A Date Which Will Live In Quasi-Infamy

I don't know exactly how I will brand March 7, 2010 into my brain, but I do know this - I'll never forget it.

Maybe I'll remember it as the day that Amazon lost it's goddamn mind. Probably I'm going to remember it as "The One That Got Away." Let me explain.


I get an email from friend of the show and cub reporter Addam Brown Sunday morning showing me the Deadpool Vol 1 Secret Invasion HC going for $120+. And I say "That's nice, Addam." Because it's old news at this point, we've covered it on the show, and I've already got mine posted up there for $124.99 (wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more!)

But I'm just glad that there's another human out there doing market research with me, so I congratulate him on the spot, and then he shoots back to me something like "My real prediction is the Millar/Hitch Fantastic Four Omnibus. I think it's ready to pop, because I can't find it anywhere!" And so I write back to him (I swear to you, the point is coming soon) that it's not a bad play, and that I like the Ultimates Omnibus by Millar and Bryan Hitch even better as a long term play.

And then Brown writes back to me: "Oh, you mean this Ultimates Omnibus for $9? Is that a good deal?" And he sends me a link to Amazon selling the very tasty Ultimates Omnibus that is supposed to sell for $99.99 for the absolutely RIDICULOUS price of $8.24. IS THAT A GOOD DEAL????? That's insane.

And I've seen glitches like these before, and tried to order them, and been shot down. They usually claim the book wasn't actually in stock, credit your account, and it never actually gets shipped. In this case I decided it wouldn't hurt to try, and "bought" one.

Then Brown sends me a link to "slickdeals.net" listing a whole gang of these $100 books, most of them on sale for under $10. For the life of me, I cannot explain to you why I didn't buy one of everything. They had the Wolverine Omnibus up there, Tomb of Dracula, a box set of Kirkman's Invincible available. I took a stab at the Ultimates, why didn't I take a stab at these?

Rich Johnston's site Bleeding Cool was all over this as well. Did he get it from Slickdeals, too? Does he sit up late nights checking prices on Amazon? I'll believe either.

I think I didn't pull the trigger because I didn't want to feel gullible. Of course it was a glitch. They had the suggested retail on those sale books listed as $14.99, which is rubbish. I just knew in my heart that I was going to have the rug pulled out from under me, so instead I "beat them to the punch" and didn't order but the one Ultimates book.

And here's where it gets goofy, folks, because Amazon is honoring a bunch of those sales. Give them credit for that, I say. If you ordered multiple copies of books, they politely explained their pricing policy and stated that they wouldn't honor more than one. But give them credit. They screwed up, and rather than just pretend it never happened, they are taking the hit on many of the single orders that came in.

I'm still not counting my Millar/Hitch chicken until it has hatched. I didn't get an order cancellation email, but neither has my order moved to "shipped" status. I'm kind of in limbo right now. But I think I'm going to get a $100 book for $8.24, and that's kind of cool.

Yeah, I let the bigger score get away. But I was there the day Amazon Lost It's Goddamn Mind, and I was a part of it.

- Ryan