Hey, Folks!
Here we are finally officially into Summer 2022 and boy has it been a scorcher! I remember that I used to love these kinds of weeks, with the endless heat and the crazy humidity. I mean, I would bask in it like a gecko lizard on a nicely lit rock. As I grower older and greyer, however, the bloom has truly left the rose for this particular experience. Indeed…the bloom has not only left, but burst into flames and become a small pile of ashes. I mean, to think I spent year with nothing more than a fan or two at home to keep things bearable and now I have air conditioning units spread out over my house. It is certainly a major change for me. Hell…I used to complain to Steve all the time that he had the store too cold and now that I’m the one paying the bill I find myself saying “#$%& it” and cranking the chill up. I tell myself it is strictly for the good of the product as well as my beloved customers, but the truth is I do it for myself.
Brian just completed sorting through the last collection that we had queued in the back room. I made my offer to the gentleman and he accepted it so keep your eyes peeled to the Facebook account for the inevitable posts I will be making. The collection is a plethora of late 80’s-early 90’s Marvel material as well as some earlier issues as well as some intriguing keys. Into the back issue bins we will be adding Avengers. Avengers West Coast, Fantastic Four, and New Mutant back issues and some of the keys include the first appearances of Cable, Gambit, Jubilee, Mr Sinister, and Psylocke. I just may have noticed a Secret Wars #8 nestled in there and I have been reliably informed that there are some 35 cent newsstand variants within as well. Of course, there will also be plenty of Dollar Box material to put out as well. It is going to take a couple of days for us to get it bagged and priced and there may be an item or two that needs to be sent the cleaners, but it should proceed fairly quickly now. If you have been waiting to bring in your collection until we were caught up then now is the time to swing by and drop them off…😊
I’ve been fielding a lot of questions lately about various D.C. and Marvel books that are behind schedule and I wish that I had a nice blanket answer for the hold up, but unfortunately we (retailers) have little to no official word on what the problem is. I mean, we’ve been hearing a lot about “supply chain issues” and “printer issues” and I have no reason to think that isn’t the case. In case you haven’t heard, a good portion of the comics that Marvel solicited in their June Previews will NOT be shipping in the month of August (as they were scheduled to) and will instead need to be resolicited. I am currently mulling the return of a weekly FOC list to make available on the Facebook page to hopefully keep everyone updated, but the last time I put the time in for it not very many people looked at it. Let me know when you come in the store if this is the sort of resource that would help your comic collecting. I mean, anybody who has been putting in monthly order forms (especially for variant covers) I want to assure you that I am keeping a record of your orders, but if it would help you to see a stripped down FOC list every week then let me know. I am currently ordering ALL D.C. and Marvel titles on a week to week basis and the only monthly orders I place are basically for what I’m ordering from Diamond. Frankly, that list is growing smaller and smaller all the time and the only reason I don’t just switch to FOC orders with Diamond is that there are many items that aren’t on Diamond’s FOC page and that have to be ordered through the monthly catalog. By the way, the July catalogs should be ready to go out next Wednesday and I will be completing the Diamond June initial orders later this afternoon in case you have anything you’d like to add!
Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are now restocked on small white comic boxes as well as resealable Silver Age bags! I was a little worried that I would have to raise the prices again, but thankfully after processing the invoice I determined that nothing has change and the small boxes will will remain $7.99 each and the bags will be $10 for a 100. We are still waiting on Magazine boards and black title dividers to come back into stock, but otherwise we are now at full restock!
I truly hope everyone has a great weekend! Hill and I have really dived into our board game obsession lately and have plans to once again play Wingspan with a new group of players. Thanks to Toledo Game Room for helping me expand a couple of my favorite board games like Terraforming Mars and Viticulture recently and brace yourselves for me expounding endlessly about a new game we’ve recently played called Ark Nova! I hope to see everyone in the store soon…😊
Ed Katschke