The Secret of the Wednesday’s Haul

I’m conducting a bit of an experiment here.

For the next few months, I think I’m going to stop pre-ordering my trade and hardcover collections from DCBS. Most of my monthly comic shopping still takes place at my local comic shop (LCS for those in the know.) My weekly drug of choice is Graham Crackers in Naperville. In some way or another, I think I’ve been shopping there for over 12 years. They may not be as splashy as Isotope or Midtown or Jim Hanley’s but I think they’re some of the best comic retailers around. And here in the burbs of Chicago, I’m fortunate to have a couple of shops nearby that I really like.

Probably about 3 years ago, I started using DCBS for a mixture of collections and single issues. But for the past 6 months, I think I’ve been heavy on the collections from them and light to nonexistent on the single issues.

Now, here’s my problem with using DCBS as a source for my trades– I have to pay 3-6 months in advance for the trades. If it was a standard 3 months, I wouldn’t care too much. But most of the trades I would have ordered this month from Dark Horse and DC wouldn’t come until June. This month’s Previews focuses on books coming out in April. Thanks to how the book publishing world works, this is what companies are having to do, solicit that far in advance. And thanks to that, I’d be giving DCBS money in a couple of weeks for books that I wouldn’t be getting until early/mid summer.

This is not to knock DCBS or make it sound like I’m in anyway dissatisfied with their service. They’ve been exemplary to me and I still plan to use them now and again, probably ordering more through Instock Trades than the DCBS side of things. My plan is actually to move my collection and graphic novel more through Instock, Amazon and Borders while keeping my weekly issue habit (which is shrinking almost as we speak) through Grahams. I love my weekly runs to the comic shop too much to stop and, honestly, I don’t know if DCBS’s standard discounts make up for the ease, convenience and atmosphere of the shop. Again, if I had different circumstances I may be thinking different.

Amazon, In Stock and Borders gives the benefit of nearly instantaneous satisfaction after they take your money, not three or four months later. That’s the problem with pre-ordering and pre-paying so far in advance. I also think that this may cut down on some frivolous purchases, books I think now don’t look too bad but in the light of day I have to wonder what I was drinking when I ordered. In times of little self control, I know I’ve ordered things because… well, really for no good reason. Some of it has paid off but a lot of it sits in piles probably never to be read again. If I had managed to see them before I purchased, maybe those books could have gone to a better home.

So maybe this is my dear John letter to DCBS. I’m sure we’ll see each other at parties or something like that. And if I can find books I want that I don’t think Amazon will ever get, maybe we’ll see each other again but I don’t know if it can ever be like it was.

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