Appraisal

 Every once in awhile we get someone wanting us to look at a collection of something and tell us how much it is worth. If we are interested it in buying it from you, we will gladly do so.  However, in general the only things we are currently interested in purchasing are RPGs (role playing games) , boardgames, comics, and Magic cards and not bulk collections of the last two.  For Pokemon cards, we will only offer store credit.

If you want us to look over your collection and tell you what it is worth, we charge $50 per hour to do so.  Going through a collection and determining its value is time consuming and the time we spend doing so is worth something.

We will gladly look at a few cards or comics and tell you what, in our opinion, they are worth for no charge but collections are a completely different matter.

New comics

new comics on the shelf including Terminal #1, TMNT #300, Action Comics #1000 and Uncanny X-men #32
 

new GW for 8/8

 

	Roaring onto the battlefield, Aeldari Exodites get their first ever miniatures in Kill Team: Exodite. Featuring 3 brand new Aeldari Dragon Masters defending a Maiden World from the Ork Beastsnaggas, this Kill Team expansion includes new missions and Exodite lore. The Astra Militarum Spectre Squad also gets their standalone release.

new Comics for July 22

 2000 AD PROG #2490

2026 STREET FIGHTER SWIMSUIT SPECIAL #1

A QUIET PLACE: STORM WARNING #5

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #21

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #22

ACTION COMICS #1100

ALADDIN #1 MYSTERY BLIND BAG

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #33

BAD THOUGHTS #2

BLOODLAND #5

BOYS #1 BLOODY BLIND BAG

CAPTAIN MARVEL: DARK PAST #4

CITY OF DEMONS #4

CORPSE KNIGHT #4

DARK KNIGHTS OF STEEL HEIR TO THE SEA #1

DETECTIVE COMICS #1111

DOG TAG #3

DREAD THE HALL H 2026

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TOTAL PARTY KILLERS #1

FINAL BOSS #8

FLASH #35

GAMBIT: WANTED #1

GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #117

GIANT ROBOT HELLBOY RETURNS #1

GIANT SIZE YOUNGBLOOD

GODZILLA CONQUERS THE MULTIVERSE #1

GODZILLA VS. AMERICA: SAN DIEGO

GREEN LANTERN #37

GUN HONEY DOUBLES DOWN #2

GUNSLINGER SPAWN #56

HARLEY QUINN #64

HELLO DARKNESS #23

HIDDEN SPRINGS #3

IMPERIAL GUARDIANS #5

INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE CAPES #9

JLA/AVENGERS #3 FACSIMILE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #21

KING SPAWN #57

LITTLE ARCHIE #1 FACSIMILE

MARC SPECTOR: MOON KNIGHT #6

MARVEL ZERO [2026] #1

MIND MGMT NEW & IMPROVED #2

MOONSTAR #5

MURDER DRONES #5

NARCO #5

ODIN #3

POOH BEAR ADVENTURES TIGGERS THE ONLY ONE #1

POWERS 25 #11

SICKO #1

SKATE ALI #2

SOLOMON KANE THE LION ERRANT #1

SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN #49

SPIDER-MAN: LONG WAY HOME #2

STAR TREK: RED SHIRTS–GHOST OF THE 21ST CENTURY #1

STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY–LOST CONTACT #4

SUPERMAN #40

SUPERMAN FATHER OF TOMORROW #3

SWAMP THING 1989 #4

TARZAN BEYOND #2

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #20

TERMINAL #1

THE BEAUTY (2025) #7

THE PERIL OF THE BRUTAL DARK AN EZRA CAIN MYSTERY #6

UNCANNY X-MEN #32

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS BLOOD OF THE WOLF MAN #2

USAGI YOJIMBO: KAITO ’84 #5

VAMPIRELLA (2026) #4

VOID RIVALS #32

WOLVERINE #24

WONDER MAN #5

X-MEN: THE HELLFIRE MURDER #1

ZATANNA (2026) #4

Tigger

 

While quantities last, buy a booster box of Disney Lorcana and get this Tigger card. The only way to get the card except for buying it on the card market.

Attack of the Vine

 Attack of the Vine goes on sale today. We have booster boxes and Troves and booster packs and will take payment on them for release on 7/24, unless we hear otherwise.. We will run a pre-release at 5:30 p.m. on the 24.  Entry fee is $45 but you may save $5 by pre-paying by July 21.

Update:  We heard otherwise so booster boxes and Troves are now on sale.

Proxies

 Just a reminder that proxies are not allowed in tournaments or any sanctioned events at the store.  They are forbidden by WOTC in any sanctioned Magic event and the same goes for Pokemon and Konami. You can play them in your own casual play but if we find you using them in tournaments, we will ask you to remove them from your deck.

GW Releases for August 1

 Here is what is releasing on August 1st from GW Let us know by Noon August 14 if you want any.

Product Name

OGOR MAWTRIBES ARMY SET (ENGLISH)

L/I:WARLORD TITAN+QUAKE CANNON & BEAM/EX

L/I: WARLORD TITAN W/VOLKITE & MACRO GAT

L/I: REAVER TITAN GRAV/OBL & VOLK/ANNH

new Comics for July15 2026

 2000 AD PROG #2489

A MISCHIEF OF MAGPIES #1

ABSOLUTE FLASH #17

ABSOLUTE GREEN ARROW #3

ADVENTURE TIME (2025) #15

ALIEN: KING KILLER #4

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: SPIDER-VERSITY #4

ARCADIA #6

ARCHIE X ARMY OF DARKNESS #5

ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS #9

AVATAR: LAST AIRBENDER–THE KYOSHI WARRIORS #3

AVENGERS: ARMAGEDDON #2

BADROCK #1

BANANA NUMBER ONE #1

BATMAN SUPERMAN WORLDS FINEST #53

BATWOMAN #5

CAPTAIN AMERICA #13

CATWOMAN #89

CYBERPUNK 2077: CHROME #4

DARK KNIGHTS OF STEEL II #1

DARKNESS (2025) #6

DEADLY TALES OF THE GUNSLINGER SPAWN #16

DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR #5

DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #38

DISNEY TIM BURTON’S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: ALL HAIL THE PUMPKIN KING  ISSUE #1

DISNEY VILLAINS URSULA #5

DORC #6

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL SPECIAL EDITION #0

DYING DAYS #2

EMPIRIA #2

END OF LIFE #6

EXQUISITE CORPSES RASCAL RANDY #1

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER #3

FANTASTIC FOUR #14

FAR CRY: CULL THE HERD  ISSUE #7

FEAR OF DEATH A RACHEL RISING STORY #1

FOUNDATIONS ONE-SHOT

GI JOE #24

GRENDEL: DEVIL’S CRUCIBLE–SEDITION #1

IF DESTRUCTION BE OUR LOT #3

INFERNAL HULK #9

INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #7

INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE BATTLE BEAST #11

JUNK PUNCH #2

KILLSWITCH #3

KINGDOM OF EARTH #1

LADY MECHANIKA THE MECHANICAL MENAGERIE #3

LOBO #5

M1 MONSTER RACING LEAGUE #2

MAGIC: THE GATHERING: UNTOLD STORIES–JACE #3

MARK SPEARS MONSTERS #11

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS (2026) #2

MINOTAUR #1

MISTER NEMO #1

MURDER PODCAST #8

NEW TITANS #37

NIGHTWING #140

OF THE EARTH #3

OLYMPUS SAGA MEGALITH #0

PUNISHER VS. SPIDER-MAN #1

ROCKETFELLERS #13

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #15

SHOWCASE #4 FACSIMILE

SILVER SURFER #5 FACSIMILE

SLEEPY HOLLOW: THE WITCHES OF THE WESTERN WOOD #3

SMILE: FOR THE CAMERA #5

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG X GODZILLA #1

STAR TREK: THE LAST STARSHIP #9

STAR WARS: GALAXY’S EDGE – ECHOES OF THE EMPIRE #4

STAR WARS: HYPERSPACE STORIES: THE BAD BATCH–ROGUE AGENTS #4

SUPER CREEPSHOW #5

SUPER MONDO MEGA MUTTS #1

SUPERMAN UNLIMITED #15

TANKERS VS ANCIENT ALIENS #2

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SHREDDER #10

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE LAST RONIN–TRAINING DAY

THE RING: THE MAN WHO BEAT THE MAN #2

TIGRESS ISLAND #5

VALIANT BEYOND: THE X-O MANOWAR #8–THE GOD HUNT #4

WALKING DEAD DELUXE #141

WATSON V HOLMES #1

WHAT IF…? JESSICA JONES #1

WONDER WOMAN #35

X-MEN #33

D&D and Microtransactions

 Wizards of the Coast is at it again, trying to figure out how to wring more money out of Dungeons and Dragons. Now, it appears the company plans to roll out microtransactions for new D&D products, something the company tried back in 2024 but ended pretty quickly due to the negative response from players (See “More MAP”). It looks as if WotC is revisiting the idea with D&D Beyond Drops. The company plans to release assorted new spells, feats, encounters, maps, etc. to D&D Beyond subscribers with a paid subscription. Subscribers can use this content with their characters and campaigns for as long as they have a paid subscription and lose access to their character additions if they end their subscription.  It does not appear that WotC will charge for each character addition as they will be included with the weekly drops of new content players will be able to access.  However, it also appears WotC wants to move Dungeons and Dragons to a "live service” wherein players subscribing to D&D Beyond will get access to all of the new feats, spells, etc. with WotC determining through the response on the platform which should be incorporated into physical books for later release.  I was bemused to see in one interview, Chris Cooks, CEO of Hasbro, referring to books as “a special totem you can collect” as if they were now cultural artifacts, rather than useful items in the game.  He also pointed out that it can take up to 18 months to move a book from concept to publication so players wanting more material for their game will get a steady diet of it, providing they keep their subscription up to date, rather than waiting for WotC to publish another book.

MSH PRe-release

 

Our Marvel super Heroes pre-release turnout was not nearly as abysmal as turnout was for our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pre-releases as we have done double those numbers so far, really surprising several of my staff members who expected a redux of the TMNT pre-release attendance but attendance is  far below the numbers we saw for Edge of Eternities or even Aetherdrift.  Several of the players at our event even commented they did not care for playing with the Universes Beyond sets, they just liked the opportunity to come out and play in a pre-release. Most of the Marvel Super Heroes buyers we have had so far did not show up for either pre-release event. People who play Magic generally prefer playing with the in-universe sets. Those who want to collect, rip packs for views on social media, and find valuable cards they can sell to someone else gravitate towards the Universes Beyond sets. Incidentally, cards, even graded ones, only have value as long as someone else is willing to pay you more for them than you paid and eventually this nostalgia driven boom will come to an end.

Sample RPG Books

 

If you are an RPG publisher adn you want to get a  print copy of your product into the hands of the exact group of consumers interested in your product, but in order to do that, we need to have more than three copies of your submission to put on the table. Send the store enough copies to get a reasonable number into people's hands.

Free RPG Day

 

Once again the store had a great Free RPG Day with a line of people waiting to get in when we opened (See “Thoughts on the Upcoming Free RPG Day”)  We had a longer line waiting for free role playing stuff than we did for Free Comic Book Day but that does make sense given that we focus more on tabletop games than comics. Foot traffic was up about 20% over a typical Saturday and sales increased about 40% over a usual Saturday as well  RPG sales doubled but I ascribe a significant amount of the increase to the Yu Gi Oh Chaos Origins Premiere event that ran this past weekend. Unlike past recent Premiere events, which ended with us having about half a case of booster boxes remaining, the lure of the first full art Yu Gi Oh cards proved too tempting for local Yu Gi Oh duelists who descended on the set in droves and cleaned us out by the close of the business day on Saturday.

Back to Free RPG Day though. This was the best one we have had in recent years. There was a wide assortment of offerings from which customers could choose and a surprisingly small number of Dungeons and Dragons/5E compatible supplements. Not only did we give away our entire order of items but we managed to clear out all of the Free RPG Day items left over from previous including Cosmic Patrol, which has been kicking around our storeroom since 2015. The only Free RRPG Day item we had left over by the end of the day was the “Enter the Collection” supplement provided by Renegade Game Studios back in 2021. As usual, I do have a few thoughts about the event:

New 40K Releases for July 25th

 

New Edition. A New Beginning. More Ways to Grow the Hobby. New Starter Products for the New Edition   The next chapter of Warhammer has arrived, with the launch of our new edition, there has never been a better time to welcome new hobbyists into the world of Warhammer 40,000.We are releasing a number of new starter products, ideal for making it easy and exciting for new customers to begin their journey in the Warhammer 40,000 hobby. The excitement does not stop at Armageddon, these products provide great opportunities to build momentum and keep hobby journeys moving forward. These products will be added to the Stockist Ranges upon release, Click Here for more details on our on Range Updates.   The following three products are taking their rightful place in our Bestsellers Foundation range.

The following four products are available to all clients and are part of our Extended Box Range. Ask us about how to carry our Extended Box Ranges in your store.

New Comics for July 8th

 Here are the new comics releasing July 8th

2000 AD PROG #2488

ABATTOIR SIX #3

ABSOLUTE BATMAN #22

ABSOLUTE CATWOMAN #2

ALADDIN #1

ALTERED STATES WARLORDS #2

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #129 FACSIMILE

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14 FACSIMILE

ARCHIE COMICS 85TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTS BETTY & VERONICA SWIMSUIT SPECIAL

BABY GARFIELD #4

BARBARA GORDON BREAKOUT #3

BATMAN #156 FACSIMILE

BEN 10 #3

BLACK CAT #12

BLEEDING HEARTS #6

BO WOLF #1

CALEXIT SAY GOODBYE TO HOLLYWOOD #1

CIVIL WAR: UNMASKED #3

CLAYFACE CELEBRITY DIRT #1

CONAN AND DRAGONERO #3

DAREDEVIL #4

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT MIMI GREEN #2

DIE LOADED #7

DINGOLIATH #1

DISPATCHED #1

DO A POWERBOMB BLACK AND WHITE #1

EMPEROR AQUAMAN #19

FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FOES – SHALLA BAL #1

FIRE AND ICE DARKWOLF #1

FORGED #12

FURY OF FIRESTORM #4

GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #330

GREEN LANTERN #49 FACSIMILE

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #18

HANK HOWARD, PIZZA DETECTIVE THE INSIDE JOB #1

INNARDS #2

IT’S SYMBIE #1

JEFF THE LAND SHARK: SUPERSTAR #1

JUST BRUTAL #4

MASK #2

OPERATION: IRON COFFIN #1

ORDER #2

PIMP KILLER #1

SEASONS #11

SEVEN WIVES #2

SHOWDOWN #2

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: 35TH ANNIVERSARY

SORCERER SUPREME #8

SPEED RACER #10

STAR WARS: SHADOW OF MAUL #5

STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC ADVENTURES–PATHFINDERS #3

STAR-CROSSED #1

SUPERGIRL #15

THE ROCKETEER: INFILTRATOR! #1

THE TWILIGHT ZONE #9

THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #4

TRANSFORMERS #34

UNCANNY X-MEN #31

VAMPYRATES! #1

W0RLDTR33 #21

WHITE BOAT #3

WITCHBLADE #23

WITNESS POINT #1

WOLVERINE #23

X-MEN ’97: SEASON TWO #2

ZORRO’S LEGACY #1

Gotta Catch 'Em All

 Calling all Pokemon Trainers in the area.  Bring us in cards showing the pictured 10 Pokemon on them and you will earn a limited edition Cinderace Pokemon League foil card.

Dungeon Crawler Carl Crowdfunding Campaign

 

Dungeon Crawler Carl the RPG crowdfunding campaign was one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever and a remider as to many publishers are now using crowdfunding, notsomuch as a means of raising funds to publish a product and moreso as a promotional device (See “Dungeon Crawler Carl:  The BackerKit”). After following the Dungeon Crawler Carl campaign, a crowdfunding campaign from another publisher popped up in my social media ads, only this one was touting that their campaign had fully funded in only 15 MINUTES. That sounded pretty impressive so I took a look at it, which now means that ads for their campaign keep showing up all across my social media feeds. The magic of tracking and algorithms.

Anyhow, funding in 15 minutes should mean quite a bit of excitement about the product and, looking at the campaign now, the amount of money it has raised is comparatively impressive but the project’s funding goal was only in the mid four figures, a comparatively easy figure to raise and create the opportunity to promote how quickly it funding and how far in perms of percentage the project is over goal. This is what copywriter Bob Bly refers to as the “magic of false logic”, not lying or misrepresenting the situation but making manipulating existing facts to make the result sound far better than it is through skillful writing. I also have heard this referred to as “fun with statistics”. For example, if a particular game has not sold a copy in six months and then sells two copies, I can legitimately claim a 200% sales increase in six months. Is that a true statement? Absolutely. Does it reflect the actual popularity of the game? Nope.