My local shop's 'Free Comic Book Day' turned into a total mess this year

They only ordered 50 of the main Marvel and DC books, and the line was around the block by 9 AM. I watched a guy in a full Spider-Man suit get into a real argument with the owner about the limit of one book per person. Does your shop ever run out of the good stuff that fast?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesleyb2010d ago

My local shop in Springfield did a pre-order system last year and still ran out of the Star Wars issue by 10:30. They had about 200 of those but only like 30 of the big two. It seems like a lot of stores just guess wrong on what's gonna be popular.

the_jennifer10d ago

Man, what if it's not about guessing wrong? Hear me out. I wonder if some shops get stuck with what their distributor pushes on them. Like, the distributor says "take 200 of this Star Wars thing or you get less of the stuff you actually want." So the shop has to take a ton of the licensed book just to secure their small amount of the regular comics. It makes the stock look weird but it's not really the store's choice.

paul_taylor219d ago

Remember my shop tried a ticket system last year, you got a ticket for the main books when you showed up. It cut down on the mad rush and stopped people from grabbing five copies. They still ran out of the big two by noon, but at least the line moved and nobody in a costume got into a fight. Do you think more shops should try that kind of system?