This really is hilarious, I've occasionally shopped at Comic Kingdom since 1997 when I came to Sydney to go to Uni.
Initially I was stoked to find them they had a massive range of TOS and TNG star trek novels out the back that must have come from some collection purchases or something, back then they were only $5.00 each, as a poor uni student they were the only source of science fiction books I could afford.
The place was old and musty then... but so was kings at the time.

They've always expected that you leave your bag at the front counter. that's cool, but then when you're walking around looking at their stock, theres a creepy old guy that keeps eyeballing you while he walks around the shop to make sure your not stealing anything. there's not much feeling of trust.

I've never really had much other use for them, like stated above, they don't stock even their new stuff with much care and while a lot of their old action figures and memorabilia is in cabinets, its very mixed and pretty much all overpriced. A lot of it is stuff I wouldn't take for free from a garage sale, that could just be my taste though. I do occasionally go there to try and source an old phantom issue that I might have missed out on as they tend to have a pretty good back catalogue, again though they can be in pretty poor shape.

I went there for FCBD this year, mainly because I didn't have time to stand in line for 2+ hours at either kings Comics or Kinokuniya. the line was 8 people long. While I was there with my wife, they were trying to tell other people that other retailers were being stingy and only giving away 1 comic while they were legends giving away 3. I know for a fact that kings were giving away 4 and i'm not sure about Kinokuniya but probably at least 2.

I went downstairs to see if I could pick up a phantom issue i'd missed out on a few months ago and it almost looks like they've stopped getting in any new issues of the phantom, their rack was desolate.


The place hasn't changed in nearly 20 years, I do wonder how they stay in business, maybe they own the building, which would explain why the stairs creek so much, they've invested as much into that as they have the rest of their business. when we were there on Saturday for FCBD I made sure that both my wife and I stepped on the sides of the stairwell as they were by far the least worn parts of the structure.

It's an interesting comparison, seeing the development of comic kingdom against kings comics over the last 17 years. kings used to be in a dingy hole in the basement of a building up the street from where they are now by about 2 blocks, there was very little room to move and if you went in there with a back pack you'd be glad to leave it behind the counter so you could avoid accidentally turning and knocking something over.

Since then Kings have invested heavily in their business, they moved to a new shop, they opened a second shop at Fox Studios for a few years (it's now closed). they regularly partner with films and other large events to provide competitions and giveaways and cheap cinema events. their online store is pretty handy to navigate around and you can pre-purchase books to then later pick up in store or have sent to your home.
This investment is shown by their massive following, the cue for them on FCBD this year was at least 3 hours long, I asked someone halfway down the line how long they'd been waiting and they said 2 hours.
Their shop is open and inviting, it's large and bright and well organised. they do still stock some things that they're never going to sell, recent examples are a Hard hero ironhide Bust still with a sticker for $150 and they have the Covenant of Primus for $100 when it's been in big W's all over the country for $50 for a month now. The new starships collection magazine has just started here it's $20 an issue, they've been importing them from the UK I think and they're selling them for $30. These things are just not competitive but they're overall a very popular store. I'm sure they've invested a massive amount of money into their business, they always s have a lot of staff on, but as a result of this effort their business is thriving.

On the other hand Comic Kingdom haven't spent a cent, they don't stay open late on a Thursday, they haven't updated their website since I don't know when, the stairs in their shop are probably unsafe. yet they still survive.
Maybe they own the building and don't pay rent, maybe there is a large market for some of their really old product. I don't know but there was only ten people in line at their shop for FCBD and most of us didn't buy anything else. They are clearly not popular, but it doesn't look like they work anywhere near as hard as the folks at Kings Comics and maybe they are happy with that. they are certainly not my go to comic shop until I've exhausted all other avenues.


And Trent I would have paid my ten dollars up front and been happy not to educate.