Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, fcbd

Comic Store In Your Future: FCBD 2021 – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

August 14th, 2021 was this year's Free Comic Book Day or FCBD. It was a very weird one. Even up to days before the event, people we told about it were surprised that it was happening in August. Google still shows May 1st in 2021 when asked when FCBD was this year.

Coke Cola sponsored this year's FCBD. How that benefited anyone is a good guess. Yes, it would be a good guess Diamond benefited from it directly. The comics that were given out for free on FCBD still cost the comic stores money to buy them to give away. The QR code on the Coke Cola posters that went out for FCBD was underwhelming.

Our last sales day in July was a record sales day. FCBD this year was not close to that record. For us, a majority of the people that came in for FCBD were regulars. The main reason they showed up? To get the discount offered that day.

The biggest surprise of the day? People asking for an FCBD Superman comic. In all the FCBD events we have been a part of, that is a first. Another was being asked by multiple people for Friday the 13th comics. It took me a bit to figure out the day before was Friday the 13th. The third biggest surprise was how far the excitement for the Star Wars brand had melted away.

We hosted Rodman Comics Day instead of Free Comic Book Day and had far more success with our sales in past years. Why FCBD this year? After years of having reprint material for FCBD, DC finally had new material. Batman was getting his own comic for FCBD. It was not nearly as big of a deal as we had hoped. DC is pushing Batman with so much comic book material this year DC may be over saturating Batman. Such as Marvel did with Wolverine years ago and then killed Wolverine. In short, we over-ordered the FCBD Batman issue.

DC having variant virgin and foil covers for their Batman and King Shark FCBD did help stores make up the cost for buying comics to give away. Next year, Marvel and other publishers who are a part of FCBD could help comic stores by offering variants that stores can sell to offset the cost of buying their comics. They could also get extra attention to their offerings. The King Shark foil variant alone we sold for $50, and it did get people excited. More people were excited for that foil variant than the Batman foil variant here in store.

One person who came into the store was surprised to learn that comic stores have to buy the comics to give away. Even called it communism.

There were a few things that hurt FCBD this year for us by having it on August 14th. The Iowa State Fair was going on during the same day. Here in Iowa, it is a big deal. Even with covid this year, the news reports a "large turnout" for the State Fair. Covid, of course, did not help turn out. Here in Ankeny, the kids are about ready to return to school. Last-minute vacations and getting ready for school are what many are doing.

FCBD was not a total loss. Things that went well for us. One good thing was people were outside getting their picture taken with the Rodmobile. Another great thing was kids getting their pictures taken with the Rodman Comics sidekick cut out and having fun.

We handed out coupons during the event. Come next Saturday; we will see how many people return the coupon that they received if they bought anything on FCBD. For us, the coupon is a good way to get people to return to the store and help get them into the habit to keep them coming in.

Will we host FCBD next year? The magic eight ball says to check back later. This year we should have skipped and just had a sales day giving away back stock. If it changes next year, we may try it again.

Our next sales event will be on October 2nd; we will celebrate 11 years of Rodman Comics! Originally the plan was to make up for our 10th anniversary being dampened by covid last year. As fate would have it covid is again a concern this year. I am vaccinated and have not turned into a zombie. With time running out, we need to decide do we try to have a comic pro here or wait a year, yet again.

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