In July 1996, a boycott of See Hear was called by NOT BORED! which is a 13-year-old fanzine based in New York City that -- for the last two years -- See Hear has refused to stock on its shelves for reasons that the store refuses to make clear. Furthermore, Ted -- the boss of the See Hear operation -- has refused to stock our publication in a way that can only be described as verbally abusive, insulting and threatening. Be absolutely clear on this point: NOT BORED! isn't the only fanzine that See Hear -- supposedly "specialist" in fanzines -- has treated abusively and has refused to stock for reasons that are never made clear. There are a large number of others.
Our analysis is this: See Hear is confident that it can afford to alienate anyone it wishes in the local zine community, even though the store is completely dependent on the community for zine suppliers and zine buyers, because 1). the store doesn't make its money on its in-store sales, but on its mail-order sales; 2). the store only stocks those zines that are shocking or already popular enough to be sold through the mail-order catalogue, which means See Hear is not above selling hate literature; and 3). the store only advertises in those zines that it offers for sale in its mail-order catalogue. The end result is that See Hear makes money to the extent that it is able to exploit the ignorance of its customers.
As the news spreads that a boycott of See Hear has been called, we are regularly contacted at PO Box 1115 NYC 10009-9998 by other fanzines that have been excluded or otherwise victimized by See Hear's testosterone-inebriated "policies." Important pieces have already appeared in the August 1996 issue of Obscure Publications, the August/September 1996 issue of The Shadow and the November 1996 issue of NOT BORED! itself -- none of which can be found on See Hear's shelves.
What can you do to support local zinesters? Go buy your zines somewhere else! Where? [In Manhattan] Try Blackout Books (50 Ave B), Ink (66 Ave A), Tower Video (383 Lafayette) or St. Mark's Books (31 3rd Ave). Peace.
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