Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: diamond, Penguin Random House

Comic Store In Your Future, Keep On Smiling Through The Comics Chaos

Comic Store In Your Future, on the importance of keeping on smiling through the Diamond Comic Distribution chaos

In the last five years, Diamond Comic Distributors has gone from being America's only comic book distributor to bankruptcy, and has now been bought out of bankruptcy. I remember being surprised, back in November, that we did not receive our weekly Diamond invoice by email, which I would use to update my store's website with what was coming next week. And then being surprised that our Diamond shipment was late the following week. The surprises kept coming; Diamond was not just late that week; they kept being late, with no idea when the Diamond shipment would actually arrive. Invoices were very odd. We would be emailed invoices stating zero amounts, and some, somehow, stating Diamond owed us $5. Before all this started, Diamond emailed us saying that they were moving out of one of their warehouses, which may affect things. That became their excuse for a while. I was telling customers that, and I admit I felt like I was lying. It was what I was told, though I couldn't understand how a warehouse closing would catch a company that had been the sole comic vendor for America for twenty-five years so off guard. Some other clues came out, such as Diamond stating they had planned on moving out of the warehouse this year and not last year, and had a month-to-month lease. That really confused me. I just signed a three-year lease this month to stay where we are currently. I could never do a month-to-month lease because I would be wondering if, all of a sudden, I would need to move. It would be very chaotic to be forced to move within thirty days, and we are a much smaller operation.

When The Rot Began To Set In With Diamond

Thankfully, we had an account with Penguin Random House from when Penguin started distributing Marvel's comics. This meant we were getting Marvel, though not all of it, due to ordering some Marvel through Diamond and titles that were still just through Diamond. I used both Penguin and Diamond in case one failed to ship us a title, and hopefully, the other would come through. For example, when Penguin could not ship out Ultimate Black Panther #1, Diamond could. The Diamond lateness brought in "new" customers who wanted their Marvel titles because we had them, and their store, which they typically went to, did not yet have them. Answering those who asked when the Diamond shipment will be in with the infamous line, we don't know is not what they want to hear. Sadly, it was the truth.

Diamond announced they had hired people to send their shipments out on time again, adding another odd little bit of information. They did not know how many people they needed to maintain a regular shipping schedule up to that point after leaving one of their warehouses?

Then Diamond declared bankruptcy, giving us an answer about what was happening. Image Comics told us we needed to switch our Image orders from Diamond to Lunar and do so fast. I remember thinking, "Good thing I was not out of town that week, or I would have missed that sudden deadline." Diamond sent out an email saying they would communicate with Image about this, only for Image to follow up with an email basically saying, "No, we will not."

The Diamond bankruptcy felt like a soap opera with all the twists and turns. Would they make it out of bankruptcy? Nine million owed to Penguin alone? I thought they were in big trouble. Throughout this, I started worrying about my customers who get the smaller publishers' comics. If Diamond goes down, what are the options? Order directly through each publisher? The Diamond shipment with all the smaller publishers under one shipping amount would become multiple shipping costs for each publisher. The cover price most likely would not cover the increase in shipping for us. I started talking with my customers about how to proceed—for example, maybe ordering directly with publishers and waiting a month or more to build up numbers across various titles in one shipment to save on shipping costs.

Just Keep Smiling

One of the many things I have learned is that keeping smiling is good for business. People are more likely to deal with positive people than negative ones. Sales dropped from November to February of the previous year, and Diamond most likely was a part of that. It's hard to excite people with a new release if no one knows when it is showing up. As I previously said, we sometimes had people from other stores showing because Diamond showed up for us but not for them, and vice versa. Throughout this, I admit I had trouble being positive, to put it mildly.

But if Diamond has been bought, that means happy days, right? Apparently not. Penguin Random House said they are no longer dealing with Diamond, meaning no Marvel from Diamond. Can I blame Penguin? I mean, I was puzzled how Penguin let Diamond owe them nine million. That would be like me allowing a pull box customer to keep over ten grand in product on hold. And now I am back to trying to figure out what to do with the smaller publishers, because from my view, not having Marvel makes it much less likely that Diamond will be able to send out comics in the future. I hope they do, but right now I do not see it. When it comes to Diamond, who can truly say?

Toy Sales Are Up

Sales of toys have gone up here in the store. I'm not sure if people are deciding to buy things now, before possible tariffs might increase costs. I recently sold the Star Wars Ashoka E Wing for $99, which arrived over a week ago from Diamond. I thought it would take longer for such a high-priced item to sell. So, of course, just recently, it was announced that Diamond Select Toys and Gentle Giant are basically no more. Gentle Giant did great statues, but will the new Diamond keep dealing with toys?

Fun fact: Diamond comics deliveries and toy shipments have been arriving on Mondays in the last few weeks. Our last comic and toy shipment arrived in one box. That totally blew my mind. Why? For years, we would receive two boxes, one for comics and maybe one for a calendar or something that should have easily been combined in one box. This one had a lot of toys and that week's comics in one box, and it was a welcome first for Diamond.

What will the future hold? Just me smiling at the cash register, and then going out back to let all the frustration out. I hope, of course, for positive change. For example, Free Comic Book Day is actually going back to its roots and trying to get new people into comics, instead of just a day that Diamond makes money by selling comics that stores have to give out for free. Hopefully, Diamond will still be in the comic business so smaller publishers can survive. Who knows, the whole Diamond story from November to now has so many twists and turns that an editor would have said it was too far-fetched for a comic book story. It is still not over.

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