Free Comic Book Day 2010

I know! I'd burn it up at Madness

I thought i was going to miss free comic day cause i had work but didn't cause my local library were giving away some of the free comics.

I went to Traders of Babylon which is in Hoboken New Jersey. I got:

Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock
War of the Superman
Iron Man/Thor
Iron Man/Nova
Archie's Summer Splash
Toy Story
DC Kids Sampler
An Amazing Spider-Man (looks like it was from 2007)
I also got these over-sized issues of Spider-Man Family and The Avengers which are all ages for free as well.

I went to 2 of the 3 "BIG" shops in NYC. It's always interesting to see how each shop deals with FCBD. On shop gave you a 5 book limit while the other had all the books in bags so all you had to do was walk up and you were handed a bag.

Went to Grahm Crackers near me in Illinois. Dissapointed. No Superman or Iron Man, or at least none left. I got there late.

Still 3 free comics per person. Wife got some Grim Fairy Tales and I got some MOTU and a old iron man

I'm also disappointed, that people picked up the Marvel and DC stuff instead of the lesser known books.

I got one of each free comic and gave most of the kid-friendly ones to my daughter, who was delighted. She also got to meet R2-D2 and I got the shop to pass out PoP! flyers. Pretty sweet.

The Sixth Gun caught my eye and i picked it up. A good read for the most part, a little unpolished but I could see myself reading it in trades.

Solar/Magnus was good, Doctor Solar lives in the tiny ass town in NY that I lived in for years. It seems like a strange choice and I wonder if it was random or what.

I was glad to see that the War of The Supermen was a different cover.

I also scored the War Machine heroclick fig.

prescribeddrone wrote:So is Iron Man/Thor irrelevant story wise?

Not very.

Tomer Soiker wrote:I'm also disappointed, that people picked up the Marvel and DC stuff instead of the lesser known books.

The Marvel one was only 1/4 of my freebies, I tried the indies and I really liked The Tick out of Irredeemable and Mouse Guard.

I thought FCBD was a huge hit at my local store. they had an awesome sale and Chris was there!

We ended up raising $170.00 to buy art supplies and graphic novels for our school library!

I was really disappointed with the LCS showing this year. The first place I went was great about the free comics (20 per person), but had absolutely no specials on buying things. I had a stack of back issues I wanted to get, but they weren't even doing 10% off... I walked out with about 10 free comics and nothing else.

The second shop I hit up had a limit of 3 free comics per person (didn't really bother me since I already had mine). Strangely they were giving out free cotton candy to the sea of children running around the store. How in the world is that a good idea? Sticky fingers + comics = no go. They had their TPBs 20% which would've been nice, but Amazon.com regularly sells there's at closer to 40% off. Again... I left without purchasing anything.

Come on People (who own comic shops)! The hard part is getting people in the door and FCBD does that for you! Make a friggun sale! Do something to make people want to spend money. If we're not buying stuff on the busiest day of the year, your doing something wrong!

We were actually talking about a different type of promotion at the store I work at called "Free Money Day", wherein every person who walks into the store is given a dollar bill. It would ultimately cost us less than the free comics, and 90% of the dollars would instantly be reinvested into the store.
Plus, imagine the PR and good will produced by a store that gives away legal tender.

Interesting idea, no?

Heytherejeffro wrote:We ended up raising $170.00 to buy art supplies and graphic novels for our school library!

Thats awesome!

Heytherejeffro wrote:We were actually talking about a different type of promotion at the store I work at called "Free Money Day", wherein every person who walks into the store is given a dollar bill. It would ultimately cost us less than the free comics, and 90% of the dollars would instantly be reinvested into the store.
Plus, imagine the PR and good will produced by a store that gives away legal tender.

Interesting idea, no?

I actually really like that idea. It makes a lot of sense because people are going to spend it and it's pretty damn hard to find something that costs a dollar so you should make a profit off of it. Cool idea.

What if I keep sending people in and out of the store to gather dollars...and by closing come up with a thousand dollars..?

vikoros wrote: They had their TPBs 20% which would've been nice, but Amazon.com regularly sells there's at closer to 40% off. Again... I left without purchasing anything.

Come on People (who own comic shops)! The hard part is getting people in the door and FCBD does that for you! Make a friggun sale! Do something to make people want to spend money. If we're not buying stuff on the busiest day of the year, your doing something wrong!

Wow...on-point...I swear, the New England Comics chain has the shittiest deals. They do this one where it's 10% off your first graphic novel, 15% off your second, 20% off your third....like REALLY...you think comic fans are that dumb? How about their FCBD 50% off sale! But trades/statues/dvd's are 20% off...huurrmmm...sure. Nice try.

There's a thing called Amazon, where every book is 25-40% off, w/ free shipping over $25, and then there are Borders rewards coupons which have the frequent amount of 33-40% off...you could get most graphic novels at the larger stores, as well....

I understand the LCS's wanting to make profit, but really...in a hard-pressed economic climatr, we are going to go for the best deal possible.

I hate shops that have a limit on how many books you have, or just have them in a bag in as if hey are trying to funnel you out as quick as possible. Make it an event. Make people happy to be there and make them feel like they really got something. If someone goes "All I was able to get was this..." then they're probably disappointed and not going to come back. We allow one per title as long as supplies last. We had 28 of the titles available arrayed on a table for folks to pick and choose.

Yes, having a sale is a good idea, but if all you're going for is price then Amazon will beat any local shops sale any day of the week. 40%? Most shops only get a 50-55% discount on books, not to mention how much you're paying for the free books. Yes, there's a logic to a sale, as we ran 25% off everything/half off back issues and had our best sales day ever by about a grand. I'm sure other shop owners I could talk to would tell me I still lost money, but you're investing in making someone feel like they're getting good value in a good atmosphere. If people don't feel like they're getting that then the event didn't work. However, it is important to have realistic expectations of shops and shop owners. Even when it's the best sales day there's still an chance you're just going to break even.

I don't really understand the mentality of expecting shops to run sales on FCBD. Maybe it's just because so many shops do people have come to expect it, much like free refills at a restaurant, but if anything that's the one day of the year when comic shops shouldn't be offering up large discounts. They are, after all, giving away free comics by the bulk. Sure, those books don't cost as much as the regular, weekly fare, but they still cost money for the stores and they aren't receiving any profit in return for them.

Like Demonweasel said, if price is your main motivation, then Amazon will always beat out your LCS. Personally, I support my comic book shop when they are and aren't having sales because I enjoy the experience. I always try to buy something on FCBD, at regular price, because that's what keeps stores running. Sales, while good on the consumer in the short term, should be a very rare thing.

Joshua wrote:I don't really understand the mentality of expecting shops to run sales on FCBD. Maybe it's just because so many shops do people have come to expect it, much like free refills at a restaurant, but if anything that's the one day of the year when comic shops shouldn't be offering up large discounts. They are, after all, giving away free comics by the bulk. Sure, those books don't cost as much as the regular, weekly fare, but they still cost money for the stores and they aren't receiving any profit in return for them.

Like Demonweasel said, if price is your main motivation, then Amazon will always beat out your LCS. Personally, I support my comic book shop when they are and aren't having sales because I enjoy the experience. I always try to buy something on FCBD, at regular price, because that's what keeps stores running. Sales, while good on the consumer in the short term, should be a very rare thing.

Yeah, FCBD is also our only storewide sale. Occasionally we'll run specials on back issues or trades, or offer buy-one, get-ones but a full on all this is on sale is a once a year type thing.

LOOSECANNON wrote:What if I keep sending people in and out of the store to gather dollars...and by closing come up with a thousand dollars..?

Yeah, we'd have a filter, there. Plus, why would people get you the dollar when it could be theirs?

Demonweasel wrote:I hate shops that have a limit on how many books you have, or just have them in a bag in as if hey are trying to funnel you out as quick as possible. Make it an event. Make people happy to be there and make them feel like they really got something. If someone goes "All I was able to get was this..." then they're probably disappointed and not going to come back. We allow one per title as long as supplies last. We had 28 of the titles available arrayed on a table for folks to pick and choose.

Free Comics do cost money for the stores, as you know. Plus, by having them pre-bagged, a store would probably save money and man-hours when it comes to people coming up and grabbing them. We had them on display with numbers, people wrote down which ones they wanted, we gave them to them. If we had them all out, people would have literally "stolen" stacks of free comics (yeah, it's a city, these things happen).

Joshua wrote:I don't really understand the mentality of expecting shops to run sales on FCBD.
Sales, while good on the consumer in the short term, should be a very rare thing.

FCBD was our biggest day ever, actually. You have an incredible amount of foot traffic, so a sale in some form or another is a good idea. It's like the Black Friday of the comics industry.
And for the first in a very long time, Joshua, we disagree on something. Our store frequently runs sales, and in this economic downturn, our business is booming (I've work 1 day a week since February, and I just got a bonus in my paycheck because we're doing so well). If records are on sale, the record people come in, and remember to come back. I know it contradicts the "if it's always special, it's never special" concept, but trust me, the frequent sales, email offers, etc... are a very good thing for comic stores.

FINALLY... http://panelsonpages.com/?p=22625

Heytherejeffro wrote:We were actually talking about a different type of promotion at the store I work at called "Free Money Day", wherein every person who walks into the store is given a dollar bill. It would ultimately cost us less than the free comics, and 90% of the dollars would instantly be reinvested into the store.
Plus, imagine the PR and good will produced by a store that gives away legal tender.

Interesting idea, no?

My concern for you guys would be how widely you publicize this, and how many people would just come in, take a dollar, and leave.

Mnemosis wrote:FINALLY... http://panelsonpages.com/?p=22625

Heytherejeffro wrote:We were actually talking about a different type of promotion at the store I work at called "Free Money Day", wherein every person who walks into the store is given a dollar bill. It would ultimately cost us less than the free comics, and 90% of the dollars would instantly be reinvested into the store.
Plus, imagine the PR and good will produced by a store that gives away legal tender.

Interesting idea, no?

My concern for you guys would be how widely you publicize this, and how many people would just come in, take a dollar, and leave.

Most wouldn't bother to make the trip from afar, but it'd be the same as a family coming in, demanding free stuff, hanging out demanding free sketches, not buying anything, blocking up a table, then leaving...

That's true.

Also, Sonic's nose is too big.

Mnemosis wrote:That's true.

Also, Sonic's nose is too big.

He had too many spikes, too!

6 year old girl: "That's not the Joker!"
Me: "...umm...yes it is..."
6yog: "Nuh-uh!"

It was totally the Joker.