A woman named Susie noted on her LJ and in the comments section over at MangaBlog that her local comic book shop only allowed customers to take one free comic. If they wanted a second or third it was 25 cents each. That leads Brigid Alverson to wonder if such a practice is ethical or even permissable. If it is something the FCBD founders and Diamond frown on, it seems almost impossible to police.
What do you folks think? Did anyone run into this on Saturday? One of the local comic shops in my area had a similar practice, only they were charging 50 cents for each additional comic. That money, however, was being donated to the local library, so I didn’t have a problem ponying up the extra cash.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:42 am
At the shop I go to there were two tables one kid-friendly the other for older fans. I could pick up three titles from either table. It seemed to work out ok. Another shop gave them out as grab bags.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:54 am
My local shop followed the first ones free route. Any additional comic was 50 cents with the proceeds going to the local library.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:56 am
My local bookstore allowed up to 10 free comics, but oddly made you check out, even though they didn’t charge anything. My local comic book store only allowed 3 comics, which I think is a bunch of crap.
It seems to me that retailers (even publishers to an extent) don’t get that FCBD should be a fun event, like Halloween, and is a great opportunity to get people interested in comics.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Yeah, these books costs retailers a little bit, but if they’re a smart store, they find a way to sell the other comics that aren’t labeled “free” to make up for the cost.
Our store limited the selection of FCBD comics to 3 titles until 3pm. After that it was free range. At the end of the day the only FCBD comics we had left were a few Legion of Super Heroes and Archies, as well as most of the Who Wants To Be A Superhero comic that Dark Horse sent us.
It was a great day all around – especially regarding sales – and we didn’t have to charge for the “free” comics.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:57 am
People are allready getting free comics, it’s kinda greedy to expect to get more than one copy of each for free
May 8th, 2007 at 11:06 am
“My local bookstore allowed up to 10 free comics, but oddly made you check out, even though they didn’t charge anything.”
Could be they’re tracking their return on the freebies.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:55 am
You could get as much as you wanted from the free bins at my local shop (Dreamstrands Comics). Gabe (the owner) also had lots of free movie stuff too from 28 Weeks Later, Delta Farce, stuff from video games like Mega Man, etc. There were two tables of free comics of which one was kid friendly. He also had a small tent in the parking lot with a bunch of boxes of $1.00 comics, and then everything in the store was 20% off.
Can you tell I love my local shop? When I moved to the suburbs I was going to switch shops but Gabe offered to keep my current discount even though I had to cut back on titles and throw in a monthly Previews. He puts on HeroClix and gaming card tourney’s for the kids. All around Dreamstrands has to be the best shop in Seattle.
May 8th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Magnum Comics in the Bronx had a decent selection — about 12-15 titles, pre-bagged (paper, not plastic) and completely out of sight behind the counter — but I suspect they were only giving them out to customers who bought something. Handed me the bag with almost no explanation; it felt more like a thank you to existing customers (of which I am a very infrequent one) than a marketing effort to bring in new ones.
Particularly disappointing since they’d gotten a nice little write-up in the NY Times the day before.
May 8th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
As a retailer… there is a couple of things you need to consider… 1 – The comics aren’t free, we (the retailers) have to pay for all of them and so we can’t get enough for everyone to get everything. So the caps on how many you can take are likely so that everyone can get some free comics. We had a limit of 10 per, and went through 9,000 comics by 2 in the afternoon and then gave away old back stock to make up for the lack of books. We made people check they’re free comic books, because it was a pretty frequent occurance that many customers thought free comic book day meant that every comic in the store was free and a number of people tried mixing new comics in with their free comics, which is just theft. I love the idea of free comic book day, but honestly based just on the number of headaches it leads to, I’m not a huge supporter of it.
So again, I think most people over look this – the free comics are NOT free, the retailers have to pay for every one they order. And customers, if let loose will take you for every penny – so yeah, in a perfect world free comic book day would be all sunshine and roses. But the reality is, most people like take advantage wherever they can.
We had free posters, movie swag, toys, various give aways, a draw, a huge in store sale, and then the free comics. All in all, I think we did our best, but we had no choice but to lay down some rules for the day or we would have lost our shirts.
May 8th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
“My local bookstore allowed up to 10 free comics, but oddly made you check out, even though they didn’t charge anything.”
This really isn’t odd at all. They were just making sure you weren’t taking anything that wasn’t free.
Retailers pay for our “free” comics. They can have whatever rules or restrictions they choose. Some choices make more business sense than others but to complain about it is just being petty. If you want more comic books to read, there are plenty available for purchase.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I went to three stores. The first one let me take 10 free comics, selecting from pretty much the entire bunch. They also had a local artist doing sketches. They were fairly busy.
The second store had one free, 25 cents for each additional one. Their selection of the books was limited to the big companies. Very little turnout there.
The third let me take 15 free comics, again with pretty much the entire selection available (although they had run out of Spider-Man by the time I got there). They had some creators doing signings, some minor celebrities (From Who wants to be a Superhero), game demos (heroclix, monsterclix, some pirate game), people in costume, and free food (sponsored by a local mortgage broker, I think). They were packed with people.
Before this, I’d have described all three stores as pretty good, but would normally have steered people to Store #2 for a greater variety of material – but they did the least, and didn’t even carry the giveaways that supported their product mix. Store #3 mostly carries Marvel and DC superheroes, but had a wide variety of the giveaways, and worked the hardest to get people to a) come in, and b) enjoy the experience.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
My local store allowed us all 3 apiece, and that was plenty for me. I think if the goal’s to attract new readers, then the avid readers should be willing to take a break.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
My local store did 2 free from this year’s free stuff, and unlimited free from what they had remaining from previous year’s stuff (along with other unsold stuff that they were setting out for the casual reader – I got a complete set of Gus Beezer issues for my nephew this year because they had Gus Beezer backstock. And, BTW, Gus Beezer rocks, thank you very much).
Personally, I don’t expect to get all of the FCBD books for free — its more an excuse to see a fun time. At the local store there are folks dressed up in costumes and lots and LOTS of little kids in the store. It’s like Christmas – it’s for the little kids. In fact, I only grab the kid-friendly FCBD books to give to the kids that I know anyway.
(Though I keep the free Heroclix toys when they have them — I can justify it by claiming that they’re a “choking hazard”, though that holds less weight with the 8 and 6 year old nephews…)
May 8th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I don’t see what the big fuss is about. FCBD was created to get new folks into comics. Do you really think the average new reader is going to want ALL of the books put out? No, they are going to look at the selection and pick something that appeals to their interests. The only people wanting to get them all are collectors looking to complete their collections and scalpers looking to make a little cash and they should have to pay for them if the store is charging. That’s the big problem I have with FCBD, the books are becoming more collectible than they were originally intended to be. Its cool that collectors are embracing the free books but when it stops being about the new reader and becomes all about having a complete collection then its time to do something new to attract new readers.
But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
May 9th, 2007 at 7:10 am
My local shop only allowed one from the FCBD pile, but they had also set out four boxes of comics from their back issue selection that were also free (with no limit). On Sunday, the day after FCBD, there was no limit on either section.