The big snowstorm which smacked much of the Northeast has claimed Diamond Distribution’s phone and power lines, as John Jackson Miller writes:
The first Monday of the month is normally when the Top 300 lists to be released — but against the great snowstorm, not even comics sales charts can stand. Power is out at the Diamond home offices in Timonium, Md., this morning, affecting all websites (including the Comics Shop Locator service), e-mail, and phone traffic, according to Cheryl Sleboda, Diamond’s customer service manager for technical support. Sleboda writes on the Comic Book Industry Alliance forum that crews are working on the problem, and that Diamond hopes to reopen this afternoon.
Any complications from this serves us right for buying into a monopoly.
I hope the comic truckers are used to driving in snow, or we’ll see more comics being um, ditched. Form a Comics Convoy, boys.
Thanks for letting us know!
Dan Manser says Diamond’s home office will not reopen until tomorrow until the earliest.
He also says there may be some weather-related impact on the retailers receiving orders from the Olive Branch, Mississippi warehouse; as my mother, who lives nearby, just phoned me in a panic, snow is dumping there right now.
Odd. For some reason I’m surprised that they host their website in-house.
Stranger than hosting a website in house is that the servers did not have a backup generator or power supply. (Especially given the last blackout.) Perhaps it didn’t last? No mirror site at Mississippi, where I suspect most of the business occurs?
I hope everyone’s okay. I guess they could burn old … no, that would be barbaric.
More snow is expected tomorrow and/or Wednesday, so we could see next week’s books effected too.
Expect delays in delivery in the eastern half of the country. Big snow starts soon. UPS trucks may be slowed.