Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: comic store in your future, fcbd, free comic book day

Comic Store In Your Future: The Case Against Free Comic Book Day

The case against Free Comic Book Day made by a comic book store owner in Ankeny, Iowa, USA

Every year, comic book stores and publishers run Free Comic Book Day, traditionally on the first Saturday in May, in which they give away specially selected free comic books, printed by publishers especially for that day, and sold to comic book stores for around 25 cents each, who then give them away. Many stores run sales, signings and other promotions on that day. The comics are often previews of upcoming comics, published graphic novels, or brand-new stories to set up storylines or events in the regular titles.

This year, Free Comic Book Day gets more complicated than in the past. For the first time ever, Marvel will not be releasing free comics under the FCBD banner. They will be releasing free comic books with Penguin, their comics distributor, and will be branded Comics Giveaway Day. We will just call it Rodman Comics Day, as we have in the past. I treat the day as more of a customer appreciation day. As many comic stores will tell you, FCBD does not bring in new people to comics. Giving away free comics gets people into comics, which was one of the reasons for FCBD. Over the years, that line has been used less and less.

I know my enjoyment of Free Comic Book Day was lost when the owner of Dragonfire Comics let me know that the comics given away on Free Comic Book Day are not free to comic stores. I assumed the publishers sent out the free comic books based on what the stores had ordered, and the publishers were paying for them. I mean, if giving away free comics was such a great thing, wouldn't the publishers be supporting it more? I was ignorant and wrong.

When I first opened, I thought I had to have FCBD because the other comic stores did. The old fear of missing out on customers by not having it. After a few years, I agreed with other comic store owners that it did not bring in new customers. By simply looking at the sales figures, they showed that we sold more and made more money on the other sales days, without buying comics to give away. This year, our March sale will be our best sale, as we now have construction on the street in front of us. I have already had people call to let me know the construction is too much for them. If one is travelling north, they cannot simply turn in. Heading south is now down to one lane. It is a pain but one still can get to Rodman Comics. I now come to the store and leave the store through the back alley. It is not like Ankeny, Iowa, is the same as, say, Houston, Texas. This year's sales figures will be affected by the construction. Past years' FCBD sales days still get beaten out by other sales days.

But it gets people into the store, people will argue, yes, it does. Just like Wizards of the Coast, the company behind the Magic: The Gathering card game, had its own Free Comic Day, called Magic Celebration, held on the first Saturday in September. Unlike FCBD, Wizards of the Coast sent the packs to be given away that day, at no cost to stores that hosted the event. It lasted a few years and died a silent death. It felt like I was the only person who remembered it. I remember calling to ask whether it was going to happen that year, and being told by the person at Wizards of the Coast back then who took my call that they could neither confirm nor deny anything about that year's Magic Celebration event. Wizards of the Coast let their free day die, and it did without being missed. The magic players did not care in the least; it was as if they had forgotten all about the previous events. Wizards of the Coast would not have stopped it if they had found it beneficial. It lasted for years, yet I find very little about it online. I remember those days well; the store was packed. How much money did all these people coming in for free Magic packs spend? Hardly anything. It was a waste of the store's time.

Free Comic Book Day, though, costs the comic stores money and is still around. All these years, and Diamond, before their bankruptcy, did nothing to make it better, to see what they could do to actually increase people buying comics, to make comics stores make more money, which should have made Diamond more money. FCBD became stale.

The problem with free events is this: many people are just coming in to get the freebies and couldn't care less about actually purchasing anything. There could have been many things that tried to get people to come back. Something as simple as having a coupon in the back of a comic book, saying, "Bring this in next week or next month to purchase an exclusive second part to this story." Anything, yet nothing was tried to better FCBD in all the years it has existed. No experiments, no attempts at anything new.

Here is an example of a past Free Comic Book Day. A person who rarely comes in stops in for FCBD. Has no idea what titles are being offered that day, which, sadly, is quite common among people coming in for FCBD. They just heard there are free comics and will take as many as they can, even though they have no idea what is being offered. I ask him which ones he is looking for, but he has no idea. He borrows a person's cell phone that he has never met before and looks up a list for FCBD. Thankfully, my employee pulled one each for him. After she was done, he said he would like to have another set for his girlfriend or cousin, or something. At that point, I was thinking seriously, you're going to have my employee go through that again. He gets a second set, says he is broke, which is why he is unable to buy anything. I just nodded. He then says he wants to purchase the store's Return of the Jedi garbage can. I thought you just said you were broke… I said, "Oh, the store is incorporated, so I am not able to sell it. After I said that, I was thinking, "What the heck came out of my mouth?" To my surprise, he says, "Oh, I understand." I didn't.

Offering free material to people that sets the tone for the event, a different thought process than a sale. Everyone wants to feel like they are getting a good deal, an excuse to buy something, which is what a sale does. Free means getting the freebies and running. I know because that was my thought process for years before I opened Rodman Comics. I remember a store that had all the free comic books on a table right where people walked in. I walked up to it, saw a sign saying one each for free, I grabbed one each, turned around

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