I am desperate to like this place. Joe refuses to even go there, but I keep trying. A comic book store? In walking distance? Yes! Alas, The Lair has consisently failed to deliver.
The store is crowded and cramped. One entire wall is dedicated to baseball caps. Sure, they are Marvel/DC logo'ed caps, but still. An entire freaking wall. Guys, put up a few of your bestselling caps and a sign saying you have more in the back. You know what you can do with that space then? Put up some fcking comic books! There are boxes all over the floor. They have figures, but they're all in dusty packaging and piled in boxes.
Comic book selection left TONS to be desired. Most TPBs were immensely outdated, and had that weird plastic dust jacket on them, like they were library books. There is basically one wall of comics, and nothing on there was recent. Half the wall is Archie, Garfield and Friends, Simpsons, etc. Now, I'm not hating fans of those comics, but I highly doubt that your numbers warrant half a wall that could be piled with more popular tomes. Additionally, there was zero organization whatsoever. I asked for a couple of things. None of them were available, even though they were recent issues. Honestly, I didn't see any recent issues of anything.
Website is a joke. No clickable links, no search bar, and a major exaggeration of stock. Call the number, and you're getting the owner's cell phone. Which usually goes straight to voicemail. One time, I asked if he was open (I was standing outside the store) and he said, "15 minutes." I wandered around for 15 minutes. When I came back, I called and asked again, and he hung up on me and didn't answer again. I waited another 10 minutes, then left. When I scolded him later in person, he apologized and told me to "like" him on facebook. Yeah, I shouldn't have to go to facebook to keep tabs on your business, and you shouldn't be using facebook as a crutch for a professional website.
This place deserves one star, but I'm a sap and giving it two. First, the guy is very nice in person. He actually went on ebay to try to find the issue I was looking for. Not exactly, smart business practice (if he had arranged to order it for me, I would have bought through him), but sweet. He seems to genuinely like his work, and is pretty knowledgeable about comics (not about business). Like, I wanted to sit him down and be like, "What are you doing? I am here, desperate to give you money, and you don't even have a browse-able collection!" But the other reason I'm giving two stars is because I want this place to succeed so badly! A comic book store up in the Bronx is an awesome thing! I want to see them become an awesome local comic spot.
But for now, the Lair seems more like a very nerdy garage sale, and until it gets its act together, I will have to take the train to Midtown. read more