Big Hobby/Game Distributor Goes Bankrupt!

[@kwisatz_haderach1445]

There is an old saying “how did you go bankrupt?” ‘Slowly at first then all at once!’

[@michaelnomnomandryuk]

They're a small fish, but Onyx Path Publishing formed in 2012 with the specific business practice of not working with Diamond/Alliance or other distributors. They bullied RPG companies so much that it just didn't make sense to work with them. One story I recall from the 00s is that you couldn't find some White Wolf RPG books in stores. If the store called the distributor, they claimed it was sold out. When White Wolf called Diamond, they claimed they had books but no one was ordering them. Turns out they were not selling books and holding what they had so they wouldn't have to buy a new stock of books Bizarre.

[@FelipeBudinich]

Shit shitty companies do when they achieve oligopoly status.

[@lim4091]

I think it was the Mastering Dungeons podcast that was saying that diamond/alliance has exclusive deals with Marvel and DC before the pandemic such that only they could distribute their stuff. The pandemic hit and they said they wouldn’t distribute their cards, so marvel and dc went elsewhere, which started the decline

[@JasonRoe71]

Color me not surprised. Our store had so many headaches with Diamond we pretty much stopped using Diamond to supply our comics. We had so many instances of late deliveries and damaged merchandise we stopped using them a couple of years ago. You just can’t service a community when the supplier is so inconsistent that you are surprised when the deliveries arrive on time.

[@tempusavatar]

The difficult part is to decide to break up your purchasing across different distributors and by doing so lose a really good discount. Our store decided not to switch to PRH, but we've been talking about our options in the last week or so.

[@funTimesInTheSun]

Sounds like bad management.

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

This is the prevailing theory.

[@RowdiesFan1]

Now THIS is the niche content I subscribe for.

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

Bless

[@TheKarnophage]

It was a self-inflicted wound. At the start of the pandemic Steve Geppi decided to close down distribution for a while. DC and Marvel scrambled to find other outlets since they were not going to stop publishing. By the time Geppi corrected his mistake it was too late

[@williamwhyte9697]

yeah as soon as they lost their comic distribution monopoly in NA, Diamond was a dead company walking.

[@tempusavatar]

Competition fuels innovation. Without competition for 20 years, DCD grew complacent and stagnant. I'm impressed with Lunar, for being a younger company their customer service is exemplary, and their website's retailer experience is always improving.

[@ChoppasSluggasandShootas]

We deal with Alliance all the time and our Rep is great, the owners worked with him for at least the last 12 years, but everything has gotten far to expensive and it has definitely become a hassle trying to keep stock on point as sales fluctuate down them surge up suddenly and we have to wait months before we can up our orders. I'm not surprised that the parent company has finally gone bankrupt, because I didn't really enjoy dealing with them back in the 90's

[@mikegrant8031]

I can echo all the Diamond issues raised. On the flip side I have had a great experience from alliance game distro.

[@stuartmc4422]

Wow, I didn't realise that price gouging from distributors was a thing. I would've thought that they were obliged to sell to retail at or below a specific price similar to RRP.

[@Dee-lg7ke]

I rely on alliance game distributors for my army painter (I stock the complete range) catalyst games labs, hex tech, chessex dice and more. I hope they are bought up, the reps are very helpful great company.

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

Sounds like Alliance is the most valuable part of the business so will very likely get bought

[@earnestwanderer2471]

Okay but how does this affect the upstream companies? I mean, Army Painter or Warmachine has a half million dollars of credit they’ve extended to the distributor. The distributor goes toes up. What happens? Does the manufacturer ever see that money? I would bet that the paints and minis are already gone. Sold down stream and the income used to prop up underperforming divisions rather than to pay off the credit extended to the paint company.

[@40KWill]

Bankruptcy

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

This is why they are filing for chapter 11. They will be sold off in chunks and that money has to go to the banks and their suppliers.

[@chad534]

They should look into being able to distribute Trench Crusade ;)

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

Would have saved everything!

[@alexandercrumulent271]

Diamond is not really a tragedy. They killed themselves when they shut down the entire supply chain during Covid. They unilaterally decided not to ship out for months and DC jumped ship.

[@klavakkhazga3996]

In Europe at least comic stores survive on manga and funkos, it's a pretty sad state of affairs for US and european comics

[@atlanta_greg_7612]

I collected Image in the 90s - Nighthawk mostly and some Spawn

[@atlanta_greg_7612]

Thats wild , I didn’t know the hobby/comic market operated on “fronts”… I thought consignment was mostly a black market industry thing.

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

Extended credit is huge

[@traestorm]

So... you guys sell AP stull as well as others. How does that affect you folks? Does you Canadian distribution get items from Diamond?

[@IOnlyWantToWatchIt]

Great video! But why did you say "Patreon" so wierd at the end there?

[@marshaledrek71]

Hate to hear bad news like that, but I heard rumors they were struggling now for a few years. That is kinda what I've heard about the comic industry as a whole over the last several years.

[@tempusavatar]

The comic industry has been catering to the influx of new speculation whales created by the pandemic. Nobody has really been 'reading' comics since 2020, and comics haven't been made to be read. However the gold rush is ending and speculators are starting to leave the market slowly, and I've noticed more young people (15-25) looking at the newsstand and actually reading, caring about the stories again. Things are turning around slowly.

[@vaderkoshpaints]

I do wonder more and more of the FLGS is just a dying thing. I know you gents pride yourself on being knowledgeable on hobby, but if someone is willing to spend some time looking up information they could do that themselves and products are available on many places, often cheaper than a brick and mortar store. When more people focus on cost and availability, vs visiting Cheers, it will be interesting to see where things go.

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

while there are more resources then ever its one of those things were (at least with the hands on stuff like painting and tools) you can't just watch the videos. There is a real benefit (if your FLGS is run well with people that know stuff) to being able to come in person and get help or introduced to the games/groups. There is probably a saturation point for number of stores though.

[@margaretwood152]

[@bryanvestal3923]

Comics are just not well written anymore. In fact they are worse written than the worst stuff of the 80s and 90s. Couple that with all the gimmicks and high prices. There's no wonder people don't read them as much.

[@tempusavatar]

Generally, comics are not currently made to be read. They're made to feed the speculation market which boomed because of the pandemic. But that bubble is starting to burst, and this year I've seen more young readers engage with the newsstand and the conversations with subscribers is more 'hey I like this story ' and less 'hey is this going to be worth money in the future.' it's slowly turning around.

[@actualwafflesenjoyer]

american comics are largely produced an outdated format