Andy Battaglia of Comics Etc. in Rochester, New York writes in to share his idea about making Free Comic Book Day better by emulating Record Store Day.

Free Comic Book Day is a great success in bringing people into our stores with one noticeable exception.  I have found over the years that interest in FCBD has died down among our most regular customers.  These are the people we are least likely to see on FCBD.  In addition, it seems like we could be making more money.  Our FCBD is pretty much a break even day when the costs of merchandise and labor are added in.  I think it's time that FCBD evolved a bit more.

What if the comic industry emulated Record Store Day and in addition to the free comics, we had the ability to buy limited edition comics, similar to what is offered on RSD?  They would have to be significant stories that people would want to hunt down.  Locally on RSD, music fans hit multiple record stores, looking for these limited print items.  No record store is eligible to order everything they want in the quantities they want, leading customers to each store in search of what they can find there.  The record store in the same mall as my comic store does blockbuster business on RSD that dwarves our FCBD, and we had 800 people last FCBD.  Let's make FCBD an even bigger day by getting publishers on board with limited edition quality books that will attract that segment of our customer base that just no longer cares about the promo comics being offered on FCBD.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely hose of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.