Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities To 'Pull' or Not to 'Pull' ... or Subscribe

what are these pull lists i keep hearing about?

i assume it's when you make the people at the comic book store 'pull' your comics from the shipment that arrives before they go on the shelf. so you've got a nice package waiting for you when you arrive at the CBS. and don't have to worry about the store running out of enough of your favorite comic.

i don't pull, i like going to the store and looking on the racks and being surprised each week. it' a ritual or a cultural thing.


my CBS in l.a. is awesome, they always have enough, usually, and when they run out they order more for the next week.


but .... i still miss somethings very rarely. for example, i forgot about i-zombie one week and then it moved to the 'last week' row or the recent row instead of the new row ... and i mostly look at the new row when shopping. it took me three weeks to remember i had missed i-zombie # 3 while i was at the store buying comics.


however, some CBS' never have enough. shipments arrive and go straight into the 'pull' bags never to be seen by shoppers like me.

(and on a related note, one even used to pull the variant covers for themselves and sell them - marked up - behind the cash register ... grrr)


so when did people switch to the 'pull' and why?


how's it working out? do you not find as many new thinsg cause you're not shopping and look for new things? is it boring to go just pick up a bag every week?


and while we're making a thread ....

what about subscriptions!!! i don't usually want to commit to a book for 12 months (in case the artist changes or the book goes down the crapper)


but, i did when i was a kid and it was a nice surprise to get an x-men in the mail every now and then. they were all kinda crunched up though cause mail boxes are not all made to perfectly accommodate comic book dimensions.

anyone do subscriptions?

I've been using pull lists on and off for almost 20 years. I've moved a lot and changed comic book shops enough to be able to compare the practice in different areas. For shops like yours, that always order plenty of all titles, there typically aren't many advantages. If you live in a town with lots of shops, you can always go to another store if yours runs out.

Most shops, though, try not to over order so they don't get stuck with unsold items. If you live in a town with just one shop that orders tight, pulls are almost a must. They are more useful for low selling items or the occasional unpredicted "hot item". Middle of the road sellers are typically easy to find.

Some shops offer free bags and boards or discounts for pulled items. The practice does help the owners control their margins.

I don't "pull" because my income is too irregular. It wouldn't do a retailer any favors if I piled up a bunch of stuff and then left it at the store because I couldn't afford to come in and get it.

Pay as you go is how it has to be, until further notice.

I had a pull list snafu a few years ago when my local comic shop opened an outlet right next door to my house. I stopped going across town and totally spaced that I had a folder over there.

Two years later, they closed that shop down and consolidated back at the old location and I wandered in and the owner was like, 'You know, you have like 200 comics in your folder...'

Doh.

My current shop has a strict 30 day hold policy to reduce the impact of such snafus. You sign a contract up front saying that you will pick up your books each month, and they will stop pulling for you if you haven't been in to the store in over 30 days.

I never really wanted a pull list. I liked the ability to buy or not buy on a whim, but my local shop doesn't bring a lot of things in, so it's really not an option anymore. Unless I want to go into the city. It's a bit of a pain, because I even have to order crossovers and annuals in advance, and there's not much to browse. On the other hand, I get a 15% discount on everything in the store for keeping a list.

My shop gives a discount too (10%), so I have a basic pull list - but also browse, which tends to be dangerous to my budget.

I used to subscribe to the Legion comic, since I don't get into the CBS that often, but the service was abysmal. For a while, the book was arriving the same week as it hit the stores, but then delivery became very late, or not at all.

hmmm, discount for pulls. i'll have to check it out. also, i can see how it'll help my shop to know how much to order. maybe i will start a basic list and then browse quickly... besides i can always count on legion world peeps for new recommendations to look for.

i remember when i had a subscription in high school it was one day after it hit the comic stores but, sometimes the mail person would fold it in half

but it comes in a nice sealed plastic bag.

My father and I have a pull list, and since we collect almost every Marvel & DC Comic, we have a 25% discount on everything we buy in the store.

That being said, I still go through the entire display to check out new comics and other things I might have missed last time. That's the most fun part of going to the store and has been a ritual of mine since I was like 14.

I used to go every week and so I could add up in my head how much each week would be and then throw some extra comics in to reach our max (it used to be $40 a week, but alas, damn comics prices are out of control now). Now they build up to like 5-6 weeks and that takes too much effort. When I move back closer to my CBS in the next two years, I'm hoping I can go weekly again, or at least bi-weekly.

Count me in with the "not to pull" crowd.

It's fun perusing the racks and getting surprised by what's there. Plus, the weekly trip makes Wednesday a day to look forward to, and that helps the work week fly by. With a pull list, I'd be tempted no to make the weekly trip.

I was thinking of asking my shop about a pull list ... in the past six months I've gone from reading one or two books a month to several a week ... I dislike the owner of the nearest shop near me, so I've been going to one about half an hour away that is awesome except that if I want to go after work I usually hit tons of traffic turning it into about a 50 - 60 minute trip each way ... I figure I would ask them to pull some stuff next week when I leave for Australia and see how that goes ...