Mea Culpa - apparently not everyone has the same Local Bookstore
…even when all of our locals are run by the same company.
So it wasn’t that long ago that I came to the internet with what I thought was a scoop: Tokyopop titles going on clearance at Barnes & Noble – from all company directives and certainly from what I saw in my store: this was the real deal.
Once Monday rolled around, though, I was hearing from my tweeps that they were getting pushback & incredulous stares when they followed my heartfelt advice and actually went into a bookstore as I recommended, and attempted to buy books.
[the moral of the story is I should never tell people to buy books. wait… that’s not quite right…]
Several folks shared their personal experience with me on twitter; together we tried to figure out what was going on. Without any definite word from my employer [and none coming, I assure you] we’ll have to take our best guesses and actual experience in store as the final say on this.
That is to say, some Tokyopop books are on sale, somewhere, but Your Mileage May Vary.
Twittertape Follows:
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@MangaXanadu Lori Henderson
@ProfessorBlind I went to my local Barnes and Noble and they hadn’t heard of the 50% off Tokyopop books promotion.
5 hours ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@MangaXanadu Tell them to go to “e-planner” and actually read the directions. “All Tokyopop trade titles will be part of the Sept Clearance”
2 hours ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@MangaXanadu or they could take their fancy scanner (a “PDT”) & scan a barcode & listen to it beep for clearance.
2 hours ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@MangaXanadu or we could be dealing with idiots. If you see T’pop on the shelves & not in clearance bins, grab ‘em anyway: they’re on sale
2 hours ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
You know, I actually feel kinda bad now sending you folks into B&N – our stores are not executing well on the clearance sale.
2 hours ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
Anyone else go to a B&N for the clearance and not find any Tokyopop titles yet?
2 hours ago
@JRbBrown J. R. Brown
@ProfessorBlind I tried to buy Happy Cafe 7 and was told it wasn’t on sale, only the volumes that had been put on the “clearance table”.
2 hours ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@JRbBrown did they take it to the register or customer service desk to check? Sounds sloppy or lazy.
2 hours ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@JRbBrown clearance lists are store-specific, but if a T’pop book was listed in their store inventory, it should have popped on their list
2 hours ago
@JRbBrown J. R. Brown
@ProfessorBlind Spoke to an isle staffer who said it should be on sale, took it to the register, they scanned it in and said no.
1 hour ago
@JRbBrown J. R. Brown
@ProfessorBlind Probably would have bought it anyway, but it was pretty banged up and I didn’t want to pay full price for a damaged copy.
1 hour ago
@JRbBrown J. R. Brown
@ProfessorBlind The store only had ~20 vols of TP books, 15 or so on clearance table & ~5 on shelf. Vol I tried to buy was on shelf.
1 hour ago
@jsyadao Jason S. Yadao
@ProfessorBlind It’s odd – only 80% of the TP books I bought @ 1 of my local stores rang up at sale price – those from a special display.
1 hour ago
@jsyadao Jason S. Yadao
@ProfessorBlind The rest were shelved with the rest of the manga – and were regular price. Would’ve argued, but it was 5 mins to closing.
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@jsyadao Monday morning I went to our manga section & rescanned every tokyopop book – the only 1 not on sale also showed 0 on hand.
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
My only thought is that since Tpop changed distributors only TP titles from HarperCollins went on sale – TP/DBD titles are still returnable?
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
Tpop made the Diamond Book Dist. announcement very close to their close, should only be the newest books – books my store never got
1 hour ago
@JRbBrown J. R. Brown
@ProfessorBlind That’s entirely possible. Happy Cafe 7 isn’t even on the B&N website; maybe it was a special order that wasn’t picked up?
1 hour ago
@lore13 lore
@ProfessorBlind – I am going to be bitter about not getting Happy Cafe 8 forever, for example #tokyopopfail
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@lore13 the TPop thing was not only crass & classless, it made no business sense. Why not wind it down? finish a few series only 1 vol away?
1 hour ago
@AnimeNewsdotbiz Humberto Saabedra
@ProfessorBlind I’m getting a lot of resistance in the Dallas and Ft. Worth locations from the younger staff about the TP clearance.
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@AnimeNewsdotbiz twitter consensus now is that seems the very newest titles, the last released, didn’t make the clearance list.
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@AnimeNewsdotbiz Something I did not know, as those titles never shipped to my store.
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@AnimeNewsdotbiz but all that .hack, Fruits Basket, Loveless, Kyo Kara Maoh that sat on shelves for a couple of years: on clearance.
1 hour ago
@AnimeNewsdotbiz Humberto Saabedra
@ProfessorBlind That’s interesting and it implies that B&N is trying to eke out the most profit possible on that last run.
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@AnimeNewsdotbiz I think it has more to do with distro: Tokyopop titles bought from Diamond are returnable? but HC is refusing returns.
1 hour ago
@AnimeNewsdotbiz Humberto Saabedra
@ProfessorBlind Diamond was the last point of purchase for TP books so that makes sense, but why consider returning them knowing the demand?
1 hour ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@AnimeNewsdotbiz Yes, my company is run by greedy, selfish bastards who’d step over my still warm corpse for a $, so is more than possible
1 hour ago
@AnimeNewsdotbiz Humberto Saabedra
@ProfessorBlind Worked for GameStop and they operate under that same principle. At least B&N got me laid once. :)
1 hour ago
@MangaXanadu Lori Henderson
@ProfessorBlind I went to the reg & they rang up full price.
3 minutes ago
@MangaXanadu Lori Henderson
@ProfessorBlind nothing in the clearance bin, no special display.
1 minute ago
@ProfessorBlind Matt Blind
@MangaXanadu so it looks like I need to post a clarification [and an apology] to the ‘nets based on what we’ve figured out on twitter today
1 minutes ago
