Evolution: May 2026 Shop Update

At Black Dragon Comics, we are committed to providing the highest quality packaging and insurance in the industry. As a family-owned and operated shop, we are always looking for ways to get books into your hands faster. Over the last quarter, we ran a "Pre-Order Experiment" that taught us exactly what we need to do to improve.

Reality

Earlier this year, we hit a "perfect storm." Between a 1,000% surge in order volume over a single weekend and the logistical weight of processing massive pre-order shipments, our turnaround times slowed. As a small team, balancing these logistics with family needs meant we weren't hitting the speeds we strive for.

Challenges

• Logistics: Large pre-order shipments were taking 1 to 2 days just to check in, delaying every other order in the queue.
• Costs: Rising gas and shipping prices have impacted the broader industry, making it more difficult to scale our team size as quickly as volume demanded.
• Volume: To address the recent backlog, we have transitioned to a seven-day fulfillment schedule for the past eight weeks to ensure every customer is taken care of.

Changes

To protect the quality of our service and the speed of our shipping, we are moving away from our previous pre-order model and implementing the following:

• Inventory: Our website will now focus exclusively on in-stock items.
• Subscriptions: We are moving our pre-order functionality into our subscription service.
• Invoicing: We will only send invoices when items are physically in-stock and ready to ship.
• Accuracy: We have updated our checkout to provide an Estimated Delivery Date based on a rolling 30-day average of our actual processing times. This ensures you see a realistic delivery window every time you shop.
• Speed: By removing the pre-order check-in bottleneck, we can significantly reduce fulfillment times and get your in-stock orders into the mail much faster.

Commitment

We are nearly through our backlog and are excited to move into this more streamlined phase of Black Dragon Comics. This "In-Stock Only" model ensures that when you buy a book from us, it is ready to be packed with our signature quality and shipped immediately.

Thank you for your patience and for supporting a family-owned business.