I had completed and uploaded my Diamond Previews April order some time back … yet, yesterday, my Rep called and said they showed no order and it was due Friday at 4AM … so, last night, I was up till 1:00 AM reconstructing it …
I was a little rusty, but got back in the groove pretty quick … it was kind of nice to re-visit a long time habit …
A lot of cancellations in there, and Marvel had no data with their listings. I ended up doing a bare minimum list and will just update with FOC. Willie, are you registered with Boom? and if so have you heard about any of the specials they are sending shops? MOrgan didnt have any details for me when I asked him about it.
No specials from BOOM, yet. But Marvel is sending retailers 1 free high-end ratio variant from their stockpile. They are supposed to announce more news on it, but nothing so far. But, you can find out which book they are sending you by looking in the Reorders Query report.
Yeah. I think the high end variant is from the ant man series. The 1:100. Im not impressed. Im more excited about the boom stuff. They have quiet a few good comics that i have been reading lately.
Red mother, folklords and something is killing children. Great reads.
Glad to see marvel trimming back their line.
Awesome. That high end ratio might… just might pay your cell phone bill this month for your business. And if it doesn’t, then you can always use it as a coaster for your drink that has extra condensation cause you had to turn off the A/C to save money due to COVID… 
Yeah, a lot of cancellations … both on the Marvel and DC side … what kind of amazed me was no ‘Batman’ or ‘Superman’ … which make up a good piece of my pull and holds …
Overall, though, the online Previews portal was running smooth and fast … kudos to the Diamond web team for their efforts … and, solid, up to the minute, info … 
I have to at least give credit to Steve Geppi for really getting his face and comments out there in the recent past … I think the DC move caused him to get much more involved …
I agree. He went on a PR run trying to assure people things are ok.
As noted on the main CHU site, DC is leaving Diamond … and, essentially, DC will be using Comic Shop competitors in order to Distribute …
This is a sad day in an already fragile Industry … I’ve been through the multi-distributor thing in the past and it was really a disaster … that’s not to say it won’t work this time …
Regardless of my own personal feelings toward Mr Geppi, Diamond itself has done a good job over the years …
Now, additional shipping costs and additional work will be added to Shops …
Within the small Community of shop owners I converse with, the speculation is Diamond’s financial scenario is fairly bleak … thus adding steam to the DC pull-out … I personally don’t know how factual that is, but there have been indications …
There has not been any notice on the Diamond Retailer site as it relates to this that I have seen … as well Geppi and management at Diamond has been scrambling for at least 10 days over attempting to keep DC, it was not a blindside …
There are a number of things that come into play with this issue … really, too much to type out and some already covered over at the main CHU site …
I’ve voiced my feelings about Geppi for a good long time … in some ways, he helped dig this grave, if it ends up being a grave, that is … I still give kudos to the Staff at Diamond, they have always done an outstanding job …
One tip I’ll add :: When Steve started becoming very public, with guest video appearances, etc, that, in and of itself, should have been an indication he was worried … and that the pressure was on … and it was, too little, too late …
There is no doubt Diamond will be downsizing, if they even remain viable …
All I can hope for as a Retailer is this does not end up unfolding like Hero’s World did with Marvel …
At this point, I am beginning to weigh my options, I’ll see how things pan out over the next few months, but if it becomes a cluster$%#@, I may give retirement serious thought …
I’ve gone on record in the past as being against the Comic Distribution Monopoly of Diamond … I just never figured it would come to this, and so quickly …
Having one distributor for all the comics I order is VERY nice. Saves on shipping costs. Now, having to “potentially” order DC comics from the competition AND the rest of my order from Diamond, the shipping costs are going to eat away at the profits.
Even back in the old days, pre-Monopoly, there were full service distribution options …
And shipping costs continue to escalate, year in and year out …
Smells somewhat like Heroes World
As someone who works in an industry with dozens or more vendors for products, I know this might dampen what some are use to in a one stop for all your business needs but realistically, this shouldn’t stop a shop from getting smart about how they order.
So you might see additional shipping but is it going to be so much that it hurts your overall business? Is UCS or Lunar charging flat rates like Diamond did per box or are they shipping actual calculated rates?
The additional work I can only imagine is being minimal once you’re in the groove of placing orders. You’re simply logging into a different ordering system to order products. How much more time does this take up from when you were doing the same steps within Diamond’s system? It’s another login and then you get to work ordering (unless their system is confusing and not easy to use, from what I’ve see on Diamonds, it would take some getting use to if you ask me).
I guess for someone like me who logs into dozens of websites to do my job, I can’t see how having another login to another ordering site is going to add an abundance of additional work.
That’s just going to happen though… across the board in general. Every year it seems the costs just to buy books online as a consumer are going up and up… That can’t be put on the distributors, that’s the shipping companies raising prices.
Willie: people i talk with are saying the same thing. That there is trouble brewing at Diamond and the other publishers might be preparing to jump ship. Everywhere i go i hear the same thing that the signs are there. I like ordering from one place, but i also like having options.
I can tell you that this will hurt Canadian and other international LCS’. The international shipping fees and import charges are going to hurt almost every, if not all, Canadian LCS’. Their already ludicrously high shipping fees are now going to be double. I could seriously see some Marvel heavy Canadian shops cutting DC right out of their weekly inventory. M2c.
I have this feeling Diamond has bigger issues. Reviewing the June Previews… very little Marvel titles and Dark Horse has 1 book, the rest are just trades and such for June Previews.
Something is up and I don’t think Diamond even knows… I think this is just the start from what we all were told during March when Diamond abruptly said it couldn’t pay it’s bills…
Asmodee games appears to have bailed from Diamonds gaming division ( Alliance) . For those that arent into Games, Asmodee is the equivalent to DC in terms of sales ( more or less)
