Haha… I’m actually curious myself as to what the rules state as a Diamond account holder… the do’s and dont’s.
you can start here :
Diamond’s mainly concerned with the not displaying or selling prior to Wednesday normal business hours for the stores in your area thing. When you sign up for Day Early Delivery and start paying the weekly, fee, they’re supposed to send secret shoppers to try and bust you Tuesday. There’s various stages but basically if you get caught you can lose Tuesday Delivery as an option.
I wouldnt do anything to break Diamond rules. Saying its a good read or not is just my personal opinion. saying there is a cameo or a first appearance though might be rule breaking. I also wouldnt post it publicly …
I’ve yet to see anything that covers that from Diamond other than the DED stuff and they know once it’s out there things happen and they can’t control it like last week when WD193 got delivered early by UPS and had sales Monday on E-Bay!!!
The only other thing I see sometimes is mention of removal from mailing lists and such but I fail to see how that company has time to police the thousands of incidents a week it seems.
What penalties do Day-Early Retailers face for breaking
the Wednesday on-sale date?
l For the first confirmed offense, the retailer will face a one-month suspension
of Day-Early Delivery privileges.
l For the second confirmed offense, the retailer will face a three-month suspension
of Day-Early Delivery privileges.
l For the third confirmed offense, the retailer will face an indefinite suspension.
PLEASE NOTE: If a retailer chooses to remain in the program following suspension,
the retailer will still be subject to the $4 weekly fee during their suspension
period.
It should also be noted that retailers who are confirmed to be making false
accusations of release day violations against fellow Day-Early Delivery program
participants will also be subject to the same penalties.
All violations will be determined by Diamond in its sole discretion.t What time on Wednesday are Day-Early participants
allowed to put new products on sale?
With the exception of sanctioned midnight release parties and similar promotions
that will be open to participation by all retailers, retailers receiving
Day-Early Delivery will not be allowed to sell new product earlier than the
prevalent opening time of other retail businesses in their immediate areas. As
an example, stores located in Malls that open at 9:00 a.m. will be able to sell
new products at 9:00 a.m., etc.
t Is Day-Early Delivery available for non-brick & mortar
retailers?
Yes. Mail Order and Internet retailers may opt to receive books through Day-Early
Delivery, but they are required to delay shipping them until the Wednesday
new release day, and are subject to the same conditions of participation – including
penalties for confirmed violations – as brick-&-mortar customers.
t Can retailers post covers of new books on their
websites and/or use them in emails to their customers
prior to new release day?
Yes, you may use approved cover images and other graphics taken from publishers’
or Diamond’s Retailer Services site to promote and market new releases,
but actively allowing customers to view, look through, or handle physical
books is not allowed. You may not offer for sale nor display any new product
before the prevalent local opening time on Wednesday. This includes displaying
any unapproved images of physical product or descriptions of content
posted on social media or shared in-store.
I push that one a little bit since I’m beside a hardware store that opens at 7:30 AM and a restaurant open by 8. Everyone else on the street is open by 9.
I’ve been in my shop a couple times now when the “secret shoppers” are in there. It’s actually amusing to watch as it is just so blatantly obvious. I just happened to be browsing back issues/talking with the owner.
The canned questions they ask…the requests for very specific books that both (it is always just two specific books) come out the next day, etc. So easy to spot…
I want to be a secret shopper… I’ll change my name to, Secret Agent Shopper
Or we could totally go Catch a Predator style… right when I get the shop to sell me books, Chris Hansen walks in with his microphone and camera… “Hi, I’m Chris Hansen” 
Part of the justification for the $4 a week fee is the secret shoppers will give you some of that back purchasing stuff from you. Hopefully they’re actually buying other stuff other than just asking for 2 that aren’t out yet.
I don’t know if Diamond could get one of those cease and desist type court orders for this site since it violates their policies every week, especially with the spoiler pages displaying wares but at the very least it shouldn’t take a Batman level detective to follow Anthony around Tuesday afternoon and figure out his source to penalize them. I imagine that’s such an easy assignment Inspector Gadget could handle the task successfully.
I can see Anthony driving home this afternoon already peaking in the rear view mirror to see who’s following. He may need to set up one of those change the car scenes like Goodfellas showed.
That’s when he plants evidence to suggest that it’s you !!! Dun Dun Dun … the drama unfolds !
We’re not violating their policies since we’re not bound by their policies. It would only be likely violating if we were actual Diamond Account holders. It’s not like it’s an actual law. Saying we violate their policies is like telling us we violate Target’s store policy when we’re not even inside the store.
His sources are also okay since he does not work for them and is not bound by the same rules their employees are bound to.
How do you even know it’s Anthony as well? He could have a lackey doing it and feeding him the info from anywhere in the world…
I feel a Taco Bell Esq commercial coming for CHU !!
CHU can be considered proof of the source violating the policy. It’s just a matter of Inspector Gadget tracking down the source.
How do you even know it’s Anthony as well? He could have a lackey doing it and feeding him the info from anywhere in the world…
He does tend to make statements posted in digital for the whole world to potentially see about not flipping thru this book or missing something flipping thru that book on days when those books are not supposed to be in his hands.
This is a case even the Pet Detective wouldn’t get stumped on.
That sphagetti sauce looked so good in that movie, I might have to switch Tuesday from pizza night to spaghetti tonight. Maybe served over some nice rotini.
My wife did those secret shopper things for a while and once got a comic store.
I don’t think you will typically find “comic fans” being the ones who are doing those secret shopper things and they are doing it to “make money” so I would be highly doubtful that anyone would ever really spend money in a shop during the process. They have a checklist to follow and provide comments about and need to ask about the 2 specific books.
If they are provided with either of the 1 or 2 books that they are asking about—they are reimbursed for that purchase and that purchase alone.
Again, not breaking policy if one is not bound to a policy. It’s like saying I break Target’s no show no service policy if I take my shoes off in the parking lot, in front of the Wal-Mart.
Can you tone down the hot air about breaking policies? No policies are being broken by anyone on CHU.
I got it, keep it on the down low. Shhhh. I don’t know the wording for the individual laws involved but I swear I remember hearing some place busted when they released that Harry Potter Book’s contents early. Disney just sued some kid in court to stop Spider-man from going on his gravestone. I have no idea how the publishers feel about the topic.
There’s a difference between criminal and civil…
I have done it before. Easiest $25 I have ever made.
I get them all from the UK. At 8PM east coast it is midnight UK and they are allowed to sell their wares. It is a long flight every Tuesday to England but worth it to bring you all the spoilers.
This is from my welcome to Diamond here’s how the Day Early thing works e-mail.
One benefit is that if UPS is delivering later in the day, your sales opportunity isn’t effected since you’ve received the product the night before. The cost of the service is $4.00 a week. Part of that fee goes toward secret shoppers which we may send to your store. This is actually a good thing, because while they’re there, they buy stuff, but if they happen to buy a copy of a comic book that was supposed to go on sale the next Wednesday, then they do, and then they tell us. And you get sanctioned. During that period, which is four weeks, you would receive your product on Wednesday. The fee is still in effect, but on the fifth week, you resume delivery on Tuesday. The caveat to this is that you only get one chance to break the rule. If you are caught doing it again, either by accident or design, you’re kicked off the program forever, and you’d receive the product on Wednesday from that point on. If you’d like to participate, I’ve attached the form. Since you don’t have an Account Number yet, please leave that blank.
So far I’ve never seen it happen here but I keep assuming one day I’ll get the chance to get some of those $4 weekly payments back, hopefully on something Anthony told me to charge them more for!!!
The language of the law is about selling it before it’s time. It doesn’t mention anything about spoilers. Publishers are generally the ones who put out statements regarding not spoiling a comic until Wednesday. Not a violation of our terms, just a Fo Par (spieling is not good holding a squirming child)
With that said, I got my shipment on Monday (yesterday) - and yes, BJ you should totally think about upping ur order of go go #21 before it’s sold out at Diamond. I’m upping mine as we speak. Not a bunch , but maybe enough so I can make money after sdcc.