Per the North Carolina Dept. of Revenue website and the Classic Auctions website, the assets of retailer Silver Bullet Comics were seized for nonpayment of North Carolina taxes and were scheduled to be sold at auction on Oct. 8.
The auction site lists everything that was to be sold, including about 50,000 assorted comic books, various statues, trading cards, shelving and the cash register, among other items. Pictures of some of the items can be found here.
Earlier this year Silver Bullet Comics closed down their retail location and turned into solely an online shop. Since then, many customers have posted complaints on two Blog@ posts — found here and here — about missing orders. They currently have an unsatisfactory ranking with the Better Business Bureau of North Carolina.
And once again, Silver Bullet Comics shouldn’t be confused with the news site Silver Bullet Comic Books, which announced recently that they are changing their name.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:14 am
Although news worthy and appreciated, why post the links to the auction when essentially October 8 has long since past for any of us to even bid?
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:16 am
The point of the link isn’t to encourage bidding, but to cite the source of the information.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:48 am
Its always bad news to hear about a shop closing down.
Thats the real culprit behind the low sales of books nowadays.
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:40 am
If anyone still has an outstanding order and has not done so, contact your credit card company immediately and start a dispute/chargeback.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
so, after all this did anyone get their orders?
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:58 pm
It’s not bad when a bad retailer closes down. My opinion is, we, as a community can do better than this.
October 22nd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Wow. Nice “Reporting”. Seeing as how I know the guys, and that they only made a deal with the state and their auction house to auction off all their no-longer needed fixtures, gaming singles, and convention stock to satisfy their final bill (they only closed 2 months ago), when will we get a retraction on this story that is all assumption? Is it the fact that they have a news site too that causes you guys to attack them constantly? Why no reporting on the shop that gave me the wrong change last week?
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:34 pm
If you know them, John, then maybe you can ask why they haven’t sent orders placed in March and why they don’t respond to emails.
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Wow, John, this is great news! Since these guys are still in business, when can I expect my order (placed in Feb.) to be refunded or delivered? Seeing as though you know these guys, please let them know I’m still waiting for Order #0006279. Hopefully they don’t ignore their friends as readily as the do their customers…
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
As someone who wrote for both mentioned “news” sites, I find this pretty humorous.
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:19 pm
At this point, it is a good thing that the online news and review site is changing their name. Too many people will associate Silver Bullet anything with this apparently failed business.
I worked a convention once several years ago for a store named Great Eastern Comics. While I was walking around the various dealers tables, I noticed one of the dealers giving me the evil eye. He bluntly asked if we were associated with Great Eastern Conventions. When I explained who we were and where we were located, his anger toward me quickly abated. He was still angry about Great Eastern Conventions. I don’t know any details about the Great Eastern Conventions, so I won’t speculate why he was mad, but it just goes to show you how long anger can last.
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I wonder if my superlate order got auctioned off too?
I honestly doubt “John” can help anyone other than SBC.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:43 pm
“John” if I gave you the wrong change, I hope it was in YOUR favor!
Ace reporting here in my opinion, but I am biased (I own the shop down the street from Silver Bullet Comics). I wasn’t happy about folks losing their jobs (they are hard to find these days), but let’s be real here: SBC was crooked and won’t be missed.
Additionally, I missed the auction too, but who wants cursed goods?
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:08 pm
This is dubious news at best. I was excited when I saw that Silver Bullet Comics was going from Bricks and Mortar to online only as a sign of the times. I thought it kind of validated our business model at All New Comics.
Now I’m saddened to find out that this isn’t the case, and to read so many comments from disgruntled customers.
That sucks, and it definitely makes all of us online retailers look bad when any of our brethren treat their customers poorly.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I must say that I loved the SBC website, with all comic info in one place, and did receive very good service to start with. Something has obviously gone very wrong with them in 2007. Shame.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:13 am
I remember you Derek (I ran the SBC site until Dec. 06). I hope I treated you well- I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for the old SBC customers. =)
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:24 am
Y’know, when I bought my store in February, the one thing the owner really hit on was “Pay your taxes! Don’t forget to pay your taxes!”
And I’m thinking “Uh, yeah… what kind of moron doesn’t pay his sales taxes? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?”
No surprise, turns out it is.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
While I didn’t have any dealings with SBC recently, when all this bad internet mojo seems to have originated, I used to shop there frequently and I was always treated well by the folks that worked there. For a shop whose bread and butter was clearly superhero books and gaming stuff, they had a great selection of indie stuff and an top-notch collection of books and trades. Those aspects of SBC I will certainly miss.
Thankfully, there’s a great comics shop, Ssalefish Comics, still open and doing well here in Winston…
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Hi Jenny. I remember your name, and your good service. When I asked for your assistance, I always got it.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:02 am
Hey, Jenny G.
I was a customer while you were there, Josh as well. You two were the ones that kept me coming. I saw the store go down hill quickly after you had to “take care of the new family stuff” and Josh was absent alot. I went down the street before the complete implosion.
In case you remember, I was the one my new church memebers attacked over reading and reviewing comics.
Take care, you were a good resaon to shop at SBC.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:39 pm
I remember you! I can’t picture your face at the moment though- darn post-pregnancy amnesia. =)
I REALLY appreciate the compliments- while I had my bad days like anyone else, I always tried to make sure my customers were happy (even if my face was buried in my laptop half of the time since I was in charge of the website).
For the record, I did have family stuff (our 1st little boy- Phoenix- was born on January 30th), but he was not the reason I left. I came to a point in October ‘06 that I realized that I could no longer work with a particular person and I was never going to be able to help the store like it needed to be helped. While I hated to just give up, I didn’t have the majority vote, so I decided that it was better to walk away.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I placed an order once with SBC. They quickly charged my card and after a couple weeks sent me an e-mail saying they were out of stock. They claimed to be getting more in and said they would fill it then.
After a month they still hadn’t completed the order. Rather than crediting back my charge they gave me a “store Credit” problem was every time I tried to use it the item would come back out of stock (plus they would try to get a method of payment from me so they could “mistakenly” charge me for the new order and prevent me from using the credit.
I took to calling the store when I tried to use the credit (about a dozen attempts were unsuccessful)
When I heard the physical stores were closing I sent numerous e-mails to them asking for a refund on my “credit” none were ever answered.
oh and “John” if you’re voluntarily trying to sell your items to pay bills you work with a private company to do so to maximize your return. If the state does it it’s ONLY to realize the past taxes. While they MAY have surrendered the stock without it being seized I highly doubt they had any choice.
I also doubt they’re out of the woods for lawsuits and fraud charges as they accepted funds for orders they never filled (mail fraud) the owners could (and should) be looking at jail time.