Testing out on-line stores

[BobBretall]

OK, so I am going to try out Torpedo comics (& do a vs. with Newkadia, MileHigh & MyComicShop). I will update this quest as I go along. I am going to look for a variety of books I have on my "want list of books that are not too old (e.g. from last 10-15 years)":

Ant (Image) 9
Arkham Asylum: Living Hell 1,2,3,5
Battle Pope (Funk-o-Tron) 1,2
Bigfoot (IDW) 2
Blue Beetle (Current series) 17
Conan (1995 Marvel series) 10
Conan: Scarlet Sword (Marvel) 2,3
Doctor Strange 55 (for Buzz)
Hawaiian Dick: Last Resort 3
Hero by Night (Platinum) 2,3,4
Invincible 5,6,9,10,11
JSA Classified 30, 31
Lullaby (Alias) 1,2,5
Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein 2,3,4
Seven Soldiers: Klarion 1
Tales of the Realm (Crossgen) 2,3,4,5
Tech Jacket (Image) 1,2,3,4,5,6 (A Kirkman series I just found out existed)

Anyway, I am off to do some on-line shopping, I will keep everyone posted.

[BobBretall]

Ant (Image) 9
Torpedo: Advanced search does not turn up a single issue of any "ant" series at all.
Newkadia: Advanced search turns up zero hits on "Ant"
MileHigh: Search is a pain. 1st search turned up every title w/Mutant or variant in it. Did an advanced search & found it, but results not returned in alphabetic order, so that was a pain.
MH has this for $2.50 in NM
MyComicShop: Easy search. NM copy for $2.40, VF copy for $2.00
WINNER: MyComicShop.com

Arkham Asylum: Living Hell 1,2,3,5
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: 1 NM+ $3.22 2 NM+ $3.22 (3-6 out of stock)
MileHigh: all 4 in stock @ $2.50 each
MyComicShop: 3 of these 4 in stock: 1 NM $1.34 3 VF $1.13 5 NM $2.16 (prices reflect discount on DC books this week)
WINNER: MyComicShop.com

Battle Pope (Funk-o-Tron) 1,2
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: Series does not turn up as in stock.
MileHigh: Series does not turn up as in stock.
MyComicShop: does not have these issues, but does have issues #3,4,6 in stock.
WINNER: MyComicShop.com

Bigfoot (IDW) 2
Torpedo: Does not have this one. Has #3 & 4 for $5 each
Newkadia: Series does not turn up as in stock.
MileHigh: Has this issue for $8 (more than I am willing to pay). Has 1,3,4 also for $8 each.
MyComicShop: Drat! has issues #1,3,4 for $2.40 each, no #2.
WINNER: I am going to give this to MyComicShop just because they have 3 issues of this series WAY cheaper than MileHigh. MileHigh gets it on the "if I was willing to pay any price, they at least have the issue in stock".

Blue Beetle (Current series) 17
Torpedo: No issues of current (2006) series in stock. Search function actually makes this very difficult to determine.
Newkadia: No issue > #11 in stock.
MileHigh: #17 not in stock. Nearby issues are all $2.50
MyComicShop: NM $2.16 (price reflects discount on DC books this week)
Winner: MyComicShop

[BobBretall]

Conan (1995 Marvel series) 10
Torpedo: No hit on #10. Have #1,2,3,4,9 for $3 each
Newkadia: No #10. Has #1 NM- $2.95, #1 VF+ $2.76, #2 NM+ $3.44, #11 VF $2.76
MileHigh: #1-7 in NM for $3.20, #8 NM $4, #9 NM $5.20, #10 VF $4.90, #11 NM $7.50
MyComicShop: #1 VF 2, #2-6 NM $2.40, #8 NM 2.40, #10 VF $3.20
WINNER: MyComicShop

Conan: Scarlet Sword (Marvel) 2,3
Torpedo: #1 in stock for 99 cents
Newkadia: Series does not turn up as in stock.
MileHigh: #1 & 3 for $6.50 each
MyComicShop: Has title listed, but no issues in stock.
WINNER: MileHigh by default, but price was way too high for my to buy.

Doctor Strange (1974) 55 (for Buzz)
Torpedo: No copies of #55
Newkadia: No copies of #55
MileHigh: VG copy for $1.25
MyComicShop: NM copy for $1.49
WINNER: MyComicShop

Hawaiian Dick: Last Resort 3
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: Only #1 in stock, in NM+ for $2.79
MileHigh: Has #1,2,4 for $3.20 each
MyComicShop: Has #1,2,4 for $2.40 each
WINNER: No one had issue I need, but MyComicShop has best price on other 3.

Hero by Night (Platinum) 2,3,4
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: #3 NM- $3.93, #4 NM $4.90 & NM- $3.92
MileHigh: #2,3,4 all in stock for $2.50 each
MyComicShop: #2,3,4 all in stock for $1.49 each
WINNER: MyComicShop

[BobBretall]

Invincible 5,6,9,10,11
Torpedo: No issues of Invicible AT ALL in stock.
Newkadia: Only has 1 coopy of #37 (in VF) in stock
MileHigh: #5 F $8.80, #5 NM $16 (Also have #8 & #16-21 at kind of high prices, and #24 up for $2.50)
MyComicShop: #6 VF $4, #9 NM $4.80, #11 VF 7.80. Quite a few others in stock. #23 & up $2.40
WINNER: MyComicShop

JSA Classified 30, 31
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: #30 & 31 in VF for $2.36
MileHigh: both in NM @ $2.99
MyComicShop: #31 in NM @2.99
WINNER: MileHigh, moral of the story is don't look for books on line that are still on the rack @ an LCS.

Lullaby (Alias) 1,2,5
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: Series does not turn up as in stock.
MileHigh: #1 $12.50
MyComicShop: #2 VF $2.00
WINNER: MyComicShop (diff issues in stock, bu MileHigh has standard "Mile High" price)

Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein 2,3,4
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: Series does not turn up as in stock.
MileHigh: $2,3,4 $2.50 each
MyComicShop: #2,3,4 $2.16 each (with discount from DC sale running this week)
WINNER: MyComicShop

Seven Soldiers: Klarion 1
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: #4 in stock NM- $2.34
MileHigh: all 4 in stock @ $2.50 each
MyComicShop: #1-3 all @ $2.16, #4 is $1.34 (w/ DC sale)
WINNER: MyComicShop

Tales of the Realm (Crossgen) 2,3,4,5
Torpedo: Series does not turn up as in stock.
Newkadia: #2 in NM $2.91
MileHigh: #2,4,5 in NM @ $2.50 each
MyComicShop: #2,3,4 in NM @ $2.40 each, $5 in NM for $3.20 or VF for $2.60
WINNER: I call this one a tie between MileHigh & MyComicShop.

Tech Jacket (Image) 1,2,3,4,5,6 (A Kirkman series I just found out existed)
Torpedo: #6 for $2.95
Newkadia: #1 & 2 in NM for $3.51, #5 in NM+ for $2.79
MileHigh: All 6 in stock for $2.50 each
MyComicShop: #1 in NM for $1.49, $5 in VF for $1.25
WINNER: I have to give this one to MileHigh (but would buy #1 from MyComicShop)

[BobBretall]

OK, I went thru my entire list and came to a couple of conclusions:

Torpedo Comics: Their search engine REALLY SUCKS. They are going to need to fix this, and soon, if they want to be a viable store. Also, their stock selection is terrible compared to other on-line retailers. In order to be competitive, this needs serious work also.

NewKadia: While not as bad as Torpedo Comics, their search engine really needs some work. Selection & pricing leaves a lot to be desired also.

MileHigh: Excellent selection marred by higher on-average pricing. Their web-site is in serious need of an overhaul, but while the site is overall pretty crude, their search engine has the ones at Torpedo & NewKadia beat hands-down.

MyComicShop: I went in preferring these guys, but was very objective in the evaluation. They came out as the clear winner. Best selection, best overall pricing, and FAR superior search engine.

Personal experience with NewKadia, MileHigh, and MyComicShop on a number of orders (>5 from each site) gives MyComicShop a VERY CLEAR win in grading accuracy also. Newkadia tends to get over-zealous with the + & minus grades to inflate pricing, and I am personally not that happy with their grading accuracy. MileHigh, in general, has their own personal grading system with I have a lot of issues with in lower grades.

In order:
MyComicShop
MileHigh & NewKadia tie for 2nd (each has advantages & drawbacks)

Torpedo is a DISTANT last place. (sorry. Not a stellar debut)

[JohnMayo]

OK, I went thru my entire list and came to a couple of conclusions:

Torpedo Comics: Their search engine REALLY SUCKS. They are going to need to fix this, and soon, if they want to be a viable store. Also, their stock selection is terrible compared to other on-line retailers. In order to be competitive, this needs serious work also.

NewKadia: While not as bad as Torpedo Comics, their search engine really needs some work. Selection & pricing leaves a lot to be desired also.

MileHigh: Excellent selection marred by higher on-average pricing. Their web-site is in serious need of an overhaul, but while the site is overall pretty crude, their search engine has the ones at Torpedo & NewKadia beat hands-down.

MyComicShop: I went in preferring these guys, but was very objective in the evaluation. They came out as the clear winner. Best selection, best overall pricing, and FAR superior search engine.

Personal experience with NewKadia, MileHigh, and MyComicShop on a number of orders (>5 from each site) gives MyComicShop a VERY CLEAR win in grading accuracy also. Newkadia tends to get over-zealous with the + & minus grades to inflate pricing, and I am personally not that happy with their grading accuracy. MileHigh, in general, has their own personal grading system with I have a lot of issues with in lower grades.

In order:
MyComicShop
MileHigh & NewKadia tie for 2nd (each has advantages & drawbacks)

Torpedo is a DISTANT last place. (sorry. Not a stellar debut)

Very interesting results.

Your results match my impressions of the sites but I haven't done the side by side objective comparison that yoiu did. Nice job on that, by the way.

For me, the big thing is the search feature followed closely by price. While I want to pay as little as possible the price doesn't really matter if I can't find the item on the website. This is were Mile High needs to improve. That website hasn't seen any sort of overhaul in the past decade and it badly in need of one. MyComicShop is easy to search and navigate and painless to use. Add to that the good pricing on most items and it is a clear first choice.

I played around a little on Torpedo Comics over the weekend but quickly got frustated by not being able to find anything I was interested in. While I hope it grows into a serious competetor to MyComicShop and MileHigh, it has a long way to go before it gets there.

It would be great to hear what everybody else thinks of these retailers. I'd also love to know about any other sites that can compete with MyComicShop.com on searching and pricing. In my opinion, the more good online stores we know about, the better.

[Wood]

No question that Bob's work validates what we already knew intuitively. I do have some hope that Torpedo will be a force to be reckoned with at some point. A look at those pictures tells me their inventory is massive, and clearly only a fraction of said inventory is listed on the site right now. They probably should've waited to go live on the site until they had a good chunk of inventory databased.

The search algorithms are just god awful on most of these sites. I HATE that I can't type in Avengers 195 into most of the search boxes but must, instead, type in Avengers, then click on the run I'm looking for THEN click on the grouping of issues. It's just tedious.

MyComicShop is so different in that regard.

Ian Levenstein brought up Atomic Avenue as another option; but I've had some problems with them not the least of which is their search mechanism.

[JohnMayo]

I'm a little frustrated with both Mile High and MyComicsShop right now for different reasons.

Mile High still hasn't sent me the correct issue of Superman Family and it has been a few weeks. I emailed them this morning and I'm waiting to hear back from them.

The frustration with MyComicShop is of a different nature. I placed an order for the complete run of the 1970s Nova series. They didn't have two of the issues in the grade I wanted so those have been removed from my order. What I find frustrating is that I can't just add the next lower grade to my order but will have to place another order for those two items. And, since I'm cheap, that means I need to find another $45 worth of things to buy from them or find the issues elsewhere.

[JohnMayo]

I heard back from Mile High. They couldn't get me the issue of Superman Family that I ordered so they credited me for the comic and the return shipping.

Turns out the MyComicShop now has that issue (and at a *much* better price) so I'm down to only needing another $42 or so before I place my next order over there.

[BobBretall]

OK. I think I am done ordering from Newkadia.com except for newer stuff in high grades that somehow have good prices (or if I just want a couple of things, since they have free shipping starting at $5.99).

In a second order I just got from them I had 4 misgraded books out of 6.

I got 2 issues of Action comics & an Adventure graded as F that are what I would call VG. I also got a copy of Adventure that they have graded VG that I would grade (generously at best) as a G+.

Given that the discounted prices on all of the books were slightly less than the book value for what I would actually grade them at, I am just going to keep these and not bother with the hassle of a return, however, I am getting a much worse deal than I thought I was getting.

I think I just need to realize that Newkadia & I have very different takes on grading comics, and decide that it is best we part ways for books in less than VF condition.

[BobBretall]

Lest you all think I have zero problems with MyComicShop.com, let me add this mini-rant about what they DO NOT do so good.

1) It takes MyComicShop a REALLY LONG TIME to process & mail an order. They seem to batch this up on only a couple of days a week and you can up to a week for them to even process and ship your order. By comparison, both MileHigh & Newkadia process & ship with pretty blinding speed. I have had an order I made at night go out in the mail the next day from Newkadia, and within 2 days from MileHigh. By comparison, MyComicShop seems to never ship an order in less than about 4 or 5 days.

2) MyComicShop has a REALLY INFLEXIBLE order system. I made a mistake on an order I was putting together the other night. I mailed them immediately and asked if I could take a book off the order. "Nope, sorry. We can only cancel the entire order, we are unable to make any alterations to an order." This is pretty ridiculous. By comparison, I have called MileHigh to make changes to an order in the past, and they happily & competently do this. I have not had occasion to change a Newkadia order, so cannot comment on their ability to make changes.

3) As an adjunct to the above, I canceled the order, and went to re-enter it, but none of the books are showing up in their system. In an e-mail response, they tell me: "Sorry, but it can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks before the items will be relisted." WTF?? This is pretty inefficient.

[BobBretall]

In a second order I just got from them I had 4 misgraded books out of 6.
I got 2 issues of Action comics & an Adventure graded as F that are what I would call VG. I also got a copy of Adventure that they have graded VG that I would grade (generously at best) as a G+.

Had an on-line chat with Jim Drucker from NewKadia. A portion of it went like this:

Bob Bretall:

As to your grading, I do find you guys to be a little loose in what you call VG & F (compared to other places I shop), so, as I said, I will avoid those grades to avoid conflict

Jim:

We're working on that.... Most of our returns are Fine minus... (should be VG+) and Very Good+ should be VG ... they account for nearly all our returns and we are revamping our grading.

Maybe a bit generous that the issue is only a difference of a plus, but maybe this will get better at some point in the future.....

[David Akers]

I knew there was something else that had bugged me about my first MyComicShop.com order. In addition to the lack of bags on the comics, it was how frickin' long it took for them to actually ship. Like you suggested, it took my order about 5 days to finally ship.

-David

[JohnMayo]

Lest you all think I have zero problems with
2) MyComicShop has a REALLY INFLEXIBLE order system. I made a mistake on an order I was putting together the other night. I mailed them immediately and asked if I could take a book off the order. "Nope, sorry. We can only cancel the entire order, we are unable to make any alterations to an order." This is pretty ridiculous. By comparison, I have called MileHigh to make changes to an order in the past, and they happily & competently do this. I have not had occasion to change a Newkadia order, so cannot comment on their ability to make changes.

3) As an adjunct to the above, I canceled the order, and went to re-enter it, but none of the books are showing up in their system. In an e-mail response, they tell me: "Sorry, but it can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks before the items will be relisted." WTF?? This is pretty inefficient.

These are my big beefs with MyComicShop.com. If they had offered me the chance to switch grades on the items they couldn't provide in the grades I originally requested, they'd have a bit more of my money right now. This sort of inflexibility makes them a lot less customer service oriented than they should be.

[Darth Kramer]

Thanks for posting these results, Bob. I have been considering trying out Torpedo, but I don't think I will anymore.

And here's an interesting little quirk I have found with my ordering experiences from MyComicShop.com. If I place an order on Monday morning before noon CST, generally the order will be checked in by noon on Tuesday and in the mail that day or Wednesday. If I order any other day of the week, it's up in the air. Not sure what it is about Monday, but I'm guessing they may "speed process" orders to catch up with stuff that may have piled up over the weekend.