As so many others, I really enjoy your reviews in the Buyer's Guide. As a retailer, read - the guy behind the counter who HAS to read everything but clearly does not have time for it, it's extremely helpful to have your well thought out and full reviews so I can pass along those insights to others.

But why I'm writing, other than to bestow long overdue thanks, is to comment on remarks you made about the new Diamond plateaus and the size of the current catalogue. If I recall, you used an example of where the CGB used to "rank" last month, code number wise, and where it "ranks" this month.

I'm of the opinion Diamond raising their bar will actually benefit the industry by virtually forcing smaller press publishers to look for other distributors, making those distributors viable alternatives, and forcing comics creators to produce higher quality material to keep their sales strong and maintain their spot in the catalogue. Yes, I know no one deliberately makes lackluster comics but somehow...

In any case, the great reduction in code numbers in Previews is actually a combination of the new plateaus and something else; Diamond's Final Order CutOff date. With those, retailer order discounts are no longer solely based on initial monthly orders but averaged orders over a several month period. With that, retailers can reorder trades anytime and those orders will count towards achieving our discount plateaus, not just the initial monthly orders as it used to be. With there being less of a need to place a massive initial order, there's little reason for "the Big 4", who now all use an FOC, to list their entire backlist every month and, hence, fewer code numbers in the order book.

I hope that makes some sense. If not, I can try again. Keep up the great reviews.