Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

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Jabroniville
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Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by Jabroniville »

For the past couple years, I've had the experience of shops just piling new books onto our Pull Files without asking. It's something that annoys me, because some prominent writers are on many books, and they just ASSUME I want to read Waid's Black Widow because I got his Avengers. I guess that it's sometimes random, though at other times it's deliberate. Particularly because this kind of "up-selling" can mean that you've suddenly started collecting 14-18 books a month without thinking about it! That gets PRICEY after a point! And annoying when you realize that your "To-Read" pile has gotten out of hand, and you binge-read one book, only to realize it kinda sucked for a while and you wasted money.

Sometimes they stick a book I had no intention of getting (Thanos), and when I say no, they're like "REALLY? But it's one of the best books out there!"

Sometimes they even act a little hurt, like I'm costing them money. I'm like "OKAY- I get that shops don't make shit for profits, but I spend eighty bucks a month here; don't make me out to be a dick because I don't want to collect 20 books". It's the kind of thing that's JUST annoying enough to make me consider dropping my File and just going back to grabbing random stuff in whatever store (except I get a discount, and don't end up accidentally buying shit twice because they released two covers and I forgot or something like that).
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Batgirl III
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by Batgirl III »

It depends on how they go about it. "Suggestive selling" and "up selling" are a necessary part of retail...

Adding Azrael: Agent of the Bat Tommy stack of Bat Books and telling me that it was added and why I might like it? That's cool.

Adding a book to the pile and hoping i won't notice? That's dirty pool.
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Jetstream
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by Jetstream »

Mmmm, not random stuff. Nine times out of ten it's something like crossover material with something I've been reading for a long time. I got a lot of the IDW Revolution titles, for instance, since I read Transformers religiously.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by FuzzyBoots »

I'd also say that the ethical way to do it is to not charge for the added book, essentially throwing bread on the water in hopes that it will increase the crop. :) Which, if they know you're an obsessive collector, might still rook you out of your money when they start charging after the free sample...
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Ken
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by Ken »

Not random. Sometimes, when something is coming out that Neil is pretty sure I'll like (at this point I've been a customer for 30 years, and a friend for 75% of that time), so he's , he'll pull a copy for me. However, when I get my stack, he'll give me the option of un-pulling it, since I didn't order it. He just wants to make sure I have a copy if I want it.
My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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Jetstream
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by Jetstream »

Ken wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2017 8:14 pm Not random. Sometimes, when something is coming out that Neil is pretty sure I'll like (at this point I've been a customer for 30 years, and a friend for 75% of that time), so he's , he'll pull a copy for me. However, when I get my stack, he'll give me the option of un-pulling it, since I didn't order it. He just wants to make sure I have a copy if I want it.
I mean... they give you that option with literally everything don't they?

A pull list isn't a pledge to buy everything on it, at least not in my experience.
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Ken
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by Ken »

Maybe not a pledge, but at least a gentlemen's agreement.

If may not be the same everywhere, but he only has pull lists for people in the store club. Each member tells him the titles s/he knows s/he wants to get, and he pulls them and sets them aside, so they're there for us when we come in. And in return for the guarenteed sales, he only charges 95 or 90% of the books' cost.
My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
MacynSnow
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by MacynSnow »

it's never happened with me(though i've been accused of being a Tightwad with my Money by my Friends),as i tend to select my books myself and then Pay when i get to the Cash Register.
I'll play My "Devil'd Advocate" game for them,however, and say this much on their behalf:With the Comics Industry as a whole going down the Drain,these guy's sound like their just trying to keep their stores afloat&have resorted to some (Admittedly Underhanded) schemes to make rent.

Mine has no problem with that,as he run's a BBQ resteraunt in the other half of his store....:)
Jabroniville
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Re: Does your comic shop try to add random stuff to your Pull File?

Post by Jabroniville »

So I go in today, and both Monsters Unleashed and Secret Empire #0 are in there. Now, this isn't surprising- I was collecting the MU event, and they usually put in the Current Events, which I've grown tired of. But when I handed them back saying I wasn't into them, the guy was AGHAST that I didn't want SE. Like "REALLY? But it's SO GOOD!" and he kept hyping it. All the while I'm just thinking "DUDE- I don't care how everyone is buying it and hyping it up- it sounds dumb and I don't want to reward them for their dumb Retcon, even if it turns out later that they were like LOL KIDDING!"

I ended up not getting it (I mean, it's like six bucks an issue now; and I can just get a TPB later), but MAN. I get that he was just trying to share good comics (the book has sold out everywhere apparently, so it's not like he couldn't find a buyer for it), but that's dumb.
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