Gabriel Hagmann of DreamStrands Comics in Seattle, Washington saw the news that WizKids was going to distribute its product to hobby stores exclusively through Diamond/Alliance (see 'WizKids Goes Exclusive'), and shares his thoughts:

I think this is a mistake.

DreamStrands stopped ordering games and DVDs from Diamond.  We began to deal with other game, toy and video distributors (Alliance among them) and had greater success in getting on-time shipments as well as enough sellable stock when allocations occurred.  We continued ordering from Alliance when they were acquired by Diamond, but still found many benefits to dealing with multiple distributors because of allocations on product releases.  Now, because of this exclusivity on WizKids, my shop will have no choice but to sit back and lose sales by being forced to await the pleasure of Alliance & Diamond when allocations occur, instead of having the capacity to purchase the product from another distributor and keep the product in stock at DreamStrands.

However, WizKids has done a wonderful job of supporting the brick & mortar venues and the prize support for their games is unequaled. That service is greatly appreciated.  I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I hope this works out to everyone's advantage.  Unfortunately, I've dealt with Diamond and been a retailer for too long to think that shortages on product will not occur.  Let's hope this agreement includes procedures for lessening the impact of such circumstances.

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.