Tuesday comics.

Got my first shipment of Tuesday comics yesterday. It was tiny. I set it aside until 6:00 PM, then laid them out and put them on subscription shelves, taking a chance that no regulars would come in, and girding my loins to turn them down if they noticed the comics.

Apparently, a number of stores in the U.S. got "secret shoppers" in; we're paying $4.00 a week for this.

Anyway, no one came in. I kept my open signs on, because over half my business these day is non-comic related, and it doesn't make sense to turn down possible business throughout the rest of my store.

It took me all of half an hour. (Clearly, a normal order would take at least twice this long, if not longer.) This morning, all I have to do is sort the stack of comics for the shelves, and put them out for sale.

It was a bit of an experiment -- I think, because Tuesdays are so damn slow, I can probably get comics in some kind of order before 6:00, then try to put as many comics away as I can by 6:30, and then do what's left in the morning.

I had writer's group at 7:00 last night, as I do every second and fourth Tuesday of the month (All writers welcome.) A genial group of folk, and a fun subject, even if the only thing I'm writing these days is this blog.

The actual Comic Selling Day changes aren't really that much. Tuesday shipment helps if there is a delay -- weather, holidays -- getting comics out on Wednesday anyway. But I really don't want to spend hours at the store at night; so, like I said, I'll do some for the first half hour and do the rest on Wednesday morning (without waiting for UPS.)

Meanwhile, everything else about the change is very confusing. I wrote the following message on the Comic Retailers Bulletin Board:

I'm trying to wrap my brain around all the ramifications of this change.

I'd already figured that regular reorders were going to take from 15 to 20 days to show up, instead of 10 to 15 days, so I was going to go back to direct reorders, damn the shipping costs.

Then today's invoice arriving on Tuesday, which means I could make a direct ship reorder today, and not get billed until the Wednesday after next.

Then I look at this invoice, and I have a direct ship charge --which almost has to be the one I made on Sunday, but line items aren't included in the invoice. And the postage is 81.00!

At the same time I'm assuming I'll get the Sunday order sometime later this week. (Been told it didn't ship Monday, and it's looking a little doubtful today...)

And most confusing to me, I thought I'd made a 500.00 direct ship reorder, but the total on the invoice was 325.00. (I suppose this could be my mistake.) Like I said, I haven't made a direct ship order before this since before Christmas and I've already been charged for those.....

This is going to take some getting used to. I mean I like it, but it's more of a change than I expected.

Duncan McGeary
Pegasus Books of Bend.

Turns out, the 'direct' shipment was actually the Scott Pilgrim consignment program, that they mislabeled. I never would have figured this out, but one of the other retailers did, once again proving the worth of communicating with your peers. (Doesn't explain the huge shipping fee, though...not looking forward to hammering this out with my rep.)

Anyway, we're having some change pains. Nothing for it.