Very rarely does it happen for an extended period, but web-retailer, Mycomicshop.com is down, and has been down since Friday. They are expected to reopen after the holiday weekend.
From Mycomicshop.com:
Update from the team at MyComicShop:
MyComicShop.com is scheduled to reopen Tuesday morning, May 31. We apologize to all our customers and consignors for this down time and inconvenience.
Why is the site unavailable?
During a recent operation involving the backups of the database for our web site, the hosting facility where the servers running our web site are located made a very big mistake, and instead of updating to a safe, unused location, they accidentally broke the real database that our site depends on. This happened despite very clear instructions from us about avoiding exactly that problem. Although this initial error was made by our hosting company and was outside of our control, it is our responsibility to be confident of the procedures and companies upon which we depend. We are at work on changes that will provide additional layers of protection and redundancy to prevent a similar problem from occurring again.
What’s happening right now?
Currently, we are in the process of restoring our database to the state it was in just before the initial error happened. This should mean that there will be no data loss of any kind–all orders and everything else will be exactly as they were before our site became unavailable. Unfortunately, it takes some time for our database system to work through the logs to get up to date, which is the reason why we will not be reopening until Tuesday, May 31. That’s when the recovery is expected to be 100% complete. In the meantime, to all our American customers, we hope you enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.
I’d imagine a huge online business like mycomicshop.com would have a better setup.. you know, high availability and clustering in place. If they’re dependent on just one database for their entire site, that’s their fault, not the hosting companies fault. And yes, if they’re having to restore their database, it does take some time.. if they had failover in place, none of us would have ever known that anything had happened.. I’m glad I don’t shop with them anymore, crappy shipping practices and now we know their website is run like a Mickey Mouse operation.. 😛
I just placed a good sized order with them last week too.
Their temp site says any orders placed before 11AM on Thursday of last week is good.
You know, websites go down but for them to mostly blame the hosting company is just unprofessional. There’s no reason for them to go into so much detail. A simple, we’re having website issues, we’ll be back on this date is all they need to state.
Trying to deflect the blame though just makes them look even worse in my opinion. I wouldn’t shop with them and they’re likely losing a lot of customers now due to their incompetence.
For being mostly all online sales, they really should do away with hosting at small hosting resellers and do it themselves. Hire a few competent sysadmins to oversee the infrastructure and you don’t have to deal with novice sysadmins that these online hosting providers hire overlooking your websites.. 😉
Ever sell to them? Pretty much every book worth over $1 automatically downgraded. NM-? Nope. It’s a VF+. Lol
I think the undergrade what they sell and overheads what they buy.
Nope. I stopped dealing with them when a comic came damaged and they basically told me to bugger off. Not the type of people I want to deal with. They have a double standard, their website claims they ensure no comic arrives damaged. When mine came damaged, they claimed I purchased shipping that does not guarantee damage protection. So yeah, I’m still bitter and their website can stay down for all I care.. 😉
@agentpoyo
– We do have multiple database servers with replication, and one could go down (eg hardware failure) and fail over to the rest. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a hardware failure but user error that wrecked the DB–a destructive change that was immediately replicated to the rest of the cluster. We have learned from this and are making changes that will prevent this kind of problem in the future.
– Regarding this: “They have a double standard, their website claims they ensure no comic arrives damaged. When mine came damaged, they claimed I purchased shipping that does not guarantee damage protection.”
The only shipping option that could be referring to is the padded envelope 1st Class Mail option that we used to offer. It was our lowest cost shipping option ($3 or so) for people ordering 1-2 comics who just wanted to get reading copies as cheaply as possible and didn’t care about condition. For that shipping method only, there was always a warning next to it stating that the padded envelope provided no protection, and to choose it only if that didn’t matter to you. Unfortunately, some people picked that option without reading that warning, and then naturally got upset if their order arrived damaged. We stopped offering that shipping option over a year ago for that reason. The only shipping methods you can choose now are boxed, well-protected methods for $4.95.
We have fantastic feedback from our customers (eg 100% positive on eBay), and I’m working to make sure we’re always improving. If you’d consider giving us another try, I’d be happy to win back your business. If you’re interested, drop me an email at conan@MCS.com (expand MCS to our full name) or call me at 512-240-2802, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions, give you $5 off your next order, and make sure you’re completely happy with it.
@Conan,
Thanks for the offer and trying to fix my negative experience but I’ll have to pass. I’ve been great without MCS for all my comic book shopping needs now for over 2 years, I can only imagine it will continue to be great and more positive without using MCS to order books.
I actually got a box full of 16 beautiful bronze and copper horror books. They were all boxes and had styrofoam inserts to keep the books from sliding around in the box. It was actually one of the best packed comic boxes I have ever gotten in. But I know that is not what Poyo had an issue with. You could order me some comics with the $5 off offer. 😉
Sent from my iPhone
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Nothing beats Poyo packaging though….. nothing!
They should’ve used Hillary’s server in the bathroom closet
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who had shipping problems with them. I also received the same comment after a shipping issue. I purchased the shipping they recommended. I haven’t bought from them since. I have been tempted to, but I haven’t done it.
I don’t like them because they artificially inflate comic prices. They buy up everything that’s a good deal on eBay (I always see copies of stuff I bid on and lost on EBay to them) and then re-list it the following week for 3x as much as they paid and they get away with it because eventually every copy of a particular book listed online will be owned by them. Future sellers then list there books near the price of a mycomicshop listing because that’s all they have to reference for the value is the 30 listings for the same book from mycomicshop. Their prices are also lower through their own website then eBay which again inflates online eBay prices all around. Also a lot of their supposed books being sold on commission with an added sellers fee are B.S. And their own books.
They do list stuff on their site cheaper then the list on eBay. But to be fair, they have to account for eBay and PayPal fees.
Yeah, they suck. You have to pay for bag & board, shipping and (for me) tax. The “nuke-proof” packing is a joke. I haven’t used them in years.
Since last year, 100% of the comics we sell are bagged and boarded–you don’t have to pay extra for bag and board. If you haven’t used us in years, you might want to check us out again. We’re at 100% positive feedback on eBay and get strong positive reviews for our grading, packing, and shipping.
Thanks Conan for responding!
Here’s a great MCS story: A year ago I bought a really nice 1950’s Black Magic original series issue from them on ebay, saw it as soon as it showed up. They had the “buy it now” price at what the 1970’s reprint series # should’ve been.
Laugh at their expense
My Comic Shop AND Mile High Comics {Website Looks Like Its 20 Years Old} Won’t Buy From Either.When I Buy On EBAY I Use Advanced Settings To Cut Them Out Of My Search Works Great.Had Same Experience AS AGENTPOYO.
I can’t ever get the mile highs checkout on their website to work, actual inventory of a book never shows right, can’t add multiple of the same issues. It’s so confusing I’ve never been able to use it and pay always have to use eBay for them. I do use mycomicshop from time to time if I’m looking to get 5-10 different books under $10 and use the combined shipping. I’ve never had a problem with their shipping or their grading as their grading probably is one of the strictest so works out for buyers. I really like Midtown comics for new stuff and Sideshow Premium format statues to get giant statues shipped to Hawaii for free and the price of the statue is already lower then you will find them anywhere else including Sideshows own website is pretty amazing.