Free Comics: Yes — Free Sports Cards: No
Tomorrow (May 3) is Free Comic Book Day. Visit your local comic book store and cash in.
A few years ago, there was a groundswell for a National Trading Card Day. Krause Publications and Beckett Media took the lead, bringing the card manufacturers together in a series of conference calls in an effort to put together a free pack of cards.
Those calls were amazing. Card Company X wanted to make sure it had a card from all sports represented. Card Company Y, who only produced two sports, was upset about Card Company X having more cards in the pack. Card Company Z said that if X and Y had cards in the pack, it wanted to have a similar amount.
Guys, what about the free cards for the customers?!
Eventually, the packs were delivered to shops and distributed on Opening Day weekend of the MLB season. But the whole process was such a colossal beat down for everyone that it never happened again. Meanwhile, Free Comic Book Day enters its seventh year on Saturday. – ph
Tags: comic book, comics
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May 2, 2008 at 10:27 am
What would high school be like without beating up the comic book geeks?
Ahh the memories
May 2, 2008 at 1:03 pm
The collector in me must say that the comic book collectors are lucky that their industry doesn’t nitpick over details on a day meant to get new collectors into the store. I think that there should also be more attention paid to all sports (at a minimum, the four big ones as they are called) because when you focus on baseball only, you don’t appeal to the fans of other sports. Some shops get it, some don’t, and the good ones fill in the holes during the year so that there are many times where a trip to the shop is an event to remember. The bad ones hand out a few free cards, sell the rest on ebay, and keep their prices high. The industry needs to stay in touch with its customer base.
May 4, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Um, there is still a Free Baseball Card Day.
May 4, 2008 at 10:04 pm
sports card collectors dont need anything like that, we are all so happy and there are so many new collectors coming into the hobby each year that there is no need to do anything to benefit the collector. Just look back 20 years, to 1988. There are a hell of alot more card collectors now than there are then. I dont think any of the manufactorers or store owners should do anything different, they are all making so much money and all of the collectors are so happy, I just so keep the status quo for the next 20 years and just watch all of the new collectors enter this hobby. With all of the new technology ( xbox, iphone, ipod, etc ) we have now of course young kids are going to want to collect and trade pictures printed on paper. For $50-$60 a kid can buy Madden. MLB 08, or any other sports game and play it for 100 hours, 500 hours, 1000 hours and it cost the same price. For $50-$60 in this hobby what sealed box of cards is a kid going to be able to buy?
May 4, 2008 at 10:14 pm
how could i compare collecting cards with ps3, xbox or video games????
I have never seen an industry spread their cheeks and loose a market share as fast as the sports card industry has in the last 10-15 years. I started collecting in the mid 80’s right around the same time as Nintendo hit. Funny thing everyone i knew had a Nintendo and every kid collected cards. Every birthday party i went to from age 7-13, the party favors were always packs of baseball cards. I offered to take my 11 year old cousin to the local card shop a few days ago, and this kid is the biggest sports fan around, and he had no desire. Why would a kid want a card with Lebron on it when they can play a video game and actually play as Lebron or anyone else.