Coliseum of Comics Lakeland — Local services in Lakeland

Ok, I've taken a long time to review my local shop...

Let's start with the good, and there's a fair amount:

Staff. All employees here are genuinely attentive, helpful, nice, and easy to talk to about whatever you're in there for. The best part is that they will eventually try and learn your name if you're even somewhat regular. I stop by for weekly and am always greeted by first name. Even to the point they learned my tastes as well as my wife's, and make great recommendations and jokes that fit us. For a larger chain it is touches like that for me that really bring a warmer quality to shopping here.

Selection. The Coliseum stores do a good job of trying to cater to all aspects of the biggest, and sometimes even niche, fandoms. You're going to find Magic, Pokemon, board games, tabletop games, comics, manga, graphic novels, gunpla, and more; so there us likely something here for everyone.

Location. For years they've had a few different spots around town, but their most recent has been the best. A mere three minutes off of the parkway, they are more accessible now. They are near enough to downtown you can get there easily, adjacent to several restaurants and fast food, also Publix, you can quickly grab a bite nearby. Plus, the shopping plaza provides ample parking compared to their last location, as well as more space for actual gaming and events.

Events. They are constantly trying to bring more events to the store. From actual campaigns, card games, model painting, etc. They might not have the space or time to host outside games and events, but making a good effort to have their own.

Loyalty program. Stamp cards for subscribers as well as frequent visitors. Ten stamps, 15 or 10 off respectively. One stamp per 10 spent. Easy.

Special sales. Multiple times a year they hold month long sales with different benefits every day. This can be an easy way to increase your collections for less.

Warehouse sales, from time to time (twice a year I think) you can visit their Kissimmee warehouse to buy stuff at heavily reduced prices.

Ok, I hesitate to call it the bad, so we'll call it not as good.

Hours. To be clear, this one is a mix, they operate on mostly normal daytime hours approximately 11-6, give or take. The issue is that while kids might get out of school and be able to get there, it's definitely a bit harder for adults working 9-5. The good news is that they have evening events that allow them to operate later than normal, I would just call ahead to confirm. I wish corporate would let them operate a little later regularly given the nature of gamers and nerds as night owls - though the employees all have lives too, I appreciate what they put into the store.

Prices. This one isn't so crazy, but yes prices are a little higher for certain items. It's to be expected in a collector market, and they do several things to help that, like the loyalty program and month long sales events, as well as warehouse sales. If you want comics especially at lowest prices, you can easily check eBay, but I will say they recently adjusted wall book pricing to market values. They will also consider store trades to help or give credit. They're better than some Orlando shops, but maybe not at good as the old Fantasy Factory r.i.p.

Assortment. Sometimes the variety in store isn't the most exciting, but quite big, but they will try to get you what you want. I do wish they would allow Lakeland to expand to an even larger space and try to make it a flagship store, considering the citys plan for growth. This store gets picked much lower on the list of all the stores I think due to location, but I'm guessing.

Social media. This is the weakest aspect to me, constant changing Facebook pages that now are all summed to one singular Coliseum page (boo) and a really sad TikTok/Insta presence with a bland representative. Each store should get to manage their own social, Lakeland would be very fun!

Overall, give them a shot, let them win you over like they did with me. I'm not affiliated with the store in any way, just enjoy my...

I was walking around downtown and I came across this store. I had never been inside this location, but right from the get go I knew I had found my new home away from home. Everything is super clean really well organized and displayed in an up to date manner. I was kindly greeted by both employees JC and Edward, who offered their help but we're not pushy or uncaring. They seemed genuinely glad to have me in there and wanting to help me find what I was looking for. As I gazed around, the incredible catalog just got better and better with truly unique quality pieces. I walked up to JC to ask him about how he started his affair with comics and what he thought a potential good start for an amateur like me would be. I was seriously blown away. He took the time to actually talk to me about what he loves and answer my hundreds of questions in a way anyone could understand. He made sure everyone else was taken care of, but still came back to me until I had nothing else to ask. Now that is customer service! I didn't have the intention of buying anything when I went in, but after hearing some of his suggestions and looking around, I couldn't help myself. I then cashed out with Edward who welcomed me in the world of comics once again and invited me to come back as many times as i'd like. I live in Clermont, but from now on, i'll drive my butt to Lakeland just to come to this store, and you should too. This...

Place is awesome, they know their stuff to the point of it being strange that they know so much about EVERYTHING. Prices are low and competitive, and they have anything from antique comic books, almost everything new you can imagine, they also have board games out the wazoo, figurines from POP to one of a kind hundred+$ models, magic cards (and all other card games) and even have some super rare magic cards. They are always having awesome deal days and every week they have different days for everyone to come play board game day, magic card day and so on. They have a bathroom and the whole back of the store is full of gaming tables and they'll even let you use their cards to play if you don't have your own deck. Oh and they also have a punch card program so you earn cash everytime you buy something. Best coming store in Central...