In the world of comic books, people expect that the book will be pristine right off the press. But what they don’t understand is that a lot can happen from printing, packing, shipment to distributor, unpacking, repacking for shops, shipping to shops, then that shop unpacking for the racks for customers.
Damages can occur in any or in several of those steps. As a shop owner, I accept that but I also expect a reasonable solution to this problem. Speedy replacements sent out for starters which is something I’m trying to demand from my distributor a bit more as of late. I’ve been far too relaxed over the years and have let them get away with murder in all honesty so I’m holding them accountable a bit more.
Especially when it’s clear that the damage occurred before or during the picking for me. What I mean is that the product was already damaged...most likely in one of the earlier steps, but the worker picking and packing simply does not care enough to NOT include what is obviously going to be a future problem. That’s just lazy and unacceptable to blatantly ship damaged collectibles knowing that this world revolves around condition.
It truly stinks being sent entire quantities of a title that are all smashed. I hate explaining the reasons to customers when they ask if I have any “other” copies of a book...because they don’t want to purchase the ones that are jacked up. Most regulars understand the game but for casual fans or speculators, they want and expect (rightfully so) good looking copies.
Anyway, these are some examples of how some books arrived to me this week. This happens to comic shops across the globe on a weekly basis. The worst part about it is the fact that some of these comics were 1:50 incentive variants. What that means is that a retailer has to order 50 copies of the regular cover/s to obtain 1 of the 1:50. Those types of variants obviously sell for $$$ and to fork out hundreds of dollars to get 1 of those copies...just to have it come in beat...that’s just the pits.
Some weeks are worse than others and once again, I want to make it clear that I understand that this will and should happen from time to time. But I’ll never understand receiving books that were so obviously in horrendous shape at the time of packing. That’s on you Diamond...
So the next time you go into your local shop and see brand spankin new issues on the rack that look like they have been through 3 failed marriages and have chronic diarrhea...it’s not the shop’s fault. Try to go easy on them...
😜
