Matt's Sports Cards & Comics — Local services in Enfield

No wonder the industry is dying. My experience with this store has lead me to doing a longer editorial piece on the state of the comics industry mid/post pandemic and the critical role stores play as primary point of contact for the waning customer base. I've been a lifelong collector, and I've had a pull list at one brick-and-mortar LCS for over 20 years. My experience with this single store is looking like the nail in the coffin of the dying days of my collecting. Like many collectors, I was displaced and out of work during the pandemic. Needing a new shop to start a pull list with, I started investigating shops in the Hartford/Enfield/Manchester/Windsor area. I settled on Matt's. What a mistake. Part of the hobby for me is digging through long boxes, quarter bins, and the cream owners often hide in short boxes in the back of the store. I spend as much money or more on back issues. Increasingly so as I have gotten older. My taste are informed by nostalgia, and in adulthood, I simply had more disposable income than I did as a young collector. Finding a shop that had a sizable back issue section was critical. Matt's fit that bill. The store lacks nothing in stock. What it lacks is a basic understanding of retail sales practices, and clear indifference/disinterest to the needs of customers. Well, new customers at least. Based on my understanding of financial trends in the comic book industry, new customers are important to the long-term sustainability of a shop. For three months I endured this, hoping each time they might, remember my name. Notice that when a series I was pulling came to an end they might suggest another. When I clearly circled the piles of back issues laying in piles around the shop, bothering to ask me a single question about my interest, and how they might have something to sell me. As I would wind through the "surprise pricing" nooks of hardbacks, graphic novels, and omnibuses I would feel a gaze occasionally, but no engagement. It felt more like a security check for potential shrinkage. Even in this environment their profound lack of f&*ks given to my needs as a customer was inexcusable, and perhaps, the final time I walk through the...

By far the worst MTG seller in the Enfield area, been here three times to see if the experience got better and it did not. Firstly this guy is disorganized as can be, literally has stuff blocking the display cases showing his cards. If you mention it you get told he is 'reorganizing' my visits spanned 2 to 3 month intervals with no change, some long process on that. Secondly if you ever want to feel like you're a burden just ask him to look at some of his cards not in the display case that you can't see with all the stuff blocking it. He will begrudgingly come back to the counter and present you with one of many boxes of assorted cards spanning 20 years of MTG. Thirdly after you spend 20 minutes sorting through his very disorganized cards (only sorted by color, seriously?) be ready for him to quote you prices from the 'I mark these up 200% and hope you don't notice' category. Seriously you have loose cards that definitely don't sell and you make me sort through them and then you expect me to pay more than I can pay online? Fourthly this guy has no personality whatsoever. Try and make small talk while you sort his cards and he just grunts and says two words. Making a customer feel like they're in your way is just awesome.

His shop is obviously more catered to all the sports and comics stuff which no doubt impacts his mindset and begs the question of why he even sells MTG to begin with. If you're looking for MTG cards take the extra travel time and hit up Ice Imports for a way...

I haven’t been in a comic book store in like 10 years since I worked at 1 in high school.

I took my nephew to get Pokémon cards. This place was pretty awesome and had a huge toy collection of some hard to find figures. We bought some Pokémon packs and they had a real nice kid section with cheaper books.

The person working there was really nice. Went with a 6 and 8 year old. I noticed they had comic book short boxes with characters on them. I asked for one guy went on a ladder and looked at a few boxes until he found an X-men one I wanted. As my nephews only read Spider-Man and X-Men.

I did read some of the comments.

*all comic book stores give u 0.01% of what you paid for the same items at the store. They are a store you are not. When I traded/sold my comic collection 10+ years ago they gave me $20-50 books for stuff I paid maybe 500-100 while collecting. But you probably pulled out the more expensive items like most people do. Always laugh when people outgrow their stuff then come into these stores and are soul crushed to realize they had mostly worthless paper and you have to tell them this is all going in the 50 cent bin. Will probably still be there when your kids are your age.

all these items are collectible. Everything I looked at had prices. You are trying to hustle a store. It’s not...