Bob Cosner of Bob's Baseball Cards, Comics & Gaming in Des Moines, Iowa did some low-cost marketing for Free Comic Book Day (see 'Free Comic Book Day 2005 in the Books') that made his day 'real nice.'   

 

This year's FCBD turned out real nice for us.  We did about 4 times the business we do on a normal Wednesday!  We did various things to advertise:

 

We had a small ad in one of those 'pick up for free at the grocery store and gas stations' alternate newspapers.

A fire station near us was having their annual Pancake Breakfast on Saturday and we were allowed to hang signs advertising the event.  We donated a few comics left over from last year just to give the pancake eaters a 'taste' of what they would get at Bob's.

We sponsor a little league team and printed flyers and they were handed out at the concession stand all week.  Loudspeaker announcements were made throughout the day mentioning FCBD at Bob's.

A teacher at the local high school posted a FCBD poster in his classroom.

We gave a raffle ticket for every $5 spent on comics on FCBD and gave away an autographed Wolverine #1 from the current series.  (The teacher mentioned above won it.)

 

So, I believe we did a good job of promoting, as we had to do something other than send a couple of kids to the movie theaters.  All of the promotional items were free except for #1 and we tied that together with an ad for a $5 Magic tournament where the winner won a box of Kamigawa cards.  We were going to do that ad anyway so I guess you could say that was free too.

Hope everyone had a GREAT day.