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Rod Lamberti of comic shop Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa, writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. Find previous columns here.
I opened up my store and wanted to be different from other comics stores. Why offer the exact same experience and products other stores do? For years there was only Diamond for comic stores to order through. They forced their secret shopper program on us. If a comic store paid $4, they could receive Diamond comics on a Tuesday instead of Wednesday. The $4 a week went towards paying for the secret shopper program. The program hired someone to check out a store, see if they could get two comics sold to them early and if the store would break street date on the two comics. Then Lunar came along as a supplier for DC Comics. No secret shopper program, no paying for comic shipments to arrive a day before the official release date. Diamond did away with their secret shopper program due to Lunar. Lunar surprised me, and their shipment arrived days before their release dat