Indeed, I don't think you can run a successful shop with compulsive buying practices like that. But heck, let's follow that train of thought anyway to see if it could have the suggest out come. So you have indie publisher X and they put out 4,999 units a month but now they can't because the order threshold has been increased which leaves stores across the country with holes on their shelves to fill with comics from DC, Marvel and several other publishers as dupont said...except if they're shipping less than 5 thousand books there is likely only one title, which would be only one hole in the shelf and even then it wouldn't be a hole on every shelf as there aren't enough copies for cover every comic shop in the country.

So even if every one of those books was a guaranteed spot for another publisher you're not really tipping the scales all that much which makes it pretty unlikely to be a strategy on Diamonds part to help its best customers at the expense of their smaller customers. But really, it's a moot point anyway because even if we assume that it really does free up ten shelf spaces on every retailer's shelf what's to say those retailers are going to fill those spaces with new product from other comic companies? Chances are high that if a shop isn't buying comics x,y, and z it's because they don't think they can move those units not because they don't have the shelf space or budget for them as if they thought that even one customer would like any those titles they'd make the adjustments elsewhere in their budgets to bring them in.

Yeah, that IS what I've been saying from the start, and exactly what I said in the post you quoted. I compared it to the comics code putting EC out of business, which their business rivals did see as a guaranteed boost in their sales, because kids weren't simply going to stop reading comics when EC disappeared. They were going to buy what the newsstand had. If you can manipulate what the newsstand has, you are guiding the retailers and his customers hands toward your product. It happens in every industry. You ever go into a fast food place and the soda fountain has every kind of drink but Pepsi? Coca-Cola worked that deal out. They don't just want to be an option, they want to be the only option. It's exactly the same with Marvel and DC.

If you multiply that one publisher with that one comic by a potentially unlimited number...

And remember, at one time Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a small press creator owned self published comic. Higher minimums severely decrease the possibility of a rival franchise ever even existing.

As far as the spending, and I do think that is how comic shops do their ordering, look at a car lot. Do they buy one of each model? Or do they have a parking lot full of Tundras and not a single Yaris because the commissions are better on the Tundra?

Here is a comic shop new issue department, with space for 120 new monthly comics, and every space is full. When one of those Cartoon Network comics gets cancelled do you think the shelf will just have an empty space? Or do you think it may be replaced with any number of new ongoing comics or miniseries released every year?

Okay, assume your bookstore already had covers facing out. What would they do if a shelf worth of product was sold and they couldn't restock with the same stuff?


All I'm saying is, I've never been in a comic store that wouldn't replace a cancelled title with a new title. I've never seen a shop with empty slots on it's new comics shelf. If a shop like that existed long term, what would they stock? How many mainstream titles haven't had a reboot or renumbering in the past ten years? How would a new title ever make it on any shelves anywhere, if a sho owner was only willing to reorder the same monthlies he's been reordering since the 1980's? How empty would his shelves be? Would companies like Image and Dark Horse even exist if shop owners didn't replace those blank slots from cancelled titles with new titles?

At the grocery store, if half the product in the frozen food section is Marie Calendars, and Marie Calendars goes out of business, do they leave the freezers half empty, or do they fill that space by finding a new vendor or ordering more from an existing vendor?

I have a little bit of retail experience too. Want to know what we did at the hardware store every Wednesday? Go up and down every isle, check every product on every shelf, and reorder absolutely everything that sold so we had the exact number of items we liked to stock. If we sold out of an item, we replaced it. We didn't spread everything else on the shelf out and forget we used to carry that item.

If you can't sell through two shelves worth of titles, your shop is in trouble. I'm assuming we're talking about shops that aren't about to file bankruptcy here. I have NEVER been in a comic shop where every available slot for new comics was not filled with new comics. I've also never been in a shop that had anywhere near a quarter the space necessary to order the entire catalog from even the top five publishers. There is always a title they aren't carrying. There is always a replacement for anything they have on the stands.

You're right, they don't order comics that don't sell. But there is always a comic that will sell, assuming the shop isn't about to go out of business. When Life With Archie ends, something will fill that slot, I guarantee it.

As far as the Yaris is concerned, when I was recently car shopping for a low priced compact with high MPG, I went to several lots overflowing with SUV's and fully loaded sedans without a single example of their lowest priced car on the lot. They simply didn't stock it. Not because people don't want it, because it doesn't pay them well enough. You come to the lot because of the ad in the paper telling you about the cheap Yaris with great MPG, and they try their best to sell you a fully loaded Avalon. That literally happened to me. I had to tell the dude I'm a construction worker and absolutely am not paying for leather seats and wood grain. He said "What kind of payment are you comfortable with?" and I walked off the lot. This happened at Honda and Nissan as well, before I resorted to calling dealerships beforehand to see if they stocked the car I was looking for. The dealership I found that did was in West Covina, 111.5 miles away. Every dealership within a hundred mile radius was refusing to stock their lower priced economical models. I'm forgetting what my point even was, I guess it's that a retailer won't stock just anything that sells when there's a difference in profit margins and commissions. They'll stock what carries the highest profit margins, and deny you the selection in order to force your hand into buying what they want you to buy. I have a feeling most people that step onto a car lot are in dire need of a car asap, possibly that day so they can get to work tomorrow. The dealerships prey on that kind of customer. The one that can walk away will find he has to time and time again before he finds a dealership that actually stocks what they advertise.