Diamond Comic Distributors informed Direct Market retailers today via email that it would not be shipping comics in the fifth week of December. The final shipping date in December will be the 23rd, and you won’t see new comics until January 6. The holiday season typically comes with some delays – usually one or two days – but it is unusual if not unprecedented for two weeks to pass without new comics in stores.
“Most of our customers receive their shipments via 1-Day, 2-Day, or 3-Day UPS, with 3-Day shipments tendered to UPS on Friday,” explained Diamond Vice President of Operations Cindy Fournier in an email obtained by CBR News. “With Christmas and New Year’s falling on Friday this year, we would not be able to tender product for 3-Day retailers until Monday, December 28. But because there will be no UPS service on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, product which could reach 1-Day and 2-Day retailers on December 30, would not reach our 3-Day UPS customers until January 4. In light of this, and based on conversations with our customers and suppliers, we agreed that a skip week was the fairest, most prudent way to proceed.”
Reship information is as follows:
- Those placed by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 13 will ship to customers on Wednesday, December 23.
- Those placed from December 13 to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 20 will ship to customers on Wednesday, January 6.
- Those placed by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 27 will ship to customers on Wednesday, January 13.
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