Hey, Folks!
Well, this is a weird week. I mean, here I am writing the new EDitorial with Tay Tay blaring on my new Bose speaker and I haven’t even finished the subscription form or the shipping list yet. This is mostly because I stupidly did not finish a few things last night at the dining room table and elected instead to put off the last bits until this morning so that I could play a game (or two) of Tapestry on BGA with Hillman. I should have known that it would be a mistake and I should begin anticipating something going wrong every day.
This week I honestly thought the worst of my difficulties were over with as half of my Diamond shipment showed up a day late due to, well, “Reasons”. I can’t tell you exactly why as there is no one to ask, but I was feeling pretty good about things once I got the boxes in yesterday afternoon. This morning I got to work a little early because my accountant contacted me yesterday for some additional information that she needs to finish up my first year of taxes and I wanted to get it together and sent to her ASAP. Well, I quickly finished that task and then turned my attention to finishing up the sub form/shipping list when I discovered that Diamond’s website was down….again. Honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised as it happens several times a month these days, especially since the cyber attack that crippled them back in the fall. I had to jump onto Facebook and check with the other comic retailers to make sure it was Diamond and not me, but there was no real surprise when it turned out to be Diamond. No explanation, as per usual, just the usual generic “We’re working on it”. Does anybody else have a vendor whose website goes down as much as Diamond? It is so frustrating and I would really like to know if I am being unreasonable expecting them to, at the very least, have a dependable website. It’s currently difficult for me to judge how outraged to be as I am still at a delicate stage in my current bid to stop smoking cigarettes. And by “delicate stage” I mean that I am basically a sociopath with no human empathy at all…lol.
Of course I am not perfect myself and should now take a moment while all of your sympathies are with me and mention a small problem that I became aware of yesterday. A few weeks ago I made a small error and totally missed an FOC date for Lunar Distributors. This means that all of the DC titles FOCed on 12/12/21 got ordered a day late. Now don’t get me wrong…Lunar’s staff (Thanks, Amber!) were extremely helpful and took my orders for the comics as well as the various variant covers and got them placed. Unfortunately, one of those titles will be getting to us a little late. Catwoman #39, featuring new writer Tini Howard’s debut, will be running about a week late for us because of my mistake. Technically, the comics are on backorder, but I have a feeling that the order will fill once Lunar is finished processing all of their damages and shortages for the week. So, I apologize for the mistake and solemnly swear not to miss a FOC deadline again! Pinky swear!
Well, I suppose I should get started on the Penguin FOC for this week. I have gotten quicker at it as it used to take me 3 or 4 hours to get it done, but now it only takes an hour or so. Maybe Diamond will be up and running by then. I better be careful…that almost sounded hopeful…lol. I think I will also turn on We Bare Bears as it tends to have a calming effect on me. Nothing like having a job where you can watch cartoons without anyone being all judge-y with you!
I hope everyone has a great weekend and please feel free to swing by the store now that the post-holiday sale is in full swing!
Eddie