Hal Kinney of The Bookie in East Hartford, Connecticut, attended the Diamond Retailer Summit over the weekend and suggests that Marvel plan to have enough retailer-only products available next time:

Just returned from the Diamond Comics Retailer Seminar in Baltimore and found the last day to be a complete disaster with long lines for the more important items making the booths for the smaller publishers almost impossible to get near.  The worst offender was Marvel Comics which hyped a 'Spider-Man Bible' which would give retailers a way to gauge their orders for the upcoming One More Day storyline.  I stood in line for 35 minutes only to find that they were sold out before I got to their table.

I doubt that one-fourth of the retailers present were able to get a copy, but I've already seen a copy on eBay less than 12 hours later.  How many will be on next week?  I also wonder how those retailers will be able to gauge their orders if they are already selling this 'retailers only' so-called bible.

The line for DC for a Jim Lee signed book was equally bad but at least they didn't run out of books.

The morning presentation was sparsely attended with maybe one-third of the dealers present, yet when it was over and it was time to get into the exhibition hall there were several hundred people in line already that didn't attend any of the presentations.  Those were undoubtedly the ones that got the Spider-Man biblw (we'll be sure to see those copies on eBay soon!).

Wake up Marvel!  Isn't it time to support the dealers that actually sell your books?  Diamond could have told you exactly how many dealers would be at their seminar.  Why print 200 copies for 1000 people?

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.