Questions from Kayla & Japanese Quake Relief Donations

Kayla from Texas sent these questions over today, and I decided to answer it here. I don't have that much time today, but I'm going to bang out a few things so hopefully this will help collectively answer some of the questions folks have been sending in over the last few days."hello, this is Kayla again. Just placed an order for Working, and looking forward to it. I know you sometimes place

Japanese Earthquakes

As you probably already know, there was a terrible earthquake in Japan over night our time this morning, and I've been pretty much glued to the news this morning and exchanging e-mails with some of our friends and business associates in Tokyo, so this weeks newsletter is going to be a little short. If you have been following the situation and want to help, please make a donation to the Red Cross.

My World - Expectations

Back in 2005-2006, even I started to think this thing might end up bigger than all of us. That was when we were sinking loads of money into building out our infrastructure.I was wrong too.

Borders Troubles Hit TokyoPop Hard

I've been talking about this a lot recently in our newsletter and blog posts, and have been doing a lot of speculation as to how the Borders failure would effect the US Manga industry (i.e. how hard the publishers would be hit). I think this is a bigger deal than most people realize, but now I'm wondering if perhaps I've been under estimating the impact.Today Stuart Levy, the CEO of TokyoPop,

High Gas Prices By County

While one would think gas prices have nothing to do with Anime, I can assure you that they are actually quite important - at least if you are sitting on our side of the computer screen.If anyone is interested, here is a neat zoomable tool that shows average gas prices nationwide by county. Not that it will do us much good to know what gas is selling for two states over, but it might help give us

My World - Simplicity

One of the primary concepts behind the design of the RACS store site:After 12 years I'm still not sure if that's right.

My World - Happiness

Something very important that took me a long time to learn:This is why we keep doing what we do.

Borders Store Liquidations Underway / Barnes & Nobel Suspends Dividend

ICv2 reports that the Borders book store liquidations have begun:"Borders has obtained court approval of its store-closing plans and has begun liquidating inventory at the 200 affected locations. DJM Realty is assisting with the store closings and lease assignments. The store closings are part of the restructuring Borders is undertaking under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.Inventory liquidation

My World - Collaboration

I am a micro-manager (but I've quit 1000 times...) and I like to carve my own path, but my best decisions are usually made after extensive collaboration with others. Sometimes when you think we're just chatting, I'm actually putting an idea or concept through the wash cycle a couple of times.I need to remember to do that more often.

My World - Planning

When we first started out (years and year ago), I had this concept upside-down for a long time."If you build it, they will come" no longer works. Our product no longer sells itself. Everything now revolves around incentives.

Tron Legacy Coming as a 3D BD / BD / DVD / DC Package - Wow!

Just as a follow up for my recent post about Tron Legacy, they have finally announced the DVD / BD release for April 5th (I think).I've been curious as to how this big Hollywood release was going to be packaged, and the great minds at Disney's media sales division have not disappointed us - at least in their creativity for taking our money.It looks like we will have 5 choices:Tron Legacy DVD -

My World - Focus

Some things you can change, and some you can't. Some activities are productive, and some aren't. In times like these Focus is really, REALLY important.In the Anime business, unlike most other businesses, we have the unenviable task of having to compete with 'free'. So you have to focus like a laser beam on what works.This goes a long way to explain why we do some things, and don't do others.

Navarre Says No 'Adequate' Offers for Funimation Yet

From Navarre's earnings report released this evening:"Discontinued operations includes the results of FUNimation Entertainment. Net income from discontinued operations during the third quarter was $1.8 million, as compared to $928,000 in the prior fiscal year. Strong earnings performance in discontinued operations resulted from solid year-over-year sales growth. Cash flow from discontinued

My World - Synergy

This is the 'synergy' I'm looking for (and haven't found yet):

Dilbert on Tax Policy

This strip seems to, um, fit a lot of different narratives that have cropped up over the last couple of days:Funimation Sues 1337 Bittorrent Users Over One Piece...

Something You Need to Know About Me

As someone who has found the time to watch the Pantsu Anime Strike Witches end to end twice, but somehow in 10 years has NEVER seen a single episode of American Idol, I admit I still only have the vaguest idea who this 'Snooki' person is. And apparently she has now written a book, and it has made it's way onto the NYT bestseller list.It's also one of those books with Amazon reviews that have

My World - The Business Cycle

Outliers matter - and can fool you.One this graph the top of the dotted line in the middle would be April 19th, 2006.That was the day the R1 market peaked and turned. I'm not quite sure exactly where we are on the right side though...

The Hypocrisy of Marketing

I've been working on preparing a post about our switch to the more 'eco-friendly' corn starch bio-degradable loose fill for order packaging. Having switched over to them over a month ago, I'm in no hurry though. I wanted enough of you to start getting orders packaged with them so that when I do post about it, you'll be able to give us some reliable feedback about their effectiveness. See, I'm

Really, Really Tragic

That's some really, really bad business that went down Saturday afternoon in Tucson. People do such stupid things. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those involved.

Holiday Wishes

All of us here at the Anime Corner wish all of you a very happy holiday,a wonderful and meaningful time with family and friends,and a 2011 full of blessings, fulfillment and happiness.