Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic store in your futyre, coronavirus comics, mister t

Staying The Course In Iowa, in Comic Store In Your Future

Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics in Ankeny, Iowa, writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. This week he continues his discussion of how shutdowns are affecting his store and his state, Find previous columns here.

I had a dream recently. I was driving, speeding up more and more, until I was going too fast. I tried slowing down and could not. The brakes were not working. I worried I would crash and then woke up. I usually do not dream or at least remember my dreams. Did the dream have some meaning behind it? I wondered am I trying so much and afraid to slow down? Am I afraid I will try so much and still see the store shut down? I would much rather dream I was flying like I did when I as kid.

The unknown in all of what is going on does bug the heck out of me. Next week Magic the Gathering is having their pre-release for their latest set, Ikoria Lair of the Behemoths. This will be the first set of a Magic pre-release we can sell directly to customers. Usually pre-releases for Magic are events where people have to play at least one round in store to buy a pre-release box. I am glad Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic the Gathering is allowing this. I have no idea what the actual demand for the product will be in these times. We will curbside it at least on Friday because currently May 15th the day it comes out for pre-release is also the last day scheduled for our county to be under the governor's mandate to be closed. Of course, this may be extended. Odds are we will not know until a few days before the 15th.
Thankfully we do not have a game room for events such as pre-releases. We have fold up tables and countertops to put over our back issue bins for gaming. Even after we are able to have customers inside the store, I do not see in-store gaming returning for a while with social distancing going on. There will be those that want to game in store again though I do not believe there will be enough to make it worth a store's time and/or money. A big game room currently seems a big waste of a store's space they get to pay rent on for the time being. I will miss the groups that play Magic and Heroclixs here. One day the groups of players will be able to return.

DC's Lunar shipping on Tuesdays has been a hit for us. Great packaging, no shortages or damages. I read online people saying the reason for no damages and better packaging with DC shipping through Lunar is because of the smaller shipments. Diamond has so much more to ship is the argument. That makes me laugh. So every box is filled to the max from Diamond is the logic? That is not true. I have had a box with just two books shipped before from Diamond in the regular weekly shipments. Plenty of boxes from Diamond were not close to being full and plenty of damages could have easily been prevented. Damages and shortages do cause loss of money. I remember a variant a customer wanted took months to get resolved. After a while I could tell the customer did not believe me that it was shorted or damaged but at least with the damaged copy I could show him. Making customers wait for product after they were told it would be available to them is not ideal. Competition makes a business (or should) up their game. As I have said often in the past, to be a comic store you either had to deal with Diamond or not sell comics at all.

There are bright spots in all this. The Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC) is helping comic stores through all this with grants. If you want to help feel free to donate to them through this link.

Wizards of the Coast has announced they are doubling what they were sending to stores for Mystery Booster boxes. These boxes are at no cost to the stores. That is great news for a lot of gaming stores. I have no idea when we will get them, though look forward to when we do.

Diamond has announced May 20th is the return of Marvel and DC comics through them. It's not very long after DC started shipping comics through another vendor. DC took some flak by shipping comics during all this, a few weeks later has much changed? Again, we will have to see when we will reopen. Basically, will we do curbside or will we be open under guidelines issued? The good news is there looks to be excitement for the return of comics.

I've been using Facebook to stay in touch with our customers. Trying to stay positive with posting funny memes and posting back issues we have that people might be surprised by or find funny. Such as Mr T and the T Force #1 from the 90s. Neal Adams even did work on the comic. I pity the fool who doesn't buy this comic book!

What changes do I see here at my store? Reduced hours sadly. I would love to rehire, return to more hours, and be back to where we were before all this started. Though truthfully, I do not see that happening. It will take time, a lot of time. Much like many people we are currently reluctant to spend money.

Before the virus things were going very well. People were spending more on average. I do not even remember the last customer that was a headache, for example as in complaining about the price of a comic they would not buy no matter what the price was. I had one customer years ago who would not buy any superhero comics, though complained about the cost of variant superhero comics in the store. Cussing about it even. I do not miss that person at all. Things were going very well. After we start getting in store customers will I be dealing with people trying to lowball me? Wanting to take advantage of the current situation? Thinking I am desperate with all this going on? I hope not. I do not go to a business and try to lowball them.

We will not know the effects of the loosening of restrictions by various states for weeks, it is a virus after all. We lack leadership during these times. WWE is deemed "essential" while other businesses are not? Wrestling entertainment is not essential. Too much greed.

Just over twenty-four hours after typing this, things changed again. On May 6^th, the Iowa governor decided to shorten and change her mandate. Selected businesses may reopen now on May 8th, including in my county which was deemed high risk. I typed we lack leadership before this even was announced. In a few days business will now be able to reopen with new guidelines. What happened to waiting until the 15th? I am not going to open up this weekend. I read the news reports and the new statement. Tanning beds are now good to go? We had our worst day for deaths just a few days ago and now we are going to increase the risk? To me this is all very weird. I was in the mindset of waiting until the 15th and now Iowa is rushing to reopen.

Ironic, I have a dream I am speeding along and unable to stop and now the state is going faster than I am willing to go. I hope to have a dream where people are gathering again without any fear and I hope it comes true sooner than later. Be safe.

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