Legion

I really hope the person who is responding to their FB reviews is not an employee. If so, insulting a customer is very bad business.

An absolute horrible place to go to. No heating, no air conditioning, always dirty with little room to walk or play any games. I’m sure he makes most of his money from ripping off people that don’t know anything when it comes to the value of their collections. He is also a sarcastic prick when it comes to the customer service part of the equation.

Legion is a weird store… not necessarily bad, but weird. There used to be multiple locations (the main store in Cahaba Heights, a store in Hoover, and one in Tuscaloosa), but I believe the others are all closed, leaving just this location. The owner, Paul, is a genuinely nice guy… that’s a rarity in comic stores, where the «Comic Book Guy» stereotype from the Simpsons holds true as often as not.
The good:
1. Legion has an excellent, excellent selection of trades, back issues, action figures, statues, etc. I’d go so far as to say it’s got the best selection in the area.
2. Paul is genuinely nice and remembers you, even if you haven’t been in the store in ages.
3. He has ample space inside the store for customers, which he lets them use to play collectable card games (CCGs). I don’t play CCGs myself, but that’s always a plus.
4. *Most* things are reasonably priced… see «The ugly» below for the nasty exceptions.
5. The store’s got a really friendly atmosphere.
The bad:
1. That excellent selection I referenced in #1 above? Yeah, that’s a vice too… the store is a mess. Granted, it has gotten WAY better in recent years (way, way better), but the store just has too much stuff crammed into it. You can’t see the statue display case, since there’s a 4 – 5 foot tall wall of cardboard boxes stacked up in front of it.
2. Customer service can suffer sometimes; when a customer has to wait for an employee to stop playing video games before the employee helps the customer, it’s an issue.
The ugly:
1. On some of the collectables (statues and action figures especially), Paul’s kind of lost his mind. It’s a pet peeve of mine when you ask, «How much does this cost?,» and the cashier checks eBay to give you the average eBay price. Guess what? If I was willing to pay the eBay price, I would have sat at my computer in my underwear and ordered the item for delivery to my doorstep, not burned up my gas come to your store and dig through a stack of dusty boxes to find what I wanted. If you’re not going to the trouble of listing the items on eBay, and not willing to eat the eBay/​PayPal closing fees, and not going to the trouble of shipping the item, and not running the risk of the buyer dispute process, you have no reason to expect the premium price you’d receive off eBay. Your MAXIMUM in store selling price should be «eBay price — (minus eBay/​Paypal fees) — (around 2 hours of your time to account for listing the item/​shipping it)» /​rant
Overall: it’s a good store, worth a visit. I’d just be wary of buying collectables from Paul until he readjusts his selling policy from «Gotta get the eBay price!» to «Let’s make a fair profit.»