Time Tunnel Comics — Local services in Hickory

New update: I've read some of these recent and blatantly false reviews about TTC and Jake. Again, I suspect it's deliberate and likely driven by the cronies of his weak and failing competition. Pay no attention to the malcontents. No comic and gaming store in the Unifour area has better quality stock or more reasonable prices. And, don't forget the upcoming Hickory Con Sept 7th! There will be hundreds of dealers and thousands of attendees. Keep up the good work Jake and co.

Update: After reading some questionable google reviews about TTC, I feel the need to defend Jake and his excellent comic and gaming establishment. Jake is too nice a guy to rebut criticism and sincerely tries to accommodate even the worst complainers and malcontents. Nobody in this business can please everybody. Lots of people "think" stores can pay full retail values for anything they want to sell. Likewise, others think a niche business can afford to give away HTF products. But ya can't stay in business that way. The people of Hickory and surrounding areas are very fortunate to have an honest, savvy and knowledgeable businessman like Jake Edwards to meet their comic, gaming and collectible needs. Jake will even pay you cash money for items he needs. Many shops only offer trades or store credit. I personally believe some of these false negative google comments are likely driven by cronies of his competition simply because Jake is so well liked and successful. None-the-less, TTC has persevered for 18 years (a record for the Unifour) and is getting stronger everyday. Congrats Jake and co. Keep up the great work! I've gotta come by and pick up some more silver age comics and monster mags. :-)

Hello, neither myself, nor Eddie are owners Of Time Tunnel Comics and Toys as of Jan 30th 2018. But we'll always be the founders. After 17 years of serving the Unifour, it was time for us to move on to other ventures. And, we had the best possible comic and gaming guy around wanting to buy out the store, relocate and improve it. Jake Edwards was the perfect man for the job. He is THE most comic and gaming savvy person I know. Plus, Jake works about all the time. The new store location is just the right size, has ample parking and is easy to access. Jake has changed out and boosted the type of stock carried. I was always into antique and classic toys, which there is not really much of a market for other than online. I am really impressed with all the popular new comic and gaming related merchandise that Jake has installed to replace it. I've visited the new location several times and think it's great! The store is filled with goodness. Funny, now I'm buying products instead of selling them. Every time I've been by there the place is busy, busy, busy. Thanks to everybody past and present that kept Time Tunnel Comics going, and continued good luck to...

I have shopped at Time Tunnel since it was owned by the previous owners in the old location strip mall. And no, I don't recommend the other "comic" shop to buy comics either as they are a gaming store and never have a wide selection or interest in back issues. I shopped at Time Tunnel for the last time today unfortunately. I believe this shop should just go to online sales as it is impossible to shop in their small store. They have online orders spread all over the back stock comics making it impossible to even look through them. Not to mention the boxes and piles marked "Not Priced Yet" or "Not for Sale" strewn about the store. This isn't just something that happened today, but the last few times I've been in there. The owner is friendly enough to say hello when you walk in, but he has snapped at me in the past for looking in a OPEN box below back stock comics that he said weren't processed yet. And no, they weren't marked as such. He was having a bad day I guess? This is a LCS that wants be an online retailer. If you're local, this is the only real place to go for your new books. If you're not, I'd recommend looking elsewhere sadly. I also miss the discounts that the previous owners would offer when I bought older books, it kept me coming back.

RESPONSE: It's the last few times combined with all the other times I've entered the store and had issues that has led me to not shop time tunnel any more. And I should have to ask you to move items around in order to shop and spend money at your store? This was an issue before the pandemic and I was told in the past that those items couldn't be moved because they were being sorted, so I left as I have had to do many times before. My time and travel are just as valuable as the money I spend and many times both have been wasted. Like I said above, if you want a local store in Hickory to buy comic books, Time Tunnel is the only place and I hope your experience is...

I’ve only been to this store a handful of times, but the most recent visit assured me that I will probably never be back. The guy working the register was very nice and helpful, which is why I’m giving two stars instead of one.

First of all, the store is very cluttered. That’s not a huge complaint from me, but it just adds to the overall negative experience.

My main issue is that, as some other folks have posted, there is tons of stuff ON THE SALES FLOOR and mixed directly with items for sale, that are apparently not priced yet and not able to be sold. In all honesty, no lie, every item I picked up and was ready to buy, I was told that it had not been priced yet and couldn’t be purchased. Literally…every. single. item. It was, quite frankly, ridiculous. I wasn’t rummaging around in anything either. These were comics that were in boxes sitting directly beside other boxes of comics that WERE being sold, as well as comics that were laying on the top of back issue bins. Look, I get that space is limited, but how can you possibly have merchandise out on and directly mixed with the sales floor and then refuse to sell it? I’m sorry, I never write negative reviews, I actually don’t write reviews at all, but this experience just upset me greatly.

I don’t plan to be back, but I do genuinely hope that the store can improve. I want to see them do well. But to drive an hour to the store, it just simply isn’t worth...