davidh777

I went to my two closest stores. The first had a limit of four, as they usually do, so I got the Archie digest, Star Wars, The Walking Dead, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. They also had 35% off everything, so I got a few TPBs. At the other store, there was a limit of five, so I got Judge Dredd and Banshee, plus they also offered free the Image and Valiant One Dollar Firsts so I got Girls, Harbinger, and Fatale. They had 10% off everything, so I got something interesting that I'd never heard of called Blue Estate Preserves.

I was surprised to see the Banshee freebie, as I've gotten hooked on that Cinemax show. The comic isn't as good, of course, but as a backstory prequel it was pretty decent, and I'd be in for a TPB version.

One other notable thing: The first store had the volume Supermallet just mentioned, the first Manaro. I'd never seen it before but it caught my eye. $59.99 list price, though, was painful. The second store, though, had a copy unsealed so I flipped through it and liked what I saw. I was a little mixed on where to get it: The first store, where I first saw it, which offered the better discount, and where I go much more often? Or the second, where they gave me the chance to flip through but also made me a little way of buying the "floor copy"? I decided on the first store where I picked up some other freebies: Batman Earth One, Superman Last Son, Prince Valiant, and Damsels Mermaids. A bit of a cheat to come back for more freebies, but I bought both times--$33 and $49, in fact--so I'm not worried about it.

And only one issue per person at the San Diego shop, really? I hope they ended up with tons of stock at the end of the day.

Supermallet

I'm disappointed that Dark Horse was charging so much for the Manara volumes (I would have bought two or maybe even three if they were $30 instead of $60), but I know that this is the first time these works have been translated into English, which was probably a lot of work for a niche product, so I guess we're paying for that as well.

They also had a volume of his erotica for the same price. I decided to go with the regular volume to start, but Manara has some incredible erotica.

starman9000

BTW, I'm not sure if it had been out for a while, but thanks Why So Blu? for the comixology heads up, I enjoyed the Scott Pilgrim freebie.

(though it sucks because I had forgotten all about the new color versions and now I feel like I need to drop some money to get them)

davidh777

Yeah, I feel like Dark Horse often charges premium prices--their archive volumes are usually $50 list. That said, these are high-quality volumes (the LCS guy I talked to said the erotica is B&W), and I agree about the translation costs. Though I believe I actually know the translator so I should give him some grief about that--no, not really. He does great work with Fantagraphics to make similar European stuff available to the U.S. market.

Thank goodness for discounting, though. I agree that $30 (usually my purchase ceiling for video games and high-end comics) would have been preferable, as even at 35% off my wallet was hurting.

Supermallet

House of Secrets gave me 20 or 25 percent off my whole order, so I wasn't complaining.

Supermallet

FYI, Amazon has the Manara books for around $40 each, which is definitely more palatable.

Edit: The used ones were between $30 and $35 after shipping, so I ordered a few.

VHS?

Probably looks like I'm beating a dead horse here by responding, but just reading on other sites, it seems like I was the only one to experience this.
The store actually has 5 locations. They are the largest in San Diego.
They had close to 30 freebies at the store I went to and that also made it a bit lame with the 1/per customer. One thing they said on their FB was it was also preselected ! This did not happen though but wonder if that was true for the other 4 stores ?
Just baffles me that a store chain as large as this one was so skimpy. They had plenty to go around from what I saw on the racks so not sure if they expected a large crowed or what because when I went, not that many were there although I was there 10min after they opened. Though it did say on FB 'while supplies last' so ...

They did have a good deal going on at the store I was at though and just at that location.

Lastdaysofrain

I went to four Boston area stores. Two of them had 50% off everything in the store sales. They also had artists and food and other fun stuff.

I've been going to these since the first year and this year by far was the busiest (except for one store which had almost nobody in there and didn't do as many special things for the day). Three of the four stores were packed. More packed than I've ever seen them, and also a lot more kids then there has been in the past, which was nice to see.

davidh777

Yeah, that's the route I'd most likely go if I want more, though I like supporting the LCS. They do have a punchcard that allows one 50% off purchase following five TPB/HC purchases ($15 minimum, I think) so that's a possible option. I hate punchcards so I probably have two or three sitting around with various punches on them.

PhantomStranger

I've come across a few small individual shops that limit the free comics to one per person, but the chains I've come across have all been pretty generous.