[...] latest Comics Journal, issue #283, there’s a full-page ad for the publisher’s physical Fantagraphics bookstore in which they also announce a kind of frequent buyers’ club. Join the Fantagraphics 20/20 [...]

[...] MacGuffin makes two important points about the Fantagraphics store opening. The first, almost a throwaway, is that Fantagraphics may not know how many direct comic market stores actually carry their books because many of them order through W.W. Norton, their bookstore distributor, instead of Diamond. The second goes like this: Primarily due to the non-returnable nature of the direct market, there are very few remaindered graphic novels to be bought in bulk and sold at a sharp discount. That, however, is essentially what this damaged room will be, a place for Fantagraphics to sell off extra stock that simply won’t move via the book market or Diamond. Possibly due to the fairly recent rise of graphic novels (coupled with the industry’s fascination with monthly singles), there hasn’t developed a particularly significant secondary market for graphic novels. Sure a few might pop up here and there in used bookstores but for the most part used, damaged or remaindered graphic novels simply aren’t available. I suspect that may begin to change if I’m correct in my guess that the damaged room will be the most successful element of the Fantagraphics Mega Mart. [...]