Top Cut Comics — Local services in Rockford Township

I canceled my subscription box after 3 weeks. It seems like fine place to go for games and trading cards, but I cannot recommend it as a comic shop. A little bit of behind the scenes customer service and some common sense could turn this place right around, but they're either unwilling or unable to help. The lion's share of responsibility rests on the customer's shoulders, turning a hobby into a chore.

Their subscription policies are needlessly draconian and just make it harder for a customer to shop and spend money on comics, and they don't inform you of many of these things up front:

If the shop doesn't receive enough copies of a standard cover to fill customers' subscription boxes, rather than fill those gaps with variant covers (just the basic ones, not the super valuable one-per retailer exclusives), they will leave that title out of your box and wait for a later fulfillment order or second printing--and put the variant covers on the shelf where they may sell out before subscribers can get to them.

If you subscribe to a monthly ongoing title, you need to subscribe to the annual issues separately. Likewise, if--for example--the ongoing Thor series changes its title from "The Mighty Thor" to plain old "Thor," or "Immortal Thor" (this kind of thing happens a lot in comics) you need add that as a separate subscription.

A request for "all X-Men titles" or "all tie-ins for such-and-such an event" turns into a ridiculously pedantic thought experiment like, "Well, 'X-Force' doesn't have the word 'Men' in the title and 'Wolverine' doesn't have an 'X' in the title at all!" or, "You said you wanted all of the 'Cosmic Craziness' tie-ins, but this one features She-Hulk on the cover! What if you hate She-Hulk?!"

I finally gave up today during their Black Friday sale, which affects things like board games, Magic cards, and back issues of comics--not new monthly comics. Top Cut offers punch cards: 1 punch per every $10 spent, 10 punches gets you $10 in store credit. Cool! However, because of the current sale, there is a blanket ban on card punches for the duration of the sale. I was given the option buying this week's comics today and forgoing my punch card benefits, or leaving my comics there and coming back to purchase them on Saturday, at which point card punches will once again exist. I'm not trying to game the system or take advantage of the store. I completely understand why Black Friday discount purchases wouldn't be valid for card punches. But why should the weekly comics shoppers be punished because of a promotion that doesn't affect them? I don't live super close to the shop and I'd rather not have to drive out there twice over a matter of semantics.

I decided to buy this week's comics today and then cancel my subscription box. Most comic shops want to incentivize repeat shoppers, not make them jump through weird hoops. I spend $30-$50 a week on comics, so little things punch cards and discounts help me out and keep me coming back. But this feels less like a comic shop, and more like reading the fine print for a mail in rebate from Best Buy, trying to make sure that I don't shoot myself in the foot because I sent it in on 5"x9" paper instead of 8"x11" of or some other...

I've been shopping here, with no exaggeration, for at least 25 years. Subjectively, it makes me very sad to see what it's become since then. Objectively, it's just a very mediocre comic shop. I'll try to be objective in my review, as I realize many people haven't shopped here before.

One of the biggest problems with this location is staff. While they're never outright hostile, they're rarely ever friendly or give the impression that they're happy to have you spending money or time in the shop. There are a few exceptions, like Manager Mike, but by and large most of the employees give off an attitude that you're annoying them by your questions or requests.

Second problem is selection. They have a very large focus on cards, less so for comics/toys/collectibles, but even with cards their selection is...meh. They usually have the newest sets available and not much else. I can generally find a better card selection at any department store.

The third problem is price/buying method. By no means are their prices unfair, but they aren't exactly giving deals either. Again, you can find the same prices nearly anywhere else that carries cards or comics. By 'buying method', I mean the fact that they really, really want you to search through their card inventory through their online site. Specifically, if you go into the shop and ask to see the box of cards IN PLAIN SIGHT BEHIND THE COUNTER, they will tell you 'No, but here's a computer to search through our online inventory.' So, I can't look through the cards that are 3 feet in front of my face, and have to scroll through your website to find said cards? You realize that sounds (and is) ridiculous right? I kind of get what they are trying to do, but for goodness sakes, don't have the cards out if you won't let people look through them! Put them in the back or something at least.

I wish, I truly wish, that I could give them four, or even three stars. But with the poor employee-customer interactions, mediocre selection and prices, and occasionally ridiculous ways to search through and buy items, two is the best...

Short story don't sell your stuff here and don't get store credit if you do because they will raise the price of their products if you do.

Long story. I went and sold some TCG cards to top cut they offered me $92 cash or $115 store credit. I decided to go store credit. I then asked to buy a box of cards that had a price tag on the box for $75 he was ringing me up and he said "ok this box is $95..." I'm pretty good at doing some quick math and realized that's at least a 26% increase. So I said that's a lot of tax on that one item. He then said well actually since you're using store credit you don't get the store discount. I said what store discount? He explained that the store gives a discount on all products if you use cash or card, but if you use store credit you pay the actual price of the product. I started calmly arguing with him saying the price tag is right there. Not only that, but the actual MSRP of that box is just over $69. But my wife said they were closing soon and to just let it go. I bought the box and when we got to the car I explained what was going on. The next day I decided to go back and talk to someone else to see if the guy from last night was wrong. I also had some store credit left over so I figured worst case scenario I spend the last of it and never shop their again. Got there asked someone else and we had the same back and forth. When I showed him the actual MSRP he said well yeah, but if you use store credit you have to pay our actual MSRP. There we're no signs saying if you use store credit our products price will increase no warning from the employees before I sold my stuff. And keep in mind JT'S anime store archrivals and other TCG nerd stores don't do this. Nor do online TCG stores. Not only that my friends have vented different frustrations they've had at this store. So I'm never shopping there again and I would recommend going to a different small business TCG store anything is going to be better than a store that raises the products price by 26% for using their...