The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2012.....

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

Over the weekend my wife and I decided to visit a clearance sale held by the #1 'discount' book store in Malaysia. Actually I'm not even sure if I can call them that. In a nutshell, The Big Bad Wolf is the company that sells books/magazines/comics/print medias at major discounts! I kid ya' not. Sometimes I scream when I found certain books that I've actually paid full price for being sold at Book Xcess (that's what their physical store is called) for >70-80% off the retail price and the best (sick) part of it all is that they are STILL being sold at most major bookstores at full-price. Lesson learnt.....best to check Book Xcess before buying any TPBs or hardcovers from now on...LOL! Anyway, let's get on with my thoughts on the event......

A similar sale was held last year somewhere within Universiti Putra's (UPM for you uni folks) campus ground. From what I've gathered, it was a logistical nightmare since visitors had to park their cars in the hot scorching sun and walk (or take the feeder buses) into the main sale area.

The tagline for this current event is "The Biggest Book Sale in the World!". Hmm, I guess nobody has ever held a book sale with 3 million books in stock before eh? Can somebody verify this fact?

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

This time around the venue got a whole lotta better because they moved to the Mines International Exhibition Convention Centre (MIECC) in Serdang. Parking isn't really a problem especially if you decide to go in the morning leading up to noon (much can be said if you choose to go DURING/AFTER lunchtime though!). The official event days to public are from the 7th  to 23rd December 2012 from 9am to 9pm. Interestingly, they open for 63 hours straight on the first 3 days starting from 6:30 am on the 7th (Friday) all the way to 9:30 pm on the 9th (Sunday). I, too, initially planned to make that odd-hour visit circa 3 or 4 am on Sunday morning but alas my beauty sleep got the better of me!
Visitors also have the option of driving up to the lobby entrance to pick up their books after they check out from the cashier counters to avoid muscle pull arising from extreme book carrying (for the record, I carried a total of almost 50 books to the car at one go....*ouch*).
All items (on average) range from as low as RM2 up till RM30 so it's an ideal time to hunt for any  X-Mas or birthday gifts. Remember, these books/prints are STILL being priced at the full retail prices at most retail bookstores. 3 million heavily-discounted books/prints are waiting for you in the convention hall....*giddy*....and ALL of 'em are 75%-95% off their retail prices!

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

One good thing was that the air conditioning was superb. One can definitely feel the draft at any part of the convention hall. Thank you dear organizers!

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

Of course, being a geek I was really looking forward to the comic section! After making my rounds in the usual fiction and biography sections (I didn't snap any pictures since I was already too excited to search for the comics!) we made our way to the comics area. There were about 3 (or was it 4) tables full of comics...and it was already swarmed with (presumably) comic book fans/collectors who had the same intentions as we had.
The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

To tell ya' the truth it was mostly Marvel titles spanning from fan favourites such as the X-Men, Spider Man, Avengers, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine, Ghost Rider and sporadic off-shoot TPBs from the Siege and Civil War storylines. Whatever it is, you'd definitely jump for joy to see that these are priced as low as RM10 for trade paperbacks(TPB) and a maximum of RM30 for the thick hardcovers (HC). In case you overseas readers are wondering, RM10 - RM30 is just USD3.3 - USD10! Now you tell me....won't you go nuts too just standing there looking at the 'underpriced' TPBs and HCs? Of course, none are 'current' but the fact that these are STILL being sold at full price at BORDERS and Kinokuniya (and even amazon.com for a fact!) is something we should really consider! Definitely worth to be picked up, even if you'll end up not liking the storyline/art ("Hey, it was just USD3 - 10!") you can always sell it back later thru eVilbay.
The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

There were also some independent label comics too. I was mighty tempted to pick some up but resisted ("Must.....scrimp....and...save.....to....buy.....Marvel....titles!").
The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012
I know someone from my workplace who went in the wee hours of morning on Saturday. He claimed (and reportedly seen/confirmed by some other colleague of ours who also happened to be there at the same time) that he took home almost 50 TPBs & HCs from that single visit alone! When asked, he coolly answered "Uhm yeah, these babies are going straight on eBay, am gonna sell 'em slightly below their retail prices....whaddya think?!".
Goodness.....I've been workmates with a scalper all these while! LOL!.
The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

The damage:
The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

Ok, there is truly a thin fine line bordering between 'going a little bit overboard' and going ape shit over  your purchases now ain't it? LOL. Before entering the event hall, I even said to my wife "Ok, perhaps IF there is truly something interesting, maybe I'll pick up a book or two". We ended up with 16 Marvel titles (TPBs plus HCs), 4 hardcover cook books, 4 music biographies and a number of children titles (for our geek son).

Let's take a closer look at some, shall we?:

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

My dear loving wife even helped to pick/choose up most of these TPBs/HCs for me. All the Thor titles are hers of course....being that Norse God of Thunder fan that she is! Thanks a bunch dear! Worth to mention here again that the most expensive HC here was only RM20 (USD 6)! The lowest was the Ghost Rider TPBs....they were RM12 (USD4) each......astounding!

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

I can't resist picking up these ridiculously 'cheap' Beatles HCs. And that "Cobain Unseen" book was just RM20......simply unbelievable!

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012

My wife took these home...2 each of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson's cook book...and that one fantasy novel on top.

To sum it all up, I only have one word to describe the event. AWESOME. If you happen to be in the area or Malaysia for that matter; and you're looking for bargains and hoping to snag that tradepaperback or hardcover books that you're dreading to pay full-price for, then head down to MIECC coz you'll never know, what you're looking for might be there at 75%-95% off! Right now my wife and I are preparing ourselves for Round 2.....it's CERTAINLY worth a second look.

As a quick tip, I'd say you better prepare yourselves with a mini-cart/trolley or a sling/tote bag if you're planning to grab a lot of books. Otherwise you'd be forced to stash your loot inside the 'complimentary' brown box provided by organizers near the entrance.....which I strongly discourage you to do so, unless you're planning to grow some instant muscles! I'm still having sore arms till today....3 days AFTER the event. I guess that's what you get for ferrying close to 50 books from the hall and 2 levels down to where we parked our car by stairs!
'Nuff said.

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