Diamond Comic Distributors Files Bankruptcy, Sells Alliance Game Distributors

The parent company of one of the key tabletop industry gatekeepers has filed for bankruptcy. Alliance Game Distributors is set to be acquired by Universal Distribution.

According to the filings the company owes money to various tabletop industry creditors (thanks to @Abstruse for the list):

• Wizards of the Coast: $914,602
• Hasbro (separately): $1,064,378
• Catalyst Game Labs (BattleTech, Shadowrun, Voltron): $401,483
• Army Painter Ap5 (miniature paint manufacturer): $316,296
• Publisher Services, Inc (board game and TTRPG distributor): $223,141

Also, NECA is owed $2,682,994. This is mostly from collectibles, but NECA also owns WizKids and Alliance handled distribution for HeroClix and their various D&D/Pathfinder miniature lines.

You can see a more complete list of all of the companies owed money over at comicsbeat.com.

 

[Morrus]

Ah, then perhaps this bodes ill for Goodman Kickstarter backers like me?

Distributors don’t do Kickstarter fulfilment.

 

[MGibster]

Oh, wow. I kind of forgot these kind of distributors were a thing. It's a throwback to the old days when I'd ask my FLGS to special order something and they'd tell me they couldn't get it from their distributor. I kind of thought maybe they just didn't want to go through the trouble of ordering it for me sometimes.

 

[Morrus]

Oh, wow. I kind of forgot these kind of distributors were a thing. It's a throwback to the old days when I'd ask my FLGS to special order something and they'd tell me they couldn't get it from their distributor. I kind of thought maybe they just didn't want to go through the trouble of ordering it for me sometimes.

They could probably get it direct from the publisher. We do direct retail orders as we’re not able to access the NA distribution networks (except via Modiphius).

 

[dbolack]

Any initial view on what the impact of this will be, @Morrus? Do they distribute RPGs for many publishers? Do they tend to be the primary distribution channel in certain sectors? You are much more informed on this sort of thing than us consumers.

The grandparents of this situation were once the big dogs in the space. Then the merger happened and Chssex with the Armory... then...

Eh. Chessex still owes me money.

 

[dbolack]

Oh, wow. I kind of forgot these kind of distributors were a thing. It's a throwback to the old days when I'd ask my FLGS to special order something and they'd tell me they couldn't get it from their distributor. I kind of thought maybe they just didn't want to go through the trouble of ordering it for me sometimes.

Usually, when you couldn't get it from your distributor it was because they couldn't be arsed to look and see if they had inventory or reorder it if not. Some had a well-known reputation for saying a company was out of business rather than "we're out of stock and don't anticipate reordering."

Distributors were a great thing when you needed to shave nickels off of shipping costs and it was a lot cheaper then.

 

[dbolack]

Distributors don’t do Kickstarter fulfilment.

I've had a couple of kickstarters fullfilled out of distributors, though I would bet those were far more straight-forward dropshipping type situations.

 

[EthanSental]

Diamond got hammered when marvel and dc went to different comic distributors in the states a couple years ago after having them both locked up since around the 1994ish internal marvel heroes world distributor move that backfired and corresponded with the comic spec market around the same time.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Usually, when you couldn't get it from your distributor it was because they couldn't be arsed to look and see if they had inventory or reorder it if not. Some had a well-known reputation for saying a company was out of business rather than "we're out of stock and don't anticipate reordering."

While I've certainly seen my share of what you're describing above, I'd caution you not to assume.

At MY Comic & Game store, we consider "getting you what you ask for" to be the whole point of the job. We will bend over backwards to do it.

And oftentimes, our distributors (what am I up to, six of them? Nine?) don't have any, or have jacked the price above retail, or have it at some warehouse but won't ship to our local one, or various other excuses.

Or frequently, lately, their system says "Yup! We have it! Yup! You ordered it!" And then there's crickets. And I have to pester them with, "So how about sending me them, then?"

Distributors were a great thing when you needed to shave nickels off of shipping costs and it was a lot cheaper then.

It's still the best way to save on shipping, in spite of being an arm and a leg for shipping these days.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Diamond got hammered when marvel and dc went to different comic distributors in the states a couple years ago after having them both locked up since around the 1994ish internal marvel heroes world distributor move that backfired and corresponded with the comic spec market around the same time.

It was '96, IIRC. But yeah, basically.

Oh, and apparently it IS the Canadian Universal Distribution that is going to buy Alliance, and possibly Diamond UK too!

 

[Abstruse]

Here's what a few TTRPG and related companies are owed by Diamond and/or Alliance according to the filings:

Wizards of the Coast: $914,602
Hasbro (separately): $1,064,378
Catalyst Game Labs (BattleTech, Shadowrun, Voltron): $401,483
Army Painter Ap5 (miniature paint manufacturer) $316,296
Publisher Services, Inc (board game and TTRPG distributor): $223,141

Also, NECA is owed $2,682,994. This is mostly from collectibles, but NECA also owns WizKids and Alliance handled distribution for HeroClix and their various D&D/Pathfinder miniature lines.