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Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: lunar, Mystery Retailer, prh
The Mystery Retailer On DC Comics' Lunar/Penguin Random House Survey
Comic book retailers received a survey this week from DC Comics, asking for certain information regarding distributors and their accounts.
Article Summary
- DC Comics surveys retailers about their distributor deals with Lunar/Penguin Random House.
- Mystery Retailer voices concerns about privacy and data use in DC's distributor survey.
- Questions raised about how discounts, sales data might be affected by sharing with DC.
- Insight on Marvel's distributor relationship and potential data tracking implications.
Comic book retailers received a survey this week from DC Comics, asking for certain information regarding distributors and their accounts with either. Bleeding Cool's Mystery Retailer really isn't sure about it.
He tells us (and yes, the Mystery Retailer is a he) the following, "So I received this email from DC on Friday. Strangely, it is sent out a week after the first part of my report about discounts for direct market retailers. I'm definitely not filling this out. It states it's to factor in all your purchases from Lunar and Penguin. But they already have our Lunar account number. I would want to know how is my discount at Penguin or Lunar going to be impacted negatively or positively. Remember I stated that my plateau discount is 35% plus shipping for Lunar for periodicals and collected editions. Whereas my discount at Penguin is 50% plus free shipping on collected editions. Keep in mind again I can buy periodicals and collected editions from Lunar's sister companies DCBService.com and InStockTrades.com at 40% plus shipping. I would also want to know why Penguin doesn't need to ask retailers for permission to release sales data to DC. How can DC obtain our data by simply providing our account number? Lastly, will all of our sales data be accessible to DC? Remember, Penguin is Marvel's exclusive distributor. Will they be tracking our Marvel orders as well as they did at Diamond? I would caution all retailers not to complete this survey until we get these questions answered."
It may be less conspiratorial, DC Comics has an exclusive deal with Penguin Random House for the bookmarket distribution trade, and certain comic book store retailers choose to order DC graphic novels through PRH rather than Lunar. But it would certainly be a useful statistical database to someone like DC Comics if they were able to assemble it all together…
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