Projections — 7/30/2014

What a week. Sometimes I get burnt out working so much. I even joked with others that I didn’t close this year because I signed a two year lease. Been trying to figure out what to do for the anniversary of the store come Oct 4th. And then comic legend Bob Layton returned an email and said he is good to go to show up here on Oct 4th. I was shocked I tried to get him for this years free comic day but he was already booked. He has never been to Iowa. Hopefully we will show him a great big welcome for his first visit.
His upcoming visit has really gotten me fired up. A feather in my cap.
Here is Bob Layton’s bio from his webpage http://www.boblayton.com/
Bob Layton has a large body of work in the comics field. Though he is most known for his work on Iron Man he has many accomplishments. He wrote and drew Marvel’s first limited series Hercules Prince of Power.
Help create the Huntress for DC with Paul Levitz and Joe Staton.
Designed the Secret Wars toy line for Marvel. I loved those things as a kid.
Help turn Valiant Comics from a company losing money to profitability.
Launched the first X Factor series.
And much more.
On Iron Man he and David Michelinie turned a once low selling title around. Armors Wars is my favorite Iron Man storyline. Ever.
The famous Demon in the Bottle Iron Man 128 cover was done by him and David Micheline. He was part of the Iron man creative team that brought the well received alcoholism storyline in the pages of Iron Man.
On the first two Iron Man movies he was a consultant. Even talking with movie star Robert Downey Jr. How cool would that be?
And he is going to be at Rodman Comics October 4th.
Warner Bros released a picture of Wonder Woman from the upcoming Superman Batman film. I like it!
This weekend the Guardians of the Galaxy hits the big screen. We will be having a private showing Saturday morning.
August 2nd was the Con In Your Store Program for Heroclixs. It was all ready to go and signed up for on their website and so long as Wizkids didn’t drop the ball yet again we were good to go. Which of course they did. I have lost count on how many delays Wizkids has had. Since the Con In Your Store Program material failed to make it in time for Wizkids, even though Wizkids would only allow stores to run it in August originally, we will reschedule it for August 16th. War of Light round 3 is already locked in for the 9th. August 2nd we will have a two booster draft and some cool prizes. I am betting that the new Guardians of the Galaxy set will be delayed at least a week so Wizkids can sell it exclusively at the convention that they are at on the 16th. They did that last year with Wolverine and the X Men. Really shafted the stores last year that were unfortunate enough to be near last years con. Meaning people bought the Wolverine and X Men heroclixs from the con while the stores could not sell it till next week. Wizkids made money being the only ones able to sell them that weekend while lessening demand for the set for local retailers. Learn to read a calendar Wizkids.
As I have stated plenty of times Wizkids is the worst company I order product from. Just like their “surprise and delights” I never know what all I will be getting, when, or how much.
I already paid a grand for the material that a store had to buy to qualify for their program. It was quite rushed on Wizkids part. And again it was Wizkids who said the Con Program originally had to happen in August. By delaying it I will have to wait longer to try to make up the money spent to qualify for this program. A reverse loan somewhat.
And only announcing the delay days before stores were suppose to be able start it that will most likely mean people showing up only to be surprised it has been delayed. I have contacted who I could, posted this article on the website, and announced on our Facebook page. But I do not have contact info for all our regular heroclix players.
I am also using up time to get the word out about the delay when I could actually be doing something more productive. Like selling stuff.
I miss the days when Topps owned Wizkids. Prize support was provided for free to comic stores. Players would get free heroclixs in the mail. Damaged heroclixs could be sent away for replacements. Large retailers did not get exclusive heroclixs that comic stores couldn’t. I was just a player and not a retailer. Heck, I even received a free heroclix in the mail. The good old days.
Now programs such as the very popular mail away Buy it by the Brick program have been done away with to save current owners NECA money. That program did help people to buy from brick and mortar stores instead of online. If you bought a brick (ten heroclix boosters) from a brick and mortar store one would cut the UPC codes off the boxes and sent them along with their receipt to Wizkids to get the Buy it by the Brick figure. Now comic book retailers get to look forward to NECA encouraging people to buy from huge mass retailers for exclusive Heroclix that comic stores can not get.
Wizkids makes it very difficult to carry their product.
Lots of talk about Star Wars X Wing miniatures gaming returning. It’s summer still. So I am trying to hold off.
The website’s marketplace make over is almost done. As soon as I have some more product listed we will make the switch. Right now I am listing product but it has not gone live yet. So far it looks great. It may go live later this week. Feel free to check it out.
It been a good few weeks for me. Other than dealing with Wizkids of course. Talked with Jeff former owner of Dragonfire and shared stories about owning a comic store. Always good to talk shop with someone who has been in the business. And who knows, if Jeff hadn’t moved back to Nebraska maybe Dragonfire would still be around. If Dragonfire had still been open I most likely would never have opened Rodman Comics. I missed hanging out at Dragonfire and thought if I could create a place where it is fun to go and buy comics and talk comics that would be so cool. So if you hate Rodman Comics blame Jeff!
Even had an old friend stop in that I had not talked to in years. Used to go over to his place and play Magic the Gathering and other games. The good old days of being young and having no responsibilities. Sadly I had a customer come up to me and he end up leaving before I could get his contact info. But that is what Facebook for.
My goal for the next month is to get out and play more golf. Been playing well. Was worried for a week. I managed to hurt my back. Lasted a week. Usually in a day or two I am back to normal. This getting old stuff bites. Hoping to get as much time in by the middle of August since I will be playing in a tournament. It is just for fun. I think me and roughly the same group of friends have been playing in it for about a decade. I will have to ask them when we started next month. If memory serves correctly we have only won in our flight once. One of them is coming up from Arizona.
Sadly we say the same thing every year after we are done. We will play more next year and practice up but we never do. Just not enough time. We are all ready talking about October for goodness sakes. I may take time off from the day job to get some more golf in August.
Last year one of my friends had Team Rodman shirts made up for our golfing group. Have to see if I can find the shirt again. It put in my head to have new t shirts made up last year. So if I get Rodman Comics golf balls this year watch out!
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