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Does anyone know what happened to Bretts Comic Pile? I have bought comics from them before and was hoping to purchase one of their exclusives through their website but it seems to have been shut down. Anyone know how to contact them?
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He goes by brettscomics on ebay and he runs the Virginia Comicon. Try contacting him through those.
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I am not speaking FOR Brett, but I can say that he indicated to me that he is no longer going to sell comics on CCL or any other on-line site. Not in large quantities that is. He is still operating his eBay site but only lists high-end, exclusive items. The Virginia Comicon is still operational and there is also the rare local sale but, to the best of my knowledge, there will not be a large on-line presence like before. Brett is actually entertaining offers for his CCL inventory. I speak to Brett a couple of times a month (as his sole employee on the East Coast) and can forward any communication to him.
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That sucks his store was great for filling in gaps in my collection. I deffinitly miss his store. All over ASM 365... damn.
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MoonKnight1 wrote:I am not speaking FOR Brett, but I can say that he indicated to me that he is no longer going to sell comics on CCL or any other on-line site. Not in large quantities that is. He is still operating his eBay site but only lists high-end, exclusive items.
The Virginia Comicon is still operational and there is also the rare local sale but, to the best of my knowledge, there will not be a large on-line presence like before. Brett is actually entertaining offers for his CCL inventory.
I speak to Brett a couple of times a month (as his sole employee on the East Coast) and can forward any communication to him. Since you've brought it up a few times, I just want to ask--what do you do as an employee of Brett's? I also find it hard to believe Brett would quit the comic back issue biz over the ASM #365 fiasco. For all the money and time spent building up his CCL store, and not to mention that he was number one or two here every month (translation = mucho $$$$), makes me wonder if he was getting burnt out prior to this. I see it happen a lot. Collectors become dealers, have some fun selling, then grow to hate the funny books because now it's turned into another job.
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Right now I am looking after his East Coast interests. He has moved to Southern California and I am taking care of the warehouse - cleaning, organizing, selling fixtures, etc. - to get it leaned down. I was just re-hired at the beginning of the year in this capacity. I had been the Warehouse Manager from about 2005 to 2011 when he reduced his staff from 4 people to 1 in a cost-cutting move. The allocation incident was not the reason why Brett stopped selling on-line. It wasn't even the final straw, but it was a contributing factor. There were other things that happened, both before and after, that caused Brett to pull the plug. Bad economy, some investments that didn't work out as planned. Plus, I can't go into too many specifics as there is upcoming litigation, but I can say that the person entrusted two years ago to run the business was woefully unable to do so and is currently in a little bit of trouble. I can't say for sure that Brett is not re-opening here or elsewhere but it doesn't look good for the near future. He still has a massive inventory that he needs to do something with so who knows? Right now it's just the VA Comicon.
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Well thanks all, for the information. I've tried sending an email through his ebay account a couple days ago. Haven't gotten a response yet. By the way, what is the "ASM 365 fiasco"? Something to do with the hologram cover?
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JbombTheGreat wrote:Well thanks all, for the information. I've tried sending an email through his ebay account a couple days ago. Haven't gotten a response yet. By the way, what is the "ASM 365 fiasco"? Something to do with the hologram cover? Check out this thread: http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=38164
  Signature design by CCL's own DrFate SpiderFan.org
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Wow that does seem like quite the mess!!
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After re-reading the "ONE Sellers opinion..." thread I feel compelled to clarify a couple of things. To be clear, Brett has not asked me to do this. He is not a bad guy, but he has made some decisions that in hindsight may not have been the best option. Brett was not a hands-on owner. He had little to do with the day to day operation of the on-line presence as he was mainly focused on Conventions and acquiring new inventory. The employees ran the CCL and eBay sites. In the six plus years that I was the warehouse manager - in charge of pulling, packing and shipping orders - we had 100% positive feedback on eBay and nearly 100% Hero Ratings on CCL. (The lone Mortal we received was from someone complaining about the condition of a comic rated Poor, he thought it should have been lower.) In January of 2011, Brett had to make a difficult decision. He could only afford to keep one out of the four employees so three of us were laid off. All under good terms, not because of anything we did wrong, it was just economics. I can't get too specific and I don't want to throw anyone under the bus but the individual left in charge of the business was unable to maintain the level of customer service that had been before. In 20 months the CCL store racked up around two dozen Mortal and Villain Ratings and eBay notched a half dozen Negatives. Also recently an issue surfaced with that individual concerning, let's call it "inventory shrinkage", that I cannot comment on for obvious legal reasons. So there have been a number of issues that caused Brett to pull the plug, it all kind of snowballed and yes I guess you can say there was some burnout involved. Now, I have no idea if he plans on re-opening here or elsewhere. There is no brick-and-mortar storefront and his million-plus comics aren't selling themselves so it is always possible. He has been trying to liquidate his CCL stock, which I believe is in the 250,000 range, to no avail so far. I don't know his plans. I communicate with him once or twice a week maybe, mostly by e-mail and I will gladly forward anything to him is asked. At this point we're just trying consolidate everything and reduce the overall footprint.
Check out Hall of Heroes for hard to find Gold & Silver Age comics! Marvel! DC! Gold Key/Whitman! ACG! Dell! Archie! I also have a diverse selection of Independent and Underground books for sale - with more on the way!
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Well I hope he does come back to CCL. Great prices and stock. I'd like to see him come back.
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MoonKnight1 wrote:...Brett had to make a difficult decision. He could only afford to keep one out of the four employees so three of us were laid off....but the individual left in charge of the business was unable to maintain the level of customer service that had been before. In 20 months the CCL store racked up around two dozen Mortal and Villain Ratings and eBay notched a half dozen Negatives. Also recently an issue surfaced with that individual concerning, let's call it "inventory shrinkage".. Sounds like he chose poorly. That sucks when somebody you trust goes out of their way to prove you shouldn't. I hope he can get his store going again.
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Xylob wrote:Sounds like he chose poorly. That sucks when somebody you trust goes out of their way to prove you shouldn't. ultimately, the responsibility does indeed rest with Brett. i think i placed 3 orders with his store. one turned out bad, and escalated to a phone conversation during which i learned (gasp) Brett was completely disconnected from the CCL store that bore his name. i tried to contact Brett via email & FB, but never got a response. his store DID have great stock, and prices were always right. i wish he didn't deserve to have his name tarnished, but he chose to put his name & rep out there and it's hard for me to imagine that kind of risk. it's very unfortunate.
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I would like to see him return as well. His comics were priced very well and I was happy with the service I received through his online store.
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It seems like the bigger stores have been leaving little by little
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Are they being chased away or something? I remember that there were some issues last year.
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Pricing is poor here, too much inventory & not enough traffic. Back when it only took 5000 books to reach page 1 it was awesome, I sat & picked off deals on Ebay & listed them here for double. Now I do the exact opposite. I have a lot of regulars here & am not leaving anytime soon but it would serve CCL well to fix some bugs & maybe find some ways to speed things up. Comics are hot & they're kind of missing the boat.
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CrossbowComics wrote:Pricing is poor here, too much inventory & not enough traffic. Back when it only took 5000 books to reach page 1 it was awesome, I sat & picked off deals on Ebay & listed them here for double. Now I do the exact opposite. I have a lot of regulars here & am not leaving anytime soon but it would serve CCL well to fix some bugs & maybe find some ways to speed things up. Comics are hot & they're kind of missing the boat.
A lot is happening behind the scenes...stay tuned. 
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They aren't being pushed out in any way.
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No, they're not being pushed out. On one hand it's sad to see any store leave CCL but on the other, when the larger ones vacate, it does give a little breathing room to the smaller stores trying to grow. Some of the smaller guys feel like "Mom n Pop's" to their "Wal*Mart's". y'know? Don said his store had "outgrown" CCL so who knows what that actually means. Perhaps the larger stores are going where there is larger traffic and the fees are larger too??
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