Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: brian hibbs, comic shop, Mystery Retailer

Bleeding Cool's Mystery Retailer Responds To Brian Hibbs

Brian Hibbs is one of the more influential and respected comic book retailers in the direct market. And he had things to say.

Brian Hibbs, owner of the San Franciscan comic book chain Comix Experience, is one of the more influential and respected comic book retailers in the direct market. It was his class lawsuit against Marvel Comics over a previous distribution kerfuffle that saw FOC instigated across the direct market, first by Diamond and now by Lunar and Penguin Random House. So he has been quite outspoken about all manner of comic book industries of late.

Bleeding Cool also has retailer commentary, principally from Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics and a new addition, The Mystery Retailer. And it was the latter who got Brian Hibbs' attention recently. In response to Mystery Retailer Talks About DC Comics, Discounts and Carrying On, Brian Hibbs posted to Facebook, "There was some sense and logic here…. but if you're not willing to put your name on something, it's super-hard to take you seriously."

And in response to The Mystery Retailer On DC Comics' Lunar/Penguin Random House Survey, Brian Hibbs posted to Facebook, "Jesus, this guy is a maroon. It would be blatantly illegal for DC to get any non-DC sales data from any distro they use… when they were still at Diamond, they for sure didn't have access to Marvel data, and now at Lunar, they absolutely do not have access to Image data. Or any version of vice versa you might come up with."

Well, our Mystery Retailer did not want to surrender their anonymity but did wish to respond. They write;

"Brian, I met you many years ago at your store. My father was working with your mother in some capacity, if I remember correctly. We spoke briefly outside your store and I haven't seen or spoken to you since. That being said, I respect you and everything you have done for the direct market. You recently said that you couldn't take me seriously because I chose to be anonymous. I am staying anonymous for my protection as well as those I know in the industry. I have a friend from a prominent comic store who was threatened and harassed by certain people. They even destroyed that store's Yelp rating with false and hateful reviews. I am not going to subject myself or those I know to anything like that, nor am I looking for credit or recognition for any of it. I'm not receiving any income from this either. This isn't an overall exposé on the direct market. I am offering my first-hand accounts with as much data as I am able to provide on things contributing to an unhealthy direct market. It's multi-faceted and will be explored in 6-7 additional parts."

"Your second comment was in regards to my statement that DC was monitoring Marvel's sales data when at Diamond. You even went as far as to call me a moron. I can understand how you can easily make that comment, considering you simply don't have enough data to know any better. I can tell you for certain that DC sales reps had unrestricted admin user access to Diamond's online retailer website. They had access to sales data from all publishers and stores, data that you and I, as retailers, do not. They could view blocked item codes, such as store-exclusive variants and restricted item codes like incentive variants. I can't speak about other publishers, but DC was monitoring Marvel and individual store sales data. A weekly report was generated and provided to Bob Wayne. What specifically was on that report or what Bob did with that report I don't know. I'm not sure if you had a DC sales rep, Brian, but many retailers did. There were a lot of incentives for having a sales rep at DC. I would be informed of books that were running low and what quantities were left at Diamond. I would have incentive variants ordered on my behalf on reorders of books I qualified well after FOC. I know of one specific project where DC was monitoring Marvel to create their own retailer-exclusive variant program. They looked at all the item codes and cover artists for each store. They researched costs and were provided with Marvel's actual cost structure to build their own program. As I stated previously, DC had sales reports on individual store performance. While DC may have left Diamond for another distributor, Diamond gave them the tools to seek out the top two stores and approach them to exclusively distribute their comics the way they wanted. Without that access to sales data through Diamond, there is most likely no Lunar or UCS. So Brian, you may disagree with this and say it's illegal, but it was happening. I'm not the only retailer that knows this. I also know for certain Marvel did not have the same user access to Diamond that DC did. I can't speak for any other publisher, just like I can't speak to what other distributors are doing with publishers today. I was simply raising privacy concerns with DC's latest request for our Lunar and Penguin account numbers. I was not insinuating any conspiracy on DC's part. I simply had questions I wanted answered before I would provide my account information, and I advised other retailers to do the same."

"When I first started out, I attended a Diamond Summit mainly for the freebies and the hope to connect with other retailers for advice. In the early days of online comic sales, retailers like myself were looked down upon. This gatekeeping would continue when I was a member of the CBIA as well. These same gatekeepers would adopt their own online presence. One retailer chain of stores attempted to have my Diamond account revoked while denouncing retailers like me yet still asking us for sold-out books for their stores. At this summit, I was befriended by a DC sales executive, which led to receiving a sales representative for years of support and favorable advantages. Unfortunately, all the old guard have since been laid off at DC, so I have no insight into what goes on there today."

"One small thing I learned from DC was that each week, they would hold back quantities for damages and shortages. This quantity was held back somehow out of the view retailers had access to. I was told that on Thursday at a certain time of day, those quantities would be released once the shortages and damages were filled. Once the quantities were released, the reorder system would begin to process backorders in order of receipt, or so I was led to believe. I would later find out by trial and error that if you knew when those quantities were released, you could place live reorders that would bump any previous backorders, essentially moving to the head of the line. This was extremely advantageous for hot, sold-out books. I also came to realize how flawed Diamond's reorder system was. I don't know how or why, but incentive variants, as well as long sold-out books from every publisher, would randomly become available for reorder without restriction. For a few years, every morning at 2:00 AM PST, the system would somehow update its inventory. This was the best time to capitalize on variants and hot back issues. I've seen a lot of crazy things pop up in large quantities. One reorder of a hot Amazing Spider-man issue I received came in a sealed case. The strange thing about this case is that it had Midtown's address label on it. These were somehow back in the system to order as if they were somehow allowed to return books that were not returnable. Lunar and Penguin have systems in place to prevent the ordering of incentive variants without qualifiers after FOC. Diamond still does not."

"There are a few things to mention as I continue. I'm frustrated with the fact that my first post isn't being talked about at all. It details and explains a big portion of exactly what is hurting most stores. I have no idea if any publishers are aware of this to any extent. I think they see overall numbers and are satisfied even though the majority of sales are covered by two stores. There is no conspiracy by publishers or editors to destroy the direct market. There is no overall sales data that points to "self-insert" writing or woke content hurting the entire direct market. Could fans be turned off by that at most stores? Possibly. But stores can easily prove or disprove that theory by providing their stores with sales data on affected titles, characters and writers. Pushing generalizations that most writers do this and that most comics are bad isn't helpful and incites already angry fans. No retailer or fan is reading every DC/Marvel book on the stands to be able to make even a generalized determination on how books are doing. Let's get more retailers with sales data and facts. A 7% decrease overall isn't even terrible, considering normal attrition. We only have 4 legacy books left in Action, Detective, Spawn and now GIJOE ARAH. Only two other books have more than 50 issues in, Batman and Nightwing. Most titles are simply too young or too short to find their readership and that explains the 7% dip. The 2021-2022 collector boom is a complete anomaly. During the boom in the pandemic, many fans left their physical stores for deep discount stores for their books delivered to their door. This also attributed to sales dipping among most direct market stores. We need more sales data, but overall sales will only confirm what I have already explained. We need stores to start posting numbers. We need direct accessibility to Marvel and DC again through forum access. In Mark Millar's recent retailer roundtable, Phil Doyle put the politics aside because there's no data to prove any of it. Instead, he gave clear data to support how his 10 stores are doing. This is the right direction. Hopefully, more and more stores will do this and Marvel/DC will take notice. I really hope that Marvel/DC is not content with the performance of DCBS and Midtown enough that the rest of the direct market health is not a priority."

More, much, much more, to come.

UPDATE: Brian Hibbs replies to the Facebook post of this piece, saying, "I just texted with two former VP-level folks at DC, and both laughed and laughed and laughed at this assertion that DC could openly access any publisher data except their own. Oddly, I believe them anyday over a coward who 1) won't sign their name or 2) won't try to talk to me directly. Extremely saddened you published something so nonsensical, and packed full lies Richard Johnston . I have been selling comics for more than 37 years now, and I assure you it's not the Mafia."

I mean… we all know where those remaindered newsstand comics used to go, right? And after publishing the initial piece, I had people at higher levels in the industry than that comment that it was nice that I'd found someone who knew what they were talking about… anyway, Merry Christmas, one and all…

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