A vent, a gent, and an event.
Dear every parent that came into the store with their children on Saturday, and then proceeded to let them do whatever they wanted without supervision:
1. The comics are in order in the back issue bins for a reason. Maybe I’d like to find that copy of Superman #173 again someday, which will be hard to do when it’s shoved in the middle of the Avengers section.
2. It’s hard for me to sell the trade paperbacks as new when the ones your children are reading (and, after I asked, you told me have no intention of buying) are pressed open flat on the ground, stressing (if not outright breaking) the spines.
3. We’re not a playground — footraces around the bookshelves are discouraged.
I know these are entirely unreasonable expectations. I guess that makes me the jerk.
And thanks for not spending any money. I was hoping we’d receive no compensation for cleaning up after your little darlings.
Love, Mike
And before anyone asks, no, neither I nor employee Aaron were rude or pushy to any of these folks. I politely asked if the comics were pulled out the bins, leave ’em out for us to put away, and to please go a little easier on the books, and so on.
You know, 99% of the time, parents and kids come in for comics, and everything goes swimmingly. But yesterday was our day for problems, I guess.
Why, if this keeps up, I might start getting gray hair or something.
The other day, I had a fellow claim that a comic in his possession was about to skyrocket in price when the summer movie season started. Why? Because the comic in question features not only the Transformers (who have a new Michael Bay tragedy movie opening soon), but it also guest-stars Spider-Man, who also has a movie opening Real Soon Now. And not only that, but the Spider-Man in this comic is wearing his black costume, which is (get this!) just like the black costume in the movie!
Okay, he was talking about Transformers #3 from the mid-1980s. When I hear stuff like this, I just sorta let it go in one ear and out the other. Yeah, sure, it’s bound to increase in value, hope that works out for you.
But then again, as much as I’d like to discard this idea, someone trying to exploit this tenuous connection between two big Hollywood releases may be able to generate some excess coin of the realm out of it. A quick look at the eBay shows virtually no interest in the comic, so my faith in humanity is at least temporarily kept, but who knows what a few months’ time will bring?
So my initial reaction, that this fella with the comic had some unrealistic expectations, was entirely undermined by the realization that his scenario could very well be possible. So I’ll have my network of spies (i.e. me) keep close tabs on the pricing action of this item (i.e. I’ll look on the eBay, occasionally, when I remember).
Your Free Comic Book Day update: spent all Saturday sorting out the freebies, preparing them for distribution next Saturday.
I’m going to be seeing giant piles of Pirates Vs. Ninjas and Gumby in my sleep for the next few days, I just know it.
