FREE COMIC BOOK MAY 2024

MK1's FREE COMIC BOOK DAY runs a little differently now.  We call it FREE COMIC BOOK MAY :  instead of one day in May, we stretch the fun out throughout the month  (May is Mk1's birthday month - in 2024 we turn 35 years old!).    

We order as many of the Free Comics that we can afford to ship to NZ and add them to all orders containing a comic  placed through the MK1 website in May 2024 free of charge. There is a limit of one free comic per order shipped or picked up instore with maximum of one free comic per week.   

All web orders containing a comic placed after May 3rd 2024  will receive a comic automatically while stocks last (one per week). We match orders with an appropriate Free Comic selection based on the accompanying order.  We do take a record of what we have supplied so we don't double up if you place further orders during May.  

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why no instore event?  Free Comic Book Day was huge at MK1.  The store would be packed with people with long queues down the street.  At it's peak over 2000 fans rolled through our doors during the day.  The cost of international freight has increased dramatically and shipping that many comics is unaffordable.  There is no easy way to dial back expectation & enthusiasm so making it an online event is the only way we can manage things.

Are all Free Comic Book Day comics advertised on the FCBD website available? No.  Some comics will not ship to New Zealand due to licensing restrictions and some have a minimum order that we judge will exceed demand.  We choose a selection matched to the comics that sell well at MK1.

Can I preorder specific Free Comic Book Day comics from MK1? No.  We wait till the last minute to place our Free Comic Book Day orders.  We purchase the free comics and pay for delivery in US Dollars.  Our ordering budget and the amount of comics we order and ship here is dictated by the exchange rate at the time.  Because we order later than the catalogue deadline there will be some titles that may be sold out from the publishers already.  We will be trying to  offer most of the main Gold & Silver level titles but as we can't guarantee supply we can't in good faith take preorders.  

Can I purchase Free Comic Book Day issues through MK1?  No. The titles are sold to retailers at a subsidized rate under a strict condition that the titles will be given away free of charge.  Unfortunately  international freight is not subsidized.

I thought Free Comic Book Day Comics were free?  No,  they are sold to retailers at a subsidized rate by the publishers and distributors but there is still a per issue or per bundle cost.  The cost of the comics is dwarfed by the freight cost of getting them here.  Hence this page.

Will MK1 ever host a future Free Comic Book Day event in store again?  Never say never but I can't see it happening anytime soon

 

 

MK1 MANAGE COMICS USER GUIDE

Signing Up:

If you have made a purchase via the MK1 site you will have a MK1 account already.  You can reset your password via the MK1 account page here https://mk1.co.nz/account/login 

New customers can open up an account here https://mk1.co.nz/account/register 

IMPORTANT: When opening an account please include your physical address and mobile phone contact details.  We will not start processing preorder requests till we have that information.   We need mobile numbers as Manage Comics notifications can go to spam so we always txt an alert when the first notification goes out)

Accessing the Preorder Section of the MK1 Site

Login to your Mk1 account and click on the PREORDER option in the main MK1 menu.  From here you can browse available comics by using the Search function or filters(more info regarding the Manage Comics Filters can be found below).When you find a title you are interested in click on the cover to reveal the available to order issues. 

Pricing: 

Preorder pricing is usually accurate for the main cover A of comics, manga and graphic novel volumes. Manage Comics does not display the price for variant covers as many comic shops have different variant cover pricing policies.  There are some publisher exceptions like the UK publisher Rebellion where Manage Comics does not calculate the price correctly - we will reach out to confirm interest at the corrected price.

When ordering variant covers the price will show in your MY SUBSCRIPTIONS record but If the price is wildly different from the cover A price we will be in touch to confirm your interest.  Please also see our variant cover policy below.   

Sometimes the data files that publishers provide Manage Comics have errors.  When this happens MK1 will requote the price and ask customers to reconfirm or deny their interest at the corrected price.  Sometimes the data files wrongly list covers as being available.  MK1 checks all preorders and will contact customers if there is an error ahead of final pre order commitment (another good reason to keep your mobile number updated at MK1).

Payment: 

Payment is expected within 7 days of receipt of the emailed invoice. Arrivals are invoiced according to your chosen Shipping Preference.

Comic shipments arrive throughout the week from various different comic distributors. Arrival notifications and payment links are updated and sent out weekly or monthly depending on your chosen Shipping Preference.

Subscribers can view what they have aside for them at this link: https://mk1.co.nz/pages/managecomics/my_subscriptions You can change your shipping preference at the above link.

Customers wanting to have their preorders held aside to be combined with a future delivery should choose the shipping method HOLD ASIDE - DON'T SHIP YET (will automatically ship with the next order you place that includes a shipping fee). This is a good way to save on shipping costs across multiple orders.

Variant Cover Policy

The Manage Comics system does not display pricing for variant covers - the price showing is for the regular Cover A. Please review your MY SUBSCRIPTIONS page to view pricing for your chosen variant covers. (Many variant covers can be a few dollars extra for cover enhancements like cardstock covers, acetate or foil treatments. When the price is wildly different we will reach out for confirmation)

MK1 does not take preorders for incentive covers as they usually require us to order extra issues or increase our spend above a certain target to qualify to order.  Because the incentive covers ship in such small numbers (if they ship at all) they are prone to damage and packing errors.  Any we do qualify for that are in saleable condition go on the MK1 website on NEW COMIC DAY - we use them as a bit of excitement and a reason to visit the MK1 site on that day. 

We filter incentive covers out of the preorder listings in Manage Comics - occasionally publisher data errors lead to these covers being temporarily visible. When this happens we will notify and cancel the preorder.    Handy Hint: you can spot an incentive cover by a qualifier or ratio listed within the comics title  eg. TRANSFORMERS #6 CVR E 50 COPY INCV QUINONES  or HARLEY QUINN #39 CVR F INC 1:50 MINDY LEE CARD STOCK VARIANT.   

New Listings? Hold Fire till the end of Week 1 of each Month

At the end of each month you will start seeing new listings show up. You can tell a new catalogue has dropped because the banner will change at the top of the main preorder landing page. We recommend patience and waiting till at least the end of the first week of each month or better yet the second week of the month before checking them out. Manage Comics will have found a heap of publisher data errors already but there will still be more - by the second week things should be stable and ready for your preorders.

MK1 would love to be able to stop these new listings publishing till week 2 but as these listings are from a data feed we don't have that ability.

Beware These Listings!

The preorder listings are built around the industry best practice use of comic meta data and comic barcode info. A few publishers can be guilty of using barcodes in inventive and interesting but non standard ways leading to problems with our listings and the information presented.

We are always on the look out for these and will report any errors to Manage Comics for correction. If you do spot something unusual please let us know.

(Improvements are coming! For anybody interested in Comic Meta Data check out the COMET standard project).

Subscription requests for Manga & Graphic Novel series:

Our Manage Comics service is not just for comics - you are most welcome to use Manage Comics to place ongoing requests for future volumes of a graphic novel or Manga by pressing the SUBSCRIBE button on the latest title listing. 

Ordering Multiple Copies of a Single Comic

You can adjust the qty on order once you have preordered an issue.  The steps are 

1. Place comic  on preorder. 

2. Jump to your MY SUBSCRIPTIONS record and adjust the qty on order under the My Subscriptions tab.  Qty will need to be adjusted before that issue's Final Order Due date.

Not all Items Listed are Available from MK1

Manage Comics listings are created using a data feed from the GEEKFETCH database. We don't have direct control over every individual listing showing. 

We do use filters to remove problematic items but occasionally stuff sneaks through or is impossible to filter out (like Territory Restricted Titles - see below). 

Not every item showing can be ordered so we will get in touch if a request is not available through MK1. Some examples are: 

Freebie or Promotional bundles :  The minimum order for these are  usually pretty large and the freight is the expensive part.  If ten customers request a 100 copy bundle of a giveaway and we somehow miss it in a rush to beat a preorder deadline that will be 1000 copies shipping our way at a very high freight cost. We will remove all bundle requests.

Free Comic Book Day comics We don't do things like we used to - please see our Free Comic Book May post for how we have fun in our Birthday month.

Signed Comics and High Value Rare books: International freight is expensive and prone to damage.  We are able to absorb the cost of the odd  damaged book or a few regular priced comics but have learned the hard way to avoid the risk of something happening to a rare comic costing 100s of USD$.

Territory Restricted Titles: There is a growing list of comic titles that are not able to be sent via the usual comic distribution system to New Zealand. This happens when publishers have only purchased, or have only been granted a license to produce comics to be sold in a North American or specific international territory that does not include NZ. We have a way round this but orders must be placed as early as possible - the Final Orders Due date is way too late! See this page for more information and the latest list of territory restricted titles.

Weekly Arrivals Notifications and emailed Payment Links tied to Shipping Preference.

We will send out a notification to all subscribers that had a preorder arrived after the last comic shipment has been unpacked for the week. This email includes a summary of all new subscription arrivals from the week.

After that MK1 will start emailing payment links to our customers that have requested a weekly shipping invoice.

Customers who have chosen twice a month shipping will receive their emailed payment links according to the dates they have requested.

After the last shipment for the month is received we will send out the emailed payment links to our monthly Shipping Preference customers.

You can change your Shipping Preference and view current items aside for you at the MY SUBSCRIPTIONS page of the MK1 website.

We do ask that emailed payment links are paid within 7 days of sending.

HOLD ASIDE - DON'T SHIP YET Shipping Option

The payment links default to the most popular shipping option. In MK1's case this is the  $0  HOLD ASIDE - DON'T SHIP YET (will automatically ship with the next order you place that includes a shipping fee) shipping method. 

With comics deliveries arriving three times a week this is an extremely popular shipping option for customers wanting to secure comics but bundle and send at a later date. 

As a reminder If your Mk1 checkout is showing $0.00 shipping review the shipping options before proceeding (you may need to push the down arrow at the checkout's Shipping Method section to reveal other shipping options).

If you did choose the wrong shipping method look out for the automatic emailed order confirmation -  it contains instructions on how to pay for shipping after an order is placed.

How Long Will MK1 HOLD PAID ORDERS ASDE?

There is no time limit - we will keep your paid order aside awaiting an order that includes a paid shipping fee. We will send a reminder once a month to reassure you your purchase is safe and not forgotten. Please reply to these messages so we know communications are getting through...

....But we strongly suggest you don't wait too long before triggering an order. All care is taken but occasionally errors occur and the earlier we know that a mistake has been made the more likely we can fix it.

How Long will MK1 hold unpaid orders aside?

Ideally all preorders are paid within 7 days of the payment link being sent out. We start getting concerned after one month of non payment - & really start to freak out after 6 weeks.

Please contact us if you are going to be away.

Please do keep your contact details updated especially mobile phone numbers.

MANAGE COMICS TITLE VIEW

Subscribe To Series Button

The SUBSCRIBE TO SERIES button is the "set & forget / I want them all" button .  If you click on this MK1 will put aside a copy of every new issue released of this title from the next available issue on .

IMPORTANT : The next available issue may not be the issue showing - look at the Final Order Cutoff date to see what issue your subscription will start from. If you want to stat from an earlier issue contact MK1 to see if this is possible,

A pop up  box will allow subscribers to choose between subscribing to A or B covers (or both).  Covers beyond A and B can not be subscribed but can be individually preordered by selecting the PRE ORDER COVER button. The series info will display the next issue due for release up the top of the page along with available to order Variant covers. 

Please Either Subscribe to a series or Preorder an individual issue - don't do both unless you want multiple copies of the same comic.

No Longer Available For Pre Order Indication

In some instances issues will display as   "No longer available for Pre Order"  because that issue's  Final Order Cut Off date has passed.  If you are still interested in obtaining this issue message MK1 (shop@mk1.co.nz or use the Chat With Us website messaging) and we will advise if extra copies will be available or can be sourced. 

Pre Order Issue or Pre Order Cover button

As you scroll further down the series page, issues and variant covers that can be preordered will have a PRE ORDER ISSUE or a PREORDER COVER button (those that can't, won't).

Selecting that button will place that issue or cover on order with MK1. 

IMPORTANT: If you preorder an issue that you are already subscribed to this will create a 2nd request - which will lead to multiple issues being ordered for you.  MK1 will do our best to look out for double orders but the easiest way to avoid this is not to preorder a title that you are already subscribed to.

Shipping Date

This is the release date in the USA. If the title releases on time MK1 will receive our copies in the same week as this release date.

DC and Image Comics arrive on the same day as the advertised date.

Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW & most Indie publishers will arrive on the closest Thursday or Friday following the advertised release date.

Final Order Cutoff date

This is the last date that we can adjust out orders for this title. Preorders, or changes to existing preorders for this title should be made before this date.

If the Final Order Cut Off date has passed you can message MK1 (shop@mk1.co.nz or use the Chat With Us website messaging) and we will advise if extra copies will be available or can be sourced.

Preorders Placed after Final Order Cut Off and very close to shipping. We will not record a close-to-shipping date preorder in the manage comics system. Instead we keep a written record of these late orders which we check once the week's comics have been unpacked and timey preorders fulfilled. We do this so that the system doesn't mistakenly assign the last copy to a customer who preordered it after deadline instead of a customer who placed their orders ahead of the deadline.

Handy Hint: MK1 publishes a weekly blog post where we summarize all the major new series from the various publishers that are up for Final Order Cut Off. Check them out here.

Cover Price

The Cover Price showing is the MK1 price in NZD$ for the Cover A in the main picture.

Manage Comics does not display the price for variant covers listed below the main cover image.  

After you have placed an order for the variant cover the price will show in your MY SUBSCRIPTIONS record where you can confirm or cancel your preorder. If the price is wildly different from the cover A price we will be in touch to confirm your interest. 

MANAGE COMICS TERMS

My Subscriptions

On the MY SUBSCRIPTIONS Page : The button shows all current subscriptions for your active titles. If you placed a preorder with MK1 recently your order may show in the Pre-Order Approvals section of My Subscriptions awaiting MK1's acceptance (we process these requests daily).

Pulled Orders = items that have arrived at MK1 that have yet to be invoiced to you.

Billed Orders = items that have been invoiced.

View your ACCOUNT PAGE to see a record of paid orders and their shipping status.

Pulled Orders & Billed Orders Tab

Pulled Orders = items that have arrived at MK1 that have yet to be invoiced to you. These Pending items will be moved to the Billed Orders tab at your chosen Shipping Preference

Billed Orders = The items that we have sent a payment link for that are due to be paid.

View your ACCOUNT PAGE to see a record of paid orders and their shipping status.

Shipping Preferences

it's really important we get the Shipping Preference set up correctly as this setting determines when MK1 sends you a payment link. When you open a preorder account with MK1 we will send you a TXT prompting you to confirm this preference.

Shipping Preferences is somewhat misnamed. It is more a Payment Preference - this is where subscribers can choose when MK1 will send a payment link.

Local Pickup : Choose this if you would like to pay and pickup your preorders from Mark One's Hamilton store in person. You won't be sent a payment link with this option - just an email letting you know when a preorder arrives. If you prefer to pay online but pick up instore we suggest choosing either the Weekly, Bi-Weekly or Monthly option to receive a payment link ahead of your next visit.

Weekly Shipping: Choose this if you would like to be invoiced whenever a new preorder arrives for you. We send the weekly invoices out after the final comic shipment for the week has been unpacked.

Bi-Weekly Shipping: Choose this if you would like to be invoiced twice a month.

We will reach out to customers who choose this option to record the dates that we will send payment links on eg, 1st and 15th of each month - or the first and third Wednesdays of each month etc.

Monthly Shipping: Choose this if you would like to be invoiced once a month. By default we send the monthly invoices out once the final comic shipment for the month has been unpacked - but we can set these to go out on a nominated date each month.  Get in touch with MK1 to nominate a specific date. .

Whatever option is chosen subscribers can always choose the HOLD DON'T SHIP YET shipping option to have your comics stored to ship together with a future order.

You can change your SHIPPING PREFERENCE on the MY SUBSCRIPTIONS page

Monthly Preorder Catalogues

The most recent Previews catalogue listings are showing in the banner section at the top of the Main SUBSCRIPTIONS Home Page.  This link show's the latest issues available to preorder up to two months ahead of publication.

You can navigate the various publishers via the filter list on the right hand side of the page.  

Handy Hint: MK1 publishes a monthly blog post where we summarize all the highlights from the various publishers. We also provide links to download PDF catalogues and include physical catalogues with our mail outs while stocks last. Check them out here.

Last Call (FOC) - Final Orders Due - Final Order Cutoff

This is a weekly selection of FINAL ORDER CUTOFF comics - MK1's last chance to adjust our orders up or down. We ask that preorders are placed from this list by Monday morning each week to give us enough admin time to organize the shipments.  The Final Order Cutoff date is the last chance to alter, place or cancel preorders.

Handy Hint: MK1 publishes a weekly blog post where we summarize all the major new series from the various publishers that are up for Final Order Cut Off. Check them out here.