QFT #3: Wizard and Captain America #25

I was browsing the articles on Wizard’s website last week, just killing time at work, when I noticed a banner offering an incentive for subscribing to their fine publication. If this was typical BS incentive such as “subscribe to Wizard and get a limited edition Todd MacFarlane figure,” it would not have caught my eye. Instead, the incentive was “subscribe to Wizard and we’ll send you a copy of Captain America #25.” I was curious, so I clicked on the link. What I saw made me smile.

The basic rate for a 1-year subscription to Wizard is $28.00. A 2-year subscription costs $49.00 (a special price down from $56.00). Now, if you get the 1-year subscription, you can receive a first printing of Captain America #25 (cover of your choice) for $6.99, and with the 2-year subscription you can get both covers for $7.99 total.

Now, if I were a cynical man, I would say this means Cap #25 is essentially worthless because in the case of the 2-year subscription, Wizard is selling each issue for $3.99, which just happens to be cover price – and to think this book was once selling for $100 on eBay. If I was even more cynical, I would read between the lines and say that Wizard has a warehouse full of Captain America #25 first printings, and is desperate to unload them. Finally, if I was a cynical man, I would there must have been something fishy going on for Wizard to have ordered so many when every other retailer severely under-ordered.

Luckily for you all, I AM a cynical man, and I’m also extremely skeptical, so not only could I say all those things, I WILL say those things. So let’s get started and travel back in time, almost a full year, to the faithful weeks leading up to the shipping of Captain America #25…

Amongst retailers, there was an overall impression that this issue was going to include a story-point of above average importance, but for the vast majority of us (i.e. those with no inside contacts at Marvel or Diamond), it was all speculation. Then Marvel and Diamond both sent out “hints” that you cannot order too many of this issue.

Now, even though my store had only been open for a few months at this point, we had already gotten these same hints about numerous books from several companies, so we just assumed these bulletins were yet more smoke being blown up our backsides. Yet, there was a tad more urgency in the tone of these recommendations, so we increased our order by 15% or so. Of course, for us, considering that brought our final quantity to only 40-50 books, the extra cash wasn’t going to kill us if the book turned out to be yet another over-hyped bundle of tinder. Believe me, we screwed up many orders far worse than that, so this was like calling a meaningless $5 raise after losing multiple big pots on the flop. It wasn’t gonna change anything if we were wrong.

The faithful day arrived, and the world woke up to “Marvel Kills Captain America” headlines on every internet news site. Long story short, everyone and his dog came looking for the book, and we sold every copy by the end of the day. As it turns out, Diamond had plenty more in stock (how very convenient) and we ordered 100 more.

Throughout the week, we took phone call after phone call from people looking for the book. The conversations typically followed this pattern:

Customer: Hi. Do you have the issue where Captain America dies?

Us: Sorry, we sold-out the first day. But we have a hundred more will be arriving next week. Would you like us to put you on our wait list?

Customer: Oh definitely! By the way, how much will you be charging?

Us: Just cover price. $3.99

Customer: Really?? But it’s going for $25 on eBay!

Us: Yeah, but it’s a new book. Our policy is to not inflate the price of new books regardless of demand.

Customer: Wow. Cool.

Us: Let me write down your name and number…

We finally capped the waitlist at 80, making sure we had a few issues to put on the shelves. Eventually every copy sold, except for copy I found while packing up the store to move a few weeks ago. It literally slipped through the cracks (between some boxes and the sales counter). It’s now part of my collection.

I know a lot of folks will say that all the new customers the hype brought into the stores was good for the industry, but I disagree. By my estimates, 90% of the new faces, in my store at least, were never seen again. They were interested only in the investment value and not in becoming a regular reader. And that brings me back to Wizard and its role in the Captain America #25 feeding frenzy.

The day the book shipped, many retailers in my area placed it on their shelves with an already inflated price, typically in the $10-$15 range. Most of these retailers were just taking advantage of the headlines. It’s basic supply and demand. I find this practice distasteful, but being the red-blooded capitalist that I am, from a financial perspective, I can’t fault them from doing so. Ethically, it’s not something I wanted to do in my store, but perhaps taking the moral high ground is one of the many things we did wrong.

Things got a little muddier when you looked at the happenings on eBay. Hundreds and hundreds of auctions were immediately in place. Some sellers were private citizens trying to make a quick buck in the afternoon after buying the book from a retailer in the morning. They bought it for $10, sold it for $25, and that buyer may have sold it later that week for $50. I think those people are greedy, and the people that bought it for $50 are incredibly dumb, but again there’s nothing wrong with those auctions.

However, a fair amount of the auctions, dare I say a majority, were not posted by private citizens. They were posted by Wizard. Now, it’s very true that being on the east coast gave Wizard up to a three hour headstart on other retailers in the U.S. It’s also very true that Wizard could have employed a staff of dozens to post auctions on eBay. It’s also very true that Wizard may have heeded the recommendations from Marvel and Diamond and simply ordered heavy on Cap #25, thus giving them hundreds, probably thousands, of copies to sell.

But remember, folks, I’m a cynical man, so since day one, I’ve chosen to believe that much more than just foresight and happy coincidence allowed Wizard to be a big Cap #25 mover and shaker. I believe the good folks at Wizard knew well ahead of time that particular issue was going to be huge. I believe Marvel and Diamond provided the team at Wizard with information that ultimately gave them a competitive advantage – information they withheld from almost every other retailer. Instead of giving everyone the same information, they just asked us to take them at their word that the issue was going to be big.

I’m not the only one who believes this. It’s been discussed in numerous blogs and on numerous message boards. Heck, in an interview with Newsarama, an employee all but said Wizard knew about it ahead of time when he says there are no walls between departments, which I can only assume means the marketing department, having been giving this information for its Wizard World Los Angeles variant of Captain America #25, not to mention the magazine’s featured articles and interviews about Steve Roger’s death that had to have been in the works prior to the book’s shipping date, then wink-winked and nudge-nudged that info to the retail operations of Wizard.

NOTE: At the time I wrote the above paragraph, the search function on Newsarams was not responding, so I was unable to pull, and quote, the original interview. If the search function starts working again, I’ll post an addendum to this column with a link.

I’m bringing up this year-old topic now for a few reasons; 1) My brain dun-gone blank at the half-way points of several columns, so I really needed something to write about, 2) the new Wizard subscription incentive, which I’ll return to in a few sentences, got my creative juices flowing, and 3) I’ve always wanted to publicly vent about this. And you know what? Getting this off my sculpted chest feels pretty damned good.

As for Captain America #25 itself, thanks to the frenzy perpetuated, but not necessarily created by, Wizard and, to a much lesser extant, local comic book retailers, the book sold like gang busters. You absolutely had to have that comic. For a brief time, the ‘90s were back and you were going to put your kid through college by hanging onto a few copies. I really tried to warn people against this philosophy in my store, but most wouldn’t even listen to my advice.

Wizard capitalized, and I’m sure it made thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars, albeit of the “quick buck” variety. Even with the frenzy, it’s very obvious its retail department over-ordered the book, as Wizard is now selling it for cover price (with a two year magazine subscription). While these leftovers, I’m sure, are just a drop in the bucket compared to Wizard’s original quantity, the thought of a warehouse full of first printing Captain America #25s, that the company is unable to unload after potentially using insider information to obtain them, is enough come-up-ins to make me chuckle. I mean, if we ever needed more proof that comic books are absolutely not for investing, this was it.

However, personally, the smile I get from the poetic justice is fleeting. The potential collusion between departments within Wizard (and possibly between it and Marvel and Diamond), along with other less than scrupulous acts I’ve seen neighboring retailers commit against customers and other retailers alike, are all big “cons” in my “Should I re-open my store” pros vs. cons list, and that saddens me. But that’s a topic for another day.