Blog

My holiday humbug for you all, Blink-182’s “Not Another Christmas Song”!

I’m sure I’ll restate it next week, but our holiday schedule will be:

• Wednesday, December 22nd - New Release Day - 8 AM - 8 PM

• Thursday, December 23rd - Last Regular Business Hours before Christmas - 11 AM - 7 PM

• Friday, December 24th - Christmas Eve - 11 AM - 2 PM

• Saturday, December 25th - Christmas Day - CLOSED!

• Sunday, December 26th - Back to Regular Business Hours - 12 PM - 5 PM

Then we won’t have any changes until next Thanksgiving, gods willing!

It’s crazy to me that three of the four books that I talked about last week are already sold (Werewolf #32, Hulk #181, and ASM #238)! Amazing Spider-Man #129 is now available for viewing on the backwall! And for a cherry on top, our new floor is finally scheduled to go in on Monday!

I missed out on the Elon Festival of Lights (it was the last day of November and I didn’t even check the date until after December 1st), but two of my other favorite holiday events are this Saturday, December 11th, the Reindeer Romp at the Ragsdale Family YMCA in Jamestown @ 9 AM and the Running of the Balls in the Sunset Hills neighborhood of Greensboro @ 6 PM! Both 5Ks will make up the 10K I’m supposed to be doing for my marathon training and sandwich my work day nicely.

We got the grades back on the big honkin’ books that I gave a sneak peek at back in October, and we should have them back in hand early next week!

• Amazing Spider-Man #129 - 7.5 - First Appearance of the Punisher with Marvel Value Stamp intact - $2,500

• Amazing Spider-Man #238 - 9.4 - First Appeance of the Hobgoblin with tattoos intact - $650

• Incredible Hulk #181 - 9.2 - First Appearance of Wolverine with Marvel Value Stamp intact - $12,000

• Werewolf by Night #32 - 8.0 - First Appearance of Moon Knight - SOLD!

For security reasons, WE WILL NOT BE KEEPING THESE BOOKS (aside from the ASM #238) ON THE PREMISES! If you are seriously interested in the Hulk #181 or ASM #129, detailed pictures will be available on our iPad and the books can be retrieved quickly enough, but there will be a fee if we leave to go and get them and you don’t end up purchasing them.

Man, thank you guys so much for coming out so strong yesterday before our day off today!

Starting tomorrow, November 26th at 8 AM and continuing through Sunday, November 28th, enjoy Buy 2 Get 1 FREE on everything in the store except recent unbagged issues, comic supplies, and pre-orders! That’s right, we’re including the backwall in the deal for what I’m remembering as the first time ever! The only catch is that even though you can get as many combinations of three items if you’d like, each group of three need to be from the same category, i.e. three graphic novels, three action figures, etc.

And you all know by now that I’m an early riser by nature, so join me just after dawn tomorrow for our doorbuster deal with 60% OFF back issues from 8 AM - 9 AM, 50% OFF back issues from 9 AM - 10 AM, and 40% OFF back issues from 10 AM - 11 AM! If you’re still sleeping off your Thanksgiving dinner and can’t make it by for my extra magic hours, back issues will be included in the standard Buy 2 Get 1 offer the rest of the weekend.

Lots of news this week, starting with Local Comic Shop Day, taking place Wednesday, November 24th this year! These cannot be pre-ordered as the purpose of the event is to drive more people into the store that day, but they’ll make handsome additions to any collection!

Then on Thursday, November 25th, we’ll be CLOSED for Thanksgiving!

We won’t be announcing our Black Friday weekend sale details until next Wednesday, but we WILL be open at 8 AM on Friday, November 26th in Greensboro for doorbuster deals, so set you alarms now!

Diamond Comic Distributors have sent an email stating that their shipments for next week should be on time (we already have tracking numbers, so here’s hoping), and we should have this week’s books in hand and processed by 1 PM tomorrow, Friday, November 19th (we’ll update social media when we’re all set)!

Heads up that Diamond Comics Distributors has already given us a warning to expect delays with next week’s shipment of non-Marvel & DC product as well (Lunar & Penguin have already delivered the Big Two). We understand that this is frustrating, but we assure you that this is an industry-wide issue, and we’re making out better than many, including some Charlotte-area stores that didn’t get their books for this week until today (Friday, November 12th) while we had ours ready to go around 12:30 on Wednesday.

I did not expect to be as excited as I am about so many things that were hiding in my parents’ house for the last 20 years. In addition to everything I posted on Instagram, there was a journal I kept my sophomore year of high school where I documented every assignment and exam I took in addition to every movie I watched, video game I played, place that I hung out, trip I took, etc. and “inspirational” quotes and “deep” thoughts that came to me. It’s both embarrassing and enlightening. I have no recollection of being as into Metallica as I seemed to be.

If you’ve been longing for the excitement of HeroesCon down in Charlotte with June’s event being cancelled the last two years due to COVID, the wait is over! Taking place this Saturday & Sunday, November 6th & 7th at the Charlotte Convention Center, get in on the largest assembly of dealers and artists in North Carolina since 2019! Colton will be representing us, so stop by and say “HI!”

Folks have been asking what we’re planning on doing for Halloween this year, and with Free Comic Book Day having taken place a little over two months ago in August (there’s no official Halloween ComicFest this year) and our Black Friday sale less than a month from All-Hallow’s Eve, the answer is honestly “not a lot”.

Marvel has made special reprints for 2016’s Miles Morales Spider-Man #1, 2016’s Hawkeye #1 starring Kate Bishop, this year’s Daredevil #28, and Star Wars High Republic #1 labeled “Halloween Comic Book Extravaganza”, and we’ll have our Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary issues of Wonder Woman Rebirth #1 and previews of Diana: Princess of the Amazons and Wonder Woman: Tempest to give away on Saturday, October 30th. My parents are going out of town the next morning, so they’re donating all their candy to the shop. Lois might be in costume (I will). That’s about it!

As promised, we have not one, not two, not THREE, but FOUR grail-quality books that we sent off to be pressed & graded at CGC today. Amazing Spider-Man #129 the first appearance of the Punisher complete with the Marvel Value Stamp, Incredible Hulk #181 the first appearance of Wolverine complete with the Marvel Value Stamp, Amazing Spider-Man #238 the first appearance of the Hobgoblin in extremely high grade complete with tattoos, and Werewolf by Night #32 the first appearance of Moon Knight! We sent them “express”, so we hope to have them back before the end of the year, and while we won’t be quoting prices until we know the grades, it’s time to start saving your pennies NOW!