Free Stuff For Free!

[ganimede]

It was Free Comic Book Day on Saturday and I'd been able to find a comic book shop reasonably close by that was participating. I'd had a look at the free comic books on offer and was particularly interested in the Marvel Secret Wars #0 and the Doctor Who Three Doctors. The Marvel comic is a prequel to the Big Secret Wars Event that is starting

Comments

[hobbitblue]

Yay free comics but thats a bit off that you only get one when Forbidden Planet are so generous, tho I suppose being a national chain they can afford to be more generous? Maybe next year plan a comic book route for any you can find and spend the day wandering between, assuming its not going to involve miles of driving mind, petrol costs probably greater than cost of just buying the comics.

Free books is also good, woot! I really must check out the waterstones thing, forgot to do that last time you mentioned it

[ganimede]

When I got home, I checked online to see if there was supposed to be any restriction and couldn't find anything about it at all. I did find an old post from 2-3 years ago which said some retailers restrict the amount of comic books you're allowed but I got the sense that that was kind of against the whole idea of the day.

Yeah, I don't want to end up wasting petrol on free things! I might have to see if there's a couple of places that are fairly close to each other so that I don't have to drive miles.

You definitely should check out the Waterstones thing!

[hobbitblue]

Yeah, doesn't seem very good practice, especailly as presumably most folk know Forbidden Planet is generous - that's potential customers likely to choose FP over them for that, I reckon.

Good plan :)

Well, I'm trying, tried to add my card to my account, got nowhere, emailed customer service like they said to do and have a support request open (response 1) and nothing since apert from at least 3 emails telling me i have books in my basket! Er, no, I don't have cos a) nothing i want and b) not going to do anyting on the site until the card's sorted. Meh. Silly book peoples!

[ganimede]

Forbidden Planet can probably afford to be generous but then people are not going to support their local independent comic book shop if the chain is doing it better!

That email about having books in your basket is annoying. I got a book through the Click and Collect thing, and it still told me I had a book in my basket. It's frustrating that you're having so much trouble just adding your card to your account though :(

[chaquir]

yayyyy for free books!!

[ganimede]

Free books are awesome :D

[psychokitten76]

How far away are Liverpool and Manchester?

We only have one comic book store here, but there are plenty in Brisbane (approx 1.5 hours away). Costs a fortune to park in the city in Brisbane though!

[ganimede]

Liverpool is just over an hour to drive and the parking there isn't too bad. I tend to get the train to Manchester because there's just no decent parking there at all so that makes it way more pricey. The main issue is how much it would cost in petrol to get to Liverpool and back, which would definitely work out more than the value of the comic books. Currently petrol in my area is 112p (£1.12) a litre which is pretty expensive. I think that works out at $2.16 in Australian dollars but I don't know if that's considered cheap for petrol there or not!

[psychokitten76]

That's horribly expensive for petrol! I think here it's around $1.40/L at the moment (Josh usually fills up the car so I don't take much notice!)

We don't have a regular passenger train service from Toowoomba to Brisbane, which is ridiculous really because so many people commute to and from every day.

[ganimede]

Petrol has got ridiculously expensive in the UK over the past few years. Generally things are cheaper here in the north than they are down south so I dread to think what petrol costs down there.

That is a ridiculous. Although are train fares cheap there? A day return to Manchester for me is £12/$23. The main issue is that it's not a direct train, I have to change partway and the train from the village is only once an hour. A lot of people commute to and from Manchester so you'd think it'd be more often.

[ellierachael]

That does seem pretty harsh that they wouldn't let you have two :( Not like you scooped up a whole armful!

[ganimede]

Oh, I know! And it's hardly a good way to encourage repeat customers who support your independent shop rather than going to a large chain.