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The other day I wrote about Wizard Universe selling hundreds of issues of Captain America #25 on eBay. It seemed as though Wizard Universe had some kind of special insight that Captain America #25 would include the death of Captain America. That’s some insight no other comic retailer seemed to have.
Wizard the magazine is a magazine about comic books. Wizard Universe is a retailer that sells comic books. Is there an information firewall between the two entities? Are there safe guards in place to ensure that the retailing side of Wizard doesn’t get an unfair advantage from the (don’t laugh) the journalistic side of Wizard?
The Daily News was the first to break the story about Captain America getting killed. It wasn’t by accident. They were privy to the fact that Captain America was going to be killed in issue #25 two whole months before it happened. What if the Daily News also sold comic books? Would that be a conflict? They don’t sell comic books, so it’s not an issue.
The difference with Wizard is that not only do they report on comics, they also sell them. By the looks of Wizard Universe’s eBay auctions for Captain America #25, someone over there had the foresight to order lots and lots of this particular issue.
I decided I would try to ask Wizard.
I contacted Wizard’s media contact Drew Seldin. In an email, I asked if in fact anyone at Wizard the magazine had prior knowledge of Captain America’s death and if anyone at Wizard the magazine passed this information over to Wizard Universe before last week. Seldin responded to my email. Instead of simply answering my question, he told me that he believed that my “ultimate goal is to attack Wizard“.
He went on to say that if he was wrong about my intentions, I could call him next week and we could discuss it. My ultimate goal was not to attack Wizard. It was to have him answer my question. By refusing to answer my question, I’m left with even stronger suspicions then I had before.
The obvious course of action is to write, draw and ink a hasty comic about Wizard apologizing for their crime, and sell a whole bunch of copies on eBay before Wizard actually does apologize.
Lucrative.
You’ll have plenty of time to produce that comic.
What a dick (the guy from Wizard). He completely avoided the question. If they didn’t utilize ‘insider information,’ he wouldn’t feel under attack. He’d have nothing to hide. He has something to hide, so he feels like he’s under attack. What a dick.
I just thought it was nice for someone to finally say that I had a goal.
I wonder what Marvel thought of Wizard selling copies of Captain America #25 on eBay. Not that I think Marvel would ever come out and say anything negative about Wizard.
I think Wizard really needs to figure out what it wants to be when it grows us. Does it want to be the pinnacle of comic book journalism? Does it want to sell comic related
crapcollectibles on eBay? It cannot not do both. At least not with any ethical integrity.If nothing else, this gives me something to ask Joe Quesada about at this year’s Cup of Joe panel at the Baltimore Comic-Con.
It’s just a freakin’ comic book.
Funny…when I called Drew Seldin to specifically ask for someone at Wizard to discuss accusations that they took their knowledge of Cap’s death as a news source and were using it for an unfair advantage as a retailer on Monday, he told me that he wasn’t the person that could address that, but he would give my number to someone who could discuss it and they would call me back. Still waiting…
Kevin - There’s a real good chance that there isn’t anyone over at Wizard that can explain exactly what happened. At least not without making it sound as shady as it already does now.
Also, I got the impression from Seldin that he was somewhat new to Wizard.
Personally, the fact that he could not (or would not) just answer my question told me that there wasn’t anything in place to ensure Wizard the magazine didn’t learn of anything as a news gathering organization and then pass it over to Wizard Universe so they could corner the eBay speculator market. If there was some kind of information firewall in place between the two entities, he would have maybe said so.