Further news on this week's delays...

[drice6900]

linky

 

THE WEST COAST GETS STIFFED - TWO WEEKS IN A ROW

 

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By now, the rumblings have made it across most of the internet – West Coast comics shops serviced by the Los Angeles Diamond warehouse won’t be getting many copies of one anticpiated comic this week. From what Newsarama has learned, Marvel’s Civil War #6 will be, as Comix Experience retailer (and Newsarama columnist) Brian Hibbs put it, “massively allocated” to the tune of shops receiving somewhere between 10-15% of their copies ordered.

 

The situation mirrors what happened the previous week when West Coast shops received allocated amounts of DC’s Justice #9, and no copies of several other DC titles that were due in stores. All of the missing DC titles that were originally due in stores last week will be arriving this week, while all of the missing Marvel titles due in stores this week, will be included in next week’s shipment from the LA warehouse.

 

So – what happened so that two weeks in a row, books were late?

 

Weather, mostly, and transportation. The first week (Christmas week), reportedly, there were transportation problems with not enough transportation being available between Plattsburg and Los Angeles. As a result, the following titles were late arriving at the LA warehouse, and did not get shipped to retail stores. The missing comics should be arriving in stores this week (that is, Thursday, January 4th):

 

DARK HORSE COMICS

OCT060024..........HELLGATE LONDON #2 (OF 4)

SEP060042..........STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #11

 

DC COMICS

OCT060155..........BATMAN #661

OCT060267..........BOYS #6 (MR)

OCT060186..........FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #7

OCT060198..........GUY GARDNER COLLATERAL DAMAGE #2 (OF 2)

OCT060290..........JACK OF FABLES #6 (MR)

OCT060205..........JSA CLASSIFIED #20

OCT060201..........JUSTICE #9 (OF 12)

OCT060209..........JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5

OCT060210..........JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VAR ED #5

OCT060225..........SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #25

SEP060204..........SUPERMAN BATMAN #31

OCT060263..........WETWORKS #4

OCT060264..........WETWORKS VAR ED #4

 

IMAGE COMICS

SEP061828..........SAVAGE DRAGON #131

JUN061747..........TOMB RAIDER COMPENDIUM TP

OCT068232..........WALKING DEAD NEW PTG #33 (MR)

 

MARVEL COMICS

OCT062138..........ALL NEW OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIV

OCT068172..........DABEL BROTHERS FREE SAMPLER

OCT062181..........EXILES #89

OCT062201..........PTOLUS CITY BY THE SPIRE #3 (O/A)

 

A. D. VISION

NOV063210..........CROMARTIE HIGH SCHOOL MANGA VOL 9 TP

 

BONGO COMICS

OCT063245..........BART SIMPSON COMICS #33

 

COMIC SHOP NEWS INC

OCT063815..........COMIC SHOP NEWS 50CT BUNDLE #1019

 

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

SEP063241..........ARMY OF DARKNESS #13

SEP063243..........ARMY OF DARKNESS NEGATIVE INCV

SEP063242..........ARMY OF DARKNESS VIRGIN INCV

AUG063189..........BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #4

AUG063191..........BATTLESTAR GALACTICA KIRKMAN NEG CVR INCV

AUG063190..........BATTLESTAR GALACTICA KIRKMAN VIR CVR INCV

SEP063213..........BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ZAREK #1

SEP063215..........BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ZAREK ADD CPS SKETCH

SEP063216..........BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ZAREK NEG INCV

SEP063214..........BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ZAREK SKETCH INCV

 

GLINT OF HOPE

OCT064852..........HERO ENVY VOL 1 DVD

 

OPUS GRAPHICS

OCT063269..........DEMI & VAMPIROONI REG CVR #1

 

SABABA TOYS

NOV064641..........FAMILY GUY TALKING MAGIC 8 BALL

NOV064677..........FRAGGLE ROCK RED 14 IN PLUSH W/DVD

NOV064678..........FRAGGLE ROCK WEMBLEY 14 IN PLUSH W/DVD

NOV064630..........SUPERMAN MAGIC 8 BALL (O/A)

 

SUPERVERSE PRODUCTIONS

SEP063545..........ZOOM SUIT BART SEARS METAL SKETCH ED

SEP063544..........ZOOM SUIT BART SEARS SKETCH ED

 

VANGUARD PRODUCTIONS

MAY053054..........FANTASTIC ART OF ARTHUR SUYDAM

OCT063733..........FANTASTIC ART OF ARTHUR SUYDAM

 

VIZ LLC

AUG063647..........SHONEN JUMP DEC 06 #48

OCT063748..........SHONEN JUMP FEB 07 #50

SEP063634..........SHONEN JUMP JAN 07 #49

 

WILDSIDE PRESS, LLC

AUG063833..........NEIL GAIMAN READER HC

AUG063832..........NEIL GAIMAN READER SC

 

As mentioned above – some copies of Justice #9 did make it through, and they were allocated and shipped to stores.

 

So – as for this week – the snowstorm. They slow down trucks, too. The trucks that picked up the books from Diamond’s Plattsburg warehouse got mired in bad weather, reportedly in Texas, last week as the second round of snowstorms hit the Rockies and Midwest. The trucks were late arriving in time for the contents to be broken down and re-distributed at the LA warehouse for being in stores on-time this week. Retailers found out about it Saturday evening/Sunday morning, when invoices were made available on Diamond’s website. Again, as with Justice the previous week, some copies of Civil War #6 (most likely due to a split shipment on multiple trucks, given the volume of copies) did make it through to the LA warehouse, and those copies were allocated among all the accounts serviced by the warehouse. Some titles due to be in stores this week did make it through (again, they were most likely on a truck that made it through the weather), and will be in stores on Thursday, despite the Civil War #6 allocation.

 

Additionally making matters worse for the situation was the fact that retailers did not become aware of the missing comics until the weekend of New Year’s Eve, and Diamond was closed on January 1st, leaving retailers without answers – or options.

 

Diamond sent the following to its retail accounts:

 

 

Due to weather-related shipping delays, customers serviced by Diamond's Los Angeles Distribution Center will not receive the following titles this week.

 

These titles will ship to Diamond Los Angeles customers next week.

 

SUPPLIER

ITEM CODE......TITLE

 

PREMIER

IMAGE COMICS

JUL061696......ANT #9

OCT061846......CRYPTICS #2

OCT068121......FREE ANT RETAILER ED VAR CVR #9

OCT061874......GODLAND #15

MAY051534......HELLSHOCK DEFINITIVE ED VOL 1 HC

MAY051535......HELLSHOCK DEFINITIVE ED VOL 1 HC REMARKED (C: 0-1-0)

OCT061858......JACK STAFF VOL 3 ECHOES OF TOMORROW TP (C: 0-1-2)

NOV061873......MELTDOWN #2 (OF 2)

SEP061829......STRANGE GIRL #13

 

MARVEL COMICS

AUG062033 .....CIVIL WAR #6 (OF 7) (NOTE: a small quantity of this title was received in time to be distributed this week, but the bulk of orders will not fill until next week.)

NOV062300......IRON MAN HYPERVELOCITY #1 (OF 6)

NOV062289......IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #4

NOV062303......MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #23

NOV062341......RED PROPHET TALES OF ALVIN MAKER #5 (OF 12)

 

COMICS

BURLYMAN ENTERTAINMENT

NOV063413......DOC FRANKENSTEIN #2 (O/A)

NOV063415......DOC FRANKENSTEIN #3 (O/A)

NOV063417......DOC FRANKENSTEIN SKETCH CVR B #4 (O/A)

NOV063416......DOC FRANKENSTEIN SKROCE CVR A #4 (O/A)

NOV063418......DOC FRANKENSTEIN SKROCE CVR A #5 (O/A)

NOV063414......DOC FRANKENSTEIN VAR CVR #2 (O/A)

 

DENIS KITCHEN PUBLISHING CO.

JUL063080......DRAWING COMICS IS EASY (EXCEPT WHEN ITS HARD) HC

 

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

OCT063315......RED SONJA #18

OCT063316......RED SONJA HA B&W CVR INCV #18 OCT063317......RED SONJA

LOPRESTI NEGATIVE CVR INCV #18

 

OPUS GRAPHICS

NOV063420......DEMI & VAMPIROONI NUDE CVR #1 (A) (C: 1-0-0)

 

TRADING CARDS

ACE AUTHENTIC, INC.

OCT068033......ACE 2006 AUTHENTIC GRAND SLAM TENNIS T/C BOX

 

TRI-STAR PRODUCTIONS

OCT068136......TRI STAR HIDDEN TREASURES MLB 52 TOPPS PACK T/C BOX

 

GAMES

COMIC IMAGES

OCT064696......WWE RAW DEAL CCG REVOLUTION STARTER DIS (C: 0-1-2)

 

Hibbs posted the following on Millarword, with his experience being typical of virtually all West Coast retailers:

 

I'm still not sure how Comix Experience will deal with this. If I just go first-come/first-served, then every one of my preorders has the right to be upset at me. If I pull subs first... well, I'll have to sort it by "who put in an order first" because we can't even cover 1/2 of our subs. Or I could not put them out at all, making everyone equally upset. What would make YOU less upset as a customer?

 

I put this up to warn people on the West Coast that you probably won't get CIVIL WAR #6 next week, unless you're one of the first people at your LCS.... and you probably won't even get it then. Don't be mad at your local store -- this is not thier fault (they're less happy then you are, believe me!) -- and it is affecting all stores basically equally.

 

Also, on behalf of all retailers, everywhere, we'd like to ask you to just be a little patient, and not run all over town to try and grab a copy. Most comics shops have extremely tight cash flow, and have you down for "your" copy of CIVIL WAR. If you buy it somewhere else, YOUR store still has to pay for that copy!

 

On behalf of all West Coast readers, I'd also strongly urge no one to post any reviews or comments on CIVIL WAR #6 for the week. I know it's really hard, but you don't want to spoil the story for 1/3 or more of the country! (plus all of Australia.... they're served out of LA)

 

According to a handful of retailers Newsarama spoke with, having some or all of remaining copies of Civil War #6 direct shipped to stores was an option – at the retailers’ expense, given this was a weather-related problem. Given the volume of copies ordered by retailers, if any are taking it, it’s only for a portion of their order.

 

That said however, Newsarama has learned that Diamond has asked those stores that have had additional copies of Civil war #6 shipped to them not to sell the additional copies. All stores are permitted and encouraged to sell the copies they were allocated, but to keep the playing field level, those stores who will receive additional copies – those copies should be held for a week until all West Coast stores receive their full shipments.

[Lazyboy]

For anyone still reading Civil War, I wouldn't think a delay of one freaking week would be that much of a problem.

[Ivanko]

My LCS got 14 copies of the 80 they ordered.

[50 Cent #II (1st)]

Sounds about right, one of the LCS got about 20 of the 85 he ordered.