Mail Order Subscriptions

Rael

Can anyone recommend an online retailer that will facilitate monthly comic book subscriptions?

With the 3rd Place closing on Friday I'm loathe to go to either of the other two retailers, especially after SubCity charged me €8.50 for two Marvel Comics on Tuesday night.

Thanks

Rael

Fysh

The only one I've seen recommended on here is Mile High Comics - which is based in the US so bear in mind that postage costs may bite you in the ass. Aside from that, there's the chap John Hendrick mentioned in his email but that seems to be more someone who can supply comics rather than a full-on website set-up. Check the thread about the 3rd Place closure if you're looking for info.

There's a good chance you won't find any way of getting your comics cheaply, unfortunately. I'm not saying it's right but ~€4/issue is pretty much what I've come to expect from comic shops in Ireland.

ztoical

You can order direct from the big publishers but that would get really costly as you would be paying for postage from each one and for most its a 12 month sub for each title and they don't offer all of their titles for subscription.

I've order stuff from MileHigh but not subscriptions just a once off order and found them fine. Things from another world is also a good online store but again I've only ordered from them not done subscription.

Mid town comics does a subscription service [sadly Jim's doesn't ] that will ship international. You have to subscribe to at least 10 titles a month in order to get a subscription [thats pretty standard for most sites offering international subscriptions] If you can get them to post stuff via media mail you'll save a fortune on postage but its hard to get most of them to do that. Be careful and check the shipping options before you order as alot of places will ship USPS [ie the united states postal service] for domestic but will use the likes of UPS or DHL for international orders , USPS are the only crowd you can get media mail with.

Realistically, depending on how many comics you order in a month, the amount you save won't be that massive - might do a bit better at the moment due to weak dollar.

mrbarney

As you all probably know 3Rd place has closed down (sniffle sniffle) and I am sure we are all sorry to see john go after 7 years, we are all at a loss (sniffle sniffle). but out from the ashes comes a new comic book hero mrbarney he is larger than life, as mad as a brush, a better detective than batman, stronger than superman, prettier than your girlfriend and he uses the post. Yes folk you can have your comics delivered to you at home or picked up at a secret location, in town, you may not get your comics on Thursday but we are working on that and you will get them cheaper than anywhere else!
We are building a website so we can do things all fancy like and you can shop on line just like amazon, except I’m not a huge corporation that puts kids to work grinding coffee or wrapping tooth picks in paper, I’m just a guy trying to provide people with a simple service and if you would like avail of this service simply email me your order and I will fill it for you.
Its a little topsy-turvy at the moment as this was just dropped in our laps but I’m sure once things are off the ground we'll be cooking with gas

partholon

Rael wrote: »

Can anyone recommend an online retailer that will facilitate monthly comic book subscriptions?

With the 3rd Place closing on Friday I'm loathe to go to either of the other two retailers, especially after SubCity charged me €8.50 for two Marvel Comics on Tuesday night.

Thanks

Rael

if your getting marvel books your better off ordering trades off play.com.

its a bitch waiting that long for a fix but your talking HALF price for the book versus the single issue format and with play its free postage.

ive been getting the x books this way for the last two years

varient

Online promise the Moon and then some, but be careful, they don't live up to scratch I have found, much rather actually picking them up myself. They start to miss issues or can not get certain ones etc etc etc , not to mention "lost in the post"messy. Also there are more comic book stores around Ireland so check them out and see what they say.
Good luck in your hunt.

mrbarney

Dear me, im only trying to start off and people are knocking me back, bitter.:eek:
im not trying to ROB anyones customers or take away from comic shops around IRELAND / DUBLIN. im just trying to provide a service for people who want there comics that bit cheaper. i love comic shops there great you cant knock that. forbidden planet, sub city, liams place with jason's stuff down the back, all great places, im just a guy in IRELAND who is just trying to provide a service for people who cant make it to a comic shop or into town or don't even live in Dublin who want comics on a weekly or monthly basis. simple as that, no need to get up set no ones trying to take away from comic shops and as far as i know im the only Irish comic mail order place.. so why not buy from me its guaranteed Irish ...made in china:rolleyes:

ztoical

mrbarney wrote: »

Dear me, im only trying to start off and people are knocking me back, bitter.:eek:

I'm pretty sure Varient's comment was on mail order subs in general and not a comment on you mrbarney or your business. I'm sure most of the posters on this forum are supportive of what your trying to do - the last Irish comic mail order shop getyourcomics had great support on here and we were all sad to see them finish up thou mainly for the loss of Hot Colin threads.

Jack B. Badd

ztoical wrote: »

the last Irish comic mail order shop getyourcomics had great support on here and we were all sad to see them finish up thou mainly for the loss of Hot Colin threads.

Ah...Holin. That poor boy fears me

ztoical

Jack B. Badd wrote: »

That poor boy fears me

Gee I wonder why? What happened to Hot Colin anyway - is he still knocking around cork? how can we stalk I mean find him these days?

Jack B. Badd

ztoical wrote: »

What happened to Hot Colin anyway - is he still knocking around cork? how can we stalk I mean find him these days?

Lord knows...or maybe Tree...

mrbarney

why should i fear you Jack B. Badd ??? what have you done that would have me shaking in my boots.??? are you someone special or have some special fear powers ( that dont seem to reach this far)...get real

mrbarney

sounds like it to me, why else would he put he two cents worth in which is all that it was worth about how messy mail order is missing issues and then go on to promote comic book shops perhaps he is a comic shop owner... clutching at straws.

ztoical

mrbarney wrote: »

why should i fear you Jack B. Badd ??? what have you done that would have me shaking in my boots.??? are you someone special or have some special fear powers ( that dont seem to reach this far)...get real

WTF can you not read? We were taking about Hot Colin who ran Getyourcomics.ie - an irish based comics mail order subscription service. He had many fans on this board - mainly from female posters, hence the name Hot Colin. Jack B Badd was only joking about the fact that there was a whole thread called the Hot Colin thread on here at one point. So unless you are Colin, which I seriously doubt, none of that was directed at you.

And for the love of God will you stop putting everything in bloody bold - we can read it fine without.

ztoical

mrbarney wrote: »

sounds like it to me, why else would he put he two cents worth in which is all that it was worth about how messy mail order is missing issues and then go on to promote comic book shops perhaps he is a comic shop owner... clutching at straws.

Again go back and read the whole thread -the OP asked for people to rec mail order subs so the OP was asking for peoples two cents worth - a number of people chimmed in with their opinions on them. And notice I use the word "Them" not singular - a couple of places have been mentioned and seeing as your business has only started [or at least this phase of it has only started] I seriously doubt Varients comment was directed at just you but at mail order subscriptions in general. He doesn't like them, big deal. Its called having an opinion and people are allowed express theirs on this forum. partholon rec'd people order from play.com why not have a go at him while your at it? Your going to get people who come here and rec other online sites to order from and people who rec comic book shops. If your not ready for competition maybe your not ready to run a business.

varient

True, I can only speak from personal experience and found mail order dodge , in saying that it might be right for others. Unfortunatley I like to shop for my comics and see them first, condition etc, sad I know but I luv the God damn things. Subcity in Dublin and Galway are good as is Foebidden Planet which seems to have the biggets range and Liams is great for when I suddenly need a back issue or two or three or four , anyway.

Jack B. Badd

mrbarney wrote: »

why should i fear you Jack B. Badd ??? what have you done that would have me shaking in my boots.??? are you someone special or have some special fear powers ( that dont seem to reach this far)...get real

mrbarney wrote: »

sounds like it to me, why else would he put he two cents worth in which is all that it was worth about how messy mail order is missing issues and then go on to promote comic book shops perhaps he is a comic shop owner... clutching at straws.

Um...yes. Clutching at straws sounds about right... :rolleyes: In any case, Mr Barney, I think the more relevant question is "Why would I (or anyone else) want to buy comics from you, given your apparent attitude problems?".

We must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom....:pac:

mrbarney

Jack B. Badd and ztoical sorry guys, did not mean to upset anyone (which it looks like i have done) i did not mean to come across as having a attitude i just felt as i being stopped at the starting blocks, picked on so to speak, i never knew about Getyourcomics.ie or hot colin but would love to have his reputation, sound like a stand up guy, was his mail order business any good or was it messy and unforfilling..it must have been good if you ( Jack B. Badd ) where getting comics from him. if you are looking for any back issues of The Authority or Stormwatch or the full set of The Authority tpb signed by Mark Miller including the Jenny Sparks tpb let me know i have them in my hand as we speak if not enjoy your twirling towards freedom sounds like fun.
Varient, Unfortunately I like to shop for my comics to and see them first hand for the condition talk to the guy behind the counter hear whats coming out next week etc etc but not everyone can get to town as i said before, i want to get these people there comic's in mint condition bagged and boarded for there pleasure and dont think it sad to love you comics, comic's are inspiring maybe one day you will write or draw your own comic or maybe open your own comic shop or god forbid try and do a mail ordering service.
sorry again guys lol
mrbarney.:o

Fysh

mrbarney : your mail-order service has now been mentioned several times within the forum. There are limits to the amount of shilling allowed within any section of boards.ie and listing off products that people might be interested in buying from you is definitely past those limits. I'm more than happy for you to contribute to the forum regularly, but I don't want to see any more pimping of your business in general or what you've got on offer in particular. I'd suggest putting a link in your signature to your webpage where people can contact you if they're interested.

In the meantime, this thread is for discussing mail-order services that people have experience of or which cater to Irish customers. While "general experience" comments can be useful, they won't help answer the OP's question.

ztoical

mrbarney wrote: »

Jack B. Badd and ztoical sorry guys, did not mean to upset anyone (which it looks like i have done) i did not mean to come across as having a attitude i just felt as i being stopped at the starting blocks, picked on so to speak,

Thank you for your apology mrbarney - I hope you've re-read the thread and seen that no one was picking on you. Its easy to get wires crossed on message boards and its always a good idea to re-read the whole thread not just the last post as things can be taken out of context, and maybe wait a second or two before hitting the old reply button.

Also please be careful with promoting your new business on boards as its against boards.ie rules for it to be used as an ad space.

mrbarney wrote: »

i never knew about Getyourcomics.ie or hot colin but would love to have his reputation, sound like a stand up guy, was his mail order business any good or was it messy and unforfilling..

Getyourcomics.ie like any business had a few teething problems at the start [you can read the thread here] but a number of boards posters reported back on being happy with the service. Their website was pretty clean and easy to follow and they offered free shipping - they closed up shop around october/november of 2006 due to lack of demand for the service [or at least that was my understanding if anyone knows different please correct me]. One can argue that their choice to offer free shipping was a mistake and increased their operating costs to the point were they couldn't operate but on the flip side to compete with the likes of play.com who offer free shipping it was a risk they may have felt they needed to take.

It may be worth your while to see if you can contact Colin or someone else associated with getyourcomics and ask them about their experience offering mail order subscriptions in Ireland

mrbarney

again i find my self apologizing, new to this is my only excuse, wont happen again and thanks for the advice.:o

mrbarney

Thanks Ztoical for the info on promoting business on boards but as you can see i have all ready had me hand slapped and thanks for the advice.

ztoical

back on topic has anyone used ACE comics? I've heard both positive and negative comments on their service so not sure if I should rec it for subscriptions.

Anyone looking for BD's [french comics] should try Alapage.com - it is all in french but its the same layout as amzon or play.com - pretty easy to fill in the info if you've got basic junior cert french.