Guy at the comic shop gatekept me hard over my pull list last Saturday

I walked into my local shop downtown to grab my pulls, and this older dude behind the counter started grilling me about why I had so many variant covers on my list. He literally said 'do you even read these or just flip them?' in front of like 5 other people. I stood there for a second feeling stupid, then just told him I collect what I like and walked out without my books. Has anyone else had a shop employee kill the vibe like that, or do I need to find a new store?

3 comments

3 Comments

brooke_jones5h ago

Guy could have handled it way better, no argument there. But let me say this - old school shop guys have been burned by flippers for years, and a stack of variant covers with no regular issues does look a little suspicious. Not excusing him being a jerk about it, but there's a difference between being rude and being protective of the shop's vibe. If you walked in regularly and he still gave you that attitude, then yeah that sucks. But if this was your first time pulling that list, maybe he was just checking you out. He still shouldn't have put you on blast in front of people though.

henryt184h ago

Tbh I used to be on the other side of this argument, but @brooke_jones' take actually switched my thinking. There's a real difference between being cautious about flippers and just being a jerk to a new customer.

corah752h ago

@henryt18 still gatekeeping variant covers like he works at the shop lol