[yosbert]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Check out Blossoms bookstore on Church Street. They have a big collection of classic comics. You can also see if they can source any specific titles for you.

Thanks for the info, I will check them out. However these books being recent releases, not sure if Blossoms would have them.

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Are the ones on Amazon what you are looking for? See a lot of them from 1000 odd bucks to upwards of 10,000 rupees as well.

Amazon India does not have the titles I am looking for. They have only a handful of them available as such.

[deathwalkr]

Oh ok. Could you list out a few of the ones you are looking for?

There are a few listed at comicclan.com as well.

Words of advice:

if you do order, first check with them if product is available, and pay COD.

I had ordered for two Thor books last year. Site showed it as being available. Got call from them saying that it is actually in Transit from USA and will be delivered in one month. The pricing was good, so i said no issues.

Fast forward to last month, after multiple followups and failed assurances and placing blame on covid they refunded the money back to me.

Oh well.

[yosbert]

Yes I am aware of comicclan.com. In fact I ordered a couple of titles from them last year. Similar to your experience, it took them 3-4 months to deliver the order, but to be fair to them they called up immediately after I placed the order saying that few titles have to be procured from US and will take time. They also gave me the option to cancel my order at that time.

[BombayDragon]

Since both of you mentioned comiclan.com, i was wondering if you ever heard of bombaydragon.com - This was a online comic book store which I had set up around 5 years ago where we could buy all the latest issues and variants of all major comics DC, Marvel, Darkhorse etc. I closed down over a year back because there was zero demand. I used to sell one comic per month at a huge loss, As far as I know we were the only people in India where people could buy latest issues of Marvel and DC including choosing the variant you want (the website is still there but the I no longer sell anything and have closed the business)
The reason I am asking if you have heard of the website is because while that chapter of my live is over, I'd still like to know what I did wrong. One of the things is of course that I had absolutely no money for SEO, publicity or ads, so nobody actually knew we existed. The other thing was the high price of comics which TBH is not in our control - Actually the shipping and customs duty was more than the price of comics (the official customs duty on books is 10% but i was often forced to pay 41% and once had to pay 70%)

Note to Mods: I hope this post is not flagged as promoting business activity because as I have mentioned before while the website exists I no longer sell anything on the site. I am just curious to know if anyone was even aware of the website. Request you to delete the post if it violates any guidelines. Thanks.

[yosbert]

Originally Posted by BombayDragon

Since both of you mentioned comiclan.com, i was wondering if you ever heard of bombaydragon.com - This was a online comic book store which I had set up around 5 years ago where we could buy all the latest issues and variants of all major comics DC, Marvel, Darkhorse etc. I closed down over a year back because there was zero demand. I used to sell one comic per month at a huge loss, As far as I know we were the only people in India where people could buy latest issues of Marvel and DC including choosing the variant you want (the website is still there but the I no longer sell anything and have closed the business)
The reason I am asking if you have heard of the website is because while that chapter of my live is over, I'd still like to know what I did wrong. One of the things is of course that I had absolutely no money for SEO, publicity or ads, so nobody actually knew we existed. The other thing was the high price of comics which TBH is not in our control - Actually the shipping and customs duty was more than the price of comics (the official customs duty on books is 10% but i was often forced to pay 41% and once had to pay 70%)

Note to Mods: I hope this post is not flagged as promoting business activity because as I have mentioned before while the website exists I no longer sell anything on the site. I am just curious to know if anyone was even aware of the website. Request you to delete the post if it violates any guidelines. Thanks.

Nice to know and I understand your pains. The customs duty kind of kills the whole business, doesn't it?
To answer your question, no I was not aware of your website. I came to know about comicclan.com while googling for Marvel Epic Collection titles (in the hope of finding Indian sellers). Note that I have been searching for the titles for well over two years.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by BombayDragon

Since both of you mentioned comiclan.com, i was wondering if you ever heard of bombaydragon.com -

Sorry, haven't heard of that site. I started buying online from Flipkart back in the day, then moved onto Amazon when FK forgot they used to sell comics

Even some Amazon seller prices are a good deal at times. I just keep a wishlist and buy when prices are attractive.

I am sorry that your business did not work out, but yeah the duty would have really eaten off your bottom line :(

CC, i chanced upon them while doing a google search for a Thor title.

[chase_nt]

Originally Posted by yosbert

I was trying to get my hands on the Marvel Epic Collection books. Any pointers on where I can source them from? I am aware of instocktrades, but not sure about how the shipping to India works out. Any help or pointers on this will be greatly appreciated.

I suggest you try bookswagon.com Ive been purchasing comics from them since 2019 and they have free shipping within India. I stumbled upon their website as i was searching for an alternative to amazon.in to source my comics from as the prices on amazon seemed to be skyrocketing. Once you order a book from them it might take 18-20 business days to receive the book depending on whether they have to source it locally or from the international market and so far i've received all my comics from them without any cancellations or shipping delays or hassles. I wouldnt recommend going through instock trades as they charge an arm and a leg to ship comics to India. I decided to order a book for $73 through instock trades and once i made it to the check out page after entering my address it was working out almost $173 ($100 for shipping is just insane). Once you add customs duty to this the figure would go up even higher. If you have someone in the states who can buy books on your behalf through instock trades and bring them along when they come to India, that would be the best way to go as far as instock trades is concerned.

Originally Posted by BombayDragon

Since both of you mentioned comiclan.com, i was wondering if you ever heard of bombaydragon.com - This was a online comic book store which I had set up around 5 years ago where we could buy all the latest issues and variants of all major comics DC, Marvel, Darkhorse etc. I closed down over a year back because there was zero demand.

I never heard of your website. I used to scour through the internet trying to find a good website to purchase comics from in India but i never came across your store on google search results. Really sorry to hear that you had to shut it down. Sometimes i wish i could just go to a physical store that sells exclusively comics like they have abroad and spend hours looking for comic books.

[chase_nt]

Thought I'd share a couple of YouTube videos of my comic collection.

https://youtu.be/R72aDzD4iNk

https://youtu.be/Sm0YTFgYSdY

[BombayDragon]

Originally Posted by chase_nt

I never heard of your website. I used to scour through the internet trying to find a good website to purchase comics from in India but i never came across your store on google search results. Really sorry to hear that you had to shut it down. Sometimes i wish i could just go to a physical store that sells exclusively comics like they have abroad and spend hours looking for comic books.

Yes - I sometimes wish I had hired someone for SEO for my website. I remember my website used to show up between page 6 to 10 on google search and nobody scrolls that far.

[chase_nt]

My Instocktrades purchase experience:


Around a month ago I decided to purchase a few comics from Instocktrades. Now, the reason I did this was because I was waiting for the books to be available on bookswagon.com which is my go to site when it comes to buying comic books here in India however since the books were not released on bookswagon.com even though a few weeks had passed since their release date I assumed that they may not get released on bookswagon.com and hence decided to have the books imported through Instocktrades.com. As fate would have it the books were released on bookswagon.com the very next day that I placed an order on instocktrades. The cover price of the books on instocktrades was around 20% cheaper than their price on bookswagon.com however the price of the books after taking into account the international shipping and customs duties worked out to be 20-25% higher than what I would have spent on the same books through bookswagon.com. I’m using bookswagon.com as the reference and not amazon.in because bookswagon.com has the best prices on books and they have free shipping throughout India.


Once an order is placed through Instocktrades they do not accept cancellation of the order. I opted for the cheapest international shipping which was FedEx Economy International and that worked out to be $44 for the two books I ordered. The price of the books that I ordered was $130.5. So adding shipping to the mix the total was $174.5. Once I placed the order it took exactly one week for instocktrades to process it and on the 8th day the items were shipped from Memphis Tennessee via FedEx Economy International. The very same day I received a text containing a link from FedEx asking me to fill out the requisite customs form to import the items and also upload my KYC. Exactly 2 weeks from the date I placed my order the item was delivered by FexEx and I had to pay a customs duty of Rs 2050 which includes a Rs 500 customs duty advancement charge from FedEx as they pay the customs duty upfront for the customer. The packaging was top notch and it was a great experience ordering through instocktrades. Though I’m happy with instocktrades I feel that ordering through them makes more sense if you live in the US as you can take advantage of their free shipping for US customers on orders that are $50 or more. It would be most economical if you had friends or family in the US that you can ship your books to and have your friends/family bring you those books when they visit India.

[deathwalkr]

Thanks for the heads-up on bookswagon. I have not heard of them and will be checking them out soon. Have a few comics on Amazon's Wishlist for some time

And something about the Spiderman cover is just good.

[chase_nt]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Thanks for the heads-up on bookswagon. I have not heard of them and will be checking them out soon.

I've been purchasing comics from bookswagon ever since i found out about them in 2019. Amazon.in used to sell comics at good prices until 2018 however post 2018 comics started to get really pricey on Amazon.in which prompted me to search for an alternative which resulted in me discovering bookswagon. Comics on bookswagon are a lot cheaper than what you pay for on amazon.in.

[rajesh1868]

Originally Posted by chase_nt

I suggest you try bookswagon.com

Thanks, I was not aware of this site. The prices are lesser than the items I have on my amazon wishlist.

[chase_nt]

Here's a video of my 2021 comic book haul.

https://youtu.be/mAZRGQBUxoQ