Shipping & policies
Shipping
Shipping is calculated separately from comic prices. The price on a comic is the price of the comic; postage is quoted on top and paid by the buyer. Everything ships from Newark, Delaware: $5.00 for the first comic and $1.00 for each additional comic in the same order — five comics ship for $9.00, not five times $5.00. Books go out bagged and boarded, flat between cardboard in a rigid mailer.
That means a $1.99 comic bought on its own costs more to post than it does to buy. We would rather be straight about it than pad every cheap comic up to $9 to hide the postage. Combined shipping is the answer: the more comics in one order, the less each one costs to send.
The bargain bin
Any comic priced at $1.00 or less is a bargain-bin comic, and bargain-bin comics group: every third one is free. Three in the cart, pay for two. Six, pay for four. It works at any quantity, so you are never one comic short of a better deal. Applied automatically at checkout, to comic prices only — never to shipping.
| Bargain bin · $0.01–$1.00 | every 3rd comic free — put 3 in the cart and the cheapest of them costs nothing; 6 and two are free, and so on at any quantity |
|---|---|
| Single issue · $1.01+ | individually priced — no volume discount, and none needed |
Anything priced above a dollar is an ordinary single at its own price — no grouping, no discount. So a bargain-bin deal never touches the $25 book sitting in the same cart. Use the price filter in the browser to find cheap singles.
Scheduled local pickup — appointment required
Local pickup is available by scheduled appointment only. This is not a walk-in retail location and there is no showroom to browse. Place your order first, then we agree a pickup window and hand the order over at that time. Please do not arrive without a confirmed pickup time.
How it works: browse online, build your cart, place the order, then we agree a pickup window and hand the prepared order over at that time. Pickup is near Newark, Delaware and carries no shipping charge; volume discounts still apply. There is a $15.00 minimum on comics for a scheduled pickup, so we are not booking a handoff for a single 83¢ comic.
Grading
Every book is raw (ungraded) and photographed individually — the copy in the photo is the copy you get. We grade conservatively on the standard scale:
| NM (9.4) | Looks new. Sharp corners, flat spine, full colour. |
|---|---|
| VF (8.0) | Attractive, minor wear at the spine or corners. |
| FN (6.0) | Read but sound. Some spine stress, minor creasing. |
| VG (4.0) | Obvious wear, still complete and solid. |
| GD (2.0) | Heavy wear, reading copy. |
| Ungraded | Not yet assessed — judge it from the photo, ask for more. |
Noted flaws appear on each book's page. If a photo does not show what you need, ask and we will take another.
Pricing
Prices come from real recorded sales of the same issue in the same grade — eBay sold listings and auction results — not from a price guide. Lots are priced below the sum of their parts. Where a listing says "or best offer", the market gets a say.
Returns
Raw books are sold as photographed and graded. If a book arrives materially different from its description, message within 7 days and we'll make it right.