Book of Death: Legends of the Geomancer

[leonmallett]

Yet another reason why I think this plan was hugely flawed.

I am not going to claim to have predicted how things would fall out, but the way this was handled by VEI: artificially inflating the cost of story content; retailers were not really clear as a whole group was obvious; that VEI did not seem to plan for variations of distribution internationally; and the way a retailer like this has responded by inflating inflated prices for paid up customers all leaves a distinctly sour taste.

I hope VEI never consider doing this again, and hope they understand the strong feelings it has elicited, even by extension through retailer actions, much not good at all.

[ilzuccone]

Im not getting this book ( you all would hate me if you knew what price i turned down). and now that my 100% complete vei collection is not 100% i dont feel much of a desire to pick up the vei titles that have been slumping lately.

[leonmallett]

Im not getting this book ( you all would hate me if you knew what price i turned down). and now that my 100% complete vei collection is not 100% i dont feel much of a desire to pick up the vei titles that have been slumping lately.

Yep; like it or not they have engineered a jumping off point for 'some'. Considering there is a committed 4000-6000 reader base, I wonder how much that has pared down as a consequence?

I really don't see how this initiative translates into long-term growth of that base.

[erwinrafael]

Maybe they priced it based on a targeted volume, and then the orders they expected did not come in.

[possumgrease]

If I had been a Midtown customer, I would not be any longer. Very shady business practice to hold the book for ransom when the customer already paid.

[whovian]

If Midtown did this to me I'd be posting this sham all over social media and reporting them to the BBB. That's what's so sweet about the Internet -- companies that act like weasels can easily be outed. To me, super-hero comics should be all about honor and justice. This is how a retailer of such material acts? That's bull-patties!

I also agree that this whole Book of Death event is looking like the perfect jump-off point. Between this and the introduction of Divinity, it seems like Valiant is setting themselves up for a reboot. Hell, Divinity just seems to be a living, breathing reboot button. Did DC or Marvel secretly buy Valiant?

I'm not kidding when I say I enjoy what Archie Comics is doing: a horror universe, a super-hero universe that's as good as the best ones out there, and an overdue new look to their core characters that generally stays faithful to the past but brings the format into the present. Really great stuff! I hope they get back on their feet, get books out on schedule and publish more.

No word on my Geomancer order being canceled or held hostage yet. Guess I will know soon.

[kjjohanson]

Maybe they priced it based on a targeted volume, and then the orders they expected did not come in.

Doesn't matter. They offered it at a certain price, so they should honor that specific price. What especially sucks is that they upped the price after the opportunity to pre-order elsewhere had ended, and that their initial price was already more than enough to cover all of the books they had to order to obtain this one book anyway.

[kjjohanson]

I got the e-mail too and I cancelled the order. Isn't Ed selling sets of LotG 1-4 for $60 each? Why would I pay $42 for one book when I can get it for an average of $15? Anyway, I ordered from Midtown first, long ago, so happy they reminded me to cancel on their inferior deal!

It was $50 for all 4 issues (broken down to 20-10-10-10 I guess), so just slightly more than the cost of issue one from Midtown, but the sets are sold out now.

[JCP]

I got a response e-email from Midtown which was very generic to my concern and seemed to fall on deaf ears. I sent them back a nasty gram saying to pay closer attention to my complaint or I'm done as a customer. I'll be taking to social media shortly.

[nycjadie]

They always send a generic email before responding in person. Don't take offense to that. Take offense to them not honoring their quoted price. Bad customer experience. I only order from them once in a blue moon now, and I didn't order this book through them. However, this story will mean that I will use them even less, if at all, in the future.

[JCP]

They first sent a generic auto-response saying a customer service rep would personally respond. Then they sent s follow up saying use the word chronos for 40% select back issues next week and said sorry for the price increase without any sincerity.

[JCP]

Here is their response.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us.

Discount code : chronos
July 8-14 - 40% off select current comics and recent back issues
If you would like to speak to a phone representative you can reach us at 888.511.5480 or through online LIVE CHAT support, Monday-Friday 9:30am-4:30pm EST


Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.


Thank you kindly,

Midtown Comics

[Keith]

Six months from now, I'm betting a lot of people in this thread will be saying:

Of course, who and why is open to ongoing, mind numbing debate.

[whovian]

Six months from now, I'm betting a lot of people in this thread will be saying:

Of course, who and why is open to ongoing, mind numbing debate.

"I should have abandoned Valiant when I had the chance!"

[Keith]

Six months from now, I'm betting a lot of people in this thread will be saying:

Of course, who and why is open to ongoing, mind numbing debate.

"I should have abandoned Valiant when I had the chance!"

"Why oh why did I abandon Valiant!"

[JCP]

Midtown just waived shipping costs for me and apologized, saying the increase was outside of their control. Better than nothing I suppose. I'll be reluctant to use them again unless they're the only ones carrying what I'm looking for.

[drmirage]

Crazy for Midtown to do this. I think DCBS does a better job at honoring pricing.

That's why it's great that we have ZED / "ED" on this site. Something like this would never happen with Zed and you always will get amazing service and deals.

[JCP]

I'm honored to have renamed Ed, FWIW.

[jeremycoe]

"Outside of their control" is as blatant a lie as it comes.

[kjjohanson]

"Outside of their control" is as blatant a lie as it comes.

Strange that plenty of other retailers have control over what they are charging.

[greg]

I don't know anything about the Midtown situation, but here's a thought...

Book of Death #1 was available at a HUGE discount according to Previews... but it had a rule:

BOOK OF DEATH #1 (OF 4) CVR A GILL.......................................................................................... $3.99
(NOTE: Order the min number of copies of Book of Death #1 (cvrs A-E any comb) based on your DCD disc tier and total order is fully
returnable and will rcv 80% disc. Speak with your CS Rep or see retailer website to ID disc tier.)

What if Midtown didn't order the correct minimum number of copies... causing the books to be closer to $2 each, instead of the $0.80 cost for those who got the discount?

[kjjohanson]

I don't know anything about the Midtown situation, but here's a thought...

Book of Death #1 was available at a HUGE discount according to Previews... but it had a rule:

BOOK OF DEATH #1 (OF 4) CVR A GILL.......................................................................................... $3.99
(NOTE: Order the min number of copies of Book of Death #1 (cvrs A-E any comb) based on your DCD disc tier and total order is fully
returnable and will rcv 80% disc. Speak with your CS Rep or see retailer website to ID disc tier.)

What if Midtown didn't order the correct minimum number of copies... causing the books to be closer to $2 each, instead of the $0.80 cost for those who got the discount?

The information that's been consistently presented about this is that the minimum for any retailer is 25 copies. I imagine that Midtown's combined orders (for three NYC stores and online) exceeded that by multiple orders of magnitude.

[Tony_H]

I don't know anything about the Midtown situation, but here's a thought...

Book of Death #1 was available at a HUGE discount according to Previews... but it had a rule:

BOOK OF DEATH #1 (OF 4) CVR A GILL.......................................................................................... $3.99
(NOTE: Order the min number of copies of Book of Death #1 (cvrs A-E any comb) based on your DCD disc tier and total order is fully
returnable and will rcv 80% disc. Speak with your CS Rep or see retailer website to ID disc tier.)

What if Midtown didn't order the correct minimum number of copies... causing the books to be closer to $2 each, instead of the $0.80 cost for those who got the discount?

Mistakes up the purchase chain make no difference to the consumer who already paid for the good from the vendor at the vendor's asking price and wasn't notified by the sellet in advance that the price of purchase could be increased between time of purchase and tender of expected goods. Risk of underpricing rested with the vendor before he offered to sell at a price certain in the first place. Tough luck to him if he made a mistake with his wholesale buyer's price and undersold himself at retail.

[raiden]

Not sure if this was posted already, but apparently BoD orders have been so successful, VEI is running a similar promotion for Wrath of the Eternal Warrior

They also looked at the big markup retailers are getting on Book Of Death #1, and how a number of retailers are creating promotions to take advantages of it, discounts, incentives for sales staff to hand sell and raffling off the 1/25 limited series Legends Of Geomancer.

But it has been so successful for Valiant, giving them 70,000 pre-orders, they will be doing the same with Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/07/10/ ... retailers/

[leonmallett]

<sigh>