There are some headaches from it. I have a customer who wants the Arkham Asylum figures that came out last week. Of course due to a mistake that we did not make we did not get all the figures we ordered. And this week they are delayed because of the weather. One person who ordered them may be leaving town before I get them in. Which he already paid for them.

I posted updates on our Facebook page. Our shipment has left Memphis! It was early this Thursday morning though. I called UPS and talked to someone who had no clue. They said the shipment would get here Monday. I don’t believe that. Hopefully the shipment will be in tomorrow. I will continue to update what I know on our facebook page.

I am disappointed that the comics being delayed because of the bad weather wasn’t mentioned on the various comic comic news websites to help get the word out. And then the spoilers for Forever Evil are hard to avoid.

Having no Magic last Saturday night ended up being a really good thing with the bad weather that day. Still had people show up but better safe than sorry. Did not having Magic Saturday night hurt Magic sales? Not at all. People ended up buying high end cards from the case since there wouldn’t be a group to trade with.

Saturday Night Magic might be going away in the future. Prereleases will stay of course. Friday and Saturday Magic nights we will be closing at midnight. That is the mandate from me. It’s not worth staying open later than that. At times I stay open later on those nights doing work but with warmer weather on the way its time to work smarter not harder for no gain.

Friday Night Magic will be Drafts and Standard. Saturday Night Magic will be for Commander and Standard. On both nights we will be closing at midnight.

Superman and the Legion of Superheroes Heroclix set is big. Multiple requests for whole sets of singles. More heroclix business than ever before. I am quite surprised. I wish I could say a new improved business model was the cause of the increase but I can’t. Sometimes things just fall into place by pure luck. Winter Soldier heroclixs are due out next week. With Deadpool Heroclixs (which I ordered big on) due out along with Guardians of the Galaxy Heroclixs later in the year. Green Lantern War of Light is already delayed (not a big surprise of course) and the vendors for Heroclix have announced they may be allocated. It will be interesting.

If you are a heroclix player be sure to check out our Heroclix events listing on our website. With Heroclix sets almost always being delayed it will be updated a lot.

We are still updating our back issue selection. If there is a series or issue you are looking for just speak up. I have been trying to get the bigger name characters titles in the back issue bin first. So even if you don’t see what you are looking for we may have it in stock just not displayed yet. Yes, we have thousands of back issues.

Every week there should be more back issues to look through.

Special shout out to our neighbor here, Visual Eyes. The store specializes in prescription and non-prescription eyewear. Charles who owns the business is a large part of the reason I stay here. He and his staff has always been very kind and helpful with any problems I might have. From receiving shipments when we are not here to letting me borrow tools to fix issues here. He is like myself, a small business owner who prides himself on providing great customer service. It is always good to share stories with someone else who understands what all goes into being an owner of a small business. If Charles wasn’t here I doubt I would have resigned the lease to stay here. He is that helpful. If it is time to get your eyes checked out or get new eyewear visit Visual Eyes. Tell them Rod from Rodman Comics sent you.

Charles thanks for all your help.

Does great customer service really matter to people in this day and age of buying things off the internet? I struggle with that question. A majority of people claim they want good customer service but there is a difference between what the average person says and actually follows through on. Back when I was dating I remember seeing the Tom Hanks film, You’ve Got Mail with Meg Ryan. Tom was part of a big bookstore chain and Meg was a small bookstore business owner. Meg’s employees knew more than Tom’s follow employees but Meg’s store couldn’t compete with the big bookstore chain and went under. Everyone wanted the underdog to make it but it didn’t. Many people say one thing then do the complete opposite. The answer to my question do people really care about great customer service is some people do some don’t. My job is to find the ones that do. Usually our comic customers do.

I am old school. I still get my hair cut at the same place as when I was a kid. Though the original owner retired the place is still there. Even before I opened my store I supported good small businesses and I still do to this day.

I don’t do online networking. That is a complete waste of time in my humble opinion. Have I got jobs and breaks from people I know? Heck, yes. But all of them I knew and talked to face to face. Not over the internet.

Am I old fashion? A dinosaur with one business in printed materials that will one day be all digital? I am indeed old fashion. The other question may one day be answered in the future. Comics have been announced as a dieing business many times before but still comes through. Print over all has dropped but comics sales have went up over the last few years.

Will more and more people get their comics online instead of from a physical retailer? I don’t know. I actually tried it years ago and really didn’t like it so I quit doing it. Mail Order Comics went out of business in Omaha. Was it due to bad management or mail order comics with discounts is not a healthy business model? I do find it humorous that all the people that were so worried they were out of money when Mail Order Comics went under blindly went to the next discount mail order business no problem. Because that could never happen again.

The thing that might most hurt online ordering is the cost of shipping keeps going up. Meaning the cost to ship something may end up being to expensive to give good discounts. There was a graded comic going for $30 online that I was interested in but I wasn’t going to pay another $10 for shipping making it cost me $40. I would rather just walk into a comic store and buy a $40 comic.

Comics by far and away make up a majority of sales here. For that I am thankful. Our average comic customer is loyal and comes in every week. Magic cards sell in bursts usually when the new sets come out. Theros did very well for as long as it was the newest set. Meaning it came out in September and sold solid up till Feburary. Last years Modern Masters and From the Vaults were very profitable. Heroclixs are strong sellers where over the last few weeks demand has suddenly shot up. Which is great. So far the Star Wars rpg gaming has been smooth sailings. With the movie coming out next year interest should continue to build. Star Wars X Wing miniatures also sell in bursts due to how they are supplied. Meaning they suddenly can be out from our vendors and may take months to restock. For instance the Y Wing miniature ship sees spikes in its price online. It could be out of stock for months and then back in stock dropping its price. Star Wars miniatures are also plagued by delays. Even more than heroclixs. I tell people it is the cheapest game to get into since new material is so rare to come out. Plus a lot of gamers complain about the starter being $39.99 but as people point out buying three single ships would be $44.97 where the starter comes with three ships and all the material needed to play the game.

Action Figure sales have increased thanks to big retail chains not really stocking them like they used to. A person from New York buys action figures here because he can not find the ones I carry in New York. That is something I never thought I would hear.

Still working on the website. With a little luck hopefully it will be an online shopping tool very soon. It should also look more updated with new images.

Did the ordering this weekend for the upcoming new comics. Wow, there are a lot of variants coming out. They do work though. I have people wanting the variants for the upcoming Amazing Spiderman 1 re launch so I ordered heavily. I do wonder how much unsold comics are out there thanks to retailers upping their orders to get the variants.

Marvel isn’t the only company offering lots of variant covers. DC is hitting them hard also.

Lots of variants coming out in the next few months. If you want any variants let me know ahead of time so I know to get them for you.

Rumor has it that David Finch’s wife my be joining him as the writer of Wonder Woman.

Marvel writer Matt Fraction works with his wife Kelly Sue DeConnick at Marvel and Image will David Finch’s wife make the same impact?

It is surprising how many people seem not to know that Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick are married.

Forever Evil 6 is out this week! What has happen to Nightwing? Will Batman beat the heck out of Luthor? Will the Crime Syndicate manage to stay hiden from whatever destroyed their world? Reading about evil has never been so fun. Trying to avoid spoilers while waiting for this issue to actually arrive is rough!

May 3rd is getting closer. We will be seeing the upcoming Amazing Spiderman movie that day along with it being Free Comic Day. Free Comic is a national thing.

The next movie we will be seeing is Captain America Winter Solder, on April 5th. The new X Men movie will be later that month.

As always stop on in and check out Rodman Comics!

Comics are flying off the shelves. Even ones that I thought were duds such as She Hulk 1. It was hardly picked up the first week it came out and then suddenly sold out. Hopefully New Warriors 1 does the same thing. It has Scarlet Spiderman in it. The reason I say that is because I thought most of the Scarlet Spiderman fans would pick it up. So far they have not.

Ms Marvel 1 has been requested repeatedly. A 2nd printing of it is due out.

Superior Spiderman is still picking up steam as people want to see how the series ends.

Batman Two Face 28 had some shocking moments. It ended with a bang.

For the Walking Dead fans we have the Walking Dead Adhesive Bandage Tin in along with a restock on the Walking Dead trade paperbacks.

The most surprising news this week is the return of the 3D covers for this September by DC. Villians month was the theme last September. This September will be 5 Years later.  Future versions of the characters. Will it be as a big deal as it was last time? No. This time DC should be prepared.  So no shortages. Also things are more popular the first time. When they are new and “original”. Now the newness will have warn off. That said people went ape for them before and I do expect  increased excitement when they come out. The 3D Joker’s Daughter comic does still go for around $20.

The second most surprising news this week for me was that artist David Finch will be taking over Wonder Woman. He is a heck of an artist. Hopefully he will not be writing it. His Dark Knight arc as the writer was underwhelming to say the least. DC seems to be working on getting their big three the best creators possible. Geoff Johns and Romita Jr on Superman, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo on Batman, and now David Finch as the artist on Wonder Woman. Great news. Though the current creative team has received “critical acclaim” on Wonder Woman I often felt Wonder Woman was crowded out of her own book. I support the business model that DC is using. Using the existing titles to grow readership. Not another renumbering of a title or a new spin off. Meaning more sales on existing titles. Getting people into the habit of picking up a non first issue. I like it!

This Saturday at noon will be Game Day for Born of the Gods MTG. It will be for the Champion mat. It will be $5 entry fee and Standard. There will be no Saturday Night Magic for March 1st. That means I get to leave at 8 Saturday. Sweet!

Superman and the Legion of Superheroes Heroclixs are now in. They look, wait for it…. SUPER!

They look great and a have a nice tip of the hat to long time Legion fans such as myself by having the chases being from the classic Great Darkness Saga storyline. Which I have the original back issues on hand along with the trade for it. Its that good of a storyline.

Had new players show up for AVX Heroclix Round II. They emailed me and called even before showing. I admit I was wondering what kind of players they were. Sore losers? Sore winners? Loud mouths? Rude? Know it alls? People that other players would not want to play with. Nope. Very good players and people. There were more players for this round than the first round that was done over a month ago and it was still done quicker. It went a lot better than the first round in every aspect. No rudeness. Just people playing to have fun.

Josh did stop in before hand to thank me for moving the game to that Saturday to fit into his schedule. Even though he had family in town so he couldn’t make it. We gave each other a bad time about it. We can give each other a bad time because we know each other to know the other doesn’t really mean it. That’s what friends are for. Though I would like Josh to show so I can beat him at Heroclixs. Josh is a big Green Lantern fan so this summer when War of Light comes out we will have a rematch.

I now have two newer groups of heroclix players. One group that skipped over the AVX and one that is here for AVX. The AVX starter did sticker shock a lot of people. Both groups are quite fun to play and very respectful. I do look forward to the day that they both show up.

Tyler won. Which he almost didn’t show for the AVX event because someone told him that it would be a two booster draft which would cost roughly $25. Luckily he stopped in Friday the day before the draft and told me that is why he might not show and I corrected him that it was a one booster draft. Then my employees informed me other people oddly enough thought it was a two booster draft also. Which is very odd since my website has stated the whole time that it is a one booster draft. I copied and pasted the text from the heroclix.com website onto my website describing the event over a month ago and just looked at their website again and it hasn’t changed. I have learned that people like to talk a lot and there are people that bad mouth the store and/or me elsewhere. Which I have learned is actually great. People hear about the store that have never heard of it before and check it out. As some say any publicity is good publicity. But sadly speaking mistruths about things costing twice as much when they do not is indeed an effective way to get people not to buy here. I strongly encourage people to read the website. It does get updated often. I also strongly encourage everyone to simply ask myself or my employees for correct answers if in doubt. Who knows maybe people are so far ahead reading what heroclixs will be doing that some people read that the upcoming War of Light would be two boosters just like Fear Itself was and thought AVX had to be also. AVX is not due to having to buy a starter to play in the event. Ironically even though there is a lot of players online complaining about the cost of AVX it is over all cheaper than the previous Fear Itself Event and the players get better participation prizes.

Last Saturday’s AVX Round II event itself was the best I have ever hosted. All three rounds were done amazingly quick and did not feel rushed. With Wizkids giving out four prizes that are exactly the same there is no winners that finished lower than other winners that are disappointed that someone else got what they wanted. Fourth place counts the same as first prize wise. I can not stress enough the players were great. Positive attitudes. No complaining the whole time. Multiple players even thanked me for having the AVX event. Quite a surprise. No one thanked me during the first AVX event. Great time had by all.

After trying to research why the two booster rumor for AVX was started I updated The War of Light Heroclix Event on the heroclix Products and Events section of our website. It does have changes from month to month on it. With there supposedly being a high likely hood that there will be no War of Light Boosters available from suppliers for month 5 or 6 I have tried to make it work. And as it gets closer it can easily change. Heroclixs as a general rule usually run a month late. For the three years I have been open that has been the case a majority of time. Again as a fan this set is easily looking like it could be my favorite Heroclix set ever. As a retailer it may be my least favorite. Seriously I am suppose to buy extra boosters to hold on to for months before I can sell them? Though the awkward roll out of AVX will be hard to beat. War of Light will have a points system where there will be an over all winner who gained the most points over the six month event. That winner will win Nekron.

Having no Magic on Sundays and Mondays has increased my magic sales. Yes, I will say that again. Having no Magic on Sundays and Mondays has increased my Magic sales. Why is that? Less time for people to hang out and trade.

I also save money by not giving out prizes on Sundays and Mondays. Yes, those packs cost me money.

Saturday’s Heroclix game was great for the store. If I could repeat that everyday there would be a heroclix game everyday.

No Saturday Night Magic this Saturday. I am debating about just canceling it. Or have more of a Saturday Night Magic Commander League. For some reason Ben really wants Commander to continue. And for some reason I listen to him. I know the reason. He is a loyal customer. Though with warmer weather due someday soon it may be time just to let Saturday Night Magic go so I can enjoy things other than being here for Magic.

This year I need to work smarter, not harder. Time for me to do more things on the weekends. Like golf with my friends. Yeah, a comic store owner who golfs who would have thought? I want to buy a PS4 but don’t want to just waste money never playing it. Time to spend more time with my friends. Its past time I started doing more of that.

Friday Night Magic I will keep thanks to the Event tracker system that Wizard of the Coast has us use that determines prize support and prerelease levels. And they did just send me a free huge magnetic calendar/bulletin board. Plus Friday Night Magic events do bring in better sales than Saturday Night Magic events. And I just hired a new person to tend to Friday Night Magic. Hope he survives the experience!

If you are interested in playing the Star Wars roleplaying game it is played every other Tuesday starting March 11th.

Star Wars X Wing Miniatures is played every Saturday at 1. It has been requested that I start getting tournament prizes for Star Wars X Wing Miniatures. Ask and you shall receive. I have put in the request and should have tournament prizes later this year.

Tom has been talking with me about the return of Warmachine gaming to the store. Yes, more gaming! Stay tuned for more details.

This Saturday is a two Heroclix booster (yes two!) draft for Superman and the Legion of Superheroes. The prizes look pretty cool.

Did the solicitations for Marvel’s upcoming limited series Original Sin spoil a secret for the upcoming Amazing Spiderman? It hints that Doc Octopus is still in Peter Parker’s mind perhaps influencing Peter.

Our back issue bins are now stocked up with more issues of Action Comics, Fantastic Four, Superman, and more. As I have stated every week there should be more and more new back issues in the bins.

Everyone should have May 3rd down on their calendars for this years Free Comic Day. As I have stated before the comics are not free to us the comic stores which is a common misconception. Free Comic Day I look as a customer appreciation day. A day where I give back to the loyal comic fans that have support Rodman Comics. I love you guys! Go BLUE! Whoops Old School movie flashes.

Doing tax prep work. To much fun….. Though many people are spending their tax refunds here.

Next weeks Projections could be pretty short. Next week looks to be a busy week with multiple things going on. Though I have thought that before and boom. I am inspired.

Writing these up every week I try a few things.

Make it entertaining.

Include things that are useful for internet searches. Such as Comic Store, sells comics, games, Ankeny, Central Iowa, Des Moines, buy your comics at Rodman Comics, Texas, Rod is great. Of course you all already knew that.

Educate. Such as free comic day is not truly free for comic stores. Let people know what products are out and coming out. Let people know if they can read then they should be reading great comics such as Batman. The next movie we will see will be Captain America the Winter Soldier on April 5th.

Balance with positive and negative. As many people know working with people can be hard to do. Dealing with the public can be even harder. It isn’t like when a person walks through the door instead of a medal detector there could be a mental detector letting us know if a person is batcrazy or a liar detector (wouldn’t the cat that knows when a person is lying from Saga be great?) or a superjerk detector to warn us of potential problems. We just have to wing it and learn the hard way.

As hard as it may be to believe I am a pretty private person. I have learned that the average person likes to talk but the average person does not like to listen. And I learn a lot more when I am listening. Though there is a lot of assuming by people when it comes to me that turns out to be incorrect. Facebook I am only on because it made me have an account so I could have a business account on it. I truly don’t care if any one cares about what a great dinner I just had. I don’t even know how many “friends” I have on it. Though it has lasted longer than I thought it would. Anyone remember Myspace? I trim the “friends” list down from time to time. I have a few right now that I keep wondering how did they get on the list and who are they? Just like the contacts on my cell phone. I just try to keep the ones that I know will be there for me and they know I will be there for them. Yeah, I am loyal to those who are loyal to me. Dang, that part of my Italian lineage.

There you go a few sentences about myself. Don’t want to tell to much. The rumors are fun to hear. From I am filthy rich since I own this business to I am going broke keeping this place open. It’s all fun.

I wonder if DC is looking for someone to write another weekly comic for them? I get this out weekly on Thursdays which have been the target date which I have been hitting on time. Let me write a weekly New 52 of Damage. He died in the old DCU. Time for a comeback. Damage was a favorite title of mine. Though the reveal of his parents was a let down. Seriously the golden age Atom? The fans who would care knew it was stated that the Golden Age Atom couldn’t have kids so that was reversed. Another little known fact. I had a letter published in the letters page of Damage back in the day. And it isn’t the only letter to make it in to various other titles letters pages. Remember the old Wizard prize guide? A letter critical of Bill Jemas made it from me. His Marville series was one of the few comics I have read that I felt had no redeeming qualities. He was not a good writer. Maybe one day I will have a scavenger hunt for the various comics where hte letters I have written were published and the person who is the first to find them wins a No Prize or something.

Whoa, another few sentences about myself. Geesh, next I will be posting on Facebook the great meal I just had for dinner.

Now for some other facts. Like comics? Then get in here to check out the selection. Kid comics, superhero comics, Walking Dead, and so much more. Rodman Comics is for you!