Can we talk about which comic shop setup works better, the organized bins vs the messy long boxes?

I went to two shops last weekend in Portland, one had everything sorted by publisher and alphabetized while the other just dumped new arrivals in random stacks on a table. The organized shop took me 45 minutes to find what I wanted but I found a rare first printing of Watchmen #1, the messy one I grabbed 3 good issues in 10 minutes but missed a deal on a Silver Surfer run. Which approach actually helps you find better stuff and not just waste time?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_shah5d ago

Oh man, I had a buddy who swore by messy shops. He hit up this place in Eugene that just tossed everything in milk crates by genre, no order. He spent an hour digging through a crate labeled "weird stuff" and pulled out a mint copy of The Killing Joke for cover price. But last month at a clean shop in Salem, he was so focused on the alphabetical bins he walked right past a $5 New Mutants #98 sitting loose on a counter. He's still bitter about it.

joseph_lewis921d ago

Man, that story about @betty_shah's buddy really shows how the layout can mess with your head. I think the real trick is that an organized shop makes you trust the system too much, so you stop looking at the random spots where the good stuff actually hides. A messy shop forces you to stay alert and check every nook, which is maybe why those lucky finds happen more often there.