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Will Diamond Comics Distributors Lift Their 3% Reorder Fee From Monday?

Directly after this weekend's Baltimore Comic Con, Diamond hold host to a Baltimore Retailer Summit, where retailers can meet with Diamond and invited publishers, to learn about upcoming promotions and events, ask questions and try and resolve problems, and pick up both free swag like the Green Lantern Corps #3: Blackest Night Variant, increased discount on anything ordered at the show such as 5-10% extra discount off Dark Horse hardcovers , or being able to pick up variant comics such as the DCD Summit 2009 Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #1 for $2 each.

There will be meet and greets with creators, lots of time to chat with retailers, and announcements made by Diamond. Something expected is the much-requested oft-rumoured lifting of the 3% Reorder Fee.

Currently retailers order comics from Diamond when they are solicited by retailers as a certain discount rate, somewhere around 50 -55%. However orders received for comics after the final order dates are known as reorders, and for those, Diamond takes an extra 3% off the discount rate, known as a Reorder Fee. This applies to all non-brokered publishers, basically penalising a retailer for reordering from a non-Marvel, DC, Dark Horse or Image source.

There have been calls over the years for this to be removed, in that it targets smaller publishers, those whose comics sell over a longer shelf life, and that it prevents certain titles becoming mainstays of the industry, especially in light of the increased minimum sales requirements and reduced availability of reorders of periodical comics to the market for a window of sixty days.

In June, Diamond removed their reorder fee for two weeks as a partial apology for the inconvenience suffered by many over the delays caused by Diamond moving warehouses. There was hope at the time that this may continue to rollover but it was not to be.

Now however, the rumours are rife that this Monday will see a change of Diamond terms that will benefit both retailers and publishers instantly. And may claw back some reorder volume that he been lost to other distributors such as Haven or Barnes & Noble who don't charge such a fee.

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