The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

[Juan Cena]

Hastings, which is Diamond's largest customer, FYI.

And which doesn't have a store in the state of Georgia, BTW. The closest one to the ATL is in Auburn, Al. (I just checked).

And that's one chain and may have been at just one store, for all I know. Where was BAM or B&N in all of this? If Diamond was willing to push FDCB in Hastings, why didn't it do it for BAM or B&N?

[Chesscub]

And which doesn't have a store in the state of Georgia, BTW. The closest one to the ATL is in Auburn, Al. (I just checked).

And that's one chain and may have been at just one store, for all I know. Where was BAM or B&N in all of this? If Diamond was willing to push FDCB in Hastings, why didn't it do it for BAM or B&N?

Does Diamond even service BAM or B&N? I thought the bookstore market had a different distributor.

[Juan Cena]

I've noticed a lack of Spawn everything in everywhere since I turned ten, which is about when Spawn stopped being cared about by anyone besides 15 people. Anyways, they manage to sell Spawn DVDs at Wal-Mart, so they can't have that big of an issue with the company.

Anyways, DC and Marvel do spend money at major bookstores. Those endcaps with books on display have been paid for by the publishers. I see them at Barnes and Noble all the time, with some combination of Superman, Batman or whatever the current superhero in vogue is. Bookstores aren't going to accept more than a dump (that's a cardboard box with colors) that's seperate from an aisle) for any one book.

And DC should be willing to pay for dumps for its bigger books, like the JMS Superman or the Johns Batman Earth One OGNs that are coming out.

[Juan Cena]

Does Diamond even service BAM or B&N? I thought the bookstore market had a different distributor.

I think Diamond has taken over in that area too.

[BlueStreak]

And which doesn't have a store in the state of Georgia, BTW. The closest one to the ATL is in Auburn, Al. (I just checked).

And that's one chain and may have been at just one store, for all I know. Where was BAM or B&N in all of this? If Diamond was willing to push FDCB in Hastings, why didn't it do it for BAM or B&N?

For B&N at least, they had the option but chose to pass as they had no desire to pony up extra staff and expenses for an event that doesn't have a large impact on their store sales.

As an FYI, Diamond doesn't sell B&N or BAM their comics, not directly at least. They sell them to a distributor, who sells them to B&N and BAM. The distributor allows a level of returnability that Diamond does not and basically eats the loss as a cost of doing business with major retailers. The last time I checked with B&N, Diamond refused to budge on the returnability issue because it meant that they'd have to make comics returnable for all retailers.

[GHERU]

just thinking where the graphic novels are usually in a B&N, FCBD would be a huge hassle for them
not only would they have to pay extra staff (who might know a little bit about comics), pay for books to give away for free, but they'd either (a) have to move their GNs to a part of the store that has the space for a table, staff, and the GNs for sale that are like the free books or (b) have the table of free stuff away from the GNs that are for sale and lose out on proximity purchasing

all for the chance that the customers from the small comic book market will spend enough money to off set all of that.

whereas - an LCS (at least the ones I've been to) keep their normal Saturday staff and have a really busy and fun day

[Victorian Squid]

just thinking...

More Outhousers should try this IMO.

[Chesscub]

For B&N at least, they had the option but chose to pass as they had no desire to pony up extra staff and expenses for an event that doesn't have a large impact on their store sales.

As an FYI, Diamond doesn't sell B&N or BAM their comics, not directly at least. They sell them to a distributor, who sells them to B&N and BAM. The distributor allows a level of returnability that Diamond does not and basically eats the loss as a cost of doing business with major retailers. The last time I checked with B&N, Diamond refused to budge on the returnability issue because it meant that they'd have to make comics returnable for all retailers.

Thanks for the explanation of how B&N and BAM handle things.

[Arion]

just thinking where the graphic novels are usually in a B&N, FCBD would be a huge hassle for them
not only would they have to pay extra staff (who might know a little bit about comics), pay for books to give away for free, but they'd either (a) have to move their GNs to a part of the store that has the space for a table, staff, and the GNs for sale that are like the free books or (b) have the table of free stuff away from the GNs that are for sale and lose out on proximity purchasing

all for the chance that the customers from the small comic book market will spend enough money to off set all of that.

whereas - an LCS (at least the ones I've been to) keep their normal Saturday staff and have a really busy and fun day

Yes, it could be a bit complicated.

[Juan Cena]

For B&N at least, they had the option but chose to pass as they had no desire to pony up extra staff and expenses for an event that doesn't have a large impact on their store sales.

As an FYI, Diamond doesn't sell B&N or BAM their comics, not directly at least. They sell them to a distributor, who sells them to B&N and BAM. The distributor allows a level of returnability that Diamond does not and basically eats the loss as a cost of doing business with major retailers. The last time I checked with B&N, Diamond refused to budge on the returnability issue because it meant that they'd have to make comics returnable for all retailers.

Which in turn says something about how Diamond's policies (and the industry's dependence on Diamond) probably hurt the industry more than helps it.

[Juan Cena]

just thinking where the graphic novels are usually in a B&N, FCBD would be a huge hassle for them
not only would they have to pay extra staff (who might know a little bit about comics), pay for books to give away for free, but they'd either (a) have to move their GNs to a part of the store that has the space for a table, staff, and the GNs for sale that are like the free books or (b) have the table of free stuff away from the GNs that are for sale and lose out on proximity purchasing

all for the chance that the customers from the small comic book market will spend enough money to off set all of that.

whereas - an LCS (at least the ones I've been to) keep their normal Saturday staff and have a really busy and fun day

I don't know if they would have to pay for extra staff for FCBD. BAM certainly had a lot of staff who weren't doing more than walking around and straightening up.

[J.M. Hunter]

I think another reason it fails is the books released just aren't big and showy enough.

I think you need a 100 page anthology with a nice variety of books to showcase a bunch of different teams, characters and genre's (if possible).

I do like how they tie in FCBD stories to the mainstream stories... but if someone isn't a Spidey fan (or whatever the book is) what's the draw? Hence the need for an anthology for variety.

I've been saying this as well. Check the thread I started.

[J.M. Hunter]

The maybe it's time to change the concept...

Agreed.

[J.M. Hunter]

I'm gonna mostly agree.

I'm leaning towards this as well.

[J.M. Hunter]

I've also taken up beard hair.