It all started on July 4th, while we were on our way to my sister’s house to practice the yearly tradition of burning money in her driveway.
And then, BOOM! It happened.
No, not the firework, silly, it didn’t last long enough to get more than one good AR photo.
I meant the announcement we’ve all been waiting for but nobody expected. It came out of left field like a ballpark frank thrown by a kid who wasn’t staying nine innings (because ‘Murica).
Da da da da! We are getting Captain America #1 on VeVe!
In other words, it was a mind blown kinda boom.
And it was coming on July 23rd…
Wait, what? Oh, yeah. San Diego Comic-Con… it’s still a thing.
And convention season is coming before my wallet is ready for it… that, at least, is no surprise.
I’ve been in this sort of standby pattern lately, where I wait a week for uncommon prices to settle before I collect them, and have gotten extremely choosy about what drops I go for this year, especially on the ones where the uncommon is all I’m interested in. I think the only comics I’ve actually gone for on the drop this year are comics I have a nostalgic connection to or want to match it to a physical copy.
But when I found out on very short notice that we were getting Captain America #7, and at standard price, this I had to go for. It was a dress rehearsal, to get back into the groove of comics that are instant sellouts.
Fortunately, VeVe has come a very long way from Click, Click, Miss.
By the time I saw the announcement, the 24-hour drop counter was already on, so all I had to do was head to StackR, grab ten gems using OMI to GEMS, and click the Autopay with the minimum in MCP insurance.
And that was it. Boom. Done.
If I had forgotten about the drop (which was unlikely in this case), I was already covered.
No stress, no button mash, especially since I wasn’t interested in rebounds. There’s that first panic that comes when you’re trying to figure out if it went through and what you might have gotten, but it does go away once you finally find it in inventory.
I got a rare… of course I did. Greytone sticks to me like a magnet no matter where they put it.
Hey, VeVe, I have a great idea! How about making the greytone comic the Secret Rare for a change?
(If I win it, Lady Luck has some serious explaining to do.)
I do have one very real concern, though, and that’s about the after-lag. To be honest, it’s been a concern on other drops as well, like Yoda and the Falcon. It makes the company look unprepared and unprofessional, especially when it seems to happen consistently on every major drop without any noticeable improvement.
I really don’t like the thought of convincing a friend or family member to join VeVe only to feel like I have to make excuses for this problem. New people are more likely to come in for those rare and nostalgic big drops, so every time that lag hits or VeVe goes down completely, I cringe at the first impression it’s leaving behind.
If I’m biting my nails at all, this is the main reason. I don’t want budding collectors to get immediately clipped.
Not getting a drop because it sold out: fine.
Not getting a drop because it lagged out: thanks but no thanks, it’s your thing, not mine. I’m not doing that again.
That said, I’m excited for the upcoming Captain America drop, and for seeing what other interesting drops are coming this convention season and beyond.
And if you’ve got any more dress rehearsals, that’s totally fine with me too.
