Posted in: Comics | Tagged: bad idea, bad idea comics, comic shop, ebay, eniac

Camping Outside Comic Shops As Bad Idea Bans Store For Breaking Rules

On Wednesday, Bad Idea Comics were promoting their comic book launch Eniac #1 in all manner of fashions. The first official publication from the new comic book publisher set up by the people pushed out from Valiant entertainment when DMG bought it up. With all manner of ways to differentiate themselves in the market – not being distributed by Diamond, with enforced selling rules such as not letting stores increase the price of a comic for 30 days, no digital, no collections, one copy per customer and shifting nature of each comic book's contents. Here's a run down of what went down when Eniac #1 went on sale on Wednesday.

The First Copy Pin — a gold pin given to the first customer of the day to purchase Enaic #1 — kicked things off the night before with people camping out in front of stores overnight. The longest camp out we are aware of is 13 hours. Most look to be in the 4-5 hour range. Here are a few photos of people doing just that (used with permission)

Camping out may have been smart from a financial standpoint as a pin has already sold for $525 with 5 others on eBay in the $600-800 range.

The First Print of Enaic #1 was allocated by 51% and the new Hero Trade story that was announced for it on Tuesday both created heavy demand with stores seeing big early morning rushes. Most stores sold out of their shelf copies of the First Print before the end of the day, many within the first few hours of opening. Some saw lines form before opening like Alakazam Comics in Irvine, California who sold out in under 10 mins and Midtown Comics in downtown New York who sold out in 20 mins. Over a hundred copies have sold on eBay for over  hundred dollars each, the highest going for $280. This is of course the second time Bad Idea has managed this feat with their secret giveaway, The Hero Trade, seeing an ungraded copy selling yesterday for $900.

The Not First Prints, which Bad Idea sent to make up for increased demand, are moving well too with stores reportedly expected to sell out by the weekend. The Not First Print is an open order item and Bad Idea is reporting very heavy reorder activity this week. These are also selling for lots of money, despite Bad Idea stating they will continue to print the Not First Print runs without distinction from earlier runs, in the future. So seriously, save your money and do not pay $50 for a Not First Print of Eniac #1 like this moron.

I'm told that including reorders, the Not First Print has outsold the First Print at this point. Think about that as well. Bad Idea is also enforcing its sales policies after Jesse James Comics of Glendale, Arizona, listed copies of Eniac #1 at above cover price on Facebook.

And Bad Idea has now banned Jesse James from ordering any future Bad Idea comic books, ever.

On Facebook, Jesse James posted an apology but to no avail. He wrote;

we made a bad judgement on trying to sell some of our books at a going rate price. Though, we were not obligated at that point, since we had closed our account with them and decided not to go with the final offer, of carrying the rest of the series. We should have done what we have always done and protected the customers and simply followed the rules that Bad Idea had put out to protect their customer base as well. We take great pride in how we conduct business and the business we have built either with Ebay 42,000+ 100% feedback or Our Award winning Brick and Mortar store. We have a strong community in the third market that services many customers around the world through our many platforms. Platforms that have helped LCS stores around the world sell one more comic. So I offer my sincere apologizes to #badideacomics Adam Freeman and Dinesh Shamdasani. Thank you for getting the books to me regardless. I apologize to all the customers who rely on me to give them the best comics and the best prices. We have also offered to send all our copies to any store that Bad Idea choses or one of friends who sells them. I have always said, "dont tell me how successful you are" Tell me when you failed how you bettered yourself. This is that moment. I will continue to strive to be better at what I do. Provide some of the Best Customer Service on the planet. FYI. We didnt sell any books at that price and removed the post. The auction on ebay will be donated (we can stop it since its less then 12 hours)

All this fuss without any major media talk either. No placed articles at The Hollywood Reporter, Variety or Entertainment Weekly. Almost unheard of in today's market. Although that may be coming as Bad Idea CEOs, Dinesh Shamdasani and Warren Simons are the producers of The Witcher, the Bloodshot movie and the upcoming Gideon Falls TV show.

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