Forum - View topicNEWS: Diamond Responds about Purchase Order Benchmark Change
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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My back-of-envelope numbers suggest that this is about five hundred copies a month, for most manga.
That's fairly high, isn't it? |
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teh*darkness
 Posts: 901 |
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Actually, considering that only select titles from Viz are considerably less than $9.99, this is only about 250 copies. With some Del-Rey titles which can cost up to $14.99, that number is even less. Though, that still might be a large number considering the state of the economy right now.
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14893 |
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Actually, the article states about $6200 retail:
NRAMA: So what’s the quick and dirty formula to gauge the benchmark? BS: We take a book that we buy at 60% off – $6,200 at retail equals roughly $2,500 of Diamond’s cost of goods. NRAMA: So any product needs to see retail sales of $6,200 across all the accounts serviced by Diamond in order to be listed? BS: Basically – it’s a guideline. There can be fluctuation. So, the manga volume has to sell $6200 worth of copies, assuming that 60% off applies to manga GNs too. Besides, most manga are sold in bookstores anyways, though even bookstores are cutting back too (though my recent rare visit to the Carle Place huge B&N still has a couple healthy shelves of manga, but there weren't many grazers, though a lot of kids and parents waiting for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid's Jeff Kinney's signing). |
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bglassbrook
 Posts: 1244 Location: Gaithersburg, MD |
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Considering how early in the article Diamond [surprisingly] mentions their 60% profit margin ... think higher.
Decent article, despite having a hard time believing they would talk so openly about their vendor base and gross margins like that. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14893 |
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I doubt all that 60% goes to Diamond. For one, the vendors get their cut too. $2500 is just to cover Diamond's own cost to buy. What I seem to find weird is that what matters is the $2500 that's Diamond's cost to buy, not how much % off Diamond gets. For instance, if a book still costs Diamond $2500 to buy but only at 50% off, then the book only has to sell $5000 retail worth of copies. That's even less profit slice for everyone. So is the lesson here: lessen the profit margin and therefore lessen your target retail sales goal? Theoretically, at 0% off for Diamond, the lowest retail sales goal would be $2500. Nobody profits, but if you can sell $2500 worth, Diamond will carry it, right? So, the target goal is easier for something that Diamond will earn no profit out of............. Isn't that counterproductive? |
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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The 60% is off RRP, so it includes the retailer's slice too. [me, I cannot for the life of me see how a line in a catalogue costs diamond anything worth anything. If I understand the situation rightly, Diamond's costs are almost entirely per-publisher, not per-item. It's not like Diamond does warehousing or anything, the books flow in one end and out the other.] |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 947 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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I was always under the impression that they did. |
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yuricon
 Posts: 147 |
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They do warehouse - that's how the "relisted" item orders are fulfilled. Schanes' comments that it will affect few publishers was a bit coy - it might not affect the number of publihsers, but it's absolutely going to affect the number of items you, the consumers, will be able to purchase through Amazon, book stores and comics stores. Especially if you miss the pre-order periods. Bookmark your favorite publisher's online shops - this will be the only way you'll get back issues and older titles for a while, until options are found or made. Cheers, Erica ALC Publishing - Where the girl always gets the girl http://www.anilesbocon.org/shop/alcp.html |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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Amazon uses Diamond? Huh. I guess I always thought they were big enough to where they could do their own... thing. I guess. Interesting. |
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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Eh? That's really quite surprising. They've got a demand that's entirely known a month out, they don't have to store unsold-and-returned merchandise while they work out what to do with it, and they get shipments from each publisher every month, or near enough. As far as I can see, there's no irregularity in supply or demand that they should need a warehouse to cover for. Just-in-time, like the profitable parts of the automotive industry, running it like a pump and not a reservoir... but fixing Diamond's problems isn't my problem, thanks be. |
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Wrial Huden
 Posts: 149 Location: McKinney, TX |
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Diamond is pretty much the only game in town as far as comic book distribution goes. Their competition was wiped out in the mid-90s (thanks in large part to Marvel's botched attempt as self-distributing their own books and comics). Publishers like DC, Dark Horse, Image, etc. signed exclusivity deals with Diamond in a panic over Marvel's self-distro scheme. Diamond's biggest competitor, Capital City, called it quits shortly thereafter. And Marvel had no choice but to give up their distribution business and go with now the only kid on the block, Diamond.
So now with this new policy of theirs in place, a publisher with a small following will have to ante up or use other means to get their product out there. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1860 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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I've been using comic shop re-orders to fill the gaps in my manga collection. Two weeks turn-around, if Diamond still has it in stock (pretty good for trans-Pacific shipping). That wouldn't be possible if Diamond only had enough stock to ship initial orders, with nothing left over. |
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Mawdryn
 Posts: 240 Location: St. Louis, MO. U.S.A. |
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They'll just pass the price along to the consumers and raise their prices--which, of course will cause the big publishers to eventually do the same, unfortunately... 
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