Glen Soustek of Westlake Cards, Comics & Coins, Inc of Roselle, Illinois saw the news about the printing problems with All Star Batman & Robin #10 (see “'All Star Batman & Robin' #10 to be Destroyed”) and says in spite of DC’s request for retailers to destroy the issues, there a many available on eBay.

It would seem by the large number of All Star Batman & Robin #10's for sale on eBay, that not ALL of them are being destroyed (and no, I'm not naive enough to believe they would be).  It does, once again, bring up the dirty little question of delivery and release... much like they were able to gorge themselves on reorders of The Death of Captain America, it appears as though Tuesday delivery accounts received their ASB&R #10's, whereas Wednesday delivery accounts didn't.  Fair?  Not really, but highly profitable for accounts that receive their books (and release them) early. 

Isn't it time that ALL accounts receive their books on the same day?  The cries of some retailers that they need their books early due to the volume of books they buy is really nothing more than a smokescreen for early release.  If you're really selling that many books, you can afford to put on a few extra people every Wednesday.  It would also seem to me that DC and/or Diamond Distributors should impose some type of penalty to accounts selling this book (assuming of course that this was an honest mistake, and not some sort of stunt designed to generate additional buzz for the Batman property.  Let's face it -- black-out boxes?  I thought those went out with the Billy Ripken "F*ck Face" error card).  

Cynical?  Absolutely!  But I've done this long enough to add this "event" to a life-long list of "honest mistakes" that cause me to shake my head and smile.

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