Cosplay OzAnimart Pty Ltd launch legal action against Alternate Worlds over trading card games

Two geek stores which deal in fantasy have fought a real legal war which left battle-hungry Melbourne nerds the big losers.

Alternate Worlds owner Joseph Italiano with his Vanguard Cardfight cards which were the subject of a tiff with geek supplier. Picture Rebecca Michael.

Melbourne nerds have been the losers after a leading Australian supplier of geek products warred with the city’s biggest comic book store.

Cosplay OzAnimart Pty Ltd, Australia’s only licenced supplier of a trading card game, took Melbourne comic book institution Alternate Worlds to court over unpaid invoices.

The dispute relates to consignments of Vanguard Cardfight game trading cards, popular across the country.

Vanguard Cardfight pits competitors in high-stakes fantasy battles with players immersing themselves in Anime or Manga type characters.

The fantasy game is hugely popular with customers, many of who compete in national Vanguard championships.

Players require the most “powerful” and up-to-date to cards for any chance of winning the nationals which were held annually prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Italiano, Alternate Worlds’ owner, claimed a disrupted supply stream meant delays and customers were not getting the latest cards and the ones he was selling were rendered “redundant”.

He added when his company scrapped late orders, they were charged cancellation fees on a product with very tight profit margins.

Mr Italiano has now ceased dealing with Cosplay OzAnimart depriving Melburnians or the cards altogether.

“Their business model is hard to do business with because the profit margins on their products are so low that after freight and other costs you barely make any money,” Mr Italiano told the Herald Sun.

“I don’t wish anyone ill, even competitors, but it became so hard to do business with them.’’

The legal action stemmed from a consignment for the Animaga Expo in 2016.

Alternate Worlds, which had a stall at the Expo, was unable to move much of the consignment and arranged for Cosplay OzAnimart to collect the unsold goods.

A fight over who should pay ensued.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week ruled in favour of Cosplay OzAnimart Pty Ltd.

Mr Italiano was ordered to pay $4135 plus $404 costs, and has ruled out an appeal.

“It’s been dragging on for a while and we just want to move on,” Mr Italiano said.

Mr Italiano will continue selling all things Batman, Marvel, Pokemon from his Bayswater warehouse.

Cosplay OzAnimart could not be reached for comment.

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