Not sure if ComicsPro is picking sides between Diamond and the two new publishers that have sprung up since the Diamond shut down, but the Comic Retail Organization, ComicsPro, has sent out an email reminding of FOC dates. Also mentions the fact that all DC Orders from Diamond have been zeroed out and must be reordered on FOC.
If you are a Diamond Customer, and you want to order DC comics, you must FOC by this Monday, April 27th.
As a public service, and because this is such short notice, ComicsPRO is alerting comic book stores that want to order DC Comics through Diamond that you must FOC your items by this Monday, April 27th. We have nothing to do with this decision and won’t be able to answer any questions. For more information, please check with Diamond.
Our understanding is that:
– At Diamond, your DC numbers have been zeroed out.
– You must FOC by Monday, April 27th
– Diamond has created a customized FOC page, which displays your original order quantities so you can re-enter those numbers or put in new numbers.
Best,
Marco Davanzo
Executive Director
ComicsPRO
I’ve never heard of ComicsPro…
Non-profit to improve specialty in comic retailers. They basically are big proponents of brick and mortar stores (since you have to own a physical storefront to join), don’t necessarily care about the retailers who operate online only.
They do variants from time to time as well.
They used to run the Ghost Variant program. Not to be confused with the Phantom Variant. But they will not let online retailers in.
Yeah, they just call their variants Comicspro now. The most recent one I can think of is the Granov Silver Surfer Black #1 Comicspro variant.. which is by far the best cover out of that series.
Aren’t they also behind the LCSD in the Fall as well? I recall online shops can’t sign up, cause it’s for physical shops only.
Yes, ComicsPro is for B&M shops only. And their LCSD is just a glorified Store Variant. In a time when ALL of us need to work together they wil only work with B&M stores, yet they take my money for “application fee” only to turn around and tell me thanks but no thanks with no refund. BIGGEST SCAM out there.
This is taken from the main page from the Comicspro website; ‘ComicsPRO is open to all store-front retailers willing to invest their money, time, skills, and industry experience.’
A little research before you spent your money on applying to a program that you clearly don’t qualify for is on you, Mike, and not a ‘scam’. That is not a scam. That is an organization trying to keep the bloodline of this industry profitable.
Running a new book only, online site and running a B&M shop are two wholly different businesses. An online shop with little to no overhead, or monthly rent, or utility bills, and still has their main platform open online is not in the same situation as a B&M who has lots of inventory, rent and bills and their main platform has been temporarily taken away. M2c.
“A little research before you spent your money on applying to a program that you clearly don’t qualify for is on you”
As I agree somewhat, Comicspro should be in a position to refund applicants that might of missed the “physical store” requirement during the application process. If that’s their primary requirement, that should be the first question one has to answer “yes” in order to continue. If you answer “no”, it shouldn’t even allow a retailer to apply. Yes, it’s on the retailer to read the fine print but for Comicspro to blindly accept all applicants and then turn around and not refund their application fee is just ethically and morally wrong.
“Running a new book only, online site and running a B&M shop are two wholly different businesses. An online shop with little to no overhead, or monthly rent, or utility bills, and still has their main platform open online is not in the same situation as a B&M who has lots of inventory, rent and bills and their main platform has been temporarily taken away.”
Depending on where an online retailer is operating out of, the books have to be stored in proper storage, with proper conditions and all that costs money, utilities, space even in your home can turn into part of the rent costs, etc. Yes, online and a physical shop are two entirely different setups but you can’t count out the costs of utilities, storage and claim there’s no overhead. One could also claim shops that don’t do mail order online don’t have the overhead of shipping and packing supplies, the time spent to carefully package the books, schedule pickups or dropoffs with USPS/UPS/FedEx.. I’m pretty sure there’s just as much time and resources spent packing up comics to ship off after being sold compared to a BM shop owner opening a box, grab the books to put on the shelf (and most don’t even bag or board where as a online retailer usually always ships bagged and boarded).
So both have their differences but I can’t agree that a online only retailer has no “overhead” in comparison.. cause that’s just pure nonsense if you think otherwise.
I don’t own a comic shop and have overhead. I have been paying for storage for years. I have been moving them all out of storage into my new house this month. But also have been re bagging and boarding the books plus new short boxes to house them in.
Yeah, to say online retailers have little to no “overhead” is not accurate at all. I don’t run either but I know if you are a successful online retailer, that means you need to store comics, you have to spend extra money on shipping supplies, you need likely a decent work area to pack & ship and you spend an exorbitant amount of time in doing such things to get the comics off to the customers. All of these things also add up as overhead costs.
Online retailers don’t have the luxury of just having a customer walk in, grab the book they want, pay and walk out with it while likely charging them the additional cost of a bag and board. Yes, a brick store might cost more per month for rent and utilities depending on size but those are tax writeoffs just like if you claim your 300 sq foot garage is your “business” as well.
Maybe an online retailer can chime in on how much tape, cardboard mailers cost, ink for labels and printer, the extra time spent not just unboxing comics but bag/board, time spent packing, etc.. All overhead costs if you ask me.
Lol. Just selling on eBay I go through about 100 Gemini mailers a month. Several rolls of tape. Printer paper. Toner. Bags and boards. Plus comics I buy to resell.
I cringe when i sell more than 10 books I have to go spend 10-20 minutes of my time to just pack and ship. And 10 minutes for 10 books is pushing it, that’s a minute per package.. which is probably an understatement on my part. I’m also pretty anal about packing securely, so I’d say each package is more like 3-5 minutes each.
Not to mention the cost of eBay fees. Web hosting fees. Online shop fees.
Yeah, I’d say owning either are pretty comparable when you break things down. Those that do and can do both, bravo.. bravo!
Don’t forget most of the software needed costs money too to handle the online shopping carts, etc. Sure there are free ones people can install but the plugins to your life easier to manage orders, shipping labels, etc usually all come at a cost as well.
I was referring to pymccomics specifically. They only sell new books, everything is preoaid.
They use a Shopify style web page, very cheap. So, the overhead is not comparable to a B&M, especially in these times, imo.
I understand that a large to moderate website would be a different story. Mike himself has told me how low his overhead costs are. And from what I was told, there was very little overhead.
Shopify isn’t that cheap if you ask me and if you’re a wee bit on the technical side, you can do most of it yourself for far less but even educating oneself in running a website could be considered overhead and cost. But a new book only website has overhead. Even if you fulfill say, a hundred orders a week amounts to 400 per month. There’s overhead involved either way you make of it.
I’m pretty sure no one here can read minds, so if you wanted to specifically target an online shop, you should say so directly. I can’t speak for Mike or pymccomics but all I can say is, running a shop all by yourself is not that easy of a task if you’re actually getting a fair amount of orders each week. One will spend more time bagging/boarding books, sorting orders and then packing them for shipment. So even a moderately busy online retailer could find themselves easily spending the same amount of hours as most brick shops.
Let’s just say for giggles a semi busy website does 100 different orders a week. And this is probably low balling it but let’s say it takes at minimum 10 minutes per order. That includes bagging and boarding the comics, sorting and then packing it up with a label with a slight double check before doing any sealing of the package. Someone doing a site all on their own are likely spending 17-18 hours just fulfilling the orders based on 10 minutes per order. So they get books on Tuesday, they’re at least spending the next two work days packing and shipping. FOC orders are on Mondays, so they’re spending time likely Sunday and Monday making sure they’re doing their final orders through Diamond. Then you might have to take in some account the customer service aspect to answer questions from customers, returns, exchanges, etc. You have to maintain the website with updates, updating the information, adding pictures, descriptions
And we already pointed out the other overhead involved. Running a online shop all on your own doesn’t sound as easy as some make it out to be, particularly if you’re smaller and go at it alone.
Of course this all changes if you’re only doing a handful of orders a week but if that’s the case, you’re likely not even purchasing the minimum requirement by Diamond a month of $400 or whatever it is.
Yes, running a Online shop has different expenses than a B&M. But the time involved is also different. Its hard to quantify time vs reward vs effort. As for product: I have everything a B&M has, just not the time to list it all.
ComicsPro was in the process of accepting online retailers, then their members voted against having online retailers.
If I didnt know any better Jclu, I would think your trying to bait me into an argument. BUt Im tired and dont have the energy tonight to feed into your ego. So go ahead and make another snide comment or call my shop out or whatever it is you want to do, I will let you have the last word tonight so you can feel better about yourself.
Just finalized/commited my order, got a few batman 89 third prints as well as the hell arison third print, and nightwing second print joker war tie in book, couple of the batman GIANT books….not much else someone tell me if I missed something?
That’s about it for this week.
Does that only affect those that order directly through Diamond? I order through tfaw, would I have to re-order?
You shouldn’t. TFAW will just re-place their order to cover what they initially ordered. I ordered from them as well.
Wow. Jclu very quiet since his rant…
I said I what I had to say. I’ve nothing else to say. ?♂️
Lol. “My overhead for my online store that brushes out of my house is almost as much as a brick and mortar store” say morons everywhere. /facepalm.
Did I miss a comment? I didn’t see where anyone stated that online overhead is the same or even close to a brick and mortar shops, only that online shops still have overhead. Not sure what your issue is?
You didn’t miss a comment. Joe just can’t read or interpret words. This is the same guy who claims running a comic book shop isn’t a “real” job anyways.
Yet owns a comic shop. Or at least used to. Not sure if they are still open
Closed, open… not a shop I’d likely visit or give my money to.
I have to say that you missed the point entirely. No one said that ever. However there is an overhead.
This coming from the guy who claims running a comic book shop “isn’t even a real job”…. you lose all credibility with your statements.
Just in case if you can’t recall your own comments:
“Closed my store here in CA until who knows when. Thankfully I also have a “real” job to support myself. Gonna suck bigtime for the stores barely scrapping by.”
You can see it here: http://comicsheatingup.net/2020/03/21/midtown-comics-closes-all-stores-still-accepting-online-orders/#comment-116163
Did he ever say what part of CA? Been to many shops up and down the state over the years.
Not that I recall. If he’s using his real name, there’s a Joe Silveira that runs or ran Bonzai Cards and Comics in Modesto CA, probably a gaurantee that’s his shop based on name and he claims he owns a shop.
Haven’t made it to Modesto yet, so haven’t been to that one.