Posted in: Comics | Tagged: box, Comics, cover, exclusive, four color grails, loot crate, subscription, variant

Four Color Grails Closes Its Doors

Published Tue, 11 Aug 2015 14:00:59 -0500

Last updated Tue, 11 Aug 2015 14:39:27 -0500

Four Color Grails was a monthly exclusive variant cover subscription box, only containing exclusive variant covers, and at a far lower circulation than, say, Loot Crate. And for $27 a month plus shipping, less for a longer subscription, that was very competitively priced against many other retailers prices for such books. Indeed, just one could be flipped on eBay for more than the price of a box.

Maybe too low priced. Because Four Color Grails is no more. Launched this year by Industry G, a Toronto area company, as of August they have closed the door and the website has been shuttered, available now only through Google's cache, which tells us,

A grail is a special edition comic book that features unique cover art from industry leading artists and creators! These editions are produced in very limited quantities making them some of the rarest editions in the marketplace. We bring you only the best that the industry has to offer.

Every month we send our subscribers four unique comics, from the world's best publishers, with variant covers only available through Four Color Grails.

On their Facebook page, they state,

Four Color Grails is so thankful to everyone who has purchased and made our subscription boxes a success. Since January our team has worked tirelessly to bring you the best major comic titles, with some of the most forward and artistic variant covers yet!

We're happy so many of you helped us promote, share, and create a brand that was made by comic collectors, for comic collectors.

This is why making the decision to close was very hard.

As of August 1st, we will not be taking any more orders. We will be officially closed.

These past 6 months have been great seeing how the fans and followers interacted and worked with us to make FCG bigger and better. We truly had some great success both internally and with subscribers, making sure every one of you had what you needed.

It wasn't easy, but from this experience we feel like we got to know the heart of our community.

In our closing, we will be refunding any and all remaining orders prior to our last shipment going out August 10th. Anyone who has renewed, started a new order, or have outstanding balances will be refunded the full amount to their credit cards by August 10th. You will receive the final shipment, and no more charges or packages from FCG.

We apologize for this sudden announcement. We thank all of you for being so supportive while we brought FCG to the world.

For more information or any inquiries, please email hello@fourcolorgrails.com

Although not everyone is getting replies from that e-mail address. One reader writes,

When I first saw the Dale Keown SpiderGwen variant offered by this subscription service I subscribed right away. I paid for the 3 month subscription and an additional amount for the previous months box. It took a while and got my first order for March and February. Then April box took a long time to get but I did get it. May came and went and I never received it. I tried emailing them and I was told it would be sent shortly as they were having issues. Waited a few weeks and never got it, emailed them again without a response. I send them a Facebook message and it showed it was read but there was no response. They were still advertising new boxes but I had not received my May box. I pretty much gave up but I am still owed $25 or a box.

Their Facebook messages tell similar stories, though they do promise full refunds or supplied boxes.

Safdar Khan Will I get my May Grail, Which I paid for? And you have stopped responding to my emails and FB messages.

Todd Somerfield: Never got mine either

Four Color Grails Everyone will be receiving refunds for outstanding balances between now and Tuesday.Will Hannah believe it when i see it, man that subscription was a awesome idea by me, give you my money to hold and use on your stuff and hopefully get a few comics out of it or my money back months and months later maybe:(
Controversial retailer Dennis Barger of Quick Stop Comic Shop told me "This industry is a paper mâché tiger right now. It's not about substance anymore. it's about selling retailers more than they can sell to obtain some delusion of sugar candy mountain over the horizon"

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