Contest of Challengers

OBFUSCATING THE DETAILS •4 years ago today… •The bad and good of retail, both in one day! •Identity thieved! •Thanks, Patrons! •Taskmaster! •Marvel's bizarre FOC maneuvers.  •July is HUGE for New #1's! •Red Band books are (unfortunately) the future. •Lack of interest in Blood Hunt/Absolute Power, even tho we're happy with them. Contest of Challengers #687

DUST BITERS •Item Scraping solicitors.  •"New Series" Flyer for Sidekicks and Manga. •The difficulties of ordering new manga. •Adjusting our Manage Comics Bookmark. •The 1982 DC Comics Style Guide. •The saga of Black River's new floor. •Comic talked about in this episode:      SCARLETT #1 Contest of Challengers #686

FOLD-ER  •Welcome to Contest of Challengers with Charles and Dale!  •Archiving comics on our website. •UPS shipments. •Card game ordering, and lack thereof. •(More) New X-Titles! •Comics talked about in this episode:      LAWFUL #1      GROMMETS #1      PROFANE #1 Contest of Challengers #685

GETTING A HANDLE ON FCBD  •What happened to our front door handle? •Smoke N Snack's front window nightmare. •How was Free Comic Book Day? Contest of Challengers #684

INTELLECTUALLY?  •Bad customer service. •Gotta get them Back Issues! •Setting up for FCBD. •Thanks, Patrons! •Our C2E2 experiences. Contest of Challengers #683

THE FUTURE OF COMIC BOOK RETAIL LIVE from Conference Room S403 at McCormick Place, it's the C2E2 panel discussion, THE FUTURE OF COMICS RETAIL with Patrick, W. Dal, Katie Pryde (Books With Pictures, Portland), and Dimitrios Fragiskatos (Anyone Comics/Everyone Comics, NY). The sound quality is a little iffy on this one due to recording in such a large room, but we've adjusted it some to make it a l...

I'M NOT EVERYBODY •Dented packaging. •Charging delinquent subscribers interest…? •DC's 5-book release week. •FCBD output. •California's Earth-2 is closing, and their reasons make perfect sense. •Results of the ComicsPRO Retailer Survey. •Patrick read a ton of advance PDF's (and most of the books already came out). •Comics talked about in this episode:      CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON LIVES #1,...

BLACK TIE •The Future Of Comic Book Retail •Apparently we are not a "Legacy" shop. •"Marcus" and his comic book. And a black tie. •People keep asking to have signings at Challengers. •3 new X-Titles and X-Men '92 vs X-Men '97. •Waaayyy too much television digression. Sorry. •Lunar's waxy new cardboard inserts. •Diamond shipping changes. Contest of Challengers #680

ENTHUSIASM OVER KNOWLEDGE •A very full inbox. •Leaving tasks for the other person. •Upcoming Events with: Brian Azzarello, Stephanie Phillips, Sarah Becan, Sage Coffey, Bianca Xunise (and more!)! •Publisher price changes are always a surprise. •Misplaced retailer concerns. •Prioritizing sales over tasks. •Us, as customers at other shops. •Our dentists. •"Butcher, Baby" by The Divorce Gun. Contest...

IN SEQUENCE •We have now officially been open for 16 years! Yow! •Keeping the "local" in local events. •C2E2 is fast approaching. •Wanting to refresh every aspect of the shop. •Some of the many books being published in June. •Thanks, Patrons! •Taskmaster  Contest of Challengers #678

XVI •Sixteen years in the same building but with many different building owners/managers. •Hmmm, can Patrick get Kip Winger to come out for our 17th Anniversary next year…? •Looking back at the comic shops of Chicago over the past 16 years. •Dal likes to refresh our website captions regularly. •The end of our reward program. •Uncanny X-Men #130 cover posters! •IG video responses.  Contest of Chall...

X-CHANGES •Sorry, we don't price-match with Amazon, because we don't have a market cap of $1,820,000,000,000. •Single issue sales attrition as evidenced on the sales floor. •The future of the X-Men comic universe has been revealed! •A massive Diamond shipping rebate. •"Minor shelf wear" •New Publisher returnability options. •Comics talked about in this episode:      TRANSFORMERS #7      UNCANNY VA...

CALL AN AMBULANCE •The many, many ways comic shops can sort comics for their subscribers. •How we think distributors ship their books, geographically. •"You called?" •Patrick broke his 3rd exercise bike. •"Can you call me an ambulance?" •Comics talked about in this episode:      SPECTREGRAPH #1      DUDLEY DATSON AND THE FOREVER MACHINE #1      MONSTERS ARE MY BUSINESS #1  Contest of Challengers #...

INCENTIVE TO BUY •The fresh scent of Challengers. •February sales are a Challengers record (not a good record). •Refreshing our Reward program. •Thanks, Patrons! •Cancelling wrestling action figures from Diamond. •Pre-order amounts. •DC's Absolute Power event grows. •Comic talked about in this episode:      FERAL #1 Contest of Challengers #674

FLAT-RATE •Diamond announces new Flat-Rate shipping pricing. •The ComicsPRO Annual Meeting is happening right now! And we are not there. •DC announcements:      Wednesday is officially New Comic Day starting in July.      A new line of Themed trade paperback collections.      Absolute Power is the big summer crossover, by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. •Marvel officially announces a new Ultimates team co...

MUCHA LUCHA •Sidekicks is fun! •Sale shirts, redux. •Comic sales in Vegas. •Pop-Ups. •Madame Web. •Shopify tax forms. •The cost of window prints. •DC/Marvel Crossover omnibus editions! •Salt Shed's Fret12 with Ready For Death!  Watch It Here!! Contest of Challengers #672

FIT TO PRINT •Thank you for sharing any of our posts and for liking what we do! •How is our 25% Off Sale doing…? •It's a Brand-New Dal!! •Lack of Channel 4 advertising revenue. •What is Tik-Tok for, really? •You can't subscribe to books like it's the 90's anymore. •Not prioritizing money. •Sale shirt controversy! •"Dal Reads You to Sleep" Coming Soon!! •Comic talked about in this episode:      THE...

IN-SALE STORES •Final Order Cutoff emails. •A Man with a Hat. •SALE!!! •No Wednesday holds. •January's final sales numbers. •Thanks, Patrons! •Credit card processing fees. •Comic talked about in this episode:      MAN'S BEST ASHCAN  Contest of Challengers #670

FEELING THE IMPACT •Low January sales. •The future of vaulting subscriber credit cards. •Ghost Machine      -Publisher support      -Issue readability •No retailer support for Returnability. •Shopify/Google email compliance. •Spotify/Patreon RSS feed confusion. •Two new events      -Spawn #350 RE: Spawn Podcast Day      -Dick Tracy #1 Release Day Double Signing •Comic talked about in this episode:...

DEAD POWER •Dead Strange •Chainsaw Man's Power •Neca product returns. •No bags (this is in my notes but as I'm typing this, I have no memory of what it means, yet we only recorded 2 hours ago). •An almost Scott Kurtz signing. •And the t-shirt artist is… Gustavo Duarte! •Our Top Selling Graphic Novels of 2023 (and Publishers)   Contest of Challengers #668

YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED •Patrick's experience as a retail customer. •2023 number fun!! Now in percentages! •Positive consumer financial positivity (via AP and Axios). •Turning lemonade into lemons, featuring Ultimate Spider-Man #1! •A new home for our Incentive/Ratio Variants! •A very specific rule for earning the 2024 "I Love You But I've Chosen Comics" Sale t-shirt.  Contest of Challengers #667

ECONOMIC-CABAL •Oooohhhhh! Episode 666! Sooo spooookyyyyy!! •Stacked deliveries really suck! •More complaining about how Diamond ships out product. •Product Costs vs. Operational Costs •Kamen Rider toys vs AEW action figures. •60,000 copies of Heartstopper Vol.5. •Marvel Hallmark ornaments. •Help us help you (read the emails we send!).  Contest of Challengers #666

A BURDEN TO SURVIVORS •Arielle Free is in Chicago and Patrick had no idea (non-comics). •Remembering the contributions of George Brower III (Patrick's Dad) to the early days of Challengers. •We got our WTBW bookplates!! •DC as a company = Villains. DC as a publisher = Heros. •Other shops Instagram pages. •FRAN's KITCHEN! •Lunar shipping costs vs Diamond shipping costs. •Paring down the $#!t you ow...

20 = 1 •Happy Christmas! •Nick Piterra's AX-WIELDER JON is here! •December's messed-up New Release lists.  • WHERE THE BODY WAS bookplate update. •Diamond's retailer calendar for 2024. •DC's Batman "Returnability." •Are you excited for Image's GHOST MACHINE? •Opening some presents!  Contest of Challengers #664

THE PIPELINE •New Marvel Legends for early 2024. •Hasbro is feeling the same issues as the comics industry. •Advent calendars. •LUCY KNISLEY is coming back to Challengers and we're working with BFF Bikes for that event! •WHERE THE BODY WAS week 1 sales. •Subscribers not managing their Manage Comics accounts. •How the comics industry is like a spider plant AND like an action figure of Marvel's Ever...