Comic Store In Your Future: Getting Blacklisted By Gaming Vendors
· BCPosted in: Comics, Games | Tagged: blacklisted, comic store in your future
Comic Store In Your Future: Getting Blacklisted By Gaming Vendors
Comic Store In Your Future: Getting Blacklisted By Gaming Vendors? It seems so... let's dig into this latest development
Published Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:03:07 -0500
by Rod Lamberti
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Article Summary
- Getting blacklisted by gaming vendors feels real as Heroclix and Magic orders stall, vanish, or go unanswered for weeks.
- Repeated emails, calls, and website orders lead to ghosting, missed shipments, and lost sales to big-box stores and rivals.
- A shorted August shipment remains unresolved, fueling fears that unpaid balances are being used to freeze future orders.
- After more than a decade selling gaming products, vendor silence now threatens customer trust, revenue, and long-term business.
Rodman Comics has been in business for over fifteen years. For most of those years, we carried gaming material such as Magic: The Gathering and Heroclix. We have not been able to get a new shipment of gaming material for over a month. On August 3rd, we received our last shipment and were shorted heroclixes from the order. Called it in and was asked if I had read the invoice correctly, if the shortages were not on the invoice. I did indeed read the invoice correctly. I still remember thinking the salesperson could have easily looked up the invoice on his end and figured that out before asking such a question. I was told his supervisor was out sick, though I should get the shortened material next week. I told the customer who was waiting for the missing heroclixs this. Even as I told the person, I did not believe it. Things have been so bad between my vendors and the store that it feels like I am being lied to or dismissed. Sure enough, it is September as I type this, and there is no new shipment and no word on what is going on. With the gaming vendors, this is how it works now. I send an email asking about something, and it rarely, if ever, gets responded to. If I do get a response, it is something along the lines of this:
"Thank you for your email, looks like the order never filled, therefore it never shipped. Looks like we have them live, I can rebuild the order and try to ship it out. Let me know."
I did respond with yes, please send them out as soon as possible. Three phone calls and that email response back later in the same week, and nothing. I call multiple times, usually leave voicemails, and rarely hear back. I no longer want to deal with the gaming vendors because I'm ignored so often. Why call if nothing is going to happen? Why use their website if the order is not going to ever happen? I want to provide what my customers want, though, after over a decade of using both vendors, I now get ghosted and waste a lot of time that goes nowhere. I have people asking for the latest Heroclix set, Fight For Gotham, and my vendors do not want to sell it to me, beyond weird. I have customers buying it elsewhere thanks to my vendors. My vendors are costing me sales and time. I understand that Wizards of the Coast stocking up Target and Walmart with the Hobbit play boosters while not sending the same product to the gaming vendors is not the gaming vendors' fault. The Heroclixs, though, show as available for order, and the order goes through, then nothing…
Am I current with payments? Actually no. The order that was shorted and has not been received in full is the only thing I have not paid for. If I were simply told what is really going on with it, then I would pay it. I was originally told I should get the full order next week, but even then, I felt it wasn't going to happen. I am glad I did not pay for the full order only to receive things I would not use. Though, as is now typical, I have heard nothing about that order. I assume in a few months I will get contacted about them, never receiving payment, and then maybe get this resolved. I even tried ordering more Heroclixes through that vendor, and again, zip. The other vendor I am all current with and still zip. There are only two vendors that carry Heroclixes.
It is insane. Sold Magic: The Gathering and Heroclix for over a decade, and it looks like the vendors are done with me. I have no idea why. I am left to wonder what happened. Too small to deal with now? One of my sales reps once told me that few gaming stores buy as many Heroclixes as I do. Seems weird. I have customers who buy one comic a month, come in; do I treat them as if they are not good enough to deal with? No, they are still customers. They could also help in other ways. Tell others about the service they get here, or increase their buying and get more in the future. Over the years, that has happened. Once the gaming trade slows down, will I want to deal with gaming vendors again? No, they have done me dirty by costing me sales and shown they are willing to do this. With comics, I am able to order what I want and actually receive it. That should be the bare minimum.
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