Diamond (Geppi Family Enterprises) Responds to DC News of Termination

Here you all go, in all it’s glory. Diamonds response to DC’s news from earlier today.

Below is the text version and at the bottom, the email picture of the actual email sent out to retailers.

Diamond Response to DC Comics Announcement

This evening, I shared the following message with all the members of our Geppi Family Enterprises teams. I also wanted to share it with you, our many industry partners.

Today, DC sent out a retailer communication indicating they are ending their long-standing relationship with Diamond. In April, we were informed that DC was going to begin distributing products through additional partners. At that time, they asked us to submit a proposal for a revised agreement with the understanding that Diamond would continue to be one of their distributors. Which we promptly did. They then requested an extension to June 30 which we also accommodated. Last week, DC requested an additional extension through July. We responded with questions and DC indicated they would reply today, June 5. Instead of receiving a response, today we received a termination notice. While we had anticipated this as a possible outcome, we, like so many others in the industry, are disappointed by their decision to end our partnership so abruptly at this time.

Although we had hoped to reach an agreement with DC, every great change also presents great opportunity! Rest assured, Diamond is a strong company and our success does not depend on the actions of one business partner. While we recognize this change impacts the industry, we are well-positioned to seize growth opportunities and are committed to the success of our publishing partners, the Direct Market and our industry as a whole.

We continue to be excited about the growth potential in the comic, game and toy industries as well as growth opportunities for our other Geppi Family Enterprises companies. I truly believe that our comeback will be bigger than our setback and our best days are ahead.

Thank you for you continued support and for all you do.

-Steve
Steve Geppi

Chairman, Geppi Family Enterprises
Founder, Diamond Comic Distributors



20 thoughts on “Diamond (Geppi Family Enterprises) Responds to DC News of Termination”

    1. I think there’s a whole lot more going on than we’ll ever be told. All I can assume is, two businesses, with contracts, in negotiations.. extensions, approved, extension, approved.. another extension but with questions added, we’ll give you answer by June 5th and that answer was publicly made to everyone and not directly to you, what the F kind of questions did you ask Diamond? It had to be over terms and money. When negotiations fail in such a fashion, someone really screwed the pooch and for DC to just shun Diamond like that, I’m gonna think it was Diamond at fault here, not DC. But that’s just my hunch. I could be wrong since we have zero details from both parties.

      1. I’m thinking that DC might have a stake in DCBS and Midtown’s new distribution model. I have no proof and completely speculating.

    1. Why? That would just cause more controversy if they didn’t break any guidelines or policy rules as account holders? I’m pretty sure on a legal standpoint, they would win and I don’t think Diamond is in any position to handle any lawsuits. Also, talk about using your now crumbling monopoly to your own advantage?

    2. Also, I’m pretty sure that’s already a huge % of their income already between those two accounts. If they terminated those accounts, they’d likely be shooting themselves in the head..

    3. And lose even more business? They would lose two of their biggest accounts according to the diamond leaks a few months back. And what policies did they break to cause Diamond to cut them off? They have signed agreements I am sure.

      1. And as we all know, on paper, UCS and Lunar are separate entities. Midtown Comics and DCBS are retailers while Lunar and UCS are new created companies that distribute comics for DC. Yes, we all know who owns them but they’re separate companies on paper.

  4. For twenty years I’ve heard from everyone about how bad diamond sucks and now today the same people are like “oh no this shouldn’t happen to diamond.”

    Sorry but competition is good and frankly there would be no competition if Dc states with diamond as I’ve heard many shop owners basically say “well diamond sucks but I’m not doing two orders each week!”

    1. The difference is having more avenues for distribution is good, but having a retailer handle the distribution not only adds a conflict of interest, but also mandates the disclosure of personal customer accounts from other retailers which should only be distributor privileged.

      Furthermore, these LCS now get a competitive advantage based on pricing and shipping costs, rare stock they can withhold and jack up prices, ability to sieve through comics to hand pick high grades, access to privileged customer information and statistics, ability to ship first to customers etc.

      So I see why other retailers feel this presents an unfair competitive advantage.

      Not only that, international retailers now have to pay double freight, and double administrative charges for shipments in an already cut throat market with high overhead costs.

      This single move will bankrupt already struggling LCS at a time of severe crisis when they are clawing their way out of the hole to stay alive. It is the equivalent of cutting of someone’s air supply when they are already underwater.

      Just my 2cts.

  5. I order product from 19 vendors currently. Adding another one isn’t that big a deal. I’ve heard from multiple BIG retailers that they’re essentially cutting ties with DC over this. Guys who are in the top 20 Diamond accounts that are pretty much going to stop ordering extra copies of DC books. I’m not going that far. But I’m scaling back. My shipping costs for DC books will be 4-5 times what they are for Marvel. There’s no incentive for me to order like I used to. I’ll order DC like they are Valiant or Aftershock or Titan. I’ll still handsell their catalog stuff. But I used to require my staff members to read 20 DC books a month out of their 75 required reading. I’ll drop that to Batman, Flash, Hellblazer, and a couple others. We will handsell more Boom, IDW, Aftershock, AWA, etc.

  6. To a small retailer this is a huge blow. Not only is there extra shipping cost to think of but also rescheduling employees to be available to process multiple shipments of comics on different days. Bottom line, yes this will cost retailers more money. We may never know the entire reason that DC and Diamond parted ways but to me it seems like DC can come up with some great ways of how not to make money. One being cutting preview catalogs, which are a great promotion tool for young readers coming in to purchase a physical copy of a paper comic book. It’s a little ironic to tell someone interested in physical comics that you can preview them digitally. As for the whole Midtown and DCBS issue, it’s irritating but doesn’t bother me as much since we focus more on brick and mortar sales. In the long run, we will cut back on DC titles which is pretty easy right now since not many of DC’s storylines are hot sellers. When DC goes bankrupt, they will most likely lease their properties to other publishers. The way things are run currently that doesn’t seem far away.

    1. DC is owned by Warner Brothers, so I don’t see them going out of business. The copyright and trademarks would just get gobbled up by another big name corporation more than likely if it did ever happen.

    2. “Not only is there extra shipping cost to think of but also rescheduling employees to be available to process multiple shipments of comics on different days”

      You can always just have them sit and processed with all the other books that come in the next day as well. No reason to have to put them out on Tuesday.

    3. While I would consider my B&M a mid-sized shop, 40% of my new comic orders are DC .. the distribution split is not just an issue of increased shipping / etc ..

      It is, more importantly, IMO, also an issue of decreased discount .. since 40% of my DC new comic orders have been through Diamond, then the loss of those Diamond orders will lower my overall discount .. in addition, using a new distributor who will have set there own discount levels and only offers DC Product will make it unlikely that I will get near the discount I would have gotten through Diamond .. new distributors with only one product line, IOW ..

      I have always said I don’t like Geppi, I know him, I’ve broken bread with him, I just don’t like him .. however, Diamond as a company, as far as I’m personally concerned, has done an excellent job .. sure, you’ll get some damages, there will be shortages or allocations sometimes, that’s simply the nature of what we do .. the Staff / my Rep and the whole crew has always taken care of me when needed .. When Capital City was still around, I had an account with them and Diamond and a few other small distributors .. I have been a Diamond customer since 1990, a good long 30 years ..

      I have also, in many cases, gone on record here on CHU as wanting competition in the Comic / etc, Distribution area .. and, I still do .. however, I never would have envisioned that one single, solitary Company would split off and do their own thing .. that’s really not distribution, IMO .. that’s a single product line .. and, what about TP’s / GN’s .. ?? A different Distributor all together for those .. ?? I sell TP’s and GN’s as well .. now I have to get that DC product from another DC distributor .. that will, once again, impact my discount level ..

      The point of multi-Product Distribution is to offer various discount levels based on the amount of Business an entity orders each and every month .. splitting that up erodes the ability to gain better profitability thru growing your business ..

      I have yet to fully understand how DC plans to grow the market using this strategy .. maybe I’m just looking at it wrong .. I’ve spent the better part of a lifetime devoted to this Business, I’ve done everything possible to grow my Customer Base .. I’ve watched and adapted to the Evolution of things over all those many years .. the Good and the Bad ..

      Lastly, with the vast majority of B&M’s just now coming out of the Covid lockdowns, many in various stages of financial security or insecurity, to have DC throw this into the loop of what is already a stressful time, well, the timing could not have been worse ..

      If you are a B&M owner that may already be on the fence financially, and now you get this curveball thrown at you, many, IMO, will be giving serious thought to whether it’s worth motoring on or not ..

  7. Stopped selling new comics in January because diamond service is trash. Regular weekly shortages, damages, mistakes, etc. Once or twice a year I get someone else’s order. Too put it bluntly they are garbage.

    Getting dc comics through lunar. My 2 shipments have been shipped in sturdy boxes with plenty of padding. Hope they continue that practice

  8. And as far as shipping, it’s based on weight and ship to location. I’m in ca and 2 boxes from lunar (70lbs) was 40 bucks. They are in Indiana. Getting 4 or 5 boxes from diamonds location was 100+ a week.

    Any cost difference is negligible. You pay a dc distributor shipping and less to diamond for the other publishers.

  9. Maybe DC is secretly hoping that this will set in motion a chain of events that leads to the end of the printed floppy. Perhaps they feel that they’ll fare better in an all digital world. Or, maybe I’m just a crackpot.

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