Posted in : Comics , Comics Publishers , DC Comics , Image , Marvel Comics| Tagged : infield , lunar
Comic Store In Your Future … with 2024 terminate like a dumpster blast , Rod Lamberti assume a look at challenges a comic storehouse currently faces .
Article Summary
" Wow , " " wow " is my thinking as a comic store owner as 2024 end . Not a serious " wow " , a " wow " how bad could it get for comical store at the last of 2024 ? How crazy could the death of 2024 be ? When I first take an email from Diamond stating they were closing a warehouse and there could be disruptions , I took it to think of a few hiccups , such as a title or two not being ship or some small mistakes . Boy , was I wrong ? From not get weekly comics shipments to no longer getting an invoice is how poorly the warehouse closure go wrong . We are prosperous . I regulate comics from Diamond , Penguin , and Lunar . Other storehouse that ordered all their Marvel comedian from Diamond had a much tough clip .
Diamond Comics was the sole supplier in America for Marvel , DC , Image , Dark Horse , IDW , Valiant , and other publisher for twenty - five years . I instruct that my option were to cope with Diamond or not trade comics at all . I order Magic the Gathering and other play material through multiple distributer and wondered why that was not true for comics . In my mind , the more distributor carrying comic strip , the expert . For example , if one distributor I apply does not have a game in hired hand , another might . With Diamond being the only big supplier to comic entrepot , if I did not have a new comic in stock and neither did Diamond , that was that . I had become an outreach for Diamond Comics and felt that was limiting my business of sell comic strip .
Then COVID-19 hit . business had to close down . Many mirthful store were not open due to COVID , which made it very hard to give bills , such as the Diamond invoices for comics they were get , though they could n’t sell the product due to being closed . The point of exactly why DC left Diamond are murky . Diamond stopped sending intersection and still was not charge out material to stores . Then DC Comics left Diamond and perish to two distributors to ship their comics , one being Lunar , which DC still goes exclusive through to this day . I was very thankful that DC started up new releases on Tuesdays , and Diamond sent out funnies again soon after . As the years conk on , other publishers started using Lunar rather of Diamond to carry their cartoon strip , such as Image Comics , even if they spoke out against DC for leave behind Diamond in the first home .
Comic Store Wars
They say competition is respectable for customers . Lunar packed their shipment in a loge with bubble wrap ; for year , various memory board owners wanted Diamond to pack their shipments better to cut down on impairment . After ten of not listening , Diamond finally improved its packaging after Lunar started its DC despatch .
Then Penguin , a book of account distributor , managed to get Marvel Comics to exchange over to them . Diamond would then be receiving Marvel Comics from Penguin to ship . Our first Penguin load and other comic store ' first shipment was a surprisal . Penguin shipped out comics in just a add-in box . There was no padding of any kind , just the comics right up against all the corners of the boxwood . We were lucky and did not have terms ; others were not as favorable . Some were unfortunate enough to consecrate variants that were only usable if a stock order 100 copy of a title and had them go far damaged with no replacement available .
I go for this helps risible collectors best understand the seller that comic stores practice . December has been a heck of a month . My sales , of grade , are down ; it is hard to sell material that is not in when it is suppose to be . I set up some of the smaller Marvel statute title , such as Ghost - Spider , only through Diamond , so I had hoi polloi tell apart me they had seen it at other stores , so why did n’t I order it through Penguin ? Comic stores orderliness calendar month in forward motion , at the clock time I placed the rules of order with Diamond I had no estimation part of November and December would be bedlam for Diamond . I use both to help in face of a mistake with one vendor . When Ultimate Black Panther # 1 came out , Diamond had copies , but Penguin somehow did not . By using Diamond , we could have Ultimate Black Panther # 1 copies available on the expiration day . Penguin not transport any made the publication hard to find .
I was apprehensive I range this month’sTransformers , a hot - selling comic for us through Diamond and not Lunar , for some reasonableness because it has been that defective of a calendar month . I made sure to double - check-out procedure before the tone ending date . gratefully , I orderedTransformersthrough Lunar and received them on the day they were to be released . I envisage some memory that use only Diamond for Marvel are now considering using Penguin . Penguin offers complimentary merchant marine , whereas Diamond and Lunar do not .
Christmas Eve Is Coming In Force
We are having a sales agreement the day after Christmas on December 26th ; the running game jest with my client for the last few weeks has been that Diamond will have a raw comic shipment show up that day . If there is n’t a blizzard , it should be a busy 24-hour interval . If not , something is wrong . If it does show up , the odds are that I will have to put it in the back room and handle with it the next day . I thought Diamond would have things back to normal before then ; it looks like I was haywire .
" I do n’t know . " Customers do not wish to see those word from an employee or fund owner when need thing like when the comics will be in . It was the answer we were getting from Diamond at the start of all this . Diamond eventually state they think they would be move out of the storage warehouse later on ; they were doing a monthly lease , though strangely , they did not forestall someone else wanting the storage warehouse . The companionship or mortal that owns the belongings I do not blame them , if they get a raw lease with someone Modern for a longer full stop of time and or more money , they are a business and that is what they should do . Was a six - calendar month lease or a young lease for when Diamond was more ready to move out as an choice ? Who knows .
People have been require me why I do not write about possible action up a store anymore or more comic - related national . I over the years get over a lot , I do not want to beat a beat horse . If there are topics you would wish me to drop a line about , let Bleeding Cool know . January is the slowest month of the year for most retailers , so I should have more time . I hope this will help my customers and other customers to other stores better understand what is currently pass on .
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