Category Archives: Vlog

Photo-A-Day, Vlog

4 Years With Loot Crate… Over

No More Loot Crate
Photo-A-Day #4409

I made this video, not out of bitterness or anger or spite. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been able to review Loot Crate boxes for the past 4 years for free. I was one of the first people to ever review the crates to promote this newly formed company that wanted to grow. Loot Crate did grow. It grew and grew into an extremely popular company that has several different crates shipping out every month. I’ve been able to review Loot Crate, Loot Wear, Marvel Gear + Goods, and more.

I found out the other day that I won’t be receiving any more Loot Crates for free. My audience isn’t converting to sales very well and therefore it isn’t worth it to the company to send me Loot Crate for free to review if there isn’t anything for them in return. I completely understand this. It makes sense. It is also my fault. For the past four years I had the mindset of promotion and not sales. I simply told people about the great crates and didn’t try and sell people on signing up.

Sure, I have a discount code and some affiliate links. I add this to each of my videos:

I am an Affiliate for Loot Crate and you can order Loot Crate through my link and use the promo code BENSPARK for a discount. https://benspark.com/LootCrateDX

But that did not translate into sales because I had the mindset of promotion, not sales.

Loot Crate is something that I have enjoyed being a part of and I hope it is something that continues to grow and do well. I wish Matt and Chris and the rest of the team continued success with their company. If I ever get asked back I will be certain to not only promote by sell as this is a company I believe in and want to see succeed.

This mean that this is the end of me doing Loot Crate Unboxings? Yes and No. I will no longer be doing sponsored unboxings, however I purchased a 3 month subscription and will do some of my own unboxings with crates I purchased. I couldn’t miss out on the Guardians themed crate that is coming this month. It has items from these properties:

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
STAR WARS
DESTINY
GOONIES

I wasn’t missing the Rocket and Groot statue that is in the crate.

Comic Book, Disney, Movie, Photo-A-Day, Toys, Vlog

Free Comic Book Day 2017 & I Saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The Kids with the Guardians
Photo-A-Day #4407

Attending Free Comic Book Day is a yearly tradition that I have shared with Eva ever since she was 2 years old. Also with Andrew when he was 2. I missed one year because I was away on a trip but otherwise I have been there and we have been to Wild Time Comics to celebrate the day. To be perfectly honest, as I was driving home after being awake for nearly 28 hours and the rain poured down my heart wasn’t quite in it. When I pulled into the driveway and everything was we and soggy and dreary my heart wasn’t in it. I was ready to just crawl into bed and sleep the day away.

I went into the house. The kids were all excited, they had taken baths and were getting ready to attend Free Comic Book Day with Dad. So I laid down in bed for close to an hour to get a second wind before taking them over to the comic book store for the opening of the event.

When we got there the rain started again and we stood under some tents. Well, Andrew and I did but Eva refused because there were some of the creepy statues from Halloween ComicFest. Eva refuses to go to that day with me, it terrifies her. Andrew gets a little scared but I think he’s just feeding on Eva’s vibe.

The doors opened and we went in. Andrew immediately went all around and I had to monitor him while trying to pick the comics and make sure that Eva was seeing certain comics that I knew she would like. Andrew picked out one comic and then went to the free candy The one he picked was one that we already had from a Halloween ComicFest and so I picked out the second one which was Animal Jam. It wasn’t until we were in the car that I noticed that we had gotten two of the same one.

Our ComicsThe kids had gotten some discount coupons and so we bought a couple of things including a collected 6 issue set of X-Men Evolution that was based on the cartoon. We had 60% off the final purchase so that was great.

On the way home I gave the kids their comics. Andrew flipped through Animal Jam and was done. Eva read through her Disney Princesses comic (another that we bought) and when we got home she continued reading. We had to make her get up off the couch so we could take the photo above. Seeing her excited about comics and wanting to read more of them made going in the rain with no sleep totally worth it. Having the kids excited to do something dad loves was also worth it.

While we didn’t stay too long at the event we made sure to get some photos with cosplayers who were doing Guardians of the Galaxy including the owner, Randy who was Star-Lord! We always make sure to get a photo with Randy because he always dresses up. We had a great one from a ear when Eva was Toruun and Randy was Thor. Then I tried to get to sleep after reading one of my comics.

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