Diamond Comic Distributors has released its annual survey of retailers concerning the economic effects of Free Comic Book Day.  The Free Comic Book Day event appears to be still gaining momentum with 55% of retailers indicating that they had more store traffic during the 2006 event than in previous years (versus 22% who said the traffic was about the same and 12% who indicated it was down).

The immediate effect of FCBD was also quite apparent from the survey with 68% of retailers reporting stronger than usual sales for a Saturday versus only 12 % indicating that sales were worse than or equal to a normal Saturday, while 18% stated that sales were better than a typical Wednesday (typically the strongest day of the week in any comic shop because that is the day that new comics arrive).

Another key indication of the success of FCBD was the fact that 76% of retailers report that they gained customers thanks to hosting a FCBD event.  The long term effects of FCBD were not so clear, but 35% of retailers did report a significant up-tick in sales in the month following the event, while nearly 60% stated that sales remained about the same and 5% reported a sales decline in the 30 days after FCBD.