Sparkle Pop Updates the Court on the Status of its Consignment Sale Proceeds During Diamond’s Chapter 11 Process
Steven Bieg, the Chief Financial Officer of Ad Populum which is the parent entity to Sparkle Pop has provided an update as to the status of money gained through the sale of consigned inventory they weren’t supposed to.
For those who don’t know the details, during Diamond’s Chapter 11 process there’s bunch of consigned inventory. That inventory is under dispute by Diamond and the publishers of that product. After its purchase of Diamond’s assets, Sparkle Pop had sold some of that consigned inventory. Diamond then took Sparkle Pop to court to get a court order for them to stop, they said they already had, and a decision to be made as to what to do with the money. The decision was the proceeds were to be paid into the Registry of the Court and would be held until other disputes have been decided.
Sparkle Pop had generated sales of $1,051,575 before May 15, 2025 and $515,866 after May 15, 2025, a total of $1,567,441.
In the update, Bieg states some of the sold product has been returned. There’s also the fact that payment schedules have varied so paying it all is rather difficult since Sparkle Pop hasn’t been paid for it all.
As of September 5, 2025, Sparkle Pop had processed returns of Consigned Inventory received before May 15, 2025 representing $316,926 in total sales. Accordingly, as of September 5, 2025, Sparkle Pop had collected $778,171 in proceeds net of returns in connection with sales of Consigned Inventory received before May 15, 2025, or approximately 74% of the total amount invoiced and returned.
On September 17, Sparkle Pop deposited $778,171, the amount they’ve collected, to the Court Registry.
As of the date of the Supplemental Declaration, the amount of returns of Consigned Inventory received before May 15, 2025 that Sparkle Pop has processed has grown to $337,975 in total sales.
As of the date of this Supplemental Declaration, and since September 5, 2025, Sparkle Pop has collected a total of $812,416 in proceeds from the sales of Consigned Inventory received before May 15, 2025, or approximately 84% of the total amount invoiced net of returns.
On October 10, Sparkle Pop sent a check for $34,246. That makes the total deposited with the Court Registry, $812,417.
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Only 84% of the money huh after two sets of payments?
So much for “That the proceeds of any Consigned Inventory sold since May 15, 2025 have been segregated and are being held pending clear instruction or Court order regarding who is entitled to the proceeds of those sales.”
Considering this is the direct market I’m not sure how much of the product was returned, unless those were sold to bookstores via Diamond Books on returnable terms? Or they were reported as damaged and they asked for the retailers to return the books?
I can see some hard up stores not paying them but that high of an amount? I have a feeling that old Diamond would have either stopped selling to those stores or put them on COD before they filed for bankruptcy. Comic sales are booming right now. Perhaps there are some stores who decided since Diamond was going bankrupt they could just order books and not pay them and get away with it?
Does not pass the sniff test to me. I think Sparklepop was caught lying again regarding all the money from the sales being segregated.
It’s possible. Who knows what the terms are. I’d have put that in the filing to make it clear why it all hasn’t been paid. I knew of shops back in the day that had very generous terms and others were cash on delivery.
I’ve also been doing the math over and over and can’t get 84%, so trying to figure out what I’m missing.
I’m wondering if the $1,567,441 was the retail value of the books and the $812,417 is what they got from that value because of the discounts (and liquidation prices) offered to retailers.
EG. They have 100 books, priced at 10 dollars each = $1.000 value.
They sell 80 books, ($800 value) but they sell them at a steep discount, say 25% off. They get $200.
So they hand over the $200 and say it repents 80% of the books they sold.
Only in their case it’s even less perhaps because of the excuses they say, not getting paid by retailers, books being returned, etc..
I have heard of long established (and reliably paying) retailers getting 90 day terms from Diamond. If they stopped selling books less than 90 days ago, it’s possible they don’t have that money yet.
Yeah, I don’t know. The numbers aren’t quite working out. If you can figure it out, let me know.
90 days was a thing when I worked at a shop, no idea if anyone still has that. They’re desperate for accounts so who knows what the terms were for this. If any were sold in July, the 90 days would be about now.