Ssalefish Comics — Attraction in Winston-Salem

One of the worst comic shops to do business with online. The owner led me to believe something that wasn't true, gave me the run-around, and flat out scammed me. That's in addition to sending me a jacked-up comic that I paid good money for.

I pre-ordered a limited variant set of Batman 50 comics. Two sets actually. One of the virgin covers had a bad crease from top to bottom, down the middle of the back cover. I contacted Bret Parks (the owner) at Ssalefish Comics to inform him of the issue. He offered a refund, but I wanted a replacement. He told me to send it back, which I did. The next thing I know I'm getting a refund for $16.66 to my PayPal account. I contacted him and reminded him that I requested a replacement, not a refund. He told me he only had a couple left, and that they were messed up as well. I said that I'd prefer to have the comic back, rather than $16 (as I could have it pressed) , and he then told me he sold it. I asked if he could send me one of the others from the set and have his $16 back and he told me that I could go to the website and purchase one.

Pre-order cost of set: $50 Cost of set now: $75

Comic 1: limited to 3000 Comic 2: limited to 1500 Comic 3: limited to 1000

So my 16.66 refund was based on the $50 original cost, and the number of copies made was not taken into consideration. I returned comic 3, the most valuable one, but I received a refund that did not reflect this.

Refund amounts should have been as follows :

Comic 1: $10 Comic 2: $15 Comic 3: $25

But then the pre-sale prices are now gone and the  current set sells for $75 (a 50% increase). Current prices: Comic 1: $20 Comic 2: $30 Comic 3: supposedly no longer available.

So with my refund ($16.66) for the rarest book in the set, I can't even buy the cheapest comic in the set.

During our email communications, I was very polite, flexible, and attempted to work things out from multiple angles. But Bret's final response was "If I wanted a comic, then I could go to the website and buy one."

Not a good way to do business, but a great way to lose a customer for life. Anyhow, please be warned if you're thinking about doing business with this company online, especially if you're buying a...

I truly wish that there was an option for 0 stars. This place is a sorry excuse for "business." Went into the store about a month ago to sell some carded vintage TMNT action figures that I had that my fiancé's deceased father had been keeping. Store employee bought the items for $800 and wrote me a check. This "business" cancelled the check and didn't contact me had I not contacted them I would have cashed a bad check. Store owner informed me that "it was an unauthorized purchase" and the employee who bought them had been fired and a new check would not be issued. I informed him that I had contacted an attorney and that legally if taken to court he would be forced to issue a check, he told me "he doesn't like that lawyer talk and I needed to come get the turtles by the end of the business day or he was going to throw them in the trash." I proceeded to tell him how I felt about him and he told me if I came on their property that he would have me arrested for trespassing. I called the cops had them show up to the store with me to sort everything out. The store owner proceeded to try to have me arrested for trespassing, the guy really needs to brush up on his knowledge of the law because I have to be in his store to be trespassing not at the shopping center. He also lied to the police officer telling him that another police officer had told me I wasn't allowed on the property. Needless to say I got my turtles back and three of them were missing AND they switched one of my soft head original turtles ($400-$1000) with a hard head ($90 value). I ended up taking the turtles over to Burke Street comics where Ryan was more than happy to help me and also told me that I wasn't the only one who had been screwed over by this "business." I would tell anyone looking to buy or sell comics or toys to stay away from...

Ssalefish Comics is a comic book store and a fine one at that. The selection of quality books and collectibles is amazing. The selection of garbage is poor. If you are looking for some torn up copies of Casper or Archie to rip up and make scrapbooking crap from or some other cheap (not 'inexpensive', fricken CHEAP) shredded books, go elsewhere.

The owner and his employees are helpful, if you want to be helped. They are able to answer questions, and if you ask for opinions or even say, "I like (insert titles); what else would you suggest", they will steer you in the right direction. If you ask for something that will lose them money, they will likely make fun of you (as will the clientele) because... c'mon... Would you give me a dollar for this penny?

Basically, the bad reviews are coming from people that don't like staff with personality (yeah Brett's an @$$... He's still funny, helpful and a shop owner with enough taste and business savvy to keep a comic shop open in an area that has had several fail within months of opening their doors) or they don't like that they can't name their own price on clearly marked items (if the book's price tag says "$5.00", why ask if you can have it for $2.00? Would you do that in Wal-Mart?).

And to sum it up... No, I don't work at Ssalefish. I shopped there for 2+ years. I joined a branch of the military and when I have the opportunity to come back to W-S, I make it a point to visit Ssalefish Comics. I have yet to leave empty handed or...