I've seen some drops in my time, but a 90% drop is the biggest.

(No, not us. We're doing fabulously) ☝☺

 

Next week's invoice from Diamond Comics is a little over $100. 

To put this in perspective, Diamond Comics supplied the majority of our product for most of my 43 year career. First Marvel left Diamond, then DC, then Dark Horse, and most recently Image comics. That's probably 95% of the comics in the world. 

Did we gain anything from this change? Not a bit. Whatever postage we saved we lost by losing percentage discounts. We now have to deal with three wholesalers to get our comics, instead of one. It's much more complicated to figure out ship times, arrival dates, postage rates, Final Order Cutoffs, returns, etc. etc. 

Even though I have mainstreamed my store, transitioning to a full-time bookstore, I was still getting the majority of my toys from Diamond, as well as almost all the smaller publishers. We are having record sales, but it's by selling lots of books, including graphic novels, as well as pop culture material.

It's hard to see how Diamond can survive a 90% drop in sales. 

I've stocked up on toys in preparation for the future. I'll be sorry to lose access to the hundreds of small comic publishers Diamond carries, but I simply don't have the time and energy to set up accounts with each publisher. 

This is kind of a disaster for the comic industry. 

Below, I'm giving you link to the latest column by Brian Hibbs, another comic retailer, about the current state of the comic industry. 

My advice to my fellow comic retailers is to forget about being a "comic" shop and focus on being a "pop culture" store. One thing my transitioning into a bookstore has taught me is that there is a lot of product out there that is tangentially related to comics that sells. Whatever you lose by catering to the comic fans you can gain by selling to the general public.

It's truly amazing how many DC and Marvel titles come out in formats that comic retailers never see, not to mention all the movies and TV related books, all the cult IPs, all the manga and anime. For instance, I have one entire shelf of nothing but pop culture cookbooks: Princess Bride, Studio Ghibli, Alien, D & D, and so on. 

There is a whole world of pop culture stuff that appeals not only to comic folk, but just about everyone else too. 

But if you haven't already started this process, well...good luck. 

https://www.comicsbeat.com/tilting-at-windmills-295-expanding-the-comics-market/?fbclid=IwAR3kc8XVWDyr2pQuJBxlYYy5ZH6FiC0fiI_5wOa9jin1ygUnOHxCypfh_Zg