As the first level of protection, Amazon.com and other online retailers have successfully employed protective terms and conditions which they invoke to avoid honoring pricing errors. Their websites include legal pages with disclaimers reserving the right to refuse to honor pricing errors. For example, Amazon.com’s site lists its pricing policy under its Conditions of Use. It states that despite Amazon.com’s best efforts, a small number of items may be mispriced and if an item’s correct price is higher than their stated price, they will, at their discretion, either contact the purchaser for instructions before shipping or cancel their order with notification.

The strategy is still in effect:

With respect to items sold by Amazon, we cannot confirm the price of an item until you order; however, we do NOT charge your credit card until after your order has entered the shipping process. Despite our best efforts, a small number of the items in our catalog may be mispriced. If an item’s correct price is higher than our stated price, we will, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation.

From the legal standpoint, Amazon.com probably wasn’t obligated to fill any orders.

SRS

Sure, you can. Department stores used to have things called “rain checks” for a reason, once upon a time. However, nowadays the bait and switch tactic with standard boilerplate over “limited quantities” has become the more prevailing method in screwing over customers who came in for the deals.

I’m saying that not because I don’t want PHONOGRAM to be commercially viable or Gillen and McKelvie to earn a living doing the comic — I do.

I’m saying it because PHONOGRAM, as it stands, is one of the most visionary, ambitious and creatively successful comics of the last decade. Depending on how hands-on Vertigo would be and given the fact that Vertigo hasn’t exactly had a great strike rate when it comes to such works lately, are we sure we would have WANTED this book to be published by Vertigo, considering whatever creative compromises might have been involved in getting there?

I know it’s easy to say for me, given that I’ve got no commercial stake in PHONOGRAM other than the $ 3.50 I gladly invested in each new issue. But I think it’s worth considering.

(Oh, to dispel the impression that I’m talking — and linking — to myself here, I should add that I’m not the author of the “Kibbles ‘n’ Bits” post.)

While some states may share those laws be true, a big part of the issue is supply. Amazon first tried to assuage the situation by shipping 1 copy of the books, instead of the multiple issues many had ordered, but even at the reduced quantities, they still just plain ran out of books. There aren’t 10,000 of these things sitting around at Amazon or at Diamond. That isn’t how supply chain purchasing works.

If you go into Wal-Mart first thing in the morning on Black Friday, somehow manage not to crush an employee to death against the doors of the store, and happen to be the 36th person to reach the sony flatscreens when there were only 35 of them in stock, you can’t blame walmart for that. You can’t demand they honor a specific price if there is no stock left. Really the only thing you can do at that point is reign blows down upon #35.

I know exactly how that feels.

The failure of Phonogram to catch on is one of the most depressing things I’ve heard about comics publishing in ages. As much as I love Image’s creator-centric setup, I can’t help but think another, more hipster-friendly publisher might have been better suited to getting this type of material in the hands of the right people. Then again, Comic Book Tattoo and Put the Book Back on the Shelf sold like gangbusters, so who knows what went wrong exactly.

I don’t think that’s what Kieron said at all… he cited Vertigo as probably not being possible due to legal issues with the book’s use of actual songs. I know for a fact that most of the editors at Vertigo love Phonogram. How could they not? It would be a perfect book for them otherwise. (Young Liars may not have survived in the long run, but it was absolutely a quirky book with indie music appeal that Vertigo was happy to publish)

Kieron also said he hasn’t seriously pursued other publishers, which kills me because I love this book to death.

brian w