PSA: Frankie's Comics has Filed For Bankruptcy 1 1

[Plantman]

They owe $6000 to Diamond, $4000 to Lunar, and $200,000 (!) to Penguin Random House, according to the document in the original post. How can the PRH debt be twenty times the amount of Diamond and Lunar combined? Does PRH give stores a four or five month grace period to make payments on their orders?

[MrWeen]

On 12/30/2022 at 1:20 PM, PeterPark said:

That's too bad. The first Knull cover was a Frankie's variant

I did a lot of research on that and he cannot provide a date that proves it predates the actual first Knull cover. All they can provide is a production date.

[Jimmy Linguini]

On 1/3/2023 at 1:20 PM, MrWeen said:

I did a lot of research on that and he cannot provide a date that proves it predates the actual first Knull cover. All they can provide is a production date.

In what sense? is the argument that he held onto the books or that he released before the sale date? Im not sure what you mean by production date.

[MrWeen]

On 1/3/2023 at 1:49 PM, Jimmy Linguini said:

In what sense? is the argument that he held onto the books or that he released before the sale date? Im not sure what you mean by production date.

Right so what is the release date for that comic?  He doesn't have one.  He has a date the book was manufactured as comics often do.

[kimik]

On 1/1/2023 at 11:11 AM, fastballspecial said:

On 12/31/2022 at 11:49 AM, Tnexus said:

As a huge peddler of exclusives, I wonder if this is a sign of the times that they aren't much of a money maker anymore.

I would think that one would be obvious going forward. One nice aspect might be that artist might have to go back to 
doing a comic book. Although I doubt it. I know if I order any I will be looking very closely at the place I order from and 
my orders will go way down this year on that aspect.

Its the start of market correction in some areas. We have saturation in the market in some areas due to covid money.
This is the beginning of the results of it I think. Raw will be king again this year. 

The exclusive program was the killer. They were on the hook for orders of books that they could no longer sell. Having 1,000s of copies of multiple books pre-ordered when sales start dropping is not a good position to be in.

I knew something was up when another exclusive program started looking for other stores to carry theirs a couple of years ago during the peak of the exclusive bubble. My file LCS owner contacted me and asked if I would finance it with him provided the numbers made sense. I said I would look at it, but the way it was structured we could not see any way that the return was worth the risk for either of us. Another store in province that did bite has exclusives in the $2 or $4 bins within a couple of months, and at the Calgary Expo this spring they were trying to sell off excess stock to us other comic vendors at the show. I took a look and quickly decided it was not worth it relative to other stock I could bring to shows instead, and there was the little fact that another exclusive store was blowing them out for cheaper at the same show.  

[fastballspecial]

On 1/3/2023 at 4:30 PM, kimik said:

The exclusive program was the killer. They were on the hook for orders of books that they could no longer sell. Having 1,000s of copies of multiple books pre-ordered when sales start dropping is not a good position to be in.

I knew something was up when another exclusive program started looking for other stores to carry theirs a couple of years ago during the peak of the exclusive bubble. My file LCS owner contacted me and asked if I would finance it with him provided the numbers made sense. I said I would look at it, but the way it was structured we could not see any way that the return was worth the risk for either of us. Another store in province that did bite has exclusives in the $2 or $4 bins within a couple of months, and at the Calgary Expo this spring they were trying to sell off excess stock to us other comic vendors at the show. I took a look and quickly decided it was not worth it relative to other stock I could bring to shows instead, and there was the little fact that another exclusive store was blowing them out for cheaper at the same show.  

Yes its a disaster in the making. Thats why I said this is just the beginning for retailers like that.

 

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

On 1/3/2023 at 5:30 PM, kimik said:

The exclusive program was the killer. They were on the hook for orders of books that they could no longer sell. Having 1,000s of copies of multiple books pre-ordered when sales start dropping is not a good position to be in.

I knew something was up when another exclusive program started looking for other stores to carry theirs a couple of years ago during the peak of the exclusive bubble. My file LCS owner contacted me and asked if I would finance it with him provided the numbers made sense. I said I would look at it, but the way it was structured we could not see any way that the return was worth the risk for either of us. Another store in province that did bite has exclusives in the $2 or $4 bins within a couple of months, and at the Calgary Expo this spring they were trying to sell off excess stock to us other comic vendors at the show. I took a look and quickly decided it was not worth it relative to other stock I could bring to shows instead, and there was the little fact that another exclusive store was blowing them out for cheaper at the same show.  

I found plenty of Larry's Comics Valiant exclusives for $3 each at NYCC this year; cheaper than cover for the regular edition. 

[kimik]

On 1/3/2023 at 8:33 PM, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

I found plenty of Larry's Comics Valiant exclusives for $3 each at NYCC this year; cheaper than cover for the regular edition. 

Yeah. At the Calgary Expo the price was $4 CAD for a bulk buy if I recall correctly from the one retailer, and he had them in his store for $2. Another exculsives retailer at the show was selling them for $1.  

[JoeBrrr]

They seem to still be running what not streams ??

[Brock]

On 1/4/2023 at 6:54 AM, JoeBrrr said:

They seem to still be running what not streams ??

Bankruptcy doesn't necessarily mean they are out of business or not operating, only that they are protected from their creditors/lenders for a time.

[sd2416]

On 1/4/2023 at 5:54 AM, JoeBrrr said:

They seem to still be running what not streams ??

They still have product to sell, money to make. 

 

[Jimmy Linguini]

.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Jimmy Linguini

[paullam15]

They had some great variants. Hopefully, they come out of this alright.

[JoeBrrr]

On 1/1/2023 at 6:21 PM, Plantman said:

They owe $6000 to Diamond, $4000 to Lunar, and $200,000 (!) to Penguin Random House, according to the document in the original post. How can the PRH debt be twenty times the amount of Diamond and Lunar combined? Does PRH give stores a four or five month grace period to make payments on their orders?

Potentially were given book advances - also they must do their trades? I know many a story of large book advance checks that the writer can never sell enough copies to meet. 

[Wxman Slaw]

I had a Frankie's Comics CGC SS BRZRKR #1 order now almost 2 years old when I got a response from them on the bankruptcy today.

Does anyone know about Comics Corp Promotions?  I'm wondering if I am in the same boat as Frankie's with them.  Another CGC SS BRZRKR #1 variant I have been waiting on for 2 years I ordered from them.  Have gotten zero response from Comics Corp Promotions since last July (2022).  I see nothing from them on FB anymore but a locked out page.  

[itskov]

On 12/31/2022 at 1:57 PM, ThothAmon said:

That is one fugly list of creditors. Wonder if PPP and SBA loans were also taken?  Smells horrible but alas state AGs are apparently too busy to follow the money. One thing for certain is it’s time to sell any stock you might have in the Fin Tec firms that lent the money. 

but the customers get screwed NICE

[Mavro]

An email from Frankie’s went out today which included all of the formal court documentation related to the bankruptcy case. The attached is an excerpt related to unrealized preorders. My question, what do we think of this plan? I paid for two graded Dell’Otto books (one signed) and I’m not sure that two ungraded versions of the book make sense as an appropriate settlement  

Also, is this thread a good place to talk about the case or is there another forum somewhere where customers are discussing next steps?

[Tnexus]

On 3/16/2023 at 6:12 PM, Mavro said:

An email from Frankie’s went out today which included all of the formal court documentation related to the bankruptcy case. The attached is an excerpt related to unrealized preorders. My question, what do we think of this plan? I paid for two graded Dell’Otto books (one signed) and I’m not sure that two ungraded versions of the book make sense as an appropriate settlement  

Also, is this thread a good place to talk about the case or is there another forum somewhere where customers are discussing next steps?

In the scheme of things, getting anything out of bankruptcy can be a win. Your refund will come only if there's anything left from the big fish who have money and power to get their money back.

[manetteska]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:12 PM, Mavro said:

An email from Frankie’s went out today which included all of the formal court documentation related to the bankruptcy case. The attached is an excerpt related to unrealized preorders. My question, what do we think of this plan? I paid for two graded Dell’Otto books (one signed) and I’m not sure that two ungraded versions of the book make sense as an appropriate settlement  

 

 

Makes me think I should create an LLC, take massive pre-orders for graded, signed, over-nighted books then file for Bankruptcy, ship out raw books Media Mail, and do it all over again under a different name.

[Mavro]

Any updates on this? I heard they were reaching out to customers that ordered starting with Z and working their way backwards, but nothing yet at M.