Ron Catapano of Ron's Comic World in Mount Holly, New Jersey has some thoughts on the availability of reorders from the big two comic publishers:
As a retailer, I think Marvel is horrible. Reorders rarely get filled, and those that do, usually take weeks to show up. The thing is, I know I will rarely get Marvel reorders filled and I plan accordingly so that I'm rarely caught off guard.
DC on the other hand is the 'nice' publisher who cares about helping retailers sell more comics. This is why I get so damn angry when they occasionally, and usually at the most inconvenient time, decide to get stupid.
They really pulled through leading into Infinite Crisis, keeping books available and getting trades out quickly. They cut back on the print runs for Infinite Crisis #3 and #4 but immediately put out 2nd prints... then came the Rann/Thanagar: Infinite Crisis Special.
This book is an 'unannounced' essential part of the Crisis story and even though I ordered it in a quantity larger than I did of the Rann/Thanagar mini-series it sold out immediately. After reading it and realizing how important this book was to the story I placed a reorder only to find that it was already sold out. I then contacted DC to find out when I could get more and was told that there were no plans to do another printing.
Robin, Adventures of Superman, Action, Superman, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Batman (didn't even get damage replacements), Batman Gotham Knights, and Detective are some of the recent titles which I was not able to get reorders for.
Considering how important the current issues of most DC titles are to the continuing storylines I had expected DC to have these issues available for reorder. I had increased my numbers on these books, but since most of these stories were kept secret to avoid giving away anything about Crisis and because we are talking about the entire DC line, I didn't want to go nuts on them and take the risk of losing my shirt.
Instead, I now find myself in the position of losing much of the business I was able to build up with the beginning of Crisis because I can't get the follow-up stories. I already have a lot of customers deciding to save their money and just wait for the trade since they missed the middle of the story (Rann/Thanagar: Infinite Crisis Special).
I ordered a few copies of Infinite Crisis #5 2nd print in anticipation of running low on issue #5 but instead find myself still having 25-30 copies sitting on the shelf.
The point of this rant (besides being upset about the Rann/Thanagar
book) is this: if you want to be the nice guys, be the nice guys; if not, fine... but decide! Not knowing what to expect makes it extremely difficult to do business.
With Marvel, when I can't get a book I don't get upset; in fact I'm pleasantly surprised when they do fill a reorder -- but I don't expect it. This is why I push DC. I KNOW DC will have their book available because DC actually wants to sell books... that is, it seems until they decide not to.
BE GOOD, BE BAD, but for God's sake, be consistent!!!
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.