lighthouse

Greggy was my Secret Santa about 17 years ago and sent me some of his undercopies. I found them again last week.

Signature on a comic is like a pool in a backyard. For a small number of buyers, it increases the value. But it drastically reduces the number of potential buyers. Folks try to sell my shop yellow label books all the time. And with very limited exceptions I have zero interest in buying them. Why tie up money in a book that I have to show to 10x as many buyers before it sells? And don’t get me started on the “here’s a New Mutants 98 with Stan Lee’s signature” crowd. It’s embarassing for me to even put that nonsense on my wall, I’d rather sell furry porn. Sketch-and-sign books are awesome. Books you got signed in person as a memento of meeting a creator you love are awesome. Getting a signed copy of a book that reminds you of your childhood is awesome... Joe Celebrity sat down and signed exactly 3,000 copies of this book and you nabbed one for the low low price of an Earl Scheib paint job? Not awesome. Stan “I’ll sign anything you put in front of me as long as you pay me” Lee signature on books he had nothing to do with? Sigh.

Publishers decide the print run size but most are around 105-110% of initial orders. Image will often choose a large overprint of a book they are heavily invested in (Oblivion Song, Undiscovered Country). But over 90% of titles are just “Diamond got initial orders for 30,000 so we printed 32,000”. Publishers know that stores will order second and third prints. Now that they nearly always have new covers (even if it’s just small color differences), they can afford to sell out and just do later prints when demand is there. But they still do a small overprint for damages, misships, and expected advance reorders. So if Diamond got 30k ordered of the December to February issues and only got 20k ordered of a book releasing this month? Yes absolutely it will have a smaller print run than the rest. (21k instead of 32k etc).

I opened my first shop last millennia. Today's "barely a back issue" market is vibrant. Nearly every week there are multiple releases fetching $15-20 the same week they come out. Many drop back to not much over cover. But there are a staggering number of commonly available (ie not weird incentive) books that are consistent sellers at 3-5x cover price when just a couple months old. The print runs on virtually anything that wasn't available for store exclusives are low enough that it takes very little additional demand to eat up all the cover price supply. The books where store exclusives exist? That's another matter. 10 stores each getting their own exclusive puts 25,000 excess copies of the regular issue into the supply and virtually guarantees that all any additional demand will do is suck up copies from those stores that would have otherwise been packing paper.

Note that part of the reason I am willing to order at "zero shelf" is that I fully expect to have far more than normal deadbeat subs over the next few months. I always take that churn into account, but especially so here. To pick a title at random, I have 13 subs for the current Firefly series from Boom. I normally order 19 copies expecting to have 1-2 copies leftover to head to back issues three months hence. I'm reasonably confident that even ordering 0 shelf copies I will still see 1-2 copies leftover three months hence as they gradually come back out of boxes never picked up.

And truly unknown extant copies, since all of them will be returnable. Make no mistake there are many B&M shops that pay no attention to the secondary market when it comes to new releases and will simply destroy their excess copies to get money back out of them. There are a lot of shops that are glorified newsstands with no interest in maintaining any inventory of comics past their first 8 weeks of existence. The official print run for a random issue later this month might be 25,000 copies but there might be 5,000 of those returned/destroyed.

Most decent POS systems will let you convert your inventory seamlessly. But it’s limited to how accurate and complete your POS inventory is. And making them available online commits you to filling orders that may not be profitable (or at least not a profitable use of time). Which is why many choose not to. Plus if your customer service level provided via online store doesn’t match your in-person level, you risk significant damage to your brand.

Weirdest takeaway here is that if you’re a shop who put your account on pause, you have to commit by May 8th whether you want to start receiving shipments on May 20th. And if you don’t know whether you’ll be open by then, you’re committing to receiving shipments while you might still be closed. During last night’s FOC adjustment for DC I wiped out 70% of my orders for May 20th and May 27th. Still have enough in for subs and preorders, but I erased every shelf copy, every statue, every Omnibus (some of which were originally ordered 8 months ago). I don’t plan on having shelf copies of anything other than new series launches for at least 3 weeks after reopening.

Diamond Comic Distributors is working toward the distribution of new, weekly product in mid- to late-May. We have had many exciting conversations with our publishing and retailer partners and are pleased to take the next steps toward that goal. While we know that the pace and process of reopening stores will be different throughout the country, we have set a target on-sale date of May 20. As all of you are aware, however, we find ourselves in a fluid situation and there are many factors including quarantine measures, what services retailers are able to offer and the volume of orders that have the potential to effect whether we are able to meet this date. That said, we have heard your concerns and agree that taking these steps toward resuming distribution is a positive, important step in our collective move forward. We are providing this target date to allow you as much time as possible to communicate with your customers and gather the information you need to order appropriately for your store and customer base. Several important processes are underway to ensure the timely delivery of product that retailers and customers want, so please carefully review the following information and deadlines: Final Order Cut-off Today, April 28, the initial list of FOC products will be published. Products from all vendors intended to ship for the on-sale date of May 20 will be included, and your FOC adjustments must be completed by Monday, May 4 at 11:59 PM ET. This list may be modified through the week but will be finalized by the usual time of Noon ET on Friday, May 1. Please refer to the FOC WEEKLY page on Diamond’s Retailer Services Website. All DC Comics titles released during our pause in distribution will be included in the first shipment of new, weekly product. Shipping and Payment Retailers must have verified their shipping address by 6:00 PM ET on May 8, taking into account any closures that may require shipments to go to a different address or be held at the UPS hub. Any retailer who requested that their account be placed on hold must contact Retailer Services at service@diamondcomics.com and request that the hold be removed by May 8 to receive product for the target on-sale date of May 20. Outstanding credits, including those generated by Marvel’s increased discounts for product impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine measures, will appear on the May 20 invoice if they have not already been applied to another invoice. The replenishment order process will resume with the first order cutoff of May 13. Please note that shipments may be delayed as we work through the significant number of orders that have accumulated during the quarantine measures. Retailers with payment terms requiring certified funds may pay with non-certified checks until further notice or may pay via credit card by contacting our Credit Department. The weekly Day Early Delivery Fee will be suspended while we evaluate changes to the program. This period has been difficult for everyone, particularly our retailer partners on the front lines. We appreciate your support and the many positive messages we have received as we work through business and safety concerns. We are heartened by the many examples of your ingenuity and creativity as you find ways to serve your customers that are new. We are happy to provide tools like the Shopify Generator, Sell Sheet Generator, and Previews Pullbox. Your use of these tools is what has made them so successful. While we work toward the target on-sale date of May 20, retailers can continue to take advantage of backlist product via Diamond’s Retailer Services Website. Also, we encourage retailers to ensure their Comic Shop Locator Service listings are up-to-date with services offered, such as delivery or curbside service, and that store hours are accurate. This will help direct customers to stores that can continue to meet their needs through this time. Please also continue to consult our Coronavirus Resources page for an ongoing list of resources available to retailers. Additionally, you can click here for a single source of other Coronavirus-related information from Diamond and our publishers. Thank you again for your continued support as we all plan for our future. We are committed to communicating with you during this process and look forward to our continued partnership.

I want to read the threads in the box. I'm guessing name-calling and threats help, so here goes: Hammer, you flacid piece of unpumped flesh, I can whup you with a stern stare, let alone a girl-punch. Meet me somewhere in the middle of the country (let's say Kansas, so Khaos can watch), and I'll pummel you about the head and belly. Please bring a bag of money. Thank you. -- Joanna Man, I had forgotten all about the time our Den Mother Joanna tried to get into the Penalty Box by trashtalking Hammer...

Flashback to when @greggy was handing out investment advice on the boards. Let’s see... $250 for one of 12 known 9.8s... wait 17 years and change... now over 600 9.8s on the census... $375 current value... carry the 3... 2.35% return on this investment since September 2002.

I’d kill for more chapters of Joanna’s Crisis story.

I was more suggesting that we’d love to know when ANY shows would be going, anywhere.

I think everyone would love to know the answer to that question...

We break out sales by decade in my shop. And 90s outsells all other decades in volume, and is only behind 60s in total dollars if you give 60s credit for the wall book sales. Pull the wall book sales back out and 90s is the champ. There is plenty of 90s drek that never moves at all. But late-90s superhero, mid-90s sci-fi, and all-90s Spidey and Spawn sell very well. Give me tables full of Dark Horse Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, Terminator... McFarlane Spawn and Spidey... Danger Girl, Battle Chasers, Witchblade... all those titles that started in 1997-1998 like Deadpool, Nightwing, Daredevil... and I’ll take at least a table worth of every Venom miniseries, all the pre-Unity Valiant, JTHM, Squee, Scud... and give me two full tables of all the DC Animated books. I’ll even take one full table of the Onslaught storyline, all of it, all the tie-ins.

Like the blob, I also occasionally buy cheap slabs just to have grading examples. It’s particularly useful when someone brings in a collection to sell and is convinced their books are worth what they saw a 9.8 selling for on eBay, and I can pull out a stack in various grades and help them understand that their copy isn’t a 9.8. From that standpoint, a sample 9.4 that lets you purchase raw NM copies at a fair price vs being thought a thief for not offering half a 9.8 price... might pay back that $17 many times over.

PX stands for “Previews Exclusive” and simply indicates that the item was not offered through other distributors originally. It was only offered through Diamond’s monthly catalog named “Previews”. The PX tag gets applied to all manner of merchandise. And is a way for specialty shops to have items they know won’t be available at Walmart or Target or Hot Topic, which provides incentive for customers to visit comic shops. My shop carries around 140 different comic t-shirt designs. Some of those designs are also sold at Hot Topic and other mass market retailers. But the PX designs aren’t. They may have been manufactured by the same folks making shirts sold elsewhere. But those specific designs are only through Diamond. Same with PX Funko Pops, PX knit caps, PX action figures, and yes, PX variant comics. But the PX tag doesn’t indicate the item was an advance version of the product. Just indicates where it was (and was not) distributed.

Agreed. I use 13 different vendors currently to stock my store. And there are several of them that overlap with Diamond where I will choose to order quantities from Diamond even at a weaker discount because of the cheaper freight charges. With Funko Pops, I get roughly half my inventory buying them used from collectors, a quarter direct from Funko, and a quarter from Diamond. Diamond’s unit cost is significantly higher than direct from Funko. But whenever I order anything smaller than a master case (36 units) direct, there’s a decent chance they ship to me in a whole bunch of individual packages that cost me over $2.30/Pop in freight. Those same Pops from Diamond my incremental freight charge is consistently 26-30 cents a unit. Sure, if a property is really popular maybe I’m ordering a master case each of ten different Pops from a movie. Then it’s direct from Funko all the way. But there are a lot more IPs where I want 50 in stock than 360 in stock.

New Comics available for sale on Tuesday 4/28 Batman #89 (3rd Printing) Batman Giant #4 Daphne Byrne #4 (of 6) The Dreaming #20 Nightwing #70 (2nd Printing) New Comics available for sale on Tuesday 5/5 Batman and the Outsiders #12 DC Super Stars Facsimile Edition #17 The Flash #753 Green Lantern Season 2 #3 Hawkman #23 House of Whispers #20 Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #4 (of 9) New Comics available for sale on Tuesday 5/12 Harley Quinn #72 Justice League #44 Justice League Odyssey #20 Lois Lane #10 (of 12) Metal Men #6 (of 12) Distribution Options To assist with the immediate distribution of DC titles during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we've secured the assistance of two distributors to help facilitate orders of and shipping of our revised publishing schedule. Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors have agreed to work with us to distribute these new comics. Your orders will need to be placed no later than 4/21 to ensure receipt of goods by 4/28, and the orders can be released on or after 4/28. Reorders can be placed after the 4/21 date but are not guaranteed for receipt by 4/28. To help facilitate the fastest processing of order fulfillment for the week of April 27th, we strongly recommend ordering with one of the distributors based on your location in order to ensure receipt of product by 4/28 in the U.S. Unfortunately, orders cannot be guaranteed to reach destinations outside of the U.S. by 4/28. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: What happens/happened to the books in the orders that I have previously placed, since I cannot receive product at this time? A: Your orders have been cancelled; you'll need to re-confirm your orders by 4/21/20 for the product being released on 4/28/20. Retailers in countries outside of the United States cannot, unfortunately, be guaranteed to receive their product by 4/28/20. Q: So, wait, DC product is now available for release on Tuesdays? A: Yes. We have synced up release dates across all our retail channels. Q: Can I just continue to order my DC product from Diamond? A: Yes. Please call your Diamond Comics rep to confirm product availability. Q: Does my discount through Diamond stay the same through these new distributors? A: Your current discount terms will stay the same through Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors. Q: Do my credit terms through Diamond stay the same through these new distributors? A: If you are currently extended credit terms through Diamond, DC will expeditiously review your new credit terms through each distributor on a case-by-case basis. Q: Are my comics and periodicals still returnable through 6/24 in-store, even through these additional distributors? A: Yes! Keep in mind you can only return the product to the distributor from which you ordered it. Q: What is DC doing specifically for the retailers who are unable to order books? Will I be able to get these 4/28 books in the future? A: If you can accept deliveries you may order 4/28 product. If you want these books in the future, you'll be able to place them on reorder. Q: Ok, so what about digital books? A: Digital releases of print periodicals will return to "Same Day Digital" cadence, released the same day as the print editions. Q: How or where do I order new DC Direct collectibles? A: Due to the extended shipping timelines for collectibles, DC will send out communication when details are available. Q: Is there someone I can call if I'm having trouble placing my order? A: Each distributor's order entry page will have information about how to contact them for help. Q: What are available resources that I could use to help me get back on my feet? A: You can apply for assistance with the BINC Foundation Q: Ok, this was A LOT of information. Can you just summarize everything for me? A: 1) We've cancelled all orders placed through Diamond Comic Distributors for product originally slated for 4/1, 4/8, and 4/15 in-store dates. 2) A reduced slate of new DC product will be available in the market for sale the week of 4/27. 3) We've added two additional distribution options to help mitigate the regional inconsistencies in product availability that we anticipate will continue to happen. 4) We are syncing up availability for DC product across all retail channels. ------ Note that this email did not indicate it was confidential (unlike most communications from Marvel and DC).

It's a long email. But DC announces they've canceled all orders from 4/1, 4/8, 4/15, and are working with two new distributors for products starting 4/28. New comic day - Tuesday. New distributors Lunar Distribution and UCS. But yes, you can stay with Diamond if you want. --- Buckle. Up.

From Geppi Family Enterprises this morning: “Although we are not yet on the other side, we are tracking COVID-19 developments daily and starting to see signs of the spread slowing in certain areas. Like you, we are thinking about and planning for when and how we will restart the shipping of new weekly product. We have been closely watching the news, listening to our retailer and publisher partners and considering the many points of view as we decide, as an industry, how to proceed.With health and safety of employees, retailers and customers a top priority, we need to be very deliberate about how we restart and scale operations. We must find that delicate balance between managing health and safety concerns, meeting the pent-up demand for product and working with retailers whose situations differ, and whose need for product may have changed. While there are many steps and conversations that need to happen between today and resuming distribution of new weekly product, we are currently targeting mid- to late-May with the hope that, as an industry, we can all work toward that timeframe. Of course, as we have all seen, target dates sometimes need to be adjusted in this ever-changing new-normal. But we cannot wait for firm dates. We have started the planning process and are having these important conversations with publishers and retailers so that once we have more clarity, we are in a position to restart and scale operations over time. Our intent is to restart the weekly FOC process once we have worked with publishers on a new schedule for product releases. Product that was originally scheduled for release on April 1st and 8th will be distributed over a longer period, allowing publishers to work with printers to deliver new product without further interruption. Retailers will be able to adjust order quantities for those products, making sure that they are receiving quantities that make sense for the current situation in their stores. (Snip some repeated resource links).Thank you for your understanding and support as we all plan for our future. We are committed to communicating with you during this process and look forward to our continued partnership. For questions regarding this information, please contact Diamond’s Retailer Services Department. Thank you.” I think mid-May is overly optimistic. But late-May, early-June seems possible. The likeliest pain from any restart is that some stores may be able to reopen 4 weeks before other stores are able to reopen. Do you have some stores open but with no new weekly product? Or do you have other stores reopen immediately buried with four weeks of product that was waiting for them (much of which is now stale)? No easy answers. Diamond furloughed most of its employees earlier this week, paying their healthcare and hoping to bring them back when the time comes. We will see.

This place stank of dog . Owner and his dog slept on the floor. No air conditioning. Had a sign on the front door with a marijuana leaf that said “because of my medication this store sometimes doesn’t open until later than posted”. Had about 4,000 console games. Every single disc, even games he was selling for $3, was kept in old filing cabinets behind the counter. But the sign at checkout calling customers was my favorite part. i spent twenty minutes trying to look through the comic boxes in a 100° store and gave up.

Happy 40k, buddy! Bringing back ALL the love for ya! (And bringing back a time when Greggy typed actual words!)

Congrats on 40k!

I know 880 is the standard, but 871 is my favorite cover in that run.