Stand-Up Comics

Bad customer service, the shop looks like it’s been through a Black Friday Macy’s sale and the very small selection of anything published earlier than 1995 is overpriced.
It’s fine if staff are hands-​off, but the dude behind the counter was too busy talking to his friend to even say hello from his vantage point when we entered the store. Not too busy to stare at us, though. And we were the only customers.
Thing is, when you run a small business in an industry with such ups and downs (and one that’s currently in a down in terms of sales), you can at least be nice to the people who walk in the door. I don’t care if you think you’re superior — the 25 year old girl who’s never read a comic before and totally loves Marvel movies now pays your rent, as do the die-​hard Marvel zombies. I happen to be neither, and I really don’t appreciate shop staff who’re into your business, but you could’ve made a sale.
You don’t have to hold anyone’s hand or take any shit from rude customers, but if you can’t even bother with basic courtesy, I’ll take my business elsewhere.

I grew up coming here. But recently the comic book selection has gone waaaaay down. I use to leave with multiple comics in my hand, now I leave with one IF that. They have not updated the selection in months (dare I say over a year?). The same essential x factor has been sitting in the same place for a cool minute. It’s been a blast stand up, but I will move on to greener pastures (the stores in Berkeley).

Horrible horrible horrible. Customer service is so weak. There not to friendly to new customers. But they can talk hours and hours to old customers. I waited for 10 to 15 minutes to ask a question. But the staff was talking magic cards with their buddies. When I did finally get a chance to ask. Only response was «only what you see». What a jerk.

Forget all the cool comics and video games in this store. Customer service comes first. I walk in and I’m the only customer. There is a white guy and a black guy talking at the counter (both staff), I take a look at the video games and politely ask «any good video game stuff come in lately?» Now I understand this question is pretty vague but it was an honest question. was just wondering if anything notable came in. The black guy shrugs and says «whatevers in the case». I say «Oh whatever is in the case huh», already slightly put off. «I’m just wondering if anything cool or notable came in, that’s it» I say. The white guy at least TRIES to respond by saying «Oh I think kingdom Hearts came in» but at this point I’m already super annoyed. The black guy replies «well people just trade stuff in, it’s all random so we never know what we’re gonna get…»… um no shit sherlock! I immediately said «alright thanks» and left without looking around. I’ve never been so put off by a specialty store such as this one. Hey man if you sell comics and video games you better be ready to talk to your customers about them! As much as I want to support this store I can never come back. No one likes to feel like they are being made to look dumb, and this will surely happen if you walk into this store.

Well, it met my expectations. I expected it to be a little messy, a little awkward and straight outta the Simpsons. And it was. I loved it. It’s not Barnes and Noble and I wouldn’t want it to be! And I got good recommendations from a real person who knows comics.

You can ride your bike, the bus, or drive here. You may lock your bike in front of the store or find parking on the street. It’s located about a block away from the shopping center. There was a nice employee at the register who was very helpful and provided possible leads to gifts I was looking for even though I didn’t find that particular item there. They accept credit cards and the employee working this afternoon seems to enjoy conversing with clients. I was in there for 10 minutes and employee was talking to a few customers for almost the entire time I was there. Nevertheless employee also took the time to assist me so I was happy with my experience today.

Horrible service dude behind the counter was rude ass hell did not care for the other people in line to busy talking card games with another co-​worker i had so much i wanted to buy and when i asked for help he points its down there… wow so i took my family and walked right out bro you need to be retrained cause you suck b… S… How are you gonna be pissed at someone for asking to do your dam job how hard was it to pause your conversation about cards and help the people that actually wanna buy s. T again horrible do not waste your time drive to the city or ever berkeley way better comic book stores and staff that actually wanna help not like this a.

Cool dude at the store. Back issues were decent but no purchases were made. I could find key issues or cgc graded books there but funny guy at the counter. He was honest about the store that they aren’t a big time player so the variants were minimal.

I love these guys– I don’t buy much in the way of comics but their prices on everything else (games, toys etc) are super reasonable and the staff (Ford, Zach and Antonio) are very helpful to boot. I have been surprised by a few sales that I didn’t know were going on and got some really good deals on stuff. Speaking of, I feel the need to go buy booster packs for no reason, so I guess I’ll go there now.
packs packs packs packs packs…

REVIEW
Pretty bad experience here. I wrote on another one of my reviews for Unilocal that a company can be «penny smart, dollar foolish,» and these guys follow the same adage. Nothing good is in stock, the employees look annoyed and bothered, and there’s no care for customer satisfaction at all.
PERSONAL STORY
They were the only shop that had a specific toy in stock, so I made my way out there to get it asap. I told the guy (the white guy) how I was gonna open it when I got home, and he was saying that they had a second one in stock for whatever reason. When I do get home later that evening, the toy ends up being broken in two areas and I make the decision in my head to offer the store a deal — I like the figure so much that I’d be willing to keep it and do what little fixes I can if they’d offer me a discount on the second one so I could have a MOC copy to keep. If not, I guess I’ll take an even exchange; seems fair enough, right?
The next day I call ahead to see if they’d want to make the deal. The guy on the phone (the black guy) says I absolutely need the receipt and I need to bring it in so they can look at it. He said they’d have to send it back to the distributor to get any refund and that’s only if they received it broken (like it was my fault and I’m somehow trying to bring back a toy I f’d up for them to fix). There’s no room to negotiate on the phone here as the guy sounded like he didn’t want to bother with me, so I simply said «okay…» and bring it in — This is where the fun starts as we just argue as soon as I bring it up to him an hour after I called.
TBG says there’s nothing that can be done, he can’t take it back, and he would’ve noticed the breaks as he was the one who inspected the toys as soon as they came in. I said that the breaks are obviously well concealed and not noticeable by simply looking through the package alone, which he was vehemently denying could possibly be, so I said that he was basically calling me a liar and not offering any customer satisfaction. I told him that me paying $ 27 for a broken figure is ridiculous, and then he started arguing with me about the money I paid even with the receipt in my hand! «$ 24.99» «Yea, but $ 27 after tax» «Nah, $ 25» Are you f’n kidding me?! I then laid out my proposal to him about buying the second figure, and he said they don’t have another one. I said that there had to be something to be done because me paying full price, tax included, for a broken toy is ridiculous. HE THEN BREAKS THE TOY EVEN FURTHER WHILE MESSING AROUND WITH IT! This is finally when TWG stopped talking to whatever other couple of customers that were in there that knew him, and he said «Let me handle this.» We went back and forth about customer satisfaction, how TBG broke the toy even further, and while he wasn’t arguing like TBG was, he was spewing the same crap to me. I wouldn’t let up, and at best (!!) he offered me 10% off another item in the store. I asked if he could just give the discount to me for the figure they were basically sticking me with, but he said «No, it would be the same as giving a refund.»
This really was a bad experience. They had no cares for me as a customer being sold a broken item, argued with me about how nothing was their fault, told me about their own made up store policies and how they couldn’t break them, told me that the owner is the one I’d have to argue with and that he wasn’t there, basically called me a liar, broke the toy even more!, and had the audacity to tell me that they weren’t responsible for the products they sell.
Just stay away from these guys, it’s really a big middle finger to people like me who’ve been collecting and dealing with comic shops for so many years to see these guys still in business and getting good reviews on Unilocal

Two stars… that’s all these guys get.
They just aren’t that great. The worst flaw is the staff; Just your typical19 year old gamer geeks with no people skills. You almost get the idea you’re bothering them when you ask a question or go up to the counter to check out. My wife custom ordered a book from them — that was as far as it got — no call or word on if they ever got it in. Also, there are adult comics just out on the wall unbagged for anyone to flip though. I’m no prude, but «porn level» comics belong at an adult bookstore not a neighborhood comic shop. If you just gotta carry em,(they are expensive and probably still sell good — lots of sex starved comic geeks out there) put them in a box behind the counter.

I used to go here regularly for my weekly comics until I got sick of putting up with Zach. I’ve had to listen to him talking about how he’d love to kill the store’s customers who browse without buying things, putting down female fans of comics for being fake geek girls, and worse (but I don’t want to type it here for fear my review will be flagged). Oh, and they’ve got porn comics prominently displayed by the counter with little stickers providing a laughable attempt at censoring the goods.
I go to Fantastic Comics in downtown Berkeley now.

This is why we go to comics book stores.
Tons of inventory, action figures and a great selection of movie posters.
Great characters in the store both on paper and in person.

I walked into this store looking for a particular vintage comic book as a gift to a family member. When I couldn’t find it in the boxes of comics on the main floor, I asked the guy working at the front desk if they had the comics that I was trying to find.
He mentioned that they did, and that they just keep them behind the counter because they don’t sell too often. He quickly looked through all of the boxes and showed me what he had available. I had a nice conversation with him, and he answered all of my questions about the comics.
When you walk into the store, it’s kinda stereotypically what you’d expect a comic bookstore to look like and the guy working the front desk was kinda stereotypical in what you’d expect a comic book guy to be like.
What’s most important was that the service was great, the person there was friendly, and I got exactly what I was looking for at the store.

I don’t know nothin’ about no comics. So why am I leavin’ a review? Because I like the limited but cool retro video game portion of the store. I was able to pick up some nice Xbox and PS2 games here for a couple of bucks.

I remember driving by here years ago and saying that I would take my boyfriend. Thank goodness it was still around!
The selection of comics is great…
I can’t give more stars (I should give less!) was because of the guy working the day we went. Stared straight at me as I walked in. I smiled at him and he just stared. SMH. As my boyfriend and I were checking out, we asked if he had other Batman comics behind the counter in the «older and more rare» bins. He stated «Oh, I dunno, I haven’t gone through those boxes.» Also, it seemed as if we were interrupting his animé movie that was playing. In the middle of our transaction, he kept stopping to watch bits and pieces of the cartoon. DUDE — PAUSE IT!
I’d like to come back… if someone else was working behind the counter.

I occasionally dabble in Dr. Comics if I’m in the area and I used to visit Comic Relief but found the staff to be off putting though occasionally helpful. But every single interaction I’ve had with the staff here at Stand-​Up has been fantastic. They know their stuff and great to talk to. I always end up chatting a little more than I intend to with who ever is manning the register. Since Comic Relief has shut its doors, I hope that a few of their regulars also discover how wonderful Stand-​Up is.

Pull-​lists for the comics I want.
Re-​orders for the comics I forgot I wanted.
Friendly staff.
Can’t ask for much more.

When I was a more of a regular reader, Stand-​Up was my ‘back up’ joint. But it’s easy access from 80 and ease of finding parking on this side of east bay makes it an ideal stop and now its my ‘go to
spot. Amazingly, somehow, someway they have withstood the tests of time so far, especially in this suck ass economy. This place hasn’t changed in all the years I’ve been coming. I come in sporadically just to pick up on trades and stuff but every time I’ll talk to the guy who regularly works there (who is a pretty cool guy) and talk about the current story lines, mainly cause I don’t read most of the superhero books anymore but I’m curious to find out whats going on. The place is solid and the staff and service is great but my only knock on the place is the number of independent books. Believe it or not, I fall in the age demographic for the average reader, but what I love about this place is the simpleness of it with all the superhero fanfare that would get any 8 year old excited about picking up a random issue of Spiderman. It is a plain shop, but it’s no frills and it’s something I appreciate and perhaps a throwback to a simpler time. Another thing I totally appreciate is the non-​pretentiousness from the staff. If I wanted to buy a stack of Archies, I wouldn’t get snide remarks that I probably would at other shops. Despite the lack of selections, I totally understand the business side, that they can only order what’s ‘hot’. At the same time, what’s really cool is that you can always special order certain items through them.

Under «Don’t Tell Anyone Else But…», I could have easily stated that I occasionally read comic books in addition to my other literary pursuits. And since I’m a DC man and my son likes Marvel, we really do need to have a talk! Gayle just rolls her eyes…
It’s been a long time since comic books were 15 cents and with all the DC Universe changes and price increases over the years, I’m pretty selective on what comics I occasionally like to read (and admire the art work). I’m a big fan of the old «Crisis on Infinite Earths» and the successor «Infinite Crisis» series and dabble in the Legion of Super Heroes and the old Justice Society of America. But what really brings me back to places like Stand-​Up Comics is the well written and acted «Smallville» TV series on the CW. And since they also sell cards here, it’s easy for me to come in here with my son and do my thing, while he’s doing his. This ruse even works better if I also have home improvement purchases to make across the street at Pasttime Hardware.