After One Day, Bad Idea Expels First Comic Shop from Program

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Submitted by RJ Carter on Thu, 03/04/2021 - 15:15

March 3, 2021 was a momentous day for comic shops around the world. Or, at least, it was for some of them. Bad Idea Comics is an upstart publisher with some interesting principles for adding value to the titles they plan to publish, one of them being that stores have to qualify to be allowed to carry their titles in the first place. Ostensibly, this gives the qualifying stores a leg-up on their competition, as the number of outlets is limited to a finite number. Yesterday saw the release of the publisher's first title, Eniac #1.

Within less than 24 hours, the first store had been expelled from the distribution network. A statement from Bad Idea was released today that read simply as follows:

This underscores a second principle of the company. While they add value to the books by making them more limited in quantity, they also show a respect to the customers by enforcing a rule that, at least at the retail level, stores cannot mark up the price during the first month of release. And while this didn't stop many from putting the title up on eBay -- where the book can fetch $150 or more, and where surely a number of those doing the selling are also comic book retail stores -- one unnamed store apparently went straight for the cash grab, and got more than a metaphorical handslap: they received a lifetime banishment.

There is no word at this time as to whether this opens up a slot for a new retailer to join the Bad Idea network.