No New Comics 1 1

[Bookery]

6 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

Isn't this really Geppi taking one for the team?

I'm assuming at this point that DC, Marvel, etc., aren't going to keep billing Diamond either.  It also gets to a point where a non-essential company can't continue to keep asking its employees to show up for work (sorters, packers, shippers, etc.) when everyone else has shut down, either voluntarily or by decree.  But yes, Geppi is doing the right thing here.  Let's hope it's a short-term necessity, and not a long-term one.

[lou_fine]

12 hours ago, lighthouse said:

And that sized shop likely doesn’t have $22,500 sitting in the bank on a given day. And would be even less likely to have that amount after sitting closed for weeks on end while still paying overhead.

 

2 hours ago, Bookery said:

What lighthouse has said is correct.  This is a good thing for retail shops.  I can cope with paying rent (mortgage in my case), utilities (which can be set low while we're closed), and even help out my employees... but the threat of thousands of dollars worth of stock arriving every week which, by law, we can't retail would be brutal.  I don't believe this will be 8 weeks (at least in Ohio).  I'm guessing 2-4.  Beyond a month shutdown, then yes, I'm guessing a lot of smaller shops may not make it.

Even without any shipments of new books coming in every week, it's still going to be extremely tough for some of these shops to stay in business if it goes on for a couple of months.  

Especially when it comes to these commercial rents for the stores which can often run at $30K a month and up from there.  Although there does appear to be pressure on local governments to have tenants forgo rental payments during this whole crisis.  Then again, what about the landlords although it sounds as though mortgage payments can be pushed off for 6 months which simply means you still have to pay them at the back end.  

[Aweandlorder]

Seems more and more like were amidst a major correction very similar to past ones that took down well known industries. In 2007-2008 for instance many record distributors and stores closed down "until further notice". Ended up closing for good. The trend of downloading music which picked steam in the early '00s was part of it, but the 2008 recession was the final nail in the coffin.

[the blob]

14 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

Seems more and more like were amidst a major correction very similar to past ones that took down well known industries. In 2007-2008 for instance many record distributors and stores closed down "until further notice". Ended up closing for good. The trend of downloading music which picked steam in the early '00s was part of it, but the 2008 recession was the final nail in the coffin.

Yeah, and, as a result, a CD player, which was pretty standard on economy cars is now a high priced luxury item on a $40K+ SUV. The 2005 model car I drive has a CD player, my wife's new Traverse does not....have to use iTunes and the radio...a CD player would have been like $1200 more or something nonsensical for a lease. I am not on with the interwebs musics yet. I like my CDs...

[the blob]

18 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

Seems more and more like were amidst a major correction very similar to past ones that took down well known industries. In 2007-2008 for instance many record distributors and stores closed down "until further notice". Ended up closing for good. The trend of downloading music which picked steam in the early '00s was part of it, but the 2008 recession was the final nail in the coffin.

This is something hitting all "face to face" businesses right now. Do you think all the gyms will close too because people got used to online workouts? (Which have been around forever). Heck, maybe, I dunno. My wife likes hitting the gym and doing her classes, but if she gets the same workout for free or $9.99 in our living room rather than $199.99 a month, maybe she does that. I'm an old fart, reading comics on line doesn't work for me, but you're right, my teenager has no problem doing so and he hates floppies too, prefers TPBs.

 

[Aweandlorder]

12 minutes ago, the blob said:

This is something hitting all "face to face" businesses right now. Do you think all the gyms will close too because people got used to online workouts? (Which have been around forever). Heck, maybe, I dunno. My wife likes hitting the gym and doing her classes, but if she gets the same workout for free or $9.99 in our living room rather than $199.99 a month, maybe she does that. I'm an old fart, reading comics on line doesn't work for me, but you're right, my teenager has no problem doing so and he hates floppies too, prefers TPBs.

 

No they wont, 

New comic books may

[dupont2005]

44 minutes ago, the blob said:

Yeah, and, as a result, a CD player, which was pretty standard on economy cars is now a high priced luxury item on a $40K+ SUV. The 2005 model car I drive has a CD player, my wife's new Traverse does not....have to use iTunes and the radio...a CD player would have been like $1200 more or something nonsensical for a lease. I am not on with the interwebs musics yet. I like my CDs...

Nah, it’s more like having a record player installed in your car. A weird niche item. 

[shadroch]

It seems to me that Disney inherited Diamond and its couple of thousand indentured servants. As this crisis is drawing down, I'd expect their number crunchers to go over every aspect of their empire with a fine toothed comb. One thing you can be sure of. Disney will do what is best for Disney and if that means cutting ties with Diamond, that's what they will do.

[the blob]

2 hours ago, dupont2005 said:

Nah, it’s more like having a record player installed in your car. A weird niche item. 

I am not going to buy iTunes of Sabbath, Metallica, and whatever else I like to torture my family with! I have those damn CDs!

[drotto]

I have said this before, the comic book industry must do some soul searching and change how they are doing thing. 

1. Marvel and DC need to cut back books and concentrate on quality and volume for a few books as opposed to flooding the market with low selling titles. Marvel has been putting out close to 80 titles per month.  That needs to stop.  They should be putting out between 20 to 25 monthly books, period. Cut down to popular teams, and popular characters get on ongoing.  Batman = 2 books, Spider-Man = 2 books, X-Teams = 2 or 3 books, Justice League = 1 book.  You get my drift.

2. Start using lower quality paper again, go back to pulp.  This will bring down the price. $4 is a lot for 30 minutes of entertainment, when a free app can give kids hours worth of entertainment.  You need to get the price point below $3 or better yet $2.

3. Be quicker to cancel.  They can not afford and stores can't afford to have books selling only a few copies dragging down the market.

4. Bring back anthologies and quarterlies.  This is your test bed for new writers, artists, characters, etc. Put one or two of these out per month.

5. Monthly books need to be self contained.  Stop the cross overs and events.  These are way to dense and confusing for new readers to pick up.  It scares people away.  X-Men in the 70's and 80's despite its complex history was relatively straight forward, because everything that was important and needed happened in Uncanny.

6. Limited self contained series of top tier characters seem like a good jumping on point, keep them.  This is things like the DC Black line.  People seem to like these and they are easy to put into graphic novel form, and accessible to new readers.

7. Get books more available.  Do not be afraid to try new ways of distribution and get them into places other then the LCS.  You need more readers.

 

I am sure there is more, but it is a start.

[RonS2112]

On 3/24/2020 at 12:39 PM, sfcityduck said:

Isn't this really Geppi taking one for the team?

Not at all.  Was talking to my LCS owner today, and he made the point that Geppi is NOT about to take one for the team.  If publishers continue to produce books, it's going to get stored in Diamond warehouses and unloaded all at once on the LCS owners.

[RonS2112]

On 3/24/2020 at 3:19 PM, the blob said:

This is something hitting all "face to face" businesses right now. Do you think all the gyms will close too because people got used to online workouts? (Which have been around forever). Heck, maybe, I dunno. My wife likes hitting the gym and doing her classes, but if she gets the same workout for free or $9.99 in our living room rather than $199.99 a month, maybe she does that. I'm an old fart, reading comics on line doesn't work for me, but you're right, my teenager has no problem doing so and he hates floppies too, prefers TPBs.

 

Not quite the same insofar as most gyms require a 1-to-3 year contract every time you renew.  Gold's hasn't stopped charging me since this pseudo-quarantine started......

[the blob]

2 hours ago, RonS2112 said:

Not quite the same insofar as most gyms require a 1-to-3 year contract every time you renew.  Gold's hasn't stopped charging me since this pseudo-quarantine started......

Mine does not. Yes, I will eat the yearly fee they charged in Sept. But I can dump Blink when I want. 

[GeneticNinja]

It really hits home how much Diamond controls when you check Midtown for next week's comics and see only a small selection of items.

Still, a comic shop shouldn't rely only on new comics. There were times I would go to used bookstores and I don't think they sold new books at all. Perhaps a lot of their inventory was more expensive books. I don't know. I was only after certain titles.

I also remember when I was young never knowing that Wednesday was new comic day. I would go on various days and get new and old comics. But back then I don't think they had the Trade Paperbacks. I'm sure they didn't have hardcover collections. So I was getting the stories that were around before I was. And issues I missed. I would get full stories and it was fun reading a 3 or 4 issue run without having to wait a month or so. But of course many of those comics in high grade are expensive now. But still just about every comic shop I used to go to had back issue inventory.

I say used to go to because I only went to a few comic shops that I actually enjoyed. I only order online now. I think it was the smell of the comics and wood shelves in those good comic shops. It was different than the more modern places with kind of generic racks. I would go to older, well designed bookstores back then and look at all the mystery books. So seeing comics in a similar display was probably a familiar feeling for me as a kid.

I see places like Best Buy and a few others doing some kind of car delivery in front of the store. I don't see why comic shops can't do the same if Diamond delivered the new comics. It's just that you don't want a lot of people in a small store going over the comics, touching comics behind each other, and waiting in line to check out. Using the hand sanitizer before touching paper comics probably isn't the best idea either for everyone that wants a high grade comic. But then I've never tested it.

Edited March 26, 2020 by GeneticNinja

[toro]

I had to pick up my comics yesterday like I was doing a drug purchase.  Met my LCS owner in a parking lot and made the exchange there.  He has been in business almost 20 years, but he said if this lasts longer than 2 months he will have to close.  He will ramp up his ebay selling.  But right now people don't have a lot of extra cash, so that will be tough.

[lighthouse]

5 hours ago, GeneticNinja said:

I see places like Best Buy and a few others doing some kind of car delivery in front of the store. I don't see why comic shops can't do the same if Diamond delivered the new comics.

The regulations are all local. I got an 8-page document from my County outlining exactly what I am allowed to do and not allowed to do based on my industry. It broke down exactly which businesses were essential (including things like car rental and home repair), which were forced to close, and which were permitted to be open exclusively for pickup, etc. As a comic shop I am allowed to be open for delivery only. I can take orders that I send out UPS or Postal. I can take orders that my staff delivers directly to customers (something I’ve actually done for my sub who is a grocery store produce manager... I bring him comics and he hooks me up with an 8-pack of toilet paper). But I cannot offer curbside service. Other business types can. My business type cannot. 

That’s the rules in my specific location. Some locales haven’t even closed businesses yet. Others have even stricter rules than mine.

FWIW, new comics only represent 27% of my shop’s revenue. And less than 16% of my gross margins. But it’s the bread and milk that gets folks into the shop regularly to buy other things. No grocery store gets rich selling bread and milk. But you can damn sure go broke trying to be the grocery store that doesn’t carry them.

[shadroch]

Does anyone have a store they frequent that has a large comic book footprint but doesn't sell new books?

Someone posted a link I found quite interesting. According to the numbers, well over 40% of the Comic industries revenue comes from non-comic shops. Bookstores and the like, selling trade paperbacks and hard covers.  Does Diamond service them or does Disney use a different method to distribute to these? Are these products returnable?

[lighthouse]

Most of those sales are through Ingram. On some small press stuff they’re a cheaper option than Diamond. But on Marvel and DC they’re not (unless you’re a very tiny Diamond account). 

I supply a few local libraries with graphic novels. And there’s enough margin between what they’d pay Ingram and what I pay Diamond that we clear a little even though I give them a massive discount. 

And it really depends on what you count as comic industry revenue. My Hero Academia destroys any “comic book” in revenue, even though few of those sales are in comic shops. First two months of this year we sold 107 copies of My Hero at $9.99 each. The only individual comic title that broke $1,000 for us was Wolverine and that was with a $7.99 launch of an issue 1 of a character who hadn’t been in his own title in years, and also had incentive variants. (Wolverine did a lot more than $1k for us). And we aren’t even a shop known for manga. Our manga display is less than 15 square feet of facing. It would all fit in one standard bookshelf in your house. Places like B&N print money with manga. They also print money with Walking Dead, Killing Joke, Infinity Gauntlet, etc. Evergreens sell “all day erryday”. But they don’t get those from Diamond.

[drotto]

7 hours ago, toro said:

I had to pick up my comics yesterday like I was doing a drug purchase.  Met my LCS owner in a parking lot and made the exchange there.  He has been in business almost 20 years, but he said if this lasts longer than 2 months he will have to close.  He will ramp up his ebay selling.  But right now people don't have a lot of extra cash, so that will be tough.

It was the same for me.  I told him I did not want to get him in trouble, if I entered the store.  He said you are now an employee for the next 10 minutes your allowed to be here.  Granted, he said he was only allowing long time costumers a shot to enter, all others (or anyone who requested it) he would do curbside drop off.  I also bought some supplies, figured after going there for at least 10 years, I wanted to give him a little more business. 

[lighthouse]

On 3/24/2020 at 9:49 AM, Bookery said:

I'm assuming at this point that DC, Marvel, etc., aren't going to keep billing Diamond either.  It also gets to a point where a non-essential company can't continue to keep asking its employees to show up for work (sorters, packers, shippers, etc.) when everyone else has shut down, either voluntarily or by decree.  But yes, Geppi is doing the right thing here.  Let's hope it's a short-term necessity, and not a long-term one.

An email went out today that indicated Marvel had extended Diamond's payment terms to Marvel (allowing them more time to pay) to allow Diamond the flexibility to extend better terms to its own customers.

An hour later an updated email went out saying the previous email had errors. Only change was that paragraph was missing.

(My guess is that Marvel did indeed give Diamond better terms, but Diamond didn't want it in the release to avoid having 2,000 accounts expect to be offered better terms themselves.)