Post by G on Mar 21, 2010 10:35:43 GMT -5
This store is located off of Warwick Blvd in Newport News in a shopping center a few miles off the interstate. Although the name of the store is Amazing Fantasy, you have to look for a big "AF" above the building to locate it.
This place reminded me of an old Sports Card store with a big counter made up of showcases where you would normally see gem cards. This was off to the right side as you walked in and the comics were filed away in boxes on the left. The store seemed neat and clean and the guy behind the counter was real friendly. We even took in some Olympic Hockey with him as we moved around his store. He was very talkative throughout our visit.
The great thing about this store is strictly newer back issues. I'm talking comics from the past 2-5 years. He has them filed away by letter and almost all the boxes are the same. 1st 20 comics are $1 each. The next 20 comics are 75 cents each. And so it goes. I can't remember how low it got, but the more you bought, the lower it got.
And it wasn't like you were looking at a bunch of junk. Sure, these were mostly newer books from the past couple of years, so it wasn't like this was make or break stuff here and a lot of it could be had elsewhere at likewise prices. The great thing about this store though was it was almost totally made up of comics like this and the selection was HUGE! So therefore, if you had a recent title you liked but had missed some issues in the past few years, this was the place for you. Not only that, he appeared to have missed out on books that had turned hot recently and Az being the guy who keeps up with this stuff that he is was cleaning the guy out in multiples on high dollar books selling for only $1 for the first twenty! Even I was finding stuff I wanted if nothing more than I wanted these books when they came out but wasn't willing to pay cover price for them. Now I was getting NM copies for $1 or less.
The ONLY negative was his truly good stuff was nestled away behind the counter up high on some racks in bulk. For instance, you could see a stack of Silver Age Fantastic Fours just sitting there, but way up high. Next to that, a bunch of Silver Age Spider-Man's. We aren't talking 1 book against a wall. We're talking a stack of like 50 books and all you could see was the one on top. It made you want to see them, but asking a guy who looked like he was in his late 50s to climb a ladder and get a stack of books down so you could look seemed like too much trouble. What if you didn't want any? You would feel guilty making the guy do this work. So I think personally he needed to make his good stuff a lot more accessible or at least make a gem wall book area so people could see the good stuff. You could tell he had some, you just didn't know what. I'm pretty sure if you pressed him on the issue, he probably had some good stuff tucked away up there.
All in all, this store was worth the visit strictly for its bargains on newer back issues. And no, not just the bargains on the newer back issues, but even more so, the selection of newer back issue.
If you were strictly a comic reader, this was a dream come true. If you were a collector, this wasn't too far off either.
All in all, I have to say any time I am in the vicinity (which is rare), I'll be stopping off and trying to pick a stack of recent books up from this guy. Because he is certainly worth the visit. I hope this guy stays around awhile.
This place reminded me of an old Sports Card store with a big counter made up of showcases where you would normally see gem cards. This was off to the right side as you walked in and the comics were filed away in boxes on the left. The store seemed neat and clean and the guy behind the counter was real friendly. We even took in some Olympic Hockey with him as we moved around his store. He was very talkative throughout our visit.
The great thing about this store is strictly newer back issues. I'm talking comics from the past 2-5 years. He has them filed away by letter and almost all the boxes are the same. 1st 20 comics are $1 each. The next 20 comics are 75 cents each. And so it goes. I can't remember how low it got, but the more you bought, the lower it got.
And it wasn't like you were looking at a bunch of junk. Sure, these were mostly newer books from the past couple of years, so it wasn't like this was make or break stuff here and a lot of it could be had elsewhere at likewise prices. The great thing about this store though was it was almost totally made up of comics like this and the selection was HUGE! So therefore, if you had a recent title you liked but had missed some issues in the past few years, this was the place for you. Not only that, he appeared to have missed out on books that had turned hot recently and Az being the guy who keeps up with this stuff that he is was cleaning the guy out in multiples on high dollar books selling for only $1 for the first twenty! Even I was finding stuff I wanted if nothing more than I wanted these books when they came out but wasn't willing to pay cover price for them. Now I was getting NM copies for $1 or less.
The ONLY negative was his truly good stuff was nestled away behind the counter up high on some racks in bulk. For instance, you could see a stack of Silver Age Fantastic Fours just sitting there, but way up high. Next to that, a bunch of Silver Age Spider-Man's. We aren't talking 1 book against a wall. We're talking a stack of like 50 books and all you could see was the one on top. It made you want to see them, but asking a guy who looked like he was in his late 50s to climb a ladder and get a stack of books down so you could look seemed like too much trouble. What if you didn't want any? You would feel guilty making the guy do this work. So I think personally he needed to make his good stuff a lot more accessible or at least make a gem wall book area so people could see the good stuff. You could tell he had some, you just didn't know what. I'm pretty sure if you pressed him on the issue, he probably had some good stuff tucked away up there.
All in all, this store was worth the visit strictly for its bargains on newer back issues. And no, not just the bargains on the newer back issues, but even more so, the selection of newer back issue.
If you were strictly a comic reader, this was a dream come true. If you were a collector, this wasn't too far off either.
All in all, I have to say any time I am in the vicinity (which is rare), I'll be stopping off and trying to pick a stack of recent books up from this guy. Because he is certainly worth the visit. I hope this guy stays around awhile.
