(Special thanks to Alex Carew who called me to let me know I forgot to post everything on the website yesterday!)
Hey, Folks!
I can’t tell everyone how truly thrilling it is to be dealing with three separate distributors in order to get all of my regular stock. The last time I had to dance this dance was twenty years ago during the Distributor Wars of the late 90’s and I had apparently blocked out of my memory what a charming waltz it can end up being. Add to that the additional complication of a global pandemic on supply line dynamics as well as simple shipping and I suddenly find myself just waiting to see what fresh hell is going to pop up this week and how much work it is going to be to get around it. Honestly, it has added a level of anxiety and suspense that I didn’t know I needed in my life…as if taking over a business and trying to get basic remodeling and repurposing completed isn’t enough of a logistical challenge.
As you all know by now, this week’s main crisis came in the form of a shipment from Diamond being essentially 24 hours late. I first noticed it on Monday morning while I was camped out in my closed business waiting for my first Marvel shipment from PRH. It was strange…I was looking up my COD total for the week when I noticed that my Diamond boxes hadn’t left the warehouse yet. This was somewhat troubling as the books normally show up on Tuesday afternoon and I know we are in a “Two Day Ship Zone”. I hoped and prayed that it was a simple computer snafu and e-mailed Diamond to ask about the discrepancy. Turns out it wasn’t a mistake and that many accounts serviced from the Plattsburgh warehouse (where we get all of our initial orders) were in the same boat. Apparently, the Plattsburgh warehouse suffered through a Covid outbreak which sidelined much of the staff and necessitated a temporary closing of the warehouse for a deep clean. Although I truly hate having to deal with a late shipment and the unpack that follows there’s really nothing anyone can say at this point over covid complications. It’s simply the world that we are living in now. Hopefully we won’t see a similar problem next week.
Meanwhile, I’m sure you must have stumbled upon the controversary of Penguin Random House’s first week shipping Marvel periodicals. For those not in the know, PRH shipped everything out in boxes a little bigger than a football, but not quite as resilient. I mean, I caught a preview of what to expect from some retailer’s who got their product early and I’ll admit I was a little worried as to whether the boxes were going to show up split open with their precious paper cargo in shreds. Turns out that I either lucked out or else the problem isn’t going to be as bad as I feared. I mean, out of hundreds of Marvel comics we only had 10 damages and, for the most part, the reporting of damages is pretty easy. I know from what I’ve read that many retailers had bad experiences with their PRH shipment this week, but at this point it seems as if PRH is very interested in our opinions and will be working in the coming weeks to fix any problems with their shipping plans. Of course, many have argued that they had over six months to figure this out and that there was no excuse for a bad shipment, but I am ready to give them a chance to fix the problems before flying off the handle. While they have been the largest book distributor in the world for years, servicing the comic book market is a somewhat different animal and if tey can learn how to tame it properly then I think it will work out better for everyone. That being said, please feel free to ignore if I get a Marvel shipment in next week that is destroyed and I’m raging like a wounded beast about it next week.
I would like to formally announce here before I get around to making a Facebook ad about that Monarch Comics will be running a very special trade paperback sale for the remainder of October. Thanks to the Halloween holiday coming up, Monarch Comics will have a specially curated rack of spooky trade paperbacks and hard covers on sale for 25% off cover price! Keep an eye on the rack every week as other titles may be added to it as we sell off books that are either out of print and not currently available for reorder. Make your October a scary one with some horrific comic book stories!
I also want to mention that author Jim Beard will be appearing at Monarch Comics on Saturday, October 30th, for a special book signing to promote his books featuring essays about the legendary Batman 66 TV show! Jim will be here from 12pm-4pm and he will have copies of his books for sale. Stop on by and check it out!
And that’s it for me this week, True Believers! I hope that each and everyone one of you has a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you in the shop!
Eddie