Where to Buy Official Dungeon Crawler Carl Merch: Five Below, Books, and Collectibles
By Alexander Ross
The viral theory that Five Below had begun stocking LitRPG novel collections emerged from coincidental book inventory cycles in late 2024 and expanded throughout 2025. Five Below purchases liquidated publisher overstock, misprints, and remainder inventories in bulk. When bargain shoppers began spotting urban fantasy and indie game-adjacent paperbacks on discount tables for $5, social media chatter quickly mutated into claims that publisher returns of Dinniman’s hit series were surfacing next to bargain phone cables and clearance candy.
Community message boards lit up as readers posted photographs of crowded discount book carts, mistaking generic cat-themed fantasy covers or unrelated science fiction for Dinniman's work. The rapid commercial scaling of the franchise accelerated these assumptions. When Penguin Random House imprint Ace Books acquired the traditional publishing rights and began rolling out standard commercial hardcovers, casual shoppers assumed standard mass-market distribution would inevitably lead to bargain-bin dumping. In reality, steady sell-through rates have kept inventory tight, preventing early volumes from landing in deep-discount salvage streams.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
