Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics and Games in Whippany, New Jersey sent in his report on Free Comic Book Day at his store, and he was 'disappointed:'

I was glad to see that all the stories so far about FCBD sales and attendance were positive.  Unfortunately, I can't join that group of happy retailers.  On the front end, we spent an extra $700 this year on additional staff and event advertising.  In the three weeks prior to May 6th, we also ordered an additional $2500 of trades and other merchandise that are always highly recommended by our staff and are proven sellers year after year.  We also did a number of things we've never done before including prize giveaways and a trivia contest.  

The store was vigorously remodeled as well so as to make finding everything easy and to highlight the best of what we had to offer and wanted to talk about.  Lastly, we had a special promotion in place whereby purchases made on FCBD would accrue and customers would earn percentage discounts on future purchases at the store.  So what happened?

Attendance was down by half from last year and sales were down by 25%.  Some regular customers came in and made huge purchases, so that is why the reduced sales aren't equal to the reduced attendance.  We had about 10 regulars come in, a ridiculously small number, but amazingly the highest number of regulars yet.  It seemed that almost everyone who came in already knew about comics or was just in for the freebies.

In the end, we didn't get a chance to do what we wanted - grow our business and grow the marketplace.  After 5 years of FCBD (1 super great, 1 almost great, 2 so-so, and 1 horrible), I am seriously wondering whether or not to participate next year.  It's a wait and see attitude for now -- but everyone at Fat Moose Comics was really disappointed with FCBD 2006.