Contest Of Challengers

TREADING WATER •The story of an Avengers Endgame Iron Man Pop Vinyl online order. •Local Pick-Up is NOT Free Shipping. •The attempted installation of fiberoptic internet. •Shopify is changing how we pay them. •The Herculean task of January Initial Orders. •SAGA is back!!!! •A look back to our retailing philosophy of 2012. •Dal has read PDF’s of the up coming Image titles: LITTLE MONSTERS, GHOST CAGE, STEP BY BLOODY STEP, and RADIANT RED.

LADDER UP! •We have a new ladder and Patrick is very excited for it. •Why one fan does not like the current Buffy comics. •Getting next week’s Marvel Comics on Friday rather than Monday. •How to ring up subscriber purchases when Manage Comics goes down. •Another Amazing Spider-Man #1 is coming. •DC disappoints with their limiting availability of fun covers. •At this point I kind of stopped taking notes, but there’s plenty more stuff. •We totally forgot we were going to talk about the 2021 best sellers. Whoops. •You can also catch Patrick on this week's OFF PANEL podcast with David Harper!

NOT MORE DIFFICULT; WORSE (this episode's title is not in reference to Manage Comics) •We’re in our new Studiotorium (TM & © 2022 Challengers Inc) •Checking in with Andrew •How to do an exchange in Shopify •Thor #20. Ha ha. •Thank you, Bad Idea, and no thank you. •Manage Comics from the User side. •How many subscribers didn’t come in at all in December? Next Week: The Best-Sellers of 2021!

WE DID NOT STEAL YOUR PHONE •I promise you; we did not steal your phone. •Which of next week’s books have we read? “We” being Dal, as Patrick is so far behind. •This was the week we switched to Manage Comics, so there’s LOTS of Manage Comics talk! •Immortal Hulk vol. 10 collection misprint. •This is a timeline, not ‘greater than’ symbols:      ComicSuite/RMS>RMH/Pullbox>Shopify/Octopus>Manage Comics/Stocky/Shopify •We’re really on board with Manage Comics and it’s better for all of us. •Thanks, Patrons! Next Week: The other half of Manage Comics! The user interface!

A “Good Problem” is Still a Problem •Early solicits for April that we can’t do anything with yet. •Comic news websites. •Too much talk about Doctor Who. •We still don’t “get” social media. •Looking ahead to 2022. •Holiday decorations after Christmas. •Manage Comics Is. •Movie talk! Sorry. But there are no spoilers. Thanks to Markisan Naso (“By The Horns”, “Voracious”) for this episode’s segment breaks.

•Retail at Christmas. •Somewhere in the episode will be the yearly playing of Stan Lee’s “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and a new Holiday song from The Divorce Gun! •Random shipments all throughout the week make it hard to plan your day. •SO MANY boxes (inside of boxes), as well as bubble wrap. •Reporting damages via Hachette’s new online portal. •Christmas traditions. •Are you ready? It’s just about Manage Comics time!! •New and exciting issues with Diamond’s POS system. Visitors in town for C2E2.

The Time Dilation of C2E2 •Checking in with Jeanna! •C2E2 2021 •C2E2 Pandemic protocol •Consignment woes •What we bought at C2E2 •Checking in with Molly Jane

Finalizing Code •It’s a Blind Bag, uh, unbagging! And there’s an advent calendar! •The Manage Comics functionality we’re hoping for. •A NEW (recurring??) segment! •Letter carrier blues. •The good and bad and egregious packing of comic book shipments. •Product condition salability in the bookstore market. •Making sense of alternate vendor billing statements. •The surprise roadblock of PRH’s ‘first of the month’ invoicing. Treat yourself: https://youtu.be/gIxi9ZqOzAw Thank you so much Ashleigh & Drew for bringing Clydene in!!

Space is Flexible •It’s “Old Wound” Friday! •Rule #1 of Challengers was in FULL EFFECT lately. •It’s a MASSIVE week for both Marvel and DC and both of those deliveries arrived today. •Decorating for Christmas. •Reporting the full number of packing/shipping damages from PRH just isn’t worth it. •How we can keep the same amount of graphic novel shelf space with so many new graphic novels coming out every year. •The story of the 1-foot grid wall shelf. •CRIMSON CAGE is so good!!

•The evolution of Pullbox (a precursor to its impending death). •Creating items in Manage Comics. •It’s been a rough week for the comics industry but a VERY rough week for justice. •Putting in the FINAL order numbers for X Lives of Wolverine #1 BEFORE initial orders have been placed. Wait, what?? •Nightwing #87 is going to be amazing!! •The vocal 5%. •The Wolf Maria stopped by and signed some of her covers. •Holiday Hours are coming next week.

Ransomware No wrestling toys were bought during the recording of this episode. (That is a lie) •Invoicing inconstancies between the various comic publishers. •A ransomware attack on Diamond Comic Distributors and how it affected EVERYONE in comics retail. •The complete lack of 1st pressings of the What’s the Furthest Place From Here 7” vinyl editions. •Adding invoicing to our Hold policy. •Most new in-store signs are up! •Almost having a commercial shot in Challengers and having to close for 2 days for it. •We’re using the Marvel Unlimited app (90% for the “It’s Jeff” comic strip). Thanks again to Markisan Naso (“By The Horns”, “Voracious”) for this episode’s segment break.

“Gentrifiers!!” Not subscribing people to Soul Plumber. We do not want to hang your flyer. Prepare for new in-store signage! Giving our gaming section a facelift. The different types of comic book buyers. Upcoming Image releases. So very many annuals on DC’s Final Order Cutoff list this week. Thanks again to Markisan Naso (“By The Horns”, “Voracious”) for this episode’s segment breaks.

"A Basic Level of Competence" •Ordering comics for Local Comic Shop Day. •Marvel Legends restock. •Data conversion for Shopify from ComicSuite. •Tuesday’s massive delivery. •Patrick got to unpack a Penguin Random House Marvel shipment. •New books we’ve read: Radio Apocalypse #1 and Robins #1. •Generating excitement for what has yet to come out. Huge thanks to Markisan Naso (“By The Horns”, “Voracious”) for this episode’s segment breaks.

"Cary Pieces of $#!T" Adventures at FedEx Office. Some people who want to buy Pokemon cards are really great people. Others, however… Week 2 of not being allowed to sell certain Image titles. Some retailers give us all a bad rep. No 2nd Prints for Image Comics moving forward. 3 days between initial orders and final order cutoffs seems to defeat the purpose. Upcoming comics we like and/or really like or have read:      Dark Knights of Steel, DC Vs Vampires, Newburn, Regarding the Matter of Oswald’s Body, Catwoman Lonely City, Robin & Batman, Task Force Z Supply chain issues for Bad Idea. Zoop-ing the John Paul Leon “The Winter Men” Artist Edition. We’ve restocked ALL of Rachel Bard’s comics!!

"Thirsty For Them Robins" •Pokemon Celebrations allocations were so steep we didn’t even have a chance to order. •Ch-ch-ch-change… as in coins. •Social content and platforms that just aren’t for us. •New DC books for January. •An impromptu skip week for Image Comics. •ComicSuite seems to break more each week, and ordering DC books for December is currently a nightmare. •Manage Comics can’t come soon enough, and is, hopefully, getting better every week. •Week 2 of getting Marvel Comics from Penguin Random House.

"Don’t Make Us Choose Between Your Money and Satan" Wait… ARE we devil worshipers?? A full week of Molly Jane Challenger! And she did…? This store is for the young at heart. The first experience receiving Marvel Comics from Penguin Random House. It was…? Marvel has changed their Final Order Cutoff lead time. Getting Challengers to be what we hoped it could be. Working with artists for store projects is an amazing thing to get to do.

"Generally Managing" A brief, yet thorough, history of all past Challengers co-workers. After months of hints and clues, probably the 4th biggest announcement we could make… The futures of Challengers starts NOW! Thanks, Patrons! The performance aspect of selling comics to families.

"Multiples of the Normal Cost" Please wear your mask over your mouth AND nose. Patreon Free Comic Book Day questions (answered 1 month late). DC, Lunar AND FedEx all have the potential to upset our weekly DC receiving schedule. KickStarter survey woes. Diamond’s Retailer Best Practice Awards are back for 2021. Dal really like CRIMSON CAGE #1! Dal also read some other yet-to-be-released comics. IDW + PRH = acronym abundance!

"It’s Soul-Crushing" Playing with our new 1D, Bluetooth, cordless barcode scanner. The overallocation of both subscriptions and special orders in ComicSuite. Last episode we talked about having to do Final Order Cutoffs via Penguin Random House for the first time. This week we talk about actually having done them. Current Initial Order hurdles. Supply prices (bags) are going up AGAIN, as are Marvel Legends prices. Full days of work, at the store and not at the store. Trying to lessen the burden for the future.

"Weirder and More Stable" It’s the first week for Marvel Comics single issue Final Order Cutoffs thru Penguin Random House. Manage Comics’ most recent thought stream makes our excitement build, even if the release date is pushed back. Experimenting with Shopify’s point of sale system. Supplies and Funko Pops trade places in the shop.