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Marvel Comics changes main distributor to Penguin Random House (can still order from Diamond too)

25 Mar 2021 17:56 #70828 by TwiceOnThursdays
comicbook.com/marvel/news/marvel-penguin...rect-market-diamond/

A few takeaways:

- Diamond will still be able to order from Penguin Random House and then resell to stores if stores still want to get their comics through Diamond. (I'm guessing this might make sense for a small store?  Otherwise why not cut out the overhead and go to the source?)
- doesn't take effect until October 1

Pretty much no one likes Diamond.  OTH, it was easy for stores to deal with one source.  But once DC killed that it was only a matter of time before Marvel did something too.  (Marvel tried to do this years ago, and it was a gigantic failure.)

I will say that unlike DC, Marvel is telegraphing this move months in advance It's March and it won't take effect until Oct 1, which gives six full months to work out the kinks.  DC still hasn't worked out all the kinks yet.  For instance, all comics were listed in the Previews guide making it easy for me to figure out what to add to my pull.  Marvel and DC had a separate book to highlight things.  Now.. no DC book, no listing in Previews, and not always anything for the store to hand out (sometimes there is a poster).  Let's hope Marvel focuses on a way to fix that problem before Oct 1.

I also think that Diamond had encouraged a bunch of stores to use a POS-system tied to diamond.  This made sense when 99% of the comics came from diamond, and you could attach pulls directly to orders at diamond.  I've not talked specifically to stores but I've had conversations around since DC isn't through diamond, there is now a side system to track those separately at some stores, and then joined into the user's pull.  I foresee stores having to switch to something better in the future -- which is a giant hassle.  I'm sure there are solutions, and stores will have some time to figure it out.

This would be a great time for Marvel to work with other publishers and stores to try to figure out solutions for the industry.  While all the major stores in my city survived the last year, it wasn't easy on stores nationwide and i'm sure that stores could use help getting to a better state where it's easy for them to manage pull lists from customers.. that's good for EVERYONE.  Publishers, Distributors, Customers,and Store Owners.

But.. maybe there was enough history walking around at Marvel that they remembered the previous failure and paid attention to the pitfalls DC blundered through last year... so I'm hoping Marvel actually tries to make things better overall.  I do think that this means stores will be paying more for comics and that will cut into their bottom line, and we'll have to see how that shakes out.

Having Diamond UK is a big deal.  Diamond sends one large shipment to the UK and then distributes all the orders from there.  The Result is comics were roughly the same cost as in the US.  After the DC switch, European stores had to order individually from the US and incur shipping costs and shipping delays.  This raised the cost to the store to higher than cover price.

It does seem like Marvel is making better business decisions than DC by ALREADY having a solution for small shops, planning months in advance, AND have solutions in place for Europe.   Marvel is also making sure it happens after Free Comic Book Day.  I know it's weird to think Marvel might be making logistically sound decisions, but I guess there is a first time for everything. ;-). OTH, DC did pick a company that knew how to handle comics.  Penguin Random House handles magazines... but nothing says they know how to deliver pristine items for collectors....(though Diamond didn't really seem to know how to do this either...)

I do wonder what the markup will be to someone still ordering Marvel Comics from Diamond though. It HAS to be going up.

 

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26 Mar 2021 15:15 #70833 by lojack
Besides $ (or €) I would have thought that there would be customer software that could track pull lists, send out a shop customizable (logo/colors) periodic message about comics for the (week/month) and suggest titles based on pull list/purchase history (customer would need to rate for that to work).

I guess it would also have to talk to inventory (ordering/POS) which would have been the big hurdle.

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26 Mar 2021 15:58 #70834 by TwiceOnThursdays

Besides $ (or €) I would have thought that there would be customer software that could track pull lists, send out a shop customizable (logo/colors) periodic message about comics for the (week/month) and suggest titles based on pull list/purchase history (customer would need to rate for that to work).

I guess it would also have to talk to inventory (ordering/POS) which would have been the big hurdle.
 
I’ve never seen the Diamond POS stuff, but I get the impression it’s more just the POS/inventory side.  You can put user’s pull lists in and it’ll tell the store they need X copies of a book based on pull requests.  (Coudl be wrong but .. seems like what it does.)

There are several things stores can use to manage pull lists like the stuff from League of Comics.    (It’s free other are paid.). But it does a lot of that, It just didn’t automatically integrate with diamond’s ordering.  But since there are now 2-3 places to do that with, that’s probably not a big deal anymore.  (Honestly the League of comics thing looks pretty slick, and another local store uses something else similar .. .only I don’t remember what is.). I just wish when i bought new comics they’d be added automatically to my inventory. ;-)

My store has had software to run the POS and manage pull lists for awhile .. and I think they’ve just not bothered to upgrade to anything better (with online accounts where users can self update, etc).  I just send them an email with my changes.

They do have a list of everything I bought and everything I’ve asked to be pulled and they use that to drop things into my pull (full time or just one issue).  THey’re pretty accurate at that and I get things I’d never have thought about buying.

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