Wondering about the Ikoria pre-release and products? Concerned about when comics will begin shipping again?
Your questions and much, much more will be answered in this post!
WE ARE OPEN!
Many people thought we were closed, so we wanted to make sure you were aware.
For those of you who were wondering or who were concerned, yes, we are open. We apologize for not being as active on social media or through these emails, but we’ve been working on improving both the downtown Frederick and the Walkersville locations. We are working out of the Walkersville location Monday through Saturday from noon to 6 pm. You can either email us at brainstormcomics@verizon.net or call us at 301-304-2407.
Several people have asked how they can support the store.
First and foremost, you can still shop at the store through our web store. It is still a work in progress, but we are improving it on a daily basis. We recommend using the search option at the top as we have over 10,000 items in the system. One of the additions we are working on is adding categories, but it is taking a longer time than we had anticipated.
For those of you interested in that, the web address is https://brainstorm-comics-gaming.square.site/
Second, we know we may not currently have something you are looking for in stock. No worries, Our webstore is also enabled to take orders for gift cards. Those can be purchased at this link https://squareup.com/gift/388ZT5W7BGVCB/order
At this time we are only permitted to either do delivery or mail order. If you wish to place an order for mail order, we will contact you to review the shipping costs. We appreciate your understanding of the limitations placed on us at this time.
COMIC BOOK NEWS
For the last 6 weeks or so, Diamond Comics, the distributor of the great comics and graphic novels we carry, has been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic which of course resulted in no new product. I won’t bury the lede–new products will begin shipping from them beginning the week of May 15th.
With that being said, I do want to go over the events that have transpired during that time. If you aren’t into long-winded explanations, you’ll probably want to skip the next few paragraphs.
First, there was a plan floated in order to get comics to the readers far sooner than the May 15th date. I found it quite interesting and was looking forward to seeing how it would work. Basically, comic fans would buy a digital version of their favorite books with the proceeds going to their Local Comic Shop. Once stores were reopened and product began shipping again, the customer would then receive a physical copy of their purchase as well from their chosen LCS.
There were many stores who were against this for various reasons; the main one that was stated repeatedly was they felt companies were trying to push their customers to digital. I can only speak to me and my customers in reards to that. From talking to our regulars and seeing their weekly habits, I don’t have that concern. When the Nook and Kindle came out, I bought them (yes, both of them), but rarely used it. Those of us who love printed media don’t get the same feeling from a computer screen. It just isn’t the same.
Of course, there are those who argue that may be the case for the older base, but the younger readers will be swayed. Again, I have to politely disagree. When younger readers come into our store, their eyes light up in a way that a computer screen will never cause them to do so. Yes, even the generation being raised in front of computers know the difference. One of my favorite moments in the store was when one of those children came into the store, his eyes as wide as saucers, and said with so much excitement in his voice–“This must be what Heaven looks like.”
Like I said, regardless of age, people know the difference.
So unfortunately that idea went to the wayside. DC vowed to find alternative means in order to get their books into their eager and reading bereft customers. Some speculated they would be using Penguin Random House. But that didn’t materialize…..
Until two weeks ago when we received an email from DC saying they had found two new distributors to get their books out to you. We initially were very excited about this news. I had even started the registration process. But something about that email struck me and I paused. We were being required to sign up within four days. After looking online, I found some articles that shed some light onto why it may have been rushed. The two distributors were not distributors in the traditional sense–they were two of the largest comic retailers in the country. Basically we were being asked to float competitors on the backend while they also profited off the front end. As a result of that, we decided not to go that route. There were other concerns as well, which I will discuss in person if any of you care about the particulars, but would make this already long-winded explanation all the longer.
Meanwhile, that decision was made all the easier when Diamond made their announcement that they would begin shipping once more the week of May 15th. Yes, we could have received a few DC titles this week, but it just didn’t make sense economically. These titles will be provided to us through Diamond, just a few weeks later than those other distributors. All of the titles should be in sync, regardless of distributor, some time in June is my guess.
So hopefully you will bear with us and support us in our decision. We will have all of the books you are supposed to get.
IKORIA RELEASE AND PRODUCTS
Ikoria Lair of the Behemoths is rapidly approaching! With the current restrictions in place in the state of Maryland, we are not permitted to do our normal pre-release, but Wizards of the Coast is allowing Magic players to take home pre-release kits. We’ve sold about 2/3 or our pre-release kits already, so act quickly!
Go to this link to see the different products we will have in stock. https://brainstorm-comics-gaming.square.site/s/search?q=Ikoria
Remember, quantities will be limited, so act quickly.
All of our pre-release booster boxes (the ones that come with the buy a box promo) but we still have a few boxes available without the promo. Wizards, again due to the current situation, is doing the release and prerelease products simultaneously.
GENERAL NEWS
First and foremost, we want all of you to remain safe. We are taking every precaution we can and working on several things to transition back into being your full service hobby shop once the restrictions are lifted. Everything we are considering is with your safety and ours in mind. If you have any suggestions, we are open to them as we want everyone to feel comfortable. Feel free to email us at brainstormcomics@verizon.net or call at 301-304-2407 as we are operating strictly from the Walkersville location.
In addition to that, we have taken this last month to improve our stores. Over 25,000 comics have been added to our Walkersville location. A new layout of the store is in the works.
Downtown Frederick is having a new comic display being built currently. A slightly adjusted layout is in the works for that location as well.
Rest assured, we took the last four weeks as an opportunity to put into place ideas we had in the works for quite some time. And there are a few more I don’t want to mention quite yet. Keep an eye out this week and next for those announcements though. We truly think you’ll love them.
In close, we want all of you to know we greatly appreciate everything you’ve done for this store and continue to do for the store. We aren’t going anywhere.
Those things that do not kill us only make us stronger.
Thank you for reading and we hope to see you very soon.
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