Comicazi — Local services in Somerville

Never in my 28 years has an experience, good or bad, compelled me to leave a google review until today. This is the most absurdly overpriced comic book store that I've ever visited. I've been buying and selling comic books full-time for 3 years and know the market very well. I live in Boston and have been here a few times, and each time the selection, and the prices, have gotten worse and worse. This establishment charges $50, 80, 100, 150 for books worth $5,8,10 and $15. Look at the photos I took and compare them to the going market rate. There are hundreds of examples of price gouging at this store, but take these dozen or so photos as a representative sample of the kinds of back issues/prices you can expect to encounter here.

X-Force #1. They are asking $20. This book is not even worth the price it would cost to ship it. $5 at most.

Superboy #9. They want $150 for this book. It's worth maybe $30.

Silver Hawks #1. A $15 book that they are charging $90 for. Nice!

Alpha Flight #106. They want $40 for this book, and you can go on eBay and buy one right now for $2.

Scarlet Witch #2 for $55, which is apparently the first appearance of a character named 'LORE'. That's great for the dozens of 'Lore' fans out there. Good thing they can buy this issue in dollar bins across the country.

Web of Spider-Man #90 for $48. If I paid $10 for this book I would feel stupid.

Static #1 for $225. This book is worth $15-20. Yes, you read that right. This is a $20 book on a good day.

Amazing Spider-Man #300 CBCS 9.0 for $1,000. This is a $500 book.

Power Pack #1 for $32. In what world. This book is so worthless that ripping the pages out and crumpling them up to use as padding for my grandmas china would be cheaper than buying bubble wrap.

The Amazing Spider-Man #365 for $55. This is a $10 book.

Quasar #59 for $36. That's about $33 more than this book is worth.

West Coast Avengers #46 for $50. Wow, the hits keep on coming at Comicazi. So many "KEY" issues I don't know what to do with my money. Perhaps I could go somewhere else and get a comic worth $50 for my $50, instead of paying 10x more than it's worth.

Venom: Funeral Pyre #1 CGC 9.8 for $185. The same book, in a CGC 9.8, just sold on eBay for $31. Womp Womp.

Amazing Spider-Man #315 for $140. I felt personally insulted by the stupidity involved in adding the extra "0" to the end of the price gun on this one.

Mad Magazine #82 for $65. This magazine is worth $10.

Youngblood #2 for $65. This book sells for $3 on ebay, but only when the buyer can find someone looking for Youngblood #2.

The only people who enjoy visiting this store are the people who don't know they're being charged a...

I won't bury the lede. I stopped shopping here because of the inflexible customer service. As an LCS, the inability for me to stop in and make small purchases such as a few dollars worth of supplies (10 credit card minimum) is extremely frustrating. The lack of agency Bob gives to his employees to make small concessions is annoying, especially since I was on a first name basis with him and some of the staff (I'm not asking for huge concessions, just a little help when things don't line up perfectly).

Bob is so protective of his merchandise and staff that every decision he makes is to insulate his business. This often comes at the expense of the customer. I had them refuse to restock issues from my pull box and insist I buy them (when I told them I no longer wanted those pulls), refuse to make sales that's are under the credit limit (even by a dollar), and just generally come across as very brisk when they choose not to do something (instead of saying sorry or suggesting an alternative).

Keep in mind, there were many times where these things did not come up at all and I left with several hundred dollars of merchandise. But inconveniencing regular customers over a one off small purchase seems petty to me.

It's as easy as just passing the credit card fee on to the customer, like seriously. I'll pay the extra but I'm not gonna buy another 6 dollars worth of stuff just to be able to check out. Sometimes you just have 1 issue in your box.

There are lots of people are complaining about the prices, which is true, they are high. But I suspect Bob uses the rarer back issues as a gateway drug for more consistent sales like pulls, toys, and cards. I doubt he cares if they move fast or even at all.

What Comicazi does well: Great selection of TPBs and Omnis. Having a pull box there is very convenient (do know they will take your credit card up front, which is a negative to me, along with the credit card limit, as mentioned). Cool selection of non-comic Collectibles such as action figures and toys.

Finally a shout out to the employees there who are actually helpful. Kevin (great hype man for whatever you're reading), Alex (pull list manager - super nice, helpful and responsive) and the girl with the awesome hair who manages their social media (super knowledgeable and on top of...

I’ve been to this store a handful of times with my husband, brother in-law and sister in-law. We’re all avid collectors of different tastes but thought that coming to this store would satiate all of our collective appetites, I was wrong. I myself keep getting stared down as if I am some common thief. I also purchased a living dead dolls fashion victim that came with a broken off hand. It’s no wonder it was marked down to $25. My husband purchased four Friday the 13th blood bath comics, asked one of the associates before purchasing if they were in a certain order and what issue they were. She replied, that she didn’t know much about it herself and assumed the order they were in. When my husband got home and was excited to read them he realized they were all the same issue just with different covers. Needless to say he spent $90 for the same comic just four different covers. As for my brother in-law he was snapped at, basically being told once he was doing looking at the spawn comics and any other figure or comic, to put them back in the order he found them in or he would be charged DOUBLE for putting them back out of place. One of the associates (the same man that snapped at him) explained that that is what they do to EVERYONE that comes into their store and disorganizes any of the merchandise that is there. I don’t know about you, but if you’re looking to purchase a $8 comic and somehow misplaced the other comics before or after it, from where you found it, so expect to be charged $16 for the total purchase exchange. Not to mention that it is extremely biased towards certain graphic material, comics, etc., There’s not much for anime or manga lovers such as my sister in-law along with the fact there were dragon ball crystals that were blue instead of the traditional yellow, and that was obviously out of the question for any collector or anime enthusiast. I don’t recommend shopping her or even stepping foot into this toxic, disorganized and stuffy environment. Take your...