Comics For Collectors

I recently visited this store while I was in town. I had read the other reviews warning me to stay away from this store due to the owners attitude. However, I decided to give the store the benefit of the doubt and still check it out.
Turns out, the reviews are not lying. While this store actually has a pretty decent stock of books (hence my two star review rather than one), the owner truly does not have a good attitude when it comes to dealing with his customers. I went to the store twice and ended up picking up a book that was priced well for the condition it was in. But when I tried asking for other books when I visited a second time (and he was alone in an empty store) I was met with no attempt at even trying to assist me.
What finally set me off was the fact that he clearly did not know the town he was in. Ithaca (as many people know) is a college town. While I can understand pricing the rare keys at super high prices, the lack of wiggle room when it comes to negotiating was a little surprising to me given my previous experience at comic book shops. Finally, when I tried to talk to the owner and explain why I was not able to purchase a set of books due to the price, he basically told me then I wouldn’t be able to buy any good book at his store. Again, knowing this is a college town, you think he would be understanding of the budget of people who can’t easily drop 100 bucks on a single issue (unless they are Richie Rich).
Overall, if you can get to the store when the owner is not in, the experience will be fine. However, I would visit another store if you are looking for consistent treatment as a valued customer and not just as another wallet.

A good selection of new comics and graphic novels. Also a good number of used and vintage comics. The staff there are always friendly and helpful; no one looks down their nose at you and they seem like they love to take questions. A kid-​friendly section is right near the door with everything from My Little Pony and Adventure Time books, to some cool throwbacks like Astrix. They also have a section of small press comics. A great little independent comic book shop, and a fun place to browse.

Great comic bookstore, very helpful when looking for comics. Their staff has helped me find some hard to find comics. Looking at the reviews made about this store, I have to say that my experiences and interactions have been positive ones.

I started going here in 2012 when I moved into town for grad school. While the selection of what’s in the store isn’t always amazing, they’re always willing to order what you’re looking for.
Unlike what other reviews say, I’ve never found the owner or other employees to be unapproachable, I often find myself sticking around after I’ve already picked up what I was looking for to chat with them about recent events, movies, various current series. I don’t know how they are with kids, but I’ve seen children with their parents in the store and haven’t seen a problem.
They’re also active in local events, helping with IthaCon and telling patrons about other small conventions in the area.
I’ve never had the owner sell something out of my pull list, like another reviewer states. Often, the owner will try to pull things you might have forgotten to mention to them based on other books you’re pulling. Only once or twice have I had a problem with pulls, and it’s generally because I ended up having a large number of books pulled for me that week and they missed a single issue.
As one of the only comic shops for miles, I’m extremely thankful they’re here and really enjoy my visits each week.

I’ve been shopping at CFC since I was a teen. I have good memories of the Corning and Elmira stores, mostly due to the fact I didn’t interact with the owner that much. In the past 11 years being in Ithaca, I have had more negative interactions with him than I can count, and seen even more firsthand happening to other customers (I once saw him ask a man to take his young son out of the store because his dog wasn’t child-​friendly). He went too far on a recent visit by actually pushing me out of his way so he could attend to the only other person in the store while his very unfriendly dog Astro growled and jumped at me.
I’ve vowed not to spend another dime there, though it pains me with so many good titles coming out. Luckily there is a great shop in Elmira and a new one opening here in Ithaca soon so keep the faith people. In the meantime, walk right past Comics for Collectors to save yourself from being frustrated, angry, and disappointed.

So here’s a little story:
I grew up in Watkins Glen, NY about 30 minutes from this store, as a kid there were 3 Comics for Collectors, one is Elmira, one in Corning and one in Ithaca.
When I was a kid, the one is Elmira was great, friendly people, good stock, and a clean organized store… then it shut down.
When I was in HS I went to the one in Corning on Market Street, again, great staff, even better stock and it had a great atmosphere. It’s probably one of the best memories I have of any comic shop I ever went to.
I then moved to the South for 10 years, and when I came back to live in Ithaca, the Corning branch had shut down as well. I figured the Ithaca store was the first one, so it must be good… I was totally wrong.
The key problem for the Ithaca store is the owner. He’s rude, sells the comics from your pull (Subscription) and doesn’t seem to care about his customers.
This shop is the reason I started doing a mail order pull from another shop in NYC. It was so hard for me to stop going to a local shop but I couldn’t stand that my pull was CONSTANTLY wrong. I went to CFC for a 6 months and EVERY week comics were missing. I ended up having to spend more money to track down comics from other shops or on the internet.
Besides the terrible service the store is small and doesn’t have much stock. I would say avoid this store if at all possible, and if you do go in, DO NOT have your pull there, you’ll end up incredibly frustrated.

When I was growing up in Ithaca Comics for Collectors was the only comic/​game/​rpg store in town. Time, the manager has been referred to in very unfriendly terms by my friends who have worked there. He admits that he dislikes children (great business for a comic book store). I’ve had horrible results of my subscription being sold (day it arrived) and a per issue fee to subscribe.
He is very rarely in the store (you’ll see a «back in 10 minute» sign for over an hour some time), when he is he is grumpy and has yelled at me for looking at a book (I might bend the corners, funny thing is I was going to buy it until he yelled at me).
I would give him 1 star and the store 3, so it averages to 2 because, hey, sometimes tim isn’t working, and the store is worth going to. If there is any other store in town, go there.

Small store with a decent collection of new books and trades. The only comic book store in Ithaca, it is what it is! My husband had problems there years ago when he was on the weekly pull list (mostly missing issues from his pulls).