For instance, I was recently in Fort Lauderdale and I have to say, that city has soon really good stores.  Most of the stores I visited had lots of bargain bins with quality books (I got a nice copy of Warlord #1 for a buck, for instance), as well as reasonably priced and well stocked back issue boxes going back to the Silver Age and beyond.  Likewise, Green Bay, Wisconsin was a good comics city with several stores with very pleasing prices and a nice mix of old and newer books.

Shockingly, I have found Portland to be nearly devoid of decent deals.  Cosmic Monkey was grossly overpriced (they must worship at the idol of Wizard prices) and though Things from Another World was a very nice shop, they had nothing in particular to offer as far as Silver Age or even Bronze Age backstock.  The only place in town I found with even decent pricing (and grading) for their backstock was Excalibur Books.  I picked up a few Bronze Age Brave and the Bold books I needed for my run there, and the staff was friendly and knowledgeable.  For a city like Portland, this is very sad.

Likewise I was in Milwaukee last week and the store that seems to run that town was, if I recall correctly, called Collectors Edge.  They had three locations and what few back issues they carried were not priced.  "We gotta look them up", the clerk told me, and picked up his copy of Wizard.  I got out of there as quickly as I could.

Anyone else want to tout their local comic book shop or wax eloquent about their city/town/rural mailing district's comic collecting atmosphere?

friendly, helpful, great prices.

Heroes in san jose, comic outpost and amazing adventures in san francisco. LOTS of back issues. Heroes has a near full run of ASM and SA batman that they got from an original owner.

There is also a huge tabletop games section (D&D, WH10/40K, etc), Anime section, Models section, figures, posters, etc. If you're in the area, you should stop in.

-Mindbender

                                                                                                                               

I just dove into the comic collecting deep end...

...now I'm trying to figure out how to swim.

COLLECTORS EDGE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!  I live in Milwaukee and that chain of stores is completely worthless, I went into 2 different locations of theirs and nobody who worked there knew what a mylar bag is.  They price all back issues at high wizard price regardless of condition.  It is truly the worst place in the world, not just for comics, but it is just the worst place in the world period.  Milwaukee actually sucks for back issues of any kind unless you go to the once evey other month mini comic shows.

I can't comment on other states with the exception of New York City that has many quality stores with awesome store layouts and selection but most items tend to be pricey.  I have'nt visted there for two years so i don;t know any of the store names in that area.

Here in Houston, we have our own version of Collector's Edge called Bedrock City.  No sales, no deals, and high prices for supplies.  Short boxes there start at $6 each, for example.