The Local Comic Shop Day books were NOT free books to be handed out. They were limited edition variant cover books that were billed as if they were regular issues. Retailers also had to buy in to the promotion, non-members having to pay $50 for the opportunity to order these books. Being that they were limited variants, most probably sold for more than cover price.
As a promotion for small local comic shops, this was a HORRIBLE promotion to tie into the Thanksgiving shopping weekend. On a weekend where shoppers are looking for Black Friday deals, we are offered limited variant covers that most likely sold above cover price. What a way to welcome a new customer to your store, a limited print run variant cover, selling for X-times the cover price. Did you want to promote this event in the local media to generate more traffic? Well there were 500 copies of the Marvel All-New Wolverine book printed. Divide that up by the number of participants. How many comic shops are there? You might get a couple copies? "Come one, come all. I have 2 copies of this hard to find book for sale. You have to pay $100 for it." Don't look on the shelf and see a cover price copy of the regular issue.
Do you want a better LCSD event? How about just an early shipping regular titles. If you sign up for the event you can sell your copies a week before the scheduled street date (in this case, the Saturday before). All copies for the paid participants would be variants or specially marked. The local shop could then promote having this book "early" and they would have enough copies to fill demand. Not just the one or two fanboys who can afford to collect expensive variant covers. That is what this promotion is for isn't it? Not to cater to the regular hardcore customer, but to invite and encourage new customers to shop at the store.
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