Image via Wikipedia
This is going to be the hardest hole to fill for our online only comic book store, where to find independents, things not in the Diamond Catalog for our online only store. This is where life is going to be hard for the robust online selling community. Of course there is always craig’s list, but finding large collections is few and far between, and as the recession grinds on prices are inflating across the used comic book listings there. People still think that a batch of 1990’s early 2000’s Marvel and DC comics is worth tens of thousands of dollars.
The good part is that Diamond is online store friendly, if you are only online and have your own domain and your own shopping cart Diamond is going to help you out. The other route is to start working with publishers directly. The downside to working with publishers is that many of these are one person operations, and trying to simply find a way to get hold of them is nearly impossible. I am still trying to get hold of Radio Comix and that has been a year long journey into hades trying to even find a way to contact them.
Other sites like Comics Monkey will not deal with online only retail stores, which is their right it is their store they can do what they want, but I’ll quote here.
Any and all brick and mortar comics specialty shops are welcomed to buy comics and graphic novels here. If you have a physical comic book specialty shop then ComicsMonkey is for you … and ONLY for you. ComicsMonkey sells specifically to comic book shops. Brokers, re-distributors, online sellers, or anyone else OTHER than comic book specialty shops with a physical location that is open to the public do NOT qualify to purchase comics from ComicsMonkey. We’re sorry to have to say this, but we reserve the right — in our sole discretion — to refuse service to anyone who does not meet our criteria as a comic book specialty shop.
Which is too bad, there are a lot of people who ordered from Haven, who need to really find a new distributor badly. Comics Monkey could probably increase their business base by incorporating some of the larger online only stores. And there are a number of them that spend good money every month ordering independents.
As I mentioned earlier there is also Tony Shenton, but as The Beat mentions, he is only one man. I know we tried our hand at distribution earlier this year only to watch no one come. I also know that people who attend Comics Pro really wanted to have an alternative to Diamond, but obviously not enough to keep Haven afloat.
So right now I am looking to build a list of any comic book store friendly (on or off line) distributors that could possibly replace haven. If you know of such a store, please list it below in the comments and we will check it out, and do the leg work to make sure they get a little press about their very existence.
Related articles
- Sad news in Comics Distribution today Haven Distro to shut down (comicsforge.com)
- Lovestruck the Graphic Novel (comicsforge.com)
- Comics Forge Interviews Dirk Tiede (comicsforge.com)
- On DC’s “New 52″ and Comic Book Retailer Brian Hibbs’ Enthusiasm for Same (joeymanley.com)
- The Scariest Comic Books of All-Time! – The Wolves of Saint August (goodcomics.comicbookresources.com)
- comiXology Acquires PopShopOnline, Connecting Comic Book Fans with Local Retailers (prweb.com)
