Amazon's Comic Glitch: Do Marvel Fans Get to Keep Their Cheap Books?

By Caleb Hannan Tue., Mar. 9 2010 at 12:50 PM

Categories: Money

Christmas came early for fans of these two. Will Amazon play Scrooge?

UPDATE: Bleeding Cool (and Daily Weekly commenters) say that Amazon has gone from honoring some orders, to canceling all without explanation. And yet they still haven't gotten back to us.

We'll let you know when they do. In the meantime, after the jump, see the Amazon e-mail that's breaking the hearts of comic book lovers the world over.

Imagine for a moment what chaos might be wrought if one of L.A.'s biggest crack dealers were to roll up to Skid Row and announce his product was going for up to 90% off its normal market value.

Now replace "crack dealers" with "Amazon" and "crack" with "Marvel comics" and you have some idea of what took place late Saturday night into Sunday afternoon. Or as it will forever be known: The Great Amazon Comic Glitch of 2010.

Marvel Omnibus are collections of Marvel comics. Think of them as the DVD box sets of the comic world.

For about 12 hours, Amazon listed many of these ominbuses for $14.99. A huge discount off their normal going rates, which vary somewhere between $50 to $100.

The reaction amongst Marvel fans was, as you might expect, glee. Like the world's largest spontaneous nerd orgasm. (For an idea of what that might look like, click here.)

The glitch is now fixed. And prices have since been reset to levels that don't cause fans of Marvel to unintentionally piss themselves with joy.

But now the question is, who gets to keep the books?

It's unclear whether or not Amazon will simply cancel the orders -- and risk angering a lot of Marvel fans -- or let them stand -- and risk pissing off distributors and swallow a loss.

Either way, please enjoy this screencap from Bleeding Cool, the blog that's been all over this story since the beginning, of yesterday's list of the Amazon bestsellers. Also affectionately referred to as The Day the Comics Killed Twilight.

UPDATE: The cancellation e-mail, courtesy of Bleeding Cool.

Hello,

I'm very sorry that this has been a disappointing experience for you. We regret the error that resulted in an incorrect price being displayed for the items you have ordered. Unfortunately, in this case we were unable to honor the incorrect price, and your order was canceled. You weren't charged for this order. Once an order is canceled, it will no longer appear in your order history. One of our aims at Amazon.com is to provide a convenient and efficient service; in this case, we haven't met that standard.

I'm truly sorry, and I hope you'll give us another chance in the future.

We hope to see you again soon.

Tags:

Amazon, comic books

Write Comment

Email to Friend

Print Article

"I have to say looks as if you've got the literal nitty-gritty of the position at this time. While numerous appear to have left out the key concept of it all, when it was expressed above is lucid and on the money. Clearly I don""t sounding out that I harmonize along every one of the details; all the same, I must say that you managed to have payed me reason to rethink many of the main ideas that I recalled that I viewed as as undeterred opinions in that respects. expressed, and time for me to ponder a little more on some of many of the major points. All At Once it is clear I must compliment you for you have did a job well done.."
i was given a $25 gift card.
Aren't there laws that require a merchant to honor an advertised price?
I think Amazon's reaction here is the only one they could have. A discount of 90% off for products from a company that is no longer in dire financial straits is more than suspicious. Sure, it looks like a great deal, but when it gets canceled the next day or two? You shouldn't be either surprised or disappointed. Just my two cents.
I ordered 5 items, three of one thing and two of another. They wrote to me and said that they'd made an error and that they were sorry but they'd have to change my order so that I didn't get my second copy of the item I ordered two of. I was upset, but I said to myself, 'hey, I'm still doing okay.' Then I got an email today that said my entire order was canceled, the one that says "We regret the error that resulted in an incorrect price being displayed for the items you have ordered. Unfortunately, in this case we were unable to honor the incorrect price, and your order was canceled." Like, I'm all for people 'fessing up to their mistakes and apologizing, but I don't see why the consumer has to get screwed when the company makes the mistake. Can you imagine this working anywhere else? Like, *after* the items had been paid for they said "oh, actually no, we're not selling this." This is an embarrassment of epic proportions, and is going to piss off and/or alienate a ton of Amazon consumers.
My order is gone as well, no cancellation email either.
Just checked my order status and just like Cap my order has disappeared. No cancellation email or anything...just gone.
For those of you that have ordered something; make sure you hold on to your confermation emails.
No emails from Amazon about it, but just logged into my account to find my entire order has disappeared. Nothing at all for me then from the Great Glitch :(
Thanks anonymous. Fixed now. Bleeding Cool has been all over this story and they deserve the credit. And for what it's worth, based on their own experiences and that of their readers, it looks like Amazon's letting customers keep ONE copy of the ultra-discounted comics. They still haven't released an official response to Glitch Day. But based on what they're telling customers, they seem to have settled on a middle-of-the-road solution that costs them a few bucks, but probably saves them a few disgruntled blog posts.
is that screen cap from bleeding cool? just didn't see you give credit.
Here you go. I did half the work for you. Amazon.com, Inc. Media Hotline, 206-266-7180 www.amazon.com/pr
Should have mentioned this in the actual post, whuntah, but I do have a call in to Amazon to find out what happens with the comic orders. Just waiting to hear back.
Here's a news tip: You could always do your job and call Amazon to find out what they plan on doing with the orders.