Forum - View topicNEWS: Diamond Cancels Some July Manga/Anime Related Orders
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DPX
 Posts: 118 |
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All the Yen title seem to be Korean ones!
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Hon'ya-chan
 Posts: 973 |
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Borders implemented a change a few months ago where in order to get a book not in stock, you'd have to pay the book's cost upfront, and either choose "Expedited Shipping" or "Free, but it's gonna take a while" shipping. Which sucks for me, because i've now "dumped" several series because of it. And I was really getting into Yakitate! Japan. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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The numbers are here, they just aren't monetized. Which means the thousands of "fans" who only watch illegal streams/downloads and only read illegal scanlations might as well not exist. However, since they are on the websites with paying fans, talking about the same series, paying fans get the idea that their are a lot more anime fans supporting the industry than there really are and thus can't understand why things like this with Diamond happen. (Of course, this is a special case where Diamond is quite a terrible company in general by all the accounts I've heard. I've been going to the same comic shop for over a decade and the same guy has been part of the ownership of it the whole time. He's never said a single nice thing about Diamond.)
Honestly I can understand wanting to support a comic/fan-centric store but why insist on buying in store at Borders? And if they have a way to get what you want, why not take it if buying from the store is the way you want to do things? Cost and shipping sounds perfectly reasonable to me. 
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Best Buy doesn't utilize Diamond, so anything coming into their stores, including Gurren Lagan, will be safe. They primarily utilize Ingram, and occasionally Navarre and Ditan (who are two of the worst and most incompetent wholesalers in the world.) Unfortunately, the problems with Diamond do affect a lot of independent comic shops though. Smaller operations generally cannot do the volume of product needed to set up an account with someone like Ingram, or one of the studios or major publishers. Even Robert's Anime Corner had difficulty setting up an account with Warner for their Viz titles. And ordering from Diamond does tend to be more expensive, hence the higher costs at most local shops, as opposed to Best Buy, Right Stuf, and other retailers. Like others, I think in the end this does more damage to the industry. And I don't really see how Diamond would hope to grow their profits by limiting selection and forcing customers to other outlets. |
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Onizuka666
Posts: 266 Location: U.K |
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Its true about Diamond, for they are the bane of the comics industry. As someone who worked their first job in a comic store, its was always problem after problem with them.
The solution to the problem is obviously for a rival to step in and challenge Diamond with a better service, but still, quite amazingly, no one has tried after all these years. This begs the question of how much is the comic book industry is worth to western culture? And if a rival stepped in would it be worth it? One of the biggest problems with Diamond is their 'no sale or return' policy. With most bookstores, if something doesn't sell you can at least return items and perhaps get a refund or discount. Diamond don't let store do this, and this hurts the small stores the most, that can be stacked with items that don't sell. I've experienced this firsthand. Because of this, is why american comics rely so much on preorders two months in advance via Previews. What hurts this is that due to Diamonds grip on the industry, real chances to expand the industry are never commited to, and thus the industry doesn't grow its audience beyond the comic store visitors. The latest price hike of an average comic has risen, and many have no doubt bailed out because of it (I would too, if I was paying $4 for 24 or so pages). Diamond are trimming the fat and cutting back on anime/manga goods is another casualty. Diamond are too stubborn to adapt their business model. Anime and manga will recover from this though. Diamond know most people get their manga from Borders etc in GN form. Because manga doesn't rely heavily on single issues like american comics, it gives better value for money and doesn't need comic stores so much. Let's hope someone does step in. Diamond need to go out of business, for only then will things change. |
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Hon'ya-chan
Posts: 973 |
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Because the comic book shop closed down years ago, and shipping is ******* expensive, thats why. And why would I wanna pay nearly 90%-125% of the books cost as Postage? |
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nargun
Posts: 924 |
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Diamond hasn't ordered it yet. Here's how it works: a: producers tell Diamond what they're releasing in any given month b: Diamond tells retailers what the producers are releasing in any given month c: the retailers tell diamond what of that they want and how much based on pre-orders and estimated demand d: diamond tells this to the producers e: the producers ship the product to diamond f: diamond ship the product to retailers g: the retailers put the product on the shelf. "Cancelled by diamond" means "Cancelled at stage d:"; diamond don't want to deal in pissy small quantities of particular titles, for reasons that have never really been adequetely explained. I mean, the costs are the costs of running retailer and producer accounts [per-account], and the costs of physically moving individual volumes around in the right numbers [per-volume]; the cost elements that would vary per-number-of-identical-copies strike me as vanishingly small. At least, in the quantities Diamond deals in. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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Agreed. But I will take it one step further. Does anyone else find it funny that Diamond (or possibly retailers) thinks a big Hollywood movie with a multi-million dollar budget isn't worthy of distribution? I do. Even crappy movies still do decent in the home video market, yet this one is deemed to not be fit to recoup $2,500 in costs. Pretty pathetic. And it just shows you how Bad this movie is, with a capital B.
Agreed. And to take it a step further, I suspect if every anime/manga fan was only buying 15% of what they were actually consuming I bet the industry would still have ZERO problems. 
Protip: If you place multiple items into one order, shipping costs will go down. Also many online retailers offer free shipping while still giving a discount off MSRP. It's a win-win. |
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KrisEllieOphi
 Posts: 111 Location: Texas |
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1) Because I also read American comic books. 2) Because I personally know the people who own and run my local comic book store. They're not just the people who sell me my shit; they're my friends. 3) Because I want to support said store. They treat me good there, and they special order everything for me (they carry very little manga, and I'm about the only customer there who buys it in any significant quantities). |
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Sailor S
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If you're not in the US, then I can understand, but if you are, there are plenty of online retailers that offer free shipping. Deep Discount has free shipping on their orders. Right Stuff has free shipping on orders over $50. Other places have very cheap shipping, under $5 for the entire order no matter how large. Like I said, if you're not in the US, then yeah, I can see that shipping would be expensive. But, if you are living in the US, then you have your facts wrong. |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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TRSI has free shipping at $50. Orders ship as they come in so $50 worth of manga ordered together to get free shipping can cover as far out as the books are up (IE-I have stuff pre-ordered into next year. The credit card isn't charged until the item comes in.) Plus they have manufacturer sales so one can pre-order titles for a discount with no shipping. Pay for their Got Anime discount ($12 per year) & get another 10% off (Yen Press's Soul Eater 1-$6.60-street date-Halloween ordered with titlea ranging fron already released to then) I'm watching the One Piece Season 2 set 1 which streets 6/30 so free shipping does not equal slow. |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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You know, there is a legit alternative to Diamond, Haven Distribution seems to be a growing comic distribution company with a strong line up of independent and semi-independent publishers. And their minimum orders are a lot more relaxed then Diamond
Publishers who don't move huge (see Marvel/DC level) volume should take a look at Haven for an alternative venue Zen Press seems like they would be a solid fit for Haven's operation if their not managing to pull the sales numbers Diamond wants. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Exactly, I mean compare One Piece's online presence with Negima, and theirs a huge difference with One Piece being a lot more popular. It's sales have always been underwhelming with Negima selling better. The reason is that Negima trumps it in the hardcore fans who want to buy the products. Also I started ordering online from TRSI and they are excellent, if the stocks are in then I just wait a week. Also shipping cost isn't bad either. I think combined with the discount you get naturally (i.e without sales or Get anime discount) you just pay market price for it. |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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I suspect that a lot of the reason that so many manga fans go to bookstores instead of comic book shops is that Diamond (and likely a lot of the comic book shops) insist on trying to treat volumes of manga the same as monthly issues of comics, rather than more like novels. Cue vicious cycle where manga fans go to the bookstore more because they're more likely to have what they want, comic store/Diamond notice the drop in sales and figure not enough people want manga so stock less and fewer titles, manga fans see less manga in the comic shop so go to the bookstore more... Meanwhile, bookstores and their supply chain (Baker & Taylor, etc) treat all these manga series about the same as they treat a series of novels and seem to do quite well out of it. The market for manga is there, it's just that the comics industry doesn't know how to deal with it. |
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glitteringloke
 Posts: 160 |
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I used to work for a small comic store, and diamond is such a pain! more often than not, they send the wrong thing, not enough of a title, etc. they suck. plain and simple.
i try to order my manga through them because i know them and i know the store doesn't do well, plus as a former employee, i get a discount :p i agree with all those that have dislike of diamond and the need for a competitor, but unfortunately, that's not quite the case. (in this instance, i'm glad none of the titles i read were on the list) |
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