Over the weekend, Amazon.com inexplicably listed hundreds of comic book-related items for ridiculously low prices. It was mostly Disney Comics (nee Marvel Comics) material, with items that normally go for anywhere from $30 to $100 appearing with prices of $8.49 to $14.99.
In the Old World, this might have happened, been noticed by the odd person, and then eventually corrected days or weeks later, once someone at Amazon realized that they were losing money on these items. However, in the shiny New World of 2010, Rich Johnston picked up on this glitch, reported it on his Bleeding Cool rumour site as well as tweeting it, and all Hell broke loose. Comic fans by the hundreds or even thousands placed orders, and Amazon was flooded with money-losing sales. This caused them to cancel most of the orders and send apologetic e-mails out, explaining that a mistake had occurred and those items were no longer available (when in fact, they were still being listed, but now at the correct prices). Johnston has even heard, apparently from an Amazon insider, that his site showed up as a bullet point at a high-level meeting held to discuss the matter.
If nothing else, this shows just how different things are now than what most of us are used to. "Viral" is a pretty important adjective to get your head around right now, and it's probably going to get even moreso as we move into the second decade of the 21st century.
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