Steve Geppi
Credit: Geppi Family Enterprises
Diamond Comic Distributors was surprised, positively, at the first set of orders coming in since it went on hiatus in late March. Diamond, which is the primary distributor of comic books to comic book shops in North America, plans to resuming shipping later this month for a May 20 on-sale date – and the orders for those shipments are strong according to the owner.
“The [final orders] you reference have been coming in better than we thought,” Diamond owner Steve Geppi said during a chat with Dark Horse Comics’ Mike Richardson during a Comic Book News livechat. “We budgeted very carefully for our cash flow projections to anticipate what percentage of last year’s volume for week-to-week sales, and happily those numbers are coming in stronger.”
The final orders he would be refering to is the deadline, which was Monday, for retailers to place their orders for the May 20 books.
“I’m going to predict to you, right now, that in addition to our conservative [Final Order Cut-Off] adjustments, these books are going to sell out and they’re probably going to order more.”
They, in this case, would be comic book shop owners.
“Because I think goes back to the cosnumer,” Geppi continued. “Consumers have a pent-up desire. In this case, while ‘off the rack’ sales might suffer, those people with subscription services or ‘pull and hold’ are probably going to recapture a high percentage of what they deemed potentially lost.”
Geppi didn’t share any data on the percentage of comic book shops open now versus before the COVID-19 pandemic, or any estimation on how local restrictions on being open would affect retailers’ ability to sell to their customers.