Collect Co. — Local services in Lebanon

Updated review!!! First, I am an avid collector of vinyl records. I wanted to check this place out as I happened to be close by, because I am always looking to give my business to local stores vs the big box stores. I was pleasantly surprised to find this store had a large inventory or pre-owned albums, and even a decent collection of new sealed albums. I immediately asked the woman who came out from behind the counter if there was a rhyme or reason to how they arranged the pre-owned records. She said no, it takes too much time. The "vintage" ones are over there, and the new ones are over here. Strike one, if you are going to sell used albums categorize them or at least put them in alphabetical order. So what should have taken me a few minutes to search through, took me nearly 40 minutes. I start browsing. I probably found 10 albums I would have bought. However, the prices were ridiculous. Way overpriced for suckers. When I asked about the prices, she started getting nasty with me. "These are all vintage and very expensive..." and continues to tell me about having to ship and collect the records, blah blah. So I pointed out that several of the records I pulled were not "vintage" but "used". I pointed out that had they been original or rare pressing they could justify some of the prices, but they were not. Many were more recent pressing that you can literally still buy new on Amazon minus the scratches and flaws. NO! they are vintage !! she insisted again. I told here our definitions of vintage was just different. She then insisted on getting some guy who she says "i pay alot of money to value these records" to come up. So he comes up (BTW super nice guy), and she just tears into.."this guys says our records aren't vintage!!" without me ever getting a word in. Long story, he agreed with me that they are pre-owned or used but "we call them all vintage". Fine, we can at least agree we are talking the same language. She then had a hissy fit about something being opened on the collectibles side of the store that shouldn't have been in front of a customer wanting to buy it, and he just up and left. Finished my browsing and left without buying a single album. Personally, very hard for me to do. It's an addiction for real. I will never step foot in that store again. Mostly because the lady felt empowered enough to treat me like that as a customer, but also in front of the staff. So, it is either her store, her families, or she has an inflated sense of her power. In this day and age where these shops are rare, and being squeezed out, you would think they would go out of their way to please customers and be helpful. Second, because the store is clearly mismanaged and can't even categorize its inventory and third the prices are just stoopid. they lost a few hundred bucks of my money walking out the door that I absolutely would have spent. UPDATE: I tried again. Same staff member was present, wasn’t very helpful. However, another staff member was there and explained that their best inventory was sold in the nightly online auctions and thats the stores primary focus. Disappointing to hear that as I personally enjoy flipping through records and finding the hidden gems. I was able to track a few selections down, and overall a much better experience. I also started watching the auctions, and saw what the hype was about. Great experience, bought my first item. What sucks is I now pay for shipping and Im competing with several hundred other bidders. I get this is their business model, and 300 online bidders is significantly more traffic than the 2-3 people Ive seen at the store at any one time. It’s clearly working for them. I just wish there was SOME incentive to buying in store. Moved from a 1 to 4 star. If the inventory was available in store it...

My son has recently gotten into comics. He’s just getting into the hobby so isn’t all that experienced. He found a Walking Dead comic from them last week. It’s sealed in a plastic case, with grade sticker on it, etc. He paid $75 for this comic. After getting home, we point out to him that it looks like a version in Spanish, due to the company name and such on the publishing info. The receipt says returns only allowed on their items, not vendor items. Fine. It was purchased from their store, not a vendor. My son goes to return it and they refuse to accept the return citing they don’t know if it’s the same comic they sold him. Are you serious? They buy and sell comics. They don’t have someone there who can verify it’s the comic the case it’s in advertises? On a side note, there is no sticker on the case identifying that the comic is a Spanish version. Taking advantage of anyone, especially kids, is not the way to do business.

Update: After getting my husband involved, he called the lady who was nasty about things. Her name is Julie. She’s actually the one who sold the comic to my son, and she remembered. My husband explained the receipt says returns on Collect Co items. She said there are no returns on comics. The receipt doesn’t say that. She yelled that she’ll take care of that today and change the receipt. Anyway, he asked about the person who buys and grades the comics, etc. She said she doesn’t know a thing about comics and has a guy for that but he wasn’t there. We asked to be called when he comes in and he could verify the comic. She did agree. She ended up calling about 15 minutes later. My son went back and the guy confirmed the comic and Julie begrudgingly gave the refund. She kept saying that he can’t “pull this” anywhere else. She even said, “Let him go to Nashville and try to “pull this” there,” like he’s purposely trying to scam. My son said the guy he dealt with was chill and nice. She wasn’t. The store might be a nice little place but Julie shouldn’t be a front of house employee. She most likely the owner but should definitely be kept away...

My family and I went into this store not for the 1st time we have shopped here many times. I believe the business has changed ownership. Anyway my son is going to be a Texas Ranger for Halloween this year and needed a badge. We did find one and it was what he wanted. As we walked through my wife bought some candle melts. I was walking around and noticed a Mario (Nintendo) 3’ display. I simply asked how much it was I got a nearly 4000.00 asking price I asked the owner if she could provide any papers proving it was made for the uses she claimed. She became very offended. She got her son to the front and he explained that he bought it at an auction and just priced it based on “that’s what I think it’s worth”. So I asked if I could make an offer I made a 1500.00 offer. The lady wanted to argue and be very rude with me. No one could prove anything they was claiming.... I would be very careful with this place on anything more than the 20 dollar deal. I will not shop here again and would recommend anywhere other than this place. Very disrespectful to customers when they question. Customer service 1star is to much. Frankly the lady...