Do you buy/read Previews/Marvel Previews?
mguy1977
Posts: 801
Do you buy/read Previews/Marvel Previews? I amended to buy/read in case you just read it in your LCS or buy/read from a online retail place.
Matthew
Matthew
Comments
Actually, there was a comics store I used to go to in upstate New York that would put out older Previews for people to take for free. I used to come home with comics and an armful of those things.
And I feel like so much paper, including catalogs, comes into this house, and has to go out in recycling bags, that skipping the paper Previews just means a little bit less paper in my life.
Previews is an inherent part of how I buy comics. No doubt about it.
There is truly something magical about Previews. It is just like reading TV Guide; you don't need a tv when you have TV Guide!
Matthew
When you get a lot of smaller-press stuff like I do, the DCBS site just isn't very useful.
In respect to it "laying around," I always said to myself that I'd go through it, clip the pages for use in arts and crafts projects. In total, I produced two pretty cool Christmas ornaments... and that was all. I just never got around to doing it, but I'd save them anyway. Finally faced the facts on that.
And, with the "costing me a fortune," I'm not talking about the catalog itself. I got it with the DCBS discount. No, I mean that I'd end up going through it each month and blowing my budget on things that I had no knowledge of before that moment. A *DELUXE* Captain America Shield? All eleven Doctors action figures in one package?!? A bust of Christopher Lee as Dracula?!?
My budget demanded I stop finding out about some of these things, so I had to drop the catalog.
(On a side note, I've ordered that lousy Christopher Lee bust three times now, and it has yet to actually make it past solicitation. Arghgh.)
Anyone who says they are browsing DCBS's site or random websites, just isn't making a good use of their time.
It's like arguing that 1+1=3. You are wrong!
Bry
All my votes.... ruined!
and then after that I give my copy to a friend that is single handedly keeping our LCS in business (technology scares him, as does saving money i suppose) but the plus side of that is that if anything falls through the cracks and i miss it or find out it's good after the orders are done, he's more than happy to grab me a copy while he's there
ok I cant keep a straight face with that one...
Its one stop shopping for me, and good bathroom reading for the month... occasionally find something I missed otherwise, and I use DCBS, but it is easier to leaf thru a catalog than surf thue the "Other Publishers" section of the books... especially when some (Top Cow/Dark Horse) get littered with comic book related non-comic book items.
My experience, for me, having tried both, is that it is faster for me to do use the information presented to me on DCBS and then look up the short list of other things that catch my eye.
Given how many pages of bullshit you have to flip past to even see the comics shipping in a month in Previews, and given that there are whole publishers that, at this point, I know I am not considering and don't even need to peruse (I accept my closed mind about, say, Broadsword Comics and Eros Comics at this point), it works out for me. It feels fast and efficient, I don't feel like I am missing out, and when it is time for me to consider something from a creator or publisher I don't know what to expect from, a few seconds of Googling results in much more preview material to consider than those publishers would likely be able to afford in Previews.
Now, if I were also browsing for things like t-shirts, board games, toys, etc., then I would probably use the paper Previews. But I'm not, so I am content with how I am doing it.
Also- there are times when a delay, on Diamond's end, to get Previews to DCBS can result in your shipment being delayed by as much as a week. It was when that came up that I realized that I really wasn't relying on the paper Previews enough to want my comics to be delayed. So, out it went, and I haven't missed it.
Others' habits may vary. Such as you toilet readers (personally, that is my Entertainment Weekly and New York Magazine special times). But for me, it ain't broke.
Here's what I don't understand.
Browsing through the DCBS website is painful. It's often fairly slow and there are about 1000 pages to click through.
I see 20 comics. I click next. I see 20 comics. I click next. That must take hours! Where as it takes me about 15 minutes to page through Previews. It's all there. I can't miss anything.
It's so simple. And as a DCBS customer it's only $1.25. The amount of time it saves me is easily worth that much. Plus I'm guaranteed to find things that I would miss if I only looked at the web.
Bry
The web cart has gotten faster, from what I have noticed, or at least I don't notice it being slow. If I were having to do it having already made my choices, which is to say, clicking through just to make selections without having to take the time to make decisions, I could see that feeling slow, but I am reading through the listings usually for the first time right there on the screen. I am only looking at screens that likely have comics I am considering buying, so seeing them in batches of 20 (or less, depending on the publisher) is not a problem. And I find the loading time after the click is quick.
The spreadsheet may be slightly faster (though, depending on the person, looking back and forth between a book and a screen may slow some down) but for me, spreadsheets remind me of some of the saddest jobs I've ever had, so I sort of resist turning my comics into a spreadsheet. And if that adds five or ten minutes to the process, so be it. I would rather buying my comics feel like a reward for work rather than more work.
And the other publishers click through fast, especially as there are a number of publishers I just know to skip.
So, again, for me, it feels fast, and like it works. I felt personally like Previews on paper took me longer because there was a lot of junk to get through to get at what I would actually be choosing.
What takes the longest is not the navigating, it is making the hard choices.
Then again, Previews is a mufti-purpose catalog...
I enjoy looking at the upcoming covers, solicits, and often find small press books I likely wouldn't have known about/considered otherwise.
And old Previews are great packing material.
I could never be as informed as I hope I am without the Preview guide and Marvel supplemental. I get it from DCBS too, so a buck and a quarter is good money spent every month. I don't read most of the descriptions of the books I normally read, but I 'skim' it for all things new in mainstream and independent.
It's the only magazine my wife and kids know is mine, but they can mark up with a sharpie on the stuff they want.
I use the website to place orders. I abhor spreadsheets.
I go through Previews, make a list of the items I want, and then I search the DCBS website and add those items to my cart. So I'm only on the site for a few minutes. But those few minutes are enough for me to know that I could never spend time browsing through the catalogue. It would take forever.
Bry