The Best (and Worst) Places to buy Marvel back issues

[Phaedrus45]

I thought I'd do a quick thread for those interested in purchasing back issues and the few places I've shopped. I'd be real interested if anyone else has shopped elsewhere and what their experience was.

 

[Phaedrus45]

www.milehighcomics.com

This used to be the place to buy back issues 2 years ago, especially if you signed up for their newsletter and got the discount codes. (Generally an additional 30-50% off their already discounted prices.) I must have bought about 5 long boxes worth of comics from them in a year's time, many only a dollar or less. What made them a step above the others was each comic came bagged with a graded sticker on the outside.

A little over a year ago, Mile High redid their pricing, and the comics jumped sky high in price. You could no longer buy a comic for a buck; those I had purchased the previous month had at least doubled in price. Nowadays, if I look for a back issue, they are the worst deal on the net, even with a 50% discount.

Customer Service-wise, they always took care of their mistakes. (Only once did they refuse.) I will say about 50% of the time with my large orders I made, there was always something that went wrong with the order, whether it was pulling the wrong book, not getting a title I was charged for, or a glaring inaccurate grading of a comic.

I haven't shopped Mile High in over a year because of their over-priced books.

 

[Phaedrus45]

www.mycomicshop.com

A good friend on The Hype alerted me to go to this site while I was still shopping MileHigh to find those always out-of-stock issues I was having trouble with. At the time, I still was getting a better deal with my discount codes with Mile High; so, I didn't use them much. Now, they are the best deal that I've found.

When I started shopping with them, they also had many dollar comics. (Let me explain that these dollar books were all NM quality.) As you can figure, with a discount from Mile High, the comics were cheaper for me at that other sight. That changed when Mile High raised their prices. Mycomicshop kept their prices as low for a while, and only recently had to increase, but only up 49 cents on those books that used to be a dollar. (Mycomicshop has discount codes for signing up to their newsletter, too...but, it will only be on select titles, like DC titles M-Z, and it's only 10% off the listed price.)

Mycomicshop was also a great place to find those hard-to-find single issues that had been eluding me with Mile High's site.

Now, I think I've maybe only had one mistake in all my ordering with mycomicshop, which is much better than Mile High's record. But, unlike Mile High, most of the comics ordered will not come bagged. (The exception is usually a high priced comic, like when I ordered some of the Emperor Joker comics that appeared in the Superman titles.)

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

www.milehighcomics.com

A little over a year ago, Mile High redid their pricing, and the comics jumped sky high in price.

SKY high, or MILE high?

 

[Phaedrus45]

www.torpedocomics.com

This is why I decided to do this thread today. I just got my second order from this new company, and felt like they should get a little bit of props.

Now, you do not want to do all your comic shopping with them; but, go into the "Monolith" section of their site, and you will find a good number of comics that are only 99 cents each. With both my orders, I just got close to 300 comics, and everyone was in VF-NM quality. (These do not come bagged, though. That will cost you 15 cents per book for it to be bagged and boarded.)

You can still order other titles from this company; but, from what I've seen, I can get them much cheaper at mycomicshop.com.

I did have one problem with my shipment. I ordered all my titles the first time from the 99 cent section, and when I got my order of 175 books in, I noticed I was charged $2.50 for one. I emailed torpedocomics, and he simply said "sorry, but that book is 2.50." Sure enough, on their site, the comic was not in the 99 cent section any longer; but, I know I hadn't made a mistake, as I didn't even look at another section when placing my order. Regardless, the 99 price and quality of the books was enough to make me ignore this lack of good customer service.

I will say that torpedo ships their books faster than the previous two mentioned sites; but, they use Media Mail, and it will take over 7 days for your books to arrive. In that way, I did an order with mycomicshop a day after by ordering from torpedo; and, even though it took mycomicshop a few more days to ship my order, they both arrived on the same day. (This is using the free shipping, btw; of which, torpedo has the lowest order-price to qualify, which is $15.00. To get free shipping with Milehigh is $40.00, I believe...and, mycomicshop is $50.00.)

 

[Phaedrus45]

Ok, if anyone else has used another site, I'd love to know, especially those that might have great deals, like torpedo's site.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

The only two i've ever used are Milehigh and Mycomicshop...both treated me fine, however it seemed like Mycomicshop has better prices for Silver and Bronze Age comics...

I might check out that Torpedocomics site next time and give them a try...

 

[JewishHobbit]

What's the turnaround time like for Mycomicshop and Torpedo? I've never used them. I typically use Milehigh or ebay, but Milehigh is really getting expensive on some stuff.

 

[Phaedrus45]

What's the turnaround time like for Mycomicshop and Torpedo? I've never used them. I typically use Milehigh or ebay, but Milehigh is really getting expensive on some stuff.

Of course, it depends on the time of the season you buy; but, Torpedo has gotten my order out the day after I order. (And, the first order had 175 comics for them to send.) The problem is free shipping is Media Mail, so you need to expect your order to take over 7 days to arrive. With mycomicshop, it usually takes at least 3 days for them to fill and ship my comics; but, they arrive in about 5 days. Mile High is pretty much the same as mycomicshop, as you probably know. (I have waiting longer for my comics to be shipped by milehigh, too, when it nears the holiday....and, as I said, they have made the most mistakes on my orders.)

 

[Figs]

I used to get a lot of mine from MileHighComics off of Ebay. Now days I just enter whatever issue I'm needing and a multitude of sellers will come up.

 

[Steve Rogers]

I don't shop online, but there's a store I go to that has all back issues 50% off cover price. Always. It's not a sale, it's just how they operate. So I buy a lot of stuff from there. Looks like you can shop online there now...

So here's a link for anyone interested http://www.c-warehouse.com/cw.html

 

[Themanofbat]

www.mycomicshop.com

A good friend on The Hype alerted me to go to this site while I was still shopping MileHigh to find those always out-of-stock issues I was having trouble with. At the time, I still was getting a better deal with my discount codes with Mile High; so, I didn't use them much. Now, they are the best deal that I've found.

When I started shopping with them, they also had many dollar comics. (Let me explain that these dollar books were all NM quality.) As you can figure, with a discount from Mile High, the comics were cheaper for me at that other sight. That changed when Mile High raised their prices. Mycomicshop kept their prices as low for a while, and only recently had to increase, but only up 49 cents on those books that used to be a dollar. (Mycomicshop has discount codes for signing up to their newsletter, too...but, it will only be on select titles, like DC titles M-Z, and it's only 10% off the listed price.)

Mycomicshop was also a great place to find those hard-to-find single issues that had been eluding me with Mile High's site.

Now, I think I've maybe only had one mistake in all my ordering with mycomicshop, which is much better than Mile High's record. But, unlike Mile High, most of the comics ordered will not come bagged. (The exception is usually a high priced comic, like when I ordered some of the Emperor Joker comics that appeared in the Superman titles.)

I've used this site on a couple of occasions, and they really did a fine job, and their prices were awesome.

 

[newmexneon]

I use Mycomicshop. Never had a problem and they have good prices. But my local shop that I go to has been having a back issue clearance. All Marvel and DC back issues priced 4.99 or less are 1 dollar. It's pretty sweet to get 50 books for 50 bucks.

 

[Steve Rogers]

I use Mycomicshop. Never had a problem and they have good prices. But my local shop that I go to has been having a back issue clearance. All Marvel and DC back issues priced 4.99 or less are 1 dollar. It's pretty sweet to get 50 books for 50 bucks.

Ever go to Comics Warehouse in Albuquerque?

 

[torkibe]

www.mycomicshop.com

That's pretty much all I use, other than ebay. I've ordered hundreds of dollars worth of comics from them, and I've never had a problem.