I just want to rant for a minute...

[Scotty]

Diamond isn't a monopoly. A bunch of local comic book shops went and sued them after they bought up Capital City right before Marvel tried to be their own distributor in the late 90's. It was ruled because local shops could get comic and things from other sources (most of which got their comics at a distrubtor level through diamond but who's looking at that) such as Bookstores, Drug Stores, Magazine Stands, and the handful of indie distributors at the time, that it didn't hold up to the Monopoly laws that broke up Ma Bell.

As for Diamond Horror stories my favorite was from last year we had ordered 64 copies of Ultimate Spideman and 20 copies of Ultimate Fantastic Four. Diamond sent us 64 copies of UFF and 20 Ultimate SPider-man, when I called to get the error fixed they said there were no more Ultimate Spider-Man and there was no way they could replace the error.

As for warehouses Jeffery, yours should be coming out of Memphis and I think Diamond hires monkeys to pack boxes. It's rarely right, or rarely not damaged.

[Garra]

Ahhhh Jeff some of your rants could very easily have came from me as well.

The money thing has gotten bad around here. In the last few days I have had 2 good friends go apply and receive the cash. One got $2000, the other got $1600.

As sad as it is that people are getting money who imo do not really need it, it bothers me just as much that these organizations are just throwing it out to anyone. All the cash that is going to others, could be going to the folks who really could use it.

Here is an example of how carelessly they are handing out the cash. This is the story my friend who got the $1600 related to me.

He is in college, and living with his parents, he is moving out into his own place at the end of this month. So for Katrina & Rita he of course was at home with his parents. SInce he is moving out, going to school full time and working part time he went to go apply for food stamps.

While doing so the lady he spoke with asked him questions like how much food did they lose from power outages? How much cash did you have to spend to but materials to protect your home (i.e. boards for windows, nails, flashlights, ect) He answered those questions, explaining he was at his parents house and he didnt know exactly the answers because HE didnt pay for any of it, but he estimated the amounts. (About $200 for food and about $100 for materials if anyone wanted to know) She then asked how much money he had in his bank account. Being the semester just began 6 weeks ago he is still pretty broke and I think he said he had under $100.

So then she goes and gives him the $1600 to be added to his account. Said he qualified for it. Granted my friend is a poor ass college student, working a shitty part time job wit his hours so few it barely qualifies as even part time. But how this qualifies him to be entitled to cash is beyond me.

It doesnt make alot of sense to me.

[justjeffery]

As for Diamond Horror stories my favorite was from last year we had ordered 64 copies of Ultimate Spideman and 20 copies of Ultimate Fantastic Four. Diamond sent us 64 copies of UFF and 20 Ultimate SPider-man, when I called to get the error fixed they said there were no more Ultimate Spider-Man and there was no way they could replace the error.

As for warehouses Jeffery, yours should be coming out of Memphis and I think Diamond hires monkeys to pack boxes. It's rarely right, or rarely not damaged.

Ultimate Spidey 80... sent every copy damaged.. not by UPS... the INNER box was crushed, then packaged into a larger box which was fine... and sent to me.. after a month + of putting me off, I was told "sorry, dont have any to give you"...

So I contacted Marvel about it AND spoke to an regional manager while I was in Chicago... come to find out, he was supposed to overnight me the books and didnt bother... so now that I have that piece of info, they tend to get on my shortages pretty quick.

But yeah, they clearly dredge the bottom of the barrel of the workforce in Memphis to pick up warehouse workers...

[Lord Jermaine Retail]

Diamond isn't a monopoly. A bunch of local comic book shops went and sued them after they bought up Capital City right before Marvel tried to be their own distributor in the late 90's. It was ruled because local shops could get comic and things from other sources (most of which got their comics at a distrubtor level through diamond but who's looking at that) such as Bookstores, Drug Stores, Magazine Stands, and the handful of indie distributors at the time, that it didn't hold up to the Monopoly laws that broke up Ma Bell.

As for Diamond Horror stories my favorite was from last year we had ordered 64 copies of Ultimate Spideman and 20 copies of Ultimate Fantastic Four. Diamond sent us 64 copies of UFF and 20 Ultimate SPider-man, when I called to get the error fixed they said there were no more Ultimate Spider-Man and there was no way they could replace the error.

As for warehouses Jeffery, yours should be coming out of Memphis and I think Diamond hires monkeys to pack boxes. It's rarely right, or rarely not damaged.

memphis? Are you sure? That's where our stuff comes from. Is there no closer warehouse? I know that re-orders can come from different warehouses depending on who has what.

[Lord Jermaine Retail]

Ultimate Spidey 80... sent every copy damaged.. not by UPS... the INNER box was crushed, then packaged into a larger box which was fine... and sent to me.. after a month + of putting me off, I was told "sorry, dont have any to give you"...

So I contacted Marvel about it AND spoke to an regional manager while I was in Chicago... come to find out, he was supposed to overnight me the books and didnt bother... so now that I have that piece of info, they tend to get on my shortages pretty quick.

But yeah, they clearly dredge the bottom of the barrel of the workforce in Memphis to pick up warehouse workers...

memphis has sent me boxes with chewing gum, peanut shells, banged up comics, missing comics. But sometimes they throw in highlighter markers too and those are neat!

[Scotty]

For the south region it's Memphis, I think Diamond only has three warehouses in the country.

[Scotty]

memphis has sent me boxes with chewing gum, peanut shells, banged up comics, missing comics. But sometimes they throw in highlighter markers too and those are neat!

Let's see we got 8 highlighters in various colors, 5 Huge Black PAper Clips, 2 Clip Boards and someone's dirty hat.

[Lord Jermaine Retail]

Let's see we got 8 highlighters in various colors, 5 Huge Black PAper Clips, 2 Clip Boards and someone's dirty hat.

Sweet! Its like opening a box of crackerjacks each Wednesday!

[Scotty]

Sweet! Its like opening a box of crackerjacks each Wednesday!

Funny thing was we sold the hat. =)

[justjeffery]

Let's see we got 8 highlighters in various colors, 5 Huge Black PAper Clips, 2 Clip Boards and someone's dirty hat.

I just shot off this angry email.

Dear Lou

Just wanted to say thank you for getting everything on my invoice this week... I know I mostly just email to bitch and complain... and, well, this is no different...

After having spoken with a number of other retail folks, it's come to my attention that I am not getting the same "perks" as they are... I'm hearing about highlighters, paperclips... and CLIP BOARDS! DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING CLUE HOW MUCH I LOVE CLIPBOARDS??? MY store deserves clipboards and paper clips also.. and God forbid I get a treat as special as one guy and get a HAT! What's a shop gotta do to sign up for the special hat shipment?

Get off your ass and get me my highlighters before I drive over there with a milk truck full of industial strength whoop ass and start hosing down your office with it... bitch.

Jeffery