I agree that it's very important to support our FLGS. That's why, on January 21st, I called them and ordered
Era Report: 3052, 2 days after the posted street date. I had already seen this book on ebay and almost bought it (no doubt for less), but decided that supporting my FLGS was definitely the way to go.
I still don't have it, over 5 weeks later. I asked the guys at SFC on Saturday, and it sounded like
maybe the boss had
finally put the order through, although I'm not 100% positive of that. It also sounded like they had absolutely no control over when an order like that would actually get placed. Now, I know sometimes distributors give retailers the run-around on providing ordered goods, perhaps they'll just say a mini is unavailable if they're out because they don't want to place another big order with the manufacturer. But distributors don't generally mess around when it comes to providing
brand new, still warm, off-the-press books. As useless as Comic Book World generally always was, if I ordered a book from Mark he had it in for me within a couple days, a week MAX (in fact, he even agreed to match the combined price/shipping of ebay sellers for said books). And what's really pissing me off here, is that this isn't even a distributor issue. Basically I ordered a book,
and Sci-Fi City essentially refused to actually order it. Maybe they finally have, maybe they haven't, I couldn't tell you. But it's killing my warm fuzzy feelings for the place. I try to buy
something every time we play there (this time it was another GW wash and an extra foam tray). I don't buy mechs there, because they went and killed the huge mech selection, a selection that originally included many archived minis, thereby making it an invaluable resource. Well, that sucked, but I understand business, and if stock isn't moving fast enough and you've got other options, I can't blame ya.
But dammit, when I order a book, you had better either actually order it or let me know in advance that you've got no intention of doing so. Alright, had to vent.
Yes, I'll be buying a box. Wish I could afford more than one, but I just can't justify the cost since I don't really need the minis. Couple questions: Why do I need to go to SCF to order, can't I do this over the phone? Are these guys on commission, and if so, shouldn't we split some orders between Eric and the other bearded dude who's generally there? Will they be actually ordering our frickin boxes on-time?!