the case. Not being people to turn down free money, we both headed over to Mile High to spend the free money.

I'll let Bob talk about his experience if he wants to but I figured I'd try to give a run down of my thoughts...

First off, the Mile High website is still a hold over from the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths and unmarried Spider-Man days. I have to wonder if the changes over at DC and Marvel to bring back those days are some sort of plot by Chuck over at Mile High to roll back the calendar and make the Mile High website once again seem almost modern.

It took me forever to find anything on the Mile High website that I wanted and was willing to pay the mile high prices for, even with free money. I ended up only ordering a handful of items:
ZETRAMAN #3
GREEN LANTERN (1960) #112
WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY (2006) #9
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: NINJA RANGERS/VR TROOPERS #1
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: NINJA RANGERS/VR TROOPERS #4
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: NINJA RANGERS/VR TROOPERS #5

Note the lack of conditions and prices in the list. I decided to not include those because I'm a bit embarrased how much I paid for the items.

I'd been looking for the Power Rangers issues for a while and haven't found them over at Lone Star Comics. Likewise, I hadn't seen the Zetraman issue over there either. The Green Lantern issue was either out of stock at Lone Star or actually cheaper at Mile High, I forget which. The Welcome to Tranquility issue is one of the last remaining Wildstorm reboot issues I needed. All in all, it took far too long for me to find even these few items that I was willing to buy for the prices they were listed at and I probably paid too much for them.

While I was searching the Mile High site for Green Lantern issues, I decided to check the prices and availability of them over at Lone Star (MyComicShop.com). The Lone Star prices were about 25% of the Mile High prices. So, instead of trying to order enough at Mile High for the free shipping, I only ordered from Mile High the items I couldn't get from Lone Star and then placed an order with Lone Star just big enough for the free shipping. That order consisted of Green Lantern (1960) #111, #122-126, #128-144.

The two orders were places at essentially the same time around 8:45pm CT on Wednesday, January 2nd. I got order confirmations from both stores within minutes of each other shortly thereafter.

Mile High processed the order faster and emailed me but unfortunately they seemed to neglect to factor in the codeword sales or the $10 credit memo so the total was much higher than I expected. I emailed them last night about that after Bob mentioned that he'd heard complaints about that sort of thing and I noticed the problems. I emailed them again when a second email with the wrong amount came around 1pm this afternoon.

Lone Star "checked in" my order and had everything in stock and that email came at 3pm this afternoon.

So far, Lone Star got the larger order from me and has been handling it better if ever so slightly slower than Mile High. We'll see which company is able to get me the comics faster via the default shipping methods. Lone Star has the advantage here since they are located much closer to me than Mile High. But since Mile High seems to process orders faster, it is possible that those comics might arrive first.

Meanwhile I'm going to be trying to figure out why I forgot to order Green Lantern (1960) #127...

Quick update...

I just got an email from Mile High Comics with a FAQ on the 50% sale and $10 credit and how it all worked. I found the FAQ to be much more confusing than it needed to be. Fortunately the email included my order information and how much I was going to be charged for it and that matched what I expected. Had the amount I was going to be charged not been included in the email, I probably would have ended up emailing them again asking for a FAQ on the FAQ...

So, while there was some confusion to be had, it looks like the comics will cost what I expected them to cost from Mile High.

jkm

I just got the shipping notice from MyComicShop.com so that order should be here soon.

On the Mile High side of things I got a second email with the FAW for the sale but as near as I can tell that order hasn't shipped yet.

John,

I too saw the 50% off sale at Mile High (and the three or four emails describing it in detail) and went over to see what I could find. In almost all cases the stuff was still so much more expensive than what MyComicShop charges I just couldn't bother.

I mean, they pimped 50% off Silver and Bronze age stuff and yet, in spite of the 50% discount, I still could get the books cheaper at: MyComicShop, a number of local retailers, eBay, and almost any convention if you're patient.

Wood wrote:John,

I too saw the 50% off sale at Mile High (and the three or four emails describing it in detail) and went over to see what I could find. In almost all cases the stuff was still so much more expensive than what MyComicShop charges I just couldn't bother.

I mean, they pimped 50% off Silver and Bronze age stuff and yet, in spite of the 50% discount, I still could get the books cheaper at: MyComicShop, a number of local retailers, eBay, and almost any convention if you're patient.

Yeah, the prices at Mile High are insane (and not in a good way). I had a hard time finding much of anything to spend the free $10 on even at 50% off at Mile High. Meanwhile I was able to quickly accumulate an order of over $50 at MyComicShop just in the process of comparing prices.

The only stuff I buy from Mile High these days are things I really want and can't find at places like MyComicShop. Most of my back issue purchases these days are from MyComicShop.

The difference in prices between Mile High and MyComicShop is significant with MyComicShop seeming to frequently be a fraction of the cost of the same item in the same grade at Mile High.

I just got the email from Mile High saying that my order is in "final processing" and will ship within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, over at MyComicShop my shipment has already been picked up by USPS and is in transit.

Looks like MyComicShop was able to process the order at least a day faster than Mile High this time around...

I spent an evening going through my want list and the Mile High site, trying to find something to spend my "free" money on... I finally realized that it just wasn't worth my time.

Back in the late eighties, Mile High was THE mail order company. Now, with so many competitors out there that do it better, I struggle to figure out how he manages to make all the huge sales that he talks about in his newsletters.

I'm starting to wonder if Mile High is mainly targeting the comic book readers that haven't discovered Google yet. I mean, come on, if you compare the prices there to nearly any other site, the other site is likely to be cheaper.

Mile High often has a couple items I can't find elsewhere which is something good. But the deals I used to be able to find at the site are either gone or just exceedingly well hidden.

I got an email from Mile High with the tracking number for that shipment. So UPS has the billing information for that package but no information on the transit of it yet.

Meanwhile the USPS package from MyComicShop seems to have finally left Dallas this morning. (Damn, the postal service is slow.)

Since I can't seem to discuss this in a public forum anywhere else, does anyone have any dealings with a mail order company called HEROES CORNER? They are a competitor to DCBS, and they give an additional 10% off your first order. Plus free bags and boards, free shipping over $75. I'm a bit nervous about trying them out, but at the same time, the savings are not small... it would be like getting the STARMAN HC and a few other comics for free this month.

I LOVE DCBS... but I use a mail order company in the first place in order to save money, so I gotta at least consider these guys at least for the month.

But if they are a shady operator, I'd obviously rethink my (current) decision to give them a shot.