Placing Your Order
Orders may be placed by email or in writing by letter. Please indicate the title, issue number (or date if appropriate), grade and price of the item(s) you want. If it’s a book, please give the title, author and price. For clarity, you may find it easier to copy and paste your order from our catalogue. Please note that there is also a charge for postage and packing (see below).
Minimum order value (not including postage and packing) for postage destinations:
In the UK: £10
In the EU: £50
Rest of the World: £25
(We’re sorry about these levels, which are due to the large volume of customs paperwork that now has to accompany orders being sent outside the UK following Brexit; the paperwork is worse to send to the EU, and we’d be losing money on smaller orders)
If you’re placing an order for postage to outside the UK, you should be aware that you may have to pay duty/VAT to your local customs authority on receipt. This is not included in the price we charge you, since it varies by country. Please note that payment of this charge, if imposed, is your responsibility. If in doubt, please check with your local customs authority. By placing an order for outside UK postage, you are agreeing to these terms.
Once you’ve placed an order, we will set your item(s) aside (assuming they’re available) and notify you of the total due including postage costs. In order to get a postage quote, we have to package your order up as if for despatch, since we charge exact cost of postage (plus a small fee for packaging materials). Therefore it’s not possible to add anything further to it. Any additional requirements will be a new and separate order.
Our Weekly Ordering and Shipment Cycle
We prepare the paperwork for all orders received during a week (Sunday to Saturday, with a 4 pm cut-off on Saturday), fill them from our warehouse every Sunday and email invoices then. We ask for payment no later than 1 pm the following Tuesday in order to catch our weekly post on Wednesday. If you can’t pay by 1 pm Tuesday for any reason, please contact us; otherwise items in your order may be available for others to buy. Orders are then despatched on Wednesday. Please note therefore that orders placed after 4 pm on Saturday will be filled a week later and posted the following Wednesday, so, for example, if you order on Sunday morning, you will receive your package around 12 days later (if you’re a UK buyer).
This is how things work in a normal week. Occasionally, there may be seasonal adjustments or other extenuating circumstances that cause variations.
Requests to delay postage: As mentioned above, packages are normally sent on the Wednesday following payment. If you wish to ask for the postage to be delayed, you need to do this at the time you make payment, since we book packages into our postage collection system as they’re paid for, and once that’s done, it’s too late to change it. If you miss a Royal Mail or Parcelforce delivery, it’s possible to either collect from their sorting office/depot or arrange redelivery with them.
Discounts?
Sorry, we’re not able to offer discounts for bulk purchase or for any other reason. We price all our stock at what we believe to be fair market values after extensive research. We buy our stock from private collectors, and to be fair to the people we buy from, we pay a high percentage of those fair market values, and this leaves us no margin to discount.
Images
We are a small business with few personnel working long hours to maintain a very large catalogue. This includes adding several dozen photos and scans every week, as well as deleting sold items. Please understand that we are unable to supply images other than those already shown on our website. This is due both to time constraints and to avoid excessive handling and risking potential damage to vintage items. We believe that the images we supply, together with a professional grading, extensive description on most more valuable items and money-back guarantee if the buyer is unhappy should be sufficient to give you a confident buying experience. High resolution images are however available for items priced at £500 and over.
Spam Alert!
We aim to answer all emails within 48 hours. If you’re expecting an email from us and it doesn’t appear to arrive, please check your junk/spam folder in case it ends up there. If so, please mark us as a ‘safe sender’ on your system to prevent this happening again.
Methods Of Payment Accepted
Bank Transfer:
- Within the UK: Please advise us when transfer has been made if you’re using this method and make sure you’ve given us your address for postage. Our bank details are:
Bank: Lloyds
Account Name: 30th Century Comics
Account Number: 61212463
Branch Sort Code: 30-98-97
If you don’t have internet banking, your bank should be able to make the transfer for you using our account information above.
- International: The codes to make an international bank transfer (also known as wire) can be supplied on request.
Paypal (UK and International):
- Paypal to: sales@30thcenturycomics.co.uk (If you’re unsure how to do this, please ask us for a Paypal Money Request.) If you choose to use Paypal, please ensure that your correct mailing address is shown on your Paypal payment, since we can only post to addresses registered with Paypal. Please do not use Paypal ‘Friends & Family’ to make personal payments.
- It’s possible to pay by Paypal using a credit or debit card even if you don’t have a Paypal account. Just ask us for a Paypal Money Request and instructions if you need them.
Whilst we make every effort to keep the site catalogue listings as up to date as possible, inevitably there will be occasions when an item has already been sold. You are therefore strongly advised to check with us for the availability of items before sending payment. You will also need to contact us to get a quote for postage and packing charges (see below).
If you see something you want, we strongly suggest you contact us by email right away. Many items sell very quickly once we list them.
Time Payment Scheme
We will consider spreading the cost of an order in excess of £300 over a number of instalments to suit your individual budget. If this is of interest to you, please contact us to discuss an arrangement. Please note though that we cannot accept a second order from you to be paid by instalments until you have paid off an earlier instalment arrangement. We reserve the right to charge a proportion of your deposit in the event of default on subsequent payments.
Postage & Packing
We post to anywhere in the world, with just a few exceptions. All our packages above £20 value are sent with full insurance cover. All orders outside the UK are sent by air.
We charge the actual cost of postage plus a small fee for packaging materials.
When you place an order, we will give you a postage quote. If you want to send an order in by post, we’ll contact you on receipt of your order and tell you how much to pay including postage. Please note we do not accept payment by cheque, postal order or cash in the post.
Packages are sent by Royal Mail or Parcelforce, by a method suitable for the size, weight and value of the package. We currently post out midweek once a week.
All our vintage British and American comics are sold and packaged in comic bags and backing boards (some cheaper Picture Libraries are not boarded). We package everything securely in boxes or specialist mailers to ensure there is no damage in transit.