Dan Urazandi of Bizarro World in Davis,
I was overwhelmed, I'll agree to that, but not so much by the overall sell-through of the book so much as the lack of information from the publisher. This is not the first time publishers like Marvel have given virtually no information for something like this to retailers, but it is one of the biggest examples of what they should not do.
Telling us, 'you are going to want this book' is not enough. They say that about almost every title. This book is hot, this book is going to be a hit... Might as well tell us which ones are going to be bad instead. At least then it would be something to keep an eye out for. No, instead they give us the same line they always do about nearly every title... 'You are going to want this book'.
Well, here we are, uninformed until the press leaked the story out. Yes, the press. Everyone woke up to the headlines everywhere that Cap was dead. So, not only did they not inform the comic retailers, they also managed to ruin the surprise for the fans by leaking it to the press the day of release.
It irritates me.
Why?
1) By not giving out the proper information to retailers, most found themselves wanting, ordering a few more perhaps, but not much. The very few retailers who decided that 'you are going to want this book' was enough information that they did order en masse found themselves pitching on online auctions gouging the public.
2) By intentionally 'holding back' (and thereby creating a false shortage to hype the sales) on the print run, they limited quantities to the retailers who tried to obtain more. We tried to order three different times to get more backfill, beginning early Wednesday morning when we discovered the news even before our shipment arrived and were told by Diamond that they were unavailable, only to find they sent a message to everyone late yesterday announcing the limited availability. So, Marvel not only failed to work together with the retailers, they also failed to work properly with the distributor until it was nearly too late. By the time we saw the e-mail message from Diamond about this hidden surplus, it was too late, they had already sold out once again.
Basically, I am aggravated, to put it mildly, at the publishers who fail to work together with the retailers. This is a 'scratch my back we scratch yours' kind of business. We can't get enough books to keep our customers happy if you don't inform us, and if you don't inform us you don't make as much as much money either since we can't order based on the tired old 'this is going to be hot' line you use on nearly every book. Bottom line is we need to know. Period. Otherwise we all end up with pie in our face.
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
