Contest of Challengers 1.29: I Love You AND We've Chosen Comics

CALL AN AMBULANCE
•The many, many ways comic shops can sort comics for their subscribers.
•How we think distributors ship their books, geographically.
•”You called?”
•Patrick broke his 3rd exercise bike.
•”Can you call me an ambulance?”
•Comics talked about in this episode:
     SPECTREGRAPH #1
     DUDLEY DATSON AND THE FOREVER MACHINE #1
     MONSTERS ARE MY BUSINESS #1
 Contest of Challengers #675

INCENTIVE TO BUY
•The fresh scent of Challengers.
•February sales are a Challengers record (not a good record).
•Refreshing our Reward program.
•Thanks, Patrons!
•Cancelling wrestling action figures from Diamond.
•Pre-order amounts.
•DC’s Absolute Power event grows.
•Comic talked about in this episode:
     FERAL #1
Contest of Challengers #674

FLAT-RATE
•Diamond announces new Flat-Rate shipping pricing.
•The ComicsPRO Annual Meeting is happening right now! And we are not there.
•DC announcements:
     Wednesday is officially New Comic Day starting in July.
     A new line of Themed trade paperback collections.
     Absolute Power is the big summer crossover, by Mark Waid and Dan Mora.
•Marvel officially announces a new Ultimates team comic by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri.
•Batman/Dylan Dog is a very good comic and you should be excited for it.
•Ryan North writes really good comics!!
•Those DC/Marvel Omnibi are now available to pre-order on our website!
DC Versus Marvel
DC Marvel Amalgam
Contest of Challengers #673

MUCHA LUCHA

•Sidekicks is fun!
•Sale shirts, redux.
•Comic sales in Vegas.
•Pop-Ups.
•Madame Web.
•Shopify tax forms.
•The cost of window prints.
•DC/Marvel Crossover omnibus editions!
•Salt Shed’s Fret12 with Ready For Death! Watch It Here!!
Contest of Challengers #672

FIT TO PRINT

•Thank you for sharing any of our posts and for liking what we do!
•How is our 25% Off Sale doing…?
•It’s a Brand-New Dal!!
•Lack of Channel 4 advertising revenue.

•What is Tik-Tok for, really?
•You can’t subscribe to books like it’s the 90’s anymore.
•Not prioritizing money.
•Sale shirt controversy!
•”Dal Reads You to Sleep” Coming Soon!!
•Comic talked about in this episode:
     THE DISPLACED #1 (again)
     IF YOU FIND THIS I’M ALREADY DEAD #1
     THE CABINET #1
     U & I #1

 Contest of Challengers #671

IN-SALE STORES
•Final Order Cutoff emails.
•A Man with a Hat.
•SALE!!!
•No Wednesday holds.
•January’s final sales numbers.
•Thanks, Patrons!
•Credit card processing fees.
•Comic talked about in this episode:
     MAN’S BEST ASHCAN
 Contest of Challengers #670

FEELING THE IMPACT
•Low January sales.
•The future of vaulting subscriber credit cards.
•Ghost Machine
     -Publisher support
     -Issue readability
•No retailer support for Returnability.
•Shopify/Google email compliance.
•Spotify/Patreon RSS feed confusion.
•Two new events
     -Spawn #350 RE: Spawn Podcast Day
     -Dick Tracy #1 Release Day Double Signing
•Comic talked about in this episode:
     THE DISPLACED #1
     LITTLE BLACK BOOK #1
     TMNT (New Series)
 Contest of Challengers #669

DEAD POWER

•Dead Strange
•Chainsaw Man’s Power
•Neca product returns.
•No bags (this is in my notes but as I’m typing this, I have no memory of what it means, yet we only recorded 2 hours ago).

•An almost Scott Kurtz signing.
•And the t-shirt artist is… Gustavo Duarte!
•Our Top Selling Graphic Novels of 2023 (and Publishers)
 Contest of Challengers #668

YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED
•Patrick’s experience as a retail customer.
•2023 number fun!! Now in percentages!
•Positive consumer financial positivity (via AP and Axios).
•Turning lemonade into lemons, featuring Ultimate Spider-Man #1!
•A new home for our Incentive/Ratio Variants!
•A very specific rule for earning the 2024 “I Love You But I’ve Chosen Comics” Sale t-shirt.
 Contest of Challengers #667

ECONOMIC-CABAL
•Oooohhhhh! Episode 666! Sooo spooookyyyyy!!
•Stacked deliveries really suck!
•More complaining about how Diamond ships out product.
•Product Costs vs. Operational Costs
•Kamen Rider toys vs AEW action figures.
•60,000 copies of Heartstopper Vol.5.
•Marvel Hallmark ornaments.
•Help us help you (read the emails we send!).
 Contest of Challengers #666