Rumour Mill Update : The Third Place has been sold and will close on Feb 29th

Fysh

...

I'm trying to think of a witty response to that, but the best I can come up with is a suggested jingle for the advertising, based on the greatness that is the Ramones:

"Bob & Johnny H took my baby away!"

(Either that or a joke about the progression from selling comics which could lead to claims of "raped childhoods" to actually ending potential childhoods, but that might be a bit too nasty...)

D Shalvey

Lads, calm down. I had to sign in and say something cuz this is getting ridiculous.

The 3rd Place closing down is not a huge deal for me, as i don't live in Dublin, and work under a comic shop anyway, so read practically everything for free. However, it's always a shame when a shop closes. The 3rd Place was the very first shop to take a comic of mine (and the first to pay me too) so i'll always appreciate John and co for that. It was always a nice place to pop into whenever i passed through Dublin.

I understand people are commenting on Johns u-turn, but so what if he did? If i were John, and i were possibly selling a property smack in the middle of Dublin city, i'm sure i'd be tight-lipped about it too. Who needs rumours going around when you're essentially selling away your livelyhood. He came back and laid all the facts out there when i'm sure it was the right time for him.

So, best of luck to John and all the lads at the 3rd Place. There's plenty other shops to go to in Dublin (Sub-City and Story are only a stones through away), so lay off John and support your new local shop.

I wish John and Bob all the best in their new baby-killing adventure. Too many babies around Dublin, if you ask me....

Dec.

Uncle Spunk

No YOU calm down Dec. So you're taking Johns side in this are you? You sell out. If you actually re-read Johns message but only count every fifth sentence and rub a lemon on your screen you'll see what he's really up to.

Comics are crap anyway.

D Shalvey

Bob, i wish you well in your baby-killing ventures, and THIS is how you repay me? You're dead to me Byrne. Dead like a sweet, sweet baby.

Fysh

Uncle Spunk wrote: »

No YOU calm down Dec. So you're taking Johns side in this are you? You sell out. If you actually re-read Johns message but only count every fifth sentence and rub a lemon on your screen you'll see what he's really up to.

3 monitors later, I'm still in the dark. And smelling faintly of fruit. Curse you, Byrne. CURSE YOU!!!!!

Ahem.

Vaguely back on topic, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Declan Shalvey is probably right. I'll admit to being a bit perplexed at John's u-turn, but if the sale hadn't been finalised I can understand why he'd want to keep things under wraps until all the contracts were signed, etc. It's not exactly a big deal anyway. (I still think that making the entire email public including the comments about the competition was a bad idea, but at the end of the day an instance of bad judgement is hardly a hanging offence).

I also note that, as happened before when the Comic Con was being discussed, we've had a few wonderful contributions from newly-registered low-post-count users. Nice to see that some progression in that respect, apparently some of us have been promoted from comic-haters to general begrudgers

In conclusion, the concensus is that it's a shame the 3rd Place is closing and that pretty much everyone hopes the new venture goes well. Which, I think, is what's best remembered from this thread.

And now, back to discussing Bob Byrne's proposed Coat-Hanger Corporation...

Uncle Spunk

Even if John did snipe his competitors who cares? Man if I had a comic shop I'd declare open war on all the others with a campaign of slander and letterbombs to say the least. He's been very magnanimous. (Look it up).

Case closed.

Fysh

I dunno man, I think that comics in general and particularly in ireland is too small a field to have that kind of "they're crap, but we're great" stuff going on. I understand the desirability of customer loyalty and that pointing out your rival's flaws is a good way of encouraging that, but not one comic shop I've seen in Ireland met all my requirements, so my natural response (and I can't imagine I'm the only one) to statements like the one in John's email is negative. I would react equally negatively if someone from FP or Sub City decided to post a message stating, for example, that they thought the 3rd Place was crap, had a rubbish range of titles and that "there was no justification for it".*

At the end of the day, I don't like retailers trying to tell me what to think. I don't know if that's the case for everyone else who found the remark in poor form, but that's irrelevant. A company that has a vested interest in customers choosing it over its rivals should not be trusted to make independent judgements about its rivals; they stand to make money from it. As a customer I wouldn't ask the question, but I'd trust a retailer who refrained from commenting on their opposition more than I'd trust one who adamantly insisted that everyone else is crap.

This is one of those "Your mileage may vary" things, I reckon.

randomcountdown

Are all boards.ie threads this bad?
****ing christ
The 3rd Place is a damn fine shop, and it's a shame to see it go. Good luck with the new premises.

Fysh

randomcountdown wrote: »

Are all boards.ie threads this bad?
****ing christ
The 3rd Place is a damn fine shop, and it's a shame to see it go. Good luck with the new premises.

If you clarify what you mean by "bad", perhaps we can answer it. At present, the only answers I could offer would be sarcastic in the extreme, or so full of qualifiers as to be meaningless.

mrbarney

As you all probably know 3Rd place has closed down (sniffle sniffle) and I am sure we are all sorry to see john go after 7 years, we are all at a loss (sniffle sniffle). but out from the ashes comes a new comic book hero mrbarney he is larger than life, as mad as a brush, a better detective than batman, stronger than superman, prettier than your girlfriend and he uses the post. Yes folk you can have your comics delivered to you at home or picked up at a secret location, in town, you may not get your comics on Thursday but we are working on that and you will get them cheaper than anywhere else!
We are building a website so we can do things all fancy like and you can shop on line just like amazon, except I’m not a huge corporation that puts kids to work grinding coffee or wrapping tooth picks in paper, I’m just a guy trying to provide people with a simple service and if you would like avail of this service simply email me your order and I will fill it for you.
Its a little topsy-turvy at the moment as this was just dropped in our laps but I’m sure once things are off the ground we'll be cooking with gas.:D

obrien_jimmy

Only found out today that the 3rd place closed. I was sick the past few weeks and hadnt a chance to go into town. first thing I saw was an empty window followed by a sign on the door stating "closed for buisness further updates will follow" or something along those lines.

Have to say though it's a shame to see a shop like the 3rd place go, they had a good deal of comics at a really good price and would favour going into town and buying the things as opposed to buying online as alot of people do now I suppose. I remember heading into the 3rd place years ago for the first time and was like wow theyve tons of stuff here this was when they had merchandise such as star trek memoribillia and toys from movies like terminator robocop and all that. must have spent ages looking around.

Everyones a point of view and some people are taking the "oh he's hit financial trouble route" other than johns quote of saying that he
"couldnt refuse the offer he was made"

I think either way it doesnt matter I mean we had the irish comic con last year which john had a big hand in organising and I think in some way shape or form the 3rd place will back back in the near future.
Like im not arguing with anyone here but id rather remain optimistic cuse lets face it ireland has very few comic book scifi or anthing other relating to it in the country.

Anyways nostalgia aside I wish John and the rest of his staff all the best and am curious to see his plans for the future and hope they are as succesfull as the 3rd place.

All the best man

varient

Exactly,Ireland has so few comic book stores as it is , for this petty arguements "My shop is better than yours" is abit imature.John seems hard done by as it is his store that closed but I have shopped in all stores in Dublin and found them all good to be honest. They all sold comic books, thats great in my book! I like to see my comic books before I buy them and so would not but online, too dodgey and so having stores to go to is a plus thank God.
Johns Comic con was great and so hope it returns as this showed him in better light than his seemingly "hard done by" attitude when it came to his shop I think. Buisness is buisness, now get up, stop moan'n , and get the Dublin Comic Con bigger and better this year!

ztoical

varient wrote: »

"My shop is better than yours" is abit imature

I'm not exactly sure what your point is - the "my shop is better then yours" mentality was put forward by the 3rd place email not by anyone on this forum - the people being accused of "acting immature" and "being begrudgers" on here never said anything negative about the 3rd place as a shop or that one shop was better then the other, a few just felt is was unfair to say such negative things about the other comic shops in dublin when at the end of the day there are so few shops in Ireland.

varient

ok I agree with what your saying........................and sorry for any confusion, just feel that exactly as what you said.
Cheers z.............. whatever your name is