General Omnibus/Hardcover Discussion

[UltimateMarvel Dude]

Does anyone know which version of the Habibi HC is the better one?
English Faber & Faber vs. (the original?) Pantheon

[DrGregatron]

If the local guy can't compete then so be it. I'm not going to spend extra money just so the local guy can continue to charge more. If he wants my business he can bring the price down. It would be the same if another shop opened across the street and charged Amazon's prices.

I agree with you. It's not like the local guy is providing me much of a service by just being there. I have to drive 20 minutes to to get to the nearest shop just to pay an outrageous cover price. I'm getting tired of doing that. That's why I decided I was going to stop buying the few monthlies I was buying starting this month. I'm just buying trades from now on and I'll be doing it online for a decent discount.

I used to only buy locally. Now, being a parent with less money, I only buy online. Gotta look out for #1.

That's one of my reasons for buying online. I'm a parent and you have to save money where you can. Collecting hardcover comics is even more expensive than my video game habit.

But that punishes local retailers for Marvel's pricing. The local guy loses because the online etailer can undercut so much.

My LCS has infrequent 20% off sales, which are great, but there's something odd about being so resistant to paying cover price. Essentially, before Amazon and the like, the price was the price.

Sorry, Gittles. I find it preferable to save 40% to 50% online than to see my local comic book guy's smiling face. Maybe Marvel will take the feedback from their guys in the local shops to heart and start offering more of a value by keeping prices under control without cutting the page count.

[Captain Planet]

I agree with you. It's not like the local guy is providing me much of a service by just being there. I have to drive 20 minutes to to get to the nearest shop just to pay an outrageous cover price. I'm getting tired of doing that. That's why I decided I was going to stop buying the few monthlies I was buying starting this month. I'm just buying trades from now on and I'll be doing it online for a decent discount.

That's one of my reasons for buying online. I'm a parent and you have to save money where you can. Collecting hardcover comics is even more expensive than my video game habit.


Sorry, Gittles. I find it preferable to save 40% to 50% online than to see my local comic book guy's smiling face. Maybe Marvel will take the feedback from their guys in the local shops to heart and start offering more of a value by keeping prices under control without cutting the page count.

Same here. LCS owners seem so resistant to change and discount. I've talked to several that have told me how much they have to pay for their trades and they refuse to discount or offer rewards programs. I like the owner of my LCS but I will never buy a trade there because its too expensive. And I don't blame them entirely. Publishers are asking ridiculous prices for these trades. They seem to be pricing for online retailers and not for the LCS. Its too bad but if you can't adapt you're going to loose.

[Gittles]

Same here. LCS owners seem so resistant to change and discount. I've talked to several that have told me how much they have to pay for their trades and they refuse to discount or offer rewards programs. I like the owner of my LCS but I will never buy a trade there because its too expensive. And I don't blame them entirely. Publishers are asking ridiculous prices for these trades. They seem to be pricing for online retailers and not for the LCS. Its too bad but if you can't adapt you're going to loose.

A no discount policy is dumb. But matching Amazon's discount -- for a brick and mortar retailer -- is essentially giving books away.

And I don't know about the pricing thing. If, say, the new New X-Men Omnibus were $50 cover, would you buy it at your LCS, knowing it was once $100? Or would you even still pay $30-ish from Amazon?

The way online retailing works, LCSes simply can't compete on price and still stay in business. All they have left is customer service and perhaps some off and on specials. If your LCS isn't doing anything in either of those departments, then you're right, you're better off without them.

And I don't mean to come off like I'm 100% pro-local and anti-Internet retailing; I've spent thousands on Amazon and the like. It's just an interesting situation of how we buy what we buy.

[momaw]

The shipping costs back would have been more than the cost of the book so,it was not worth it for them worrying about it. Not sure if it is like that all the time, but they won't leave you out of pocket either way.

They seem to have changed their policy over the last twelve months. When my New 52 arrived damaged they were adamant if I wanted a replacement or refund I'd have to return it. Same with a damaged item I received from amazon uk.

[Captain Planet]

A no discount policy is dumb. But matching Amazon's discount -- for a brick and mortar retailer -- is essentially giving books away.

And I don't know about the pricing thing. If, say, the new New X-Men Omnibus were $50 cover, would you buy it at your LCS, knowing it was once $100? Or would you even still pay $30-ish from Amazon?

The way online retailing works, LCSes simply can't compete on price and still stay in business. All they have left is customer service and perhaps some off and on specials. If your LCS isn't doing anything in either of those departments, then you're right, you're better off without them.

And I don't mean to come off like I'm 100% pro-local and anti-Internet retailing; I've spent thousands on Amazon and the like. It's just an interesting situation of how we buy what we buy.

That may be true in many cases, but as we can see with Mycomicshop.com and cgn.com, physical brick and mortar stores can compete if they can adapt. I buy many of my books from "not Amazon" CGN, with shipping and tax, is almost always more than amazon by $4-6 but I'll pay that because they have a great price, better packaging and great service.

I 100% agree though that online retailers like Amazon have completely skewed our idea of pricing and what we think is reasonable.

I try to support the LCSs around here by buying floppies. I hate buying floppies and don't even read them all the time but I do it because I like comic shops. But, like you said, if they are not going to work with me at all I just can't pay full retail price for trades.

[Captain Craig]

So other than WonderTwinBoys what are some other good Ebay sellers with great discount prices on Omnibus volumes AND ship the books well packed?

Thanks!

[Jlls]

Does anyone know which version of the Habibi HC is the better one?
English Faber & Faber vs. (the original?) Pantheon

Is there any difference? I'd like to know as well

[Eris]

Does anyone know which version of the Habibi HC is the better one?
English Faber & Faber vs. (the original?) Pantheon

Is there any difference? I'd like to know as well

I'm pretty sure they're the same, but couldn't swear to it as I hadn't realised there were two separate versions. Production wise it's a lovely book to see in person though.
Caustic Cover Critic has some pictures of the 'Faber & Faber' version, so maybe someone with the US version could comment on whether it looks the same?
They also mention that the ISBN and such are on a removeable slip of paper, which makes me even more inclined to think they just swapped in a different one (in the same way a lot of Titan's UK releases of DC comics are just the DC versions with a new price sticker on them).

[UltimateMarvel Dude]

I'm pretty sure they're the same, but couldn't swear to it as I hadn't realised there were two separate versions. Production wise it's a lovely book to see in person though.
Caustic Cover Critic has some pictures of the 'Faber & Faber' version, so maybe someone with the US version could comment on whether it looks the same?
They also mention that the ISBN and such are on a removeable slip of paper, which makes me even more inclined to think they just swapped in a different one (in the same way a lot of Titan's UK releases of DC comics are just the DC versions with a new price sticker on them).

The german version has a couple annotations towards the end of the book:
http://www.amazon.de/gp/reader/39410...pt#reader-link
Is this included in the english one as well?

Some more pictures of the F%F version:
http://www.amazon.de/gp/customer-med...e=UTF8&index=0

Btw, did you know that there's a "signed bookplated edition" (whatever the hell bookplated is supposed to mean)?
http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=241416

[josh straightedge]

I have a question for the Omnibus crowd.

Are you monthly comic buyers and do you already have the issues from all the omnibuses you buy?

Sometimes, it's hard for me to justify buying just because I have all the issues. I really want to buy the Simonson Thor Omni but I have all the issues of the run already. I still buy some of the stuff, the recoloring alone and better paper stock make it worth it. Plus, buying online saves a lot.

[xthumper32x]

Not what I'd call cheap, but CGN has it in stock.

http://www.cheapgraphicnovels.com/am...vol-01-hc.html

dang, not cheap at all. That's what I paid for the two omni's I just ordered. lol. But thanks. I might try to snag that next month

I have a question for the Omnibus crowd.

Are you monthly comic buyers and do you already have the issues from all the omnibuses you buy?

Sometimes, it's hard for me to justify buying just because I have all the issues. I really want to buy the Simonson Thor Omni but I have all the issues of the run already. I still buy some of the stuff, the recoloring alone and better paper stock make it worth it. Plus, buying online saves a lot.

Well, I'm only 22 so I have random issues of comics (some bought and some given to me). I never got a full run of anything in normal issues. But I have been a marvel fan for my entire life. So now I am going though and trying to buy the omni's with the best content.

[CrazyOldHermit]

Well hurrah, after two weeks BD has finally given me my refund. Not the best customer service but oh well. Out of the 23 comics I've bought online, two were from Amazon, three were from eBay and the rest were from BD. I dunno why but with the exception of omnis their prices almost always work out to being better than Amazon for me. The fact that they accept PayPal is a big plus too.

I have a question for the Omnibus crowd.

Are you monthly comic buyers and do you already have the issues from all the omnibuses you buy?

Sometimes, it's hard for me to justify buying just because I have all the issues. I really want to buy the Simonson Thor Omni but I have all the issues of the run already. I still buy some of the stuff, the recoloring alone and better paper stock make it worth it. Plus, buying online saves a lot.

I'd say theres a statue of limitations on that sort of thing. If the comics are that old then I think they've been paid off and buying the Simonson Thor omni is worth it. If you're still stuck then you could take the third option and have the issues bound.

[Omnibus]

I have a question for the Omnibus crowd.

Are you monthly comic buyers and do you already have the issues from all the omnibuses you buy?

I am Omnibus and OHC's all the way. I do have a few of the issues from way back in the 80's when I did collect floppies but it is the oversized art in a nice book format with sewn binding that brought me back in.

[bit18986244]

Are you monthly comic buyers and do you already have the issues from all the omnibuses you buy?

I haven't bought a monthly book since I was a 10 year old. My mom would never take me to any comic book shops because they reeked of incense and neckbeard

I'd probably love the omnibus line even more if I had more familiarity/nostalgia with the titles, but I like everything being a surprise too. If I buy floppies now, they're mostly just lots of Vertigo off eBay.

I'm going to go to my first comic shop in like 5 years Tuesday to see if I can find the first 7/last 3 issues of Shade the Changing Man, and then I'm going to try my first hardcover bind. :3