My wife texted me that I'd received a package, followed by a texted photo of a box from Amazon.

I'll be honest, at first, I was a little bummed about receiving something directly from Amazon. For some reason, I had been hoping of this grandiose package full of hand picked memorabilia. I guess that I had gotten so involved in my search , that I had fantasized about unrealistic expectations. To be honest, I'm not even sure that a package hand delivered by Amanda Conner would have fulfilled those fantasies.

Inside, was a gift-wrapped package, complete with a cloth ribbon. My jaded thoughts started to soften: "Hmm, that's cool. My exchanger cared enough to have things wrapped." However, I think that ribbon lasted about 12 seconds before it was on the table and I was thumbing through my loot: three new graphic novels: Final Crisis and Batman Vols 1 & 2: The Court & City of Owls. Even better, was the attached card which instructed me on the next story arc to pursue. I spent a good chunk of the evening, until I couldn't stay awake anymore, reading "sequential art" - something I haven't done in years.

What you don't know: I used to be a collector, first of DC, then of Marvel, then of Indie-ish comics. Lately, family and life has kept me from following comics. Everytime I went into the local shop with my kids, I'd see the summer event stuff (Final Crisis, New 52, etc.) but I didn't know where to start in order to catch up. My Exchanger got me a good start, pointed me in the next steps and did it in such a way that I'm excited/enthused about reading DC again.

And to top it off: inside Final Crisis is a full page illustration featuring Justice Society of America - the team I used to love to read thirty years ago! Yeah, cue fanboi geek moment. Even if only for five seconds.

TL;DR My gift giver gave me some trade paperbacks and a list of what to look at next. This was exactly what I'd asked for and I'm ecstatic about my gift!