How do I send/ask/say hello?

Physical: Antiquated Future PO Box 42081 Portland, Oregon 97242 USA

Email: antiquatedfuture(at)gmail(dot)com

Who is Antiquated Future?

Antiquated Future is an online store, zine distro, pop-up shop, and tape label that began in 2008 out of Olympia, Washington and currently operates out of Portland, Oregon. Over the past fourteen years, we've distributed several thousand different zines, books, tapes, records, and handmade odds and ends by independent artists. Though we've grown over the years—and even gone through a name change (originally we were the Ms. Valerie Park Distro)—we've been essentially the same since the beginning: we spread print and physical mediums through digital avenues, employing the future to preserve the past. 

Daily operations are mostly run by Joshua James Amberson. Tape Witch regularly packs orders, helps with day-to-day tasks, and takes many of our item photos. For many years, Chask’e Lindgren co-ran it and continues to design our fliers and shirts. Evan Hashi does our website design. Rachel Lee-Carman does illustration work for the site and our stickers. Gina Sarti solicits new zines and runs our Instagram account. Tim Day helps with order-packing and projects. Katie Savastano is the artist behind our header lettering. On the label end, Andrew Barton helps with curation and design of our Selected Songs series, in addition to other non-series titles. And a TON of other friends have helped us table at events over the years. 

What's a zine? (And what's a zine distro?)

A zine (pron.: /ˈziːn/ Zeen; an abbreviation of fanzine, or magazine) is a self-published, small-circulation booklet or mini-magazine, usually produced by one person or a few individuals. Zines come in all shapes, sizes, topics, and formats. They can include personal essays, political discussions, fiction, craft, or do-it-yourself advice. Articles or reviews about music, movies, comics, and poetry, are also common. In short: they can be anything! "Zine distros" are simply distributors of zines. They act as an avenue for helping other people's zines reach different audiences than they might otherwise reach.

What kind of zine distro are you?

We try to carry a really wide range of zines, while still maintaining a curated selection. Personal, historical, music, humor, personal-as-political, literary, how-to, and pop culture are all zine genres we find ourselves especially drawn to. We also try to carry a range of zines in terms of cost and production quality—both simply designed, affordable zines (that nod to the '90s zine heyday we came up in) and high production value, art-focused zines and workbook zines that reflect where people have taken the zine format in recent years.

Being one of the largest zine distros in the country, we try to recognize that responsibility by not specializing too much. Many of our customers have never bought, or even heard of, a zine before and we hope to offer a lot of entry points into falling in love with zines.

How do I place an order?

Click on the Add to Cart button next to each item you want to order, then click on your shopping cart (which is located in the top right hand corner), and select where you want the order shipped to. Our cart goes through Snipcart, which accepts PayPal and all major debit and credit cards. Questions about other forms of payment can be found in the Mail Order section below.

When can I expect my order?

We get all orders out within 1-3 days. Most weeks, we ship 2-3 times per week. Depending on the order, our shipping costs cover standard First Class, Priority, and Media Mail shipping within the U.S. All orders outside the U.S. ship standard International First Class.

Shipping times will vary, depending on your distance from Portland, Oregon. Orders within the U.S. typically take between 2-10 days after being shipped. International orders typically take between 1-5 weeks for delivery. If you're looking for U.S. Priority Shipping options, please email us first.

Do you accept distro submissions?

Vaguely, yes. If you're familiar with our selection and feel like your work would be a good fit, you're welcome to send a sample copy to the PO box above. We require a sample copy simply because it's hard to get a good sense of a publication without seeing it physically (we've picked up many things over the years just from looking online or at a pdf and have regretted it nearly every time). Please note: Due to our busy schedule and the sheer volume of submissions we receive (hundreds each year!), we will only respond if we decide to pick your submission up. We consider zines, chapbooks, micro-press books, literary journals, cassette tapes, LPs, handmade paper goods, and assorted ephemera. When submitting, please mention your item's wholesale and retail prices, how you found us, and what items/kind of items from our catalog you feel your work is akin to.

Do you accept submissions for your record label?

Though we have releases planned into the foreseeable future, we're always willing to take a listen. Some things to take note of before emailing us, though: like many small labels, we don't make money. At best, we break even. So, we're really looking for a relationship more than a business transaction. Given that, please include with your submission: how you found our label, which of our releases you're excited about, and how you see your music being in conversation with that music.

How do shipping costs work?

Shipping is a tricky one. With so many items, there are thousands of possible shipping-price combinations. But, after nearly 14 years (and despite innumerable USPS price hikes), we've got it so most orders are pretty close to their actual shipping cost. One thing to know: our U.S. shipping costs top out at $10. That means you can order as much as you'd like and the shipping will never go higher than $10!

Also, it should be noted that international costs were raised considerably by USPS in recent years, which is largely why our international shipping prices are so expensive. We don't want it to be that way! But that's truly how much it costs these days (and we're as mad about it as you are).

What if my order doesn't arrive within the quoted time frame?

Send us an email with your order info and we can try and troubleshoot. If it just doesn't seem like it's going to arrive, we're happy to discuss resending or refunding your order.

Do you do wholesale store orders?

Yes! Just email us (to the address at the top of this page) with a list of what you're interested in and desired quantities, and we'll let you know what we can fulfill and their wholesale prices. Easy! After the first order, we offer a NET30 payment option to those who need it. (If you're a customer looking for a store in your region that carries Antiquated Future goods, look at the list of stores that we work with on our links page.)

Library orders?

We love them. We're big library supporters. If you contact us ahead of time, we're happy to waive shipping costs on any domestic library order. (We'll send you a free shipping coupon code, so you can keep it within the cart system and won't require a separate invoice or anything that might not fit easily with library purchasing restrictions.)

Mailorder, Can I?

We know some of us still yearn for the era of distro catalogs that you send away for in the mail. Sadly, these days it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for us to solely do it that way, but it doesn't mean we don't do it! Within the U.S. you can send well-concealed cash or check (payable to Antiquated Future) to PO Box 42081 Portland, OR 97242 with a list of what you want and money for shipping (which you can calculate using the shopping cart on the site) and those things will be on their way as soon as we get your letter and your check clears. 

Venmo?

Yes! While we don't have it set up as an option in our shopping cart, you're welcome to pay us through Venmo (@antiquatedfuture). Just email us a screenshot of your cart or a list, let us know you'll be paying up through Venmo, and we'll ship it out!

Do you ever make it to events, zine fest, or the like?

In normal times: we do! Several times a year we make our way to an event and set-up shop. There's two annual events we usually never miss: the Portland Zine Symposium in summer and the Olympia Zine Fest in October. We also often table at Portland's Publication Fair in December, the L.A. Zine Fest in late winter/early spring, and the Seattle Vera Project/Hollow Earth Radio DIY Holiday Sale in December. And you might also find us at the Chicago Zine Fest and the Euzine Comics & Zine Fest in Eugene. Contact us if you're curious where we'll be next, or have an event you'd like us to come to or think we'd be interested in.

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