How to use this Page

I had a friend who was a manager at Hastings for a bout a year that got let go over a year ago. Even then, the environment for employees was not good and they really didn’t have a good feel for the comics market. Not surprising that they owe Funko more than Diamond. There seems to be a big excess of Funko Pops at all the local comic shops as well as Hot Topics.

The company went private in 2014.
Most stores are located in small cities (one is in Fremont, NE).
Unless Wal-Mart fills that void, some readers will have to either drive to a metropolitan area (not uncommon in the midwest, where day trips are popular), or make better use of the local library and interlibrary loan. Or go online.
But casual discovery? Browsing… that’s unlikely.

“A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.

““A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.”

It’ll help more than inventory sitting on the shelf unsold would.

i wonder if Diamond is able to absorb this kind of large financial hit? What will the domino effect be on the DM?

If they get pennies on the dollar, it won’t be for a very very long time.

>“A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.<

I suspect that the graphic novels were sourced via Diamond BOOK Distributors and various book store distributors. Those are returnable, although there are limits. Yup, the publisher/distributor takes a beating on returns… HarperCollins sunk Eclipse that way with The Hobbit.

Anything purchased via Diamond COMICS would be like a comics shop… it's one-way.
Diamond bought the stock from the companies, and re-sold it to Hastings, on credit. (They do this for many stores… I think it's a retail standard…. retail accounts get 60 or 90 days to pay each bill.)

So, Diamond is stuck, unless they signed some sort of distribution agreement with a publisher or company that says different.

Also, it should be noted:
When a book goes on sale in a bookstore, it does not affect a creator's royalties.
That is determined for every book sold, not on the sales price.
A publisher will sell a book for about 50% of the cover price to a store. The store can then discount the book if they feel they'll make more money doing so.
It doesn't matter if it's paid for full price at a comic con, or bought at 50% off on Amazon. The royalty paid to the creator is the same.

To the best of my knowledge, Diamond doesn’t offer more than 30 days to anyone.

This debt appears to be Diamond BOOK distributors which is a different company than the COMICS portion, but one which is probably in generally poor shape right now mostly because they’ve lost most of their client publishers — despite the lock on COMICS for the “Big Five”, Diamond BOOKS only appears to distribute IDW and Image — no Marvel, DC, or Dark Horse.

http://www.diamondbookdistributors.com/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=53&s=660&ai=70695&ssd= looks like a list of impacted pubs. I could be entirely wrong, but I think that everyone there other than IDW and Image DBD is “buy/sell”, where *DBD* will be the party out on the sale…. but what is Hastings going to have in stock? Probably a lot of Image and IDW (licensed) books. Those pubs may potentially be on the hook for at least some of the loss if the terms are similar to the “brokerage” deal that they have with DCD.

But that’s without actually having real knowledge of facts, and could be entirely wrong!!

-B

The bankruptcy court will decide which debts they have to pay and how much.

How much leverage the publisher has to get themselves paid probably depends on their size. Small publishers often walk away with nothing when a chain or distributor goes bankrupt. In cases like that, the creator will not get paid either. It’s happened to me multiple times.

Well, this is discouraging to say the least. I’ve lived in three distinct towns with a Hastings store– and it’s the only bookstore/comics presence in my rural hometown. They’ve got a solid selection of used GN’s that I’ve used to build my library over the years. And if you’ve never been in one, with all the pop culture ephemera they sell, they’re somewhat like a cross between Barnes and Noble and Hot Topic in feel.

I’ve been seeing some friends on Facebook mourning a bit over the news– for nerdy folks in smaller southern towns, they were a gateway into all kinds of material you wouldn’t find otherwise. There’s a big generation of pop culture enthusiasts that those stores nurtured. Hopefully they find a buyer!

Wonder what this will do to the comics industry as a whole.

Hastings commitment to comics was indifferent at best. Their book selection was increasingly limited.

I frequent 2 Hastings stores in the Spokane, WA area. The books section is dwindling, especially the Christian fiction section. All I want is a good book to read, I’m not into all the techy and comic stuff. I hope things get better or I’ll be off to Barns and Noble.