Ethan Peacock of Elfsar Comics & Toys in Vancouver, British Columbia (who commented earlier on holiday shipping, see “Ethan Peacock of Elfsar Comics & Toys on Holiday Shipping”), saw Andy Battaglia’s comments on holiday shipping (see “Andy Battaglia of Comics Etc. on Holiday Shipping”), and doesn’t see much cross border traffic:

I am curious if we can hear from any U.S. retailers on the border who have suffered difficulties due to people crossing through customs to shop at Canadian stores.  I can only speak from my perspective (which is a Canadian store close to the border, near Seattle) and I am still having trouble believing that the delivery of books to Canadian comic retailers on the released date has hurt U.S. comic retailers during a rare 24 hour delay.  First, there is very issue that Mr. Battaglia brings up of higher gas prices, which have cut down the amount of visits from U.S. customers.  Second, there is the limited dollar amount that you can bring across the border in less than a 24 hour period which further discourages it.  Third, Canadian tourism is down significantly across the board due to the strength of the dollar.

I found that the newly created delays in 2007 over the Christmas and New Year's holidays were a welcome change from Diamond.  I managed to actually fit a holiday in (something us comic retailers rarely get to do) between the delivery days with a minimal disruption to my business.  I hope this continues.

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.