Comic Store In Your Future - A Crazy Way To End 2025
· BCPosted in: Comics | Tagged: comic shop, comic store in your future, diamond, stranger things
Comic Store In Your Future – A Crazy Way To End 2025
Comic Store In Your Future has a crazy way to end 2025, with spears, Stranger Things and problematic offers
Published Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:02:03 -0600
by Rod Lamberti
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Article Summary
- Late comic shipments and bad Iowa weather made New Comic Wednesday a real challenge for our store in 2025.
- Diamond sent a single Godzilla mug instead of the Moon Knight trade and other missing comic orders.
- A bizarre encounter with a spear-wielding customer escalated fast over a Stranger Things figure and sales tax.
- Local sign vandalism, lost sales, and odd offers wrapped up a wild year for my Ankeny comic shop.
The last days of 2025 were wild for my comic store in Ankeny, Iowa. Small Business Saturday was affected by bad weather and was even rescheduled for the following Saturday, which, of course, had more bad weather. That is Iowa weather for you. One of our comic vendors' shipments arrived with three boxes of comic supplies, though no comics. It's really hard to sell comics on New Comics Wednesday without new comics. We did lose sales, even some people who had pull boxes got their comics elsewhere instead of waiting.
Desperately Seeking Shipments
Another shipment, for some reason, appeared as 'out for delivery' on the shipping carrier's website, but would not actually show up for days. There is a shipping business next door to us, and when I saw their truck there, I went out and asked about it to discover that although they go next door, we were not part of their route. I had already called the carrier, and all that happened was that a "ticket" was created, with no answer about what was going on. I emailed the vendor and was told there was not much they could do about it. The driver picking up next door was nice enough to call his boss and told me I could drive to Grimes, Iowa, where their hub was, and pick up my comics shipment because that driver had already returned to the hub. It was Tuesday night, and I thought it would be best to pick up the shipment, so I wouldn't have to worry about it on New Comics Wednesday. I would stay late and check everything in and be ready when we opened on Wednesday.
I closed the store and put up a sign saying I was picking up the comic shipment. I decided, because it was a sudden decision, instead of trying to find someone to work, I would just hurry, get the shipment, and be back at the store. I arrived at the hub and was told to wait and that they would take care of it. The employee came back to tell me it must have gone out on the wrong truck that day; they do not have it and will not know anything new about the shipment until it is scanned again tomorrow when it is sent out again. It was a total waste of my time, and I headed back to my store. Later, I learned that people did not stop and read the sign; they simply saw that the store was dark and continued on their way. One of my least favorite things to do is tell people that the new comics shipment is not in yet, and hopefully will be soon. I also know people will, of course, go elsewhere to get their comics. When another store in the area fails to get their new comic shipment in, we get people from their store.
The Last Box From Diamond
I received a shock after that as Diamond had sent a box to us. I couldn't remember ordering anything from them recently. I opened it up, and it contained a Godzilla mug… and that was it. I looked at the package list, and it was supposed to include a Moon Knight trade. I ordered the Godzilla mug on June 1st, and the Moon Knight trade was from September. The box arrived in December.
A Strange Thing Happened…
Another Tuesday night I am at my store getting ready for new comic Wednesday. A person walks in, and I am having a hard time following what he is saying. He decides to purchase a Stranger Things action figure, puts it on the counter, it is marked $29.99, I ring it up… and then things go weird. He is upset, asking, "What is this? No one has ever done this to me before!" I am confused; he points to the action figure and says, "It is $29.99, not what you are telling me." I tell him there is an Iowa sales tax that has to be added. He is upset, acting as if he has never heard of a sales tax before, telling me I am taking advantage of him. He empties out his pockets, he puts an empty Fireball and used cigarettes on the counter, pulls out cash, and each bill, for some reason, is crumpled into a ball. I pull them apart, and he only has $26 and is still telling me I am ripping him off, and no one has ever done this to him before. I don't even try to explain that without the sales tax, he still does not have enough.
This part I wish I had on camera, he pulled out what looked like a long branch that someone had taken a small pocket knife to, and made it into a makeshift spear. He started swinging it around, taking things up a notch. I said, "Hey, have you seen what they did to the sign out there?" He seemed confused. I wasn't even sure what I was doing. "Let us go check out the sign outside". I walked from behind the counter out the front door. He apparently remembered to get his cash but left the rest on the counter. I had my back to him as I went out the door, thinking this could be a mistake; I might get backstabbed. Luck shone down on me; he followed me out the door to the parking lot, where I stopped by the spot where they had cut down the sign and said, "Look what they did to my sign." He seemed puzzled, which was better than angry. The spear had gone who knows where. I was curious, though I was sure I wasn't going to ask him about it. Out of the blue, he asked, "Would you like to do liquid cocaine with me?" I just replied, "No, thank you".
He looked around and then decided to walk into the smoke shop next door. I walked into another business at the strip mall and apologized and told the person working there what was going on. I watched out of their window and was going to call the police if he came back to my business. He left the smoke shop quickly and walked down the sidewalk out of view. It was a weird end for 2025. I might have to get a sign saying "no spears allowed". I'm only kinda joking.
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