The Week in Diamond: non-payments, non-shipping and $10 million lost value

Yet another week in Diamond as we settle into the muddy slog: weeks and months if not years of legal wrangling and complaints. As someone put it in a FB comment “Junkyard dogs fighting over a chewed up bone.”

There are some positive developments as well but I’ll give them their own headlines. Also, scroll to the end for an explainer if you came in late. And if you did, I’m very sorry. 

For clarity’s sake I’m going to call the pre-May 16th Diamond Comics Distributors Diamond, and the Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop run Diamond Comics, New Diamond. They are different companies that share the same business name. 

New Diamond cancels No Cost Reorders: 

Publishers yesterday were very concerned when they were told that Diamond would no longer be fulfilling No Cost Reorders (NCRs) as revealed in a FB post by Fabrice Sapolsky, complete with terse screenshot. NCRs, as Sapolsky explained, are when publishers need copies of their books – to sell at shows, or any other reason. 

Sapolsky wrote:

The #DiamondComics farce continues.

As of today, they’re discontinuing their No Cost Reorder service.

Which is what we publishers used to get our books from their warehouse when we needed them for conventions or signings.

So now, we have 7500 copies of our graphic novels stuck at the Olive Branch MS warehouse and we need it back ASAP.

So, after not fulfilling their contractual obligation to pay us for the books they sell/sold, Diamond is going to hold our stock hostage?

This is another painful development.

If other publishers want to reach out, I’d be happy to talk to them about potential legal action.

We’re completely in the dark. No message. No email. No calls. No communication from the new Diamond management. This is bad. Really bad.

PS: We’ve been looking for a new book distributor for months (Not for Direct Market, for bookstores and libraries). But so far, we haven’t been lucky. To be continued…

The Beat communicated with several other publishers who had the same issue. And were very upset about it. Diamond’s Olive Branch warehouse contains thousands and thousands of products – comics, toys, games – and many of them (but not all) are there on CONSIGNMENT. They are owned by the publisher, but Diamond ships them out when there are orders. 

Publishers have been told to contact Robert Gorin, the co-Chief Restructuring Officer at Getzler Henrich, the company Diamond hired to oversee their restructuring. Gorin is a key figure in the decision making during these bankruptcy proceedings. But we haven’t heard of any response yet. 

Not being able to access their stock is obviously of great concern to publishers still working with New Diamond because….

New Diamond is not paying publishers for sales since May 16th. 

This has been reported for the last week. Sapolsky again on FB: 

Publishers x Diamond Distributors. Episode 594.
Statements come weekly.
Payments don’t. #WTF

Roughly speaking, as I understand it, there are three periods for payments from Diamond/New Diamond:

• End of November through January 14th: Diamond was getting shaky with payments to publishers and suppliers prior to filing for bankruptcy and one reckoning can be seen in this massive filing listing creditors and the amount owed. These are not final amounts, but they are to be paid through money received from the bankruptcy sale.
• January 15th-May 16th: Under the bankruptcy proceedings, my understanding is that suppliers were being paid regularly, partly financed by a loan from Chase Bank, as well as money collected from comics shops and so on. 
• May 16th: The sale to Universal and Ad Populum closed on this date, and responsibility for paying suppliers moved over to New Diamond. 

According to this rather confusing report, payments have not been made since May 16th. That’s nearly a month. New Diamond has been saying they made payments to Old Diamond, and payments prior to May 16th are the responsibility of the bankruptcy officials, but it doesn’t seem to be clear who is responsible for new payments. Obviously not good for anyone still left at New Diamond, especially since…..

NEW DIAMOND HAS LOST $10 MILLION IN VALUE

ICv2 crunched the numbers on Diamond’s financial reports, and it is very bad. 

Based on recent filings, April was a tough month in the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy, bringing the total decline in the company’s net worth since January to over $10 million.  The net worth at the end of April was negative $5,224, 936, and an amended operating report for January, which Diamond filed in May, corrected the net worth at the end of January from $2,527,866 (which it reported in its initial filing for January, see “Diamond Net Worth Declines“) to $5,695,551.  In round numbers, Diamond’s net worth at the end of January was over $5 million, at the end of April it was over $5 million in the hole.

As Milton Griepp points out, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that unsecured creditors are going to get the money they are owed. And now they are not getting paid for products being shipped. 

BUT WHAT ABOUT DYNAMITE?

As we previously reported, Dynamite filed a motion asking they be paid for $509,114.21 worth of products that were shipped from 4/27/25 to 5/11/25. 

New Diamond fired back, however, as reported at Graphic Policy:

Diamond has now responded disputing the claim amount. In their motion they say the amount is “overstated” and “fails to account for certain of the Debtors’ setoff rights.” It further states that Diamond is in the process of figuring out what that actual amount is and will update things when it’s settled.

It also objects to the attorneys’ fees and interest saying that Dynamite’s reliance on a previous case decision is flawed and doesn’t support Dynamite’s argument.

New Diamond is also objecting to Dynamite’s claim of hardship over not being paid, saying it hasn’t been proven. 

People keep asking me why Dynamite is still at New Diamond, and honestly I don’t know but this has to be a huge hardship for them, filings not withstanding. 

MEANWHILE COMICS SHOPS ARE NOT REALLY ORDERING ANYTHING THROUGH NEW DIAMOND

With PRH pulling its publishers, New Diamond announced all orders for PRH products after June 25th were cancelled. 

However, retailers are saying their orders via New Diamond in recent weeks have been low – like $50 low. There is nothing to order, except Dynamite.

One more thing about retailers: New Diamond also ended COD terms for shops. Most large accounts didn’t use this method, but many smaller ones did. Greg Gage of Black Cat Comics posted

So nice that the only communication we’ve had from the new owners of Diamond Comics is an email saying we’ll get our account suspended (after 21 years) if we don’t give them our bank account or credit card information by Friday. What a warm, beautiful welcome.

And that leads me to….

MY THOUGHTS ON THIS MOMENT:

I spoke with several publishers and retailers at TCAF, and most of them moved away from Diamond before it became New Diamond. While they aren’t happy about being owed money that they will never get, in the case of publishers, they are finding other means of distribution. Retailers, as mentioned, have moved their orders to PRH and Lunar. No one is thrilled, but no one I spoke with seemed to be panicking – or at least if they were they were hiding it. 

What remains the most baffling about all of this is New Diamond’s complete lack of communication with both their suppliers/creditors and their vendors/retailers. New Diamond has the time to sue Alliance Entertainment about trade secrets, but not to communicate with their business partners. I’ve heard some WILD theories about New Diamond’s ultimate plans, but they are just that, theories and speculation. 

We all thought this was going to be a mess, but the size and scope of the mess has surpassed our wildest expectations. 

If you have comments or corrections, please contact me at heidi at comicsbeat.com

For those who came in late here are the players:

DIAMOND COMICS: a 43 year old company founded by Steve Geppi that until 2020 was the premiere distributor to the direct market of comics shops in the US. Divisions include Alliance Games distributors, which distributes table top games; Diamond Select Toys, a collector toy company, and Diamond UK, among others. They announced their bankruptcy on January 14th. NOTE: To avoid confusion (as you will see) I will refer to Alliance Games as “Diamond” Games below

UNIVERSAL DISTRIBUTION: A Canadian distributor of games, toys and comics. The company was founded by current CEO Angelo Exarhakos, and they have a deal to distribute DC Comics in Canada. After a lengthy process, Universal purchased Alliance Game Distributors (“Diamond” Games) at bankruptcy auction, with the sale closing on May 16th.  

AD POPULUM: A holding company owned by Joel Weinshanker which owns NECA Toys, WizKids, KidRobot, Enesco, Rubies, Party City, Amscam and a few more companies. On May 16th they acquired Diamond Comic Distributors, Diamond Book Distributors, Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles, Collectible Grading Authority and a few other unnamed assets. 

ALLIANCE ENTERTAINMENT: a media wholesale and retail distribution company that specializes in music and DVDs, founded and run by Bruce Ogilvie and Jeff Walker. They have been increasingly getting into toys and games, and tried unsuccessfully to acquire Diamond’s assets – initially the successful bidder for the company, but later cancelling the deal over claims of being misled by Diamond. They have sued Diamond twice.