Free Comic Book Day 2008!!! saturday, 3rd may

[WeeklyComicReview]

the x-men one wasnt a reprint

[iancontinence]

yeah i realise that now,and i wasn't sure that's why i said that i could be wrong. the cover was very familiar though... and fcbd does have a reprint rep, from the big two especially

[gamingnerd666]

You shouldn't be surprised that the retailer has to pay for the free comic. If I bought a bunch of balloons and have my logo put on it, I would have to pay for the balloons & the printing costs, etc even if I gave them all away for free. I would call it an advertising expense. Giving it away for free is called Good Will. Your comic book store can buy as many or as little free comics as they want. But the event only is as successful as the effort the store puts into it.

[iancontinence]

i was only suprised because i expected these expenses to be taken care of by the publishers, i.e. dc, marvel ect.

as it isn't actually free, and it's not actually the comics companies who pay - they just break even, it is small stores like the one mentioned who lose a lot of money.

all while the comic co's get the majority of the credit, and free advertising/exposure.

i was also suprised because i'm sure many others are as blind as me, thinking this is charity from the big guys, but it's not

[gamingnerd666]

We didn't lose money. We had the best sales day we ever had. It is free to the customer, the gift is to them,not the retailer, we are just one part of the industry and I think each part is paying their share. Diamond provides the distribution, the website, the locator service, the networking, the logos, press releases, commercials,etc,the publishers provide the comic,whether it is new or reprinted, it is not free for them to print them and on each comic there is space to put your store logo.

[iancontinence]

well i can see you're a fan of fcbd, and you're not going to let it go... fair enough

but paying the equivolent of $1.60 to give a comic away just doesn't work here... and we get treated badly enough on the comics front anyway

[HartleyHolmberg]

Here in North America the Premiere comics (DC/Image/Dark Horse/Marvel)cost the retailers about 25 cents a pop from what I understand and the other indies are a bit cheaper.

I think its a great promotional tool, but its sounds like its the shites over there in the UK with its inflated price not helping the retailer at all.

Really FCBD is primarily set up to entice people who don't normally read comics to check em out.

Not enough focus on the already existing fan IMO.

[iancontinence]

it's all a bit film noir...