Every week for nearly 14 years now, I have gone to my local comic shop. It was an opportunity to geek out about comics, TV, movies, etc, with like-minded people.
Lately, however, I have become disenchanted with the shop. The clerks have become a bit stand-offish. Now I understand they have work to do and can’t always shoot the bull every week, but I expect to at least be able to finish a sentence before getting cut off. The least you could do is say, “Excuse me, but I have things to do, can we take this up some other time?”. Believe me, I’ll understand.
I currently subscribe to about 10-12 titles. I may spend anywhere from $15-25 per week. There’s another comic store in town, but they aren’t much better.
I started using Mile-High Comics when my local store went out of business several years ago. I get one shipment a month, and overall it is pretty good. A decent discount on my pull list, and a huge inventory of back issues. And there is almost always some kind of sale going on for something.
When I was into comics, I did try a mail order (which is now on-line) service for comics. Can’t recall the name, but it could’ve been Mile High because that name rings a bell, but maybe not. The service was great and the comics came in tip-top condition (always with backing board and bag). There was never any problem getting copies of the hot titles since you’re pre-ordering them. They even threw in some extras that only the comic store owner might get, like pins and cards and flyers. The monthly newsletters were pretty good too. Only thing I didn’t like was that all deliveries were by UPS, and with UPS, you essentially had to be home to receive the delivery. That was a hassle for me, so I stopped. Oh, I found that I was buying more when I ordered from a service. Might have been due to the discounts they were offereing, or maybe it was so easy to check the boxes on the order forms. I’d say give it a try and see if you like it; you can stop any time.