VEI Sales - The Charts!

[SwiftMann]

[SwiftMann]

The two main things I learned the last day and a half of putting these together:


1) Store exclusive variants really artificially bump up first issue sales.

2) When a book is cruising towards the 6k mark, it usually signals the (beginning of the) end. X-O and Imperium are bucking that trend, but I have to wonder how long for both. The trades help these two series more than any others, but that can only go so far.

[greg]

Great job!

[Nameless7]

Very interesting to examine.

Excellent work!. Thanks!

[Elveen]

good work.

[nycjadie]

Super interesting to see that.

[nutflush76]

wow, that is amazing how the first issues have such huge numbers, but then they fall off a cliff in almost every single case. No wonder Marvel and DC reboot every year.

[Keith]

wow, that is amazing how the first issues have such huge numbers, but then they fall off a cliff in almost every single case. No wonder Marvel and DC reboot every year.

Seriously. Looking at these graphs makes me think of others I've seen for the Big 2. The drop off followed by slow decline seems to be a norm for the industry.

[BugsySig]

This also supports more mini series and event books. Especially those featuring new characters. Look how steady Divinity was comparatively.

Also, of all the books, it seems the FVL titles seemed to stay the most consistent over time despite launching lower than the others. Fewer artificial bumps and more maintenance of core readership.

[wwise03]

Very interesting indeed! I happen to like the minis and events, so I am glad to see the sales support more of both. I think it will be very interesting to see how Divinity II shakes out. I like the idea of multiple minis with the same character. Give us 4 issues of Divinity a year. Tell us an interesting and well thought out story. Then take a break and come up with a new and interesting story next year.

[iggy101us]

Great work

[slack]

It's unfortunate that more books don't continue anymore. I came into comics that had hundreds of issues before I was even born. The continuing stories and characters were fairly well explained within each issue. There weren't trade collections just a few months behind the single issues, often there weren't any trade collections at all.

But looking back, that amounted to spider-man, and X-Men. Most marvel that I picked up, started within my lifetime. I recall that one of the biggest draws for me to valiant and image was the chance to follow a new book/universe from the beginning.

So, I get wanting to be there at the beginning. But with trades flowing almost as soon as an arc is complete, as well as digital... Reading every early issue isn't an impossible task with valiant, and many of today's comics.
I kind of think that high issue numbers are a sign of success, great characters, and great stories. Instead of Bloodshot reborn starting at 1, I would have liked the numbering to continue, and just carry the reborn subtitle for as long as it makes sense, just like they did with "AND Hard Corps". I mean, it's just continuing that same story, right?
The sales that drop off are collectible investors, the sales that continue are fans. The current model seems to be a game of trying to balance between collectible investors and fans in order to keep sales numbers high enough to seem like you have more fans. Because that draws collectible investors, which draws buzz, which draws fans... and collectible investors.

[OhioValiantNut]

Thank you for putting in the research to provide this data.

[jmatt]

This also supports more mini series and event books. Especially those featuring new characters. Look how steady Divinity was comparatively.

Exactly. Steady and at a higher sales figure. People want new. Thinking back, it's almost too bad Bleeding Monk wasn't a four issue mini in light of these numbers.

Fantastic job on the charts!

[battlepark]

nice charts, kinda scary to see such a dip off, but that is always how it's been. People collect #1's, or jump on with a #1. No one goes up to a stand and see Detective Comics #647 and thinks
this is a good book to jump on.

[ValiantCentral]

Inspired by this post (nice job BTW), I added this to the valiant database...check in the I menu, Total Title Sales.

[Paul Nolan]

Inspired by this post (nice job BTW), I added this to the valiant database...check in the I menu, Total Title Sales.

Woahhhhh. To label these "Total Sales" is HUGELY misleading.

These charts are Total comics ordered by North American retailers in the calendar month of release*

These numbers don't include

1/ Sales via Diamond UK to the UK and other territories.
no one knows true orders or variations of such. Would Ninjak be ordered more in the UK because he's British? its been mooted previously that UK sales could account for between 5-15% on top of sales by Diamond in the US.

2/ Sales made of the issue in the following calendar Month.
for example: Faith #1 was released on the 27th January. its position in the sales charts will be based on 5 days worth of sales. any issues of Faith #1 purchased from February 1st onwards would not feature in diamonds charts.

3/ Some Returnable issues.
If any issues are returnable, Diamond take 10% off the sales. It is not tracked how many covers are stripped and sent back for a refund.

4/ Additional Printings.
How many printings have many issues been through. 4th I think. they wont be taken account.

So while these charts may indicate trajectory. Indicate is the operative word. Total Sales is completely misrepresentative. Total comics ordered by North American retailers in the calendar month of release* is what is actually the case.

[Keith]

Inspired by this post (nice job BTW), I added this to the valiant database...check in the I menu, Total Title Sales.

Woahhhhh. To label these "Total Sales" is HUGELY misleading.

These charts are Total comics ordered by North American retailers in the calendar month of release*

These numbers don't include

1/ Sales via Diamond UK to the UK and other territories.
no one knows true orders or variations of such. Would Ninjak be ordered more in the UK because he's British? its been mooted previously that UK sales could account for between 5-15% on top of sales by Diamond in the US.

2/ Sales made of the issue in the following calendar Month.
for example: Faith #1 was released on the 27th January. its position in the sales charts will be based on 5 days worth of sales. any issues of Faith #1 purchased from February 1st onwards would not feature in diamonds charts.

3/ Some Returnable issues.
If any issues are returnable, Diamond take 10% off the sales. It is not tracked how many covers are stripped and sent back for a refund.

4/ Additional Printings.
How many printings have many issues been through. 4th I think. they wont be taken account.

So while these charts may indicate trajectory. Indicate is the operative word. Total Sales is completely misrepresentative. Total comics ordered by North American retailers in the calendar month of release* is what is actually the case.

It's a fair point. These are truths we usually bring up during the sales discussions, as well as the uncertain digital outlets that can sell and resell an issue, but never get included in these counts.

The charts should be retitled, or at least get an addendum asterisked on.

[SwiftMann]

2/ Sales made of the issue in the following calendar Month.
for example: Faith #1 was released on the 27th January. its position in the sales charts will be based on 5 days worth of sales. any issues of Faith #1 purchased from February 1st onwards would not feature in diamonds charts.

That's not how Diamond's sales numbers work. It's the preorders that hit the shelves, not how many go out the comic shop door. It's not Soundscan.

The rest are known issues around trying to track comic sales. Even the calculated numbers of the "First printing, North American sales indicator" that icv2 & comichron come up with have been noted by many creators as consistently low. Really, the only thing these numbers have ever been worthwhile with is charting trends.

[SwiftMann]

Thanks all for the compliments. I'll try to update these once a quarter or so and post new charts.

[Paul Nolan]

2/ Sales made of the issue in the following calendar Month.
for example: Faith #1 was released on the 27th January. its position in the sales charts will be based on 5 days worth of sales. any issues of Faith #1 purchased from February 1st onwards would not feature in diamonds charts.

That's not how Diamond's sales numbers work. It's the preorders that hit the shelves, not how many go out the comic shop door. It's not Soundscan.

The rest are known issues around trying to track comic sales. Even the calculated numbers of the "First printing, North American sales indicator" that icv2 & comichron come up with have been noted by many creators as consistently low. Really, the only thing these numbers have ever been worthwhile with is charting trends.

It is absolutely how Diamonds sales numbers work. All orders up to the end of the month that the comic is released in.

So X-O Manowar #43 being released on the 6th January has a potential of 25 days of extra orders in the charts, and Faith #1 has 5.

May I suggest you read up on John Mayo (Mayo Report at CBR) or John Jackson Millers (Comichron) and you'll learn all the nuances of the charts.

[SwiftMann]

2/ Sales made of the issue in the following calendar Month.
for example: Faith #1 was released on the 27th January. its position in the sales charts will be based on 5 days worth of sales. any issues of Faith #1 purchased from February 1st onwards would not feature in diamonds charts.

That's not how Diamond's sales numbers work. It's the preorders that hit the shelves, not how many go out the comic shop door. It's not Soundscan.

The rest are known issues around trying to track comic sales. Even the calculated numbers of the "First printing, North American sales indicator" that icv2 & comichron come up with have been noted by many creators as consistently low. Really, the only thing these numbers have ever been worthwhile with is charting trends.

It is absolutely how Diamonds sales numbers work. All orders up to the end of the month that the comic is released in.

So X-O Manowar #43 being released on the 6th January has a potential of 25 days of extra orders in the charts, and Faith #1 has 5.

May I suggest you read up on John Mayo (Mayo Report at CBR) or John Jackson Millers (Comichron) and you'll learn all the nuances of the charts.

Oh, you're talking about re-orders (which would have been far more clear than "Sales made of the issue..."). Okay, sure. A minimal overall effect, but again, that's why these pre-order numbers are only good for trends.

[Paul Nolan]

2/ Sales made of the issue in the following calendar Month.
for example: Faith #1 was released on the 27th January. its position in the sales charts will be based on 5 days worth of sales. any issues of Faith #1 purchased from February 1st onwards would not feature in diamonds charts.

That's not how Diamond's sales numbers work. It's the preorders that hit the shelves, not how many go out the comic shop door. It's not Soundscan.

The rest are known issues around trying to track comic sales. Even the calculated numbers of the "First printing, North American sales indicator" that icv2 & comichron come up with have been noted by many creators as consistently low. Really, the only thing these numbers have ever been worthwhile with is charting trends.

It is absolutely how Diamonds sales numbers work. All orders up to the end of the month that the comic is released in.

So X-O Manowar #43 being released on the 6th January has a potential of 25 days of extra orders in the charts, and Faith #1 has 5.

May I suggest you read up on John Mayo (Mayo Report at CBR) or John Jackson Millers (Comichron) and you'll learn all the nuances of the charts.

Oh, you're talking about re-orders (which would have been far more clear than "Sales made of the issue..."). Okay, sure. A minimal overall effect, but again, that's why these pre-order numbers are only good for trends.

So you're assuming faiths 're-orders' (ie diamond sales that start from FOC and are ongoing) are irrelevant then?

I don't think you can class the effect as minimal.

I believe I've read 2-3% per week Depending on release week.

[SwiftMann]

No I don't think a few hundred to a couple thousand extra copies (at the very best of your weekly numbers) is relevant to the overall trends.

And more importantly, we're just some fans having fun with the data available. Stop trying to be a killjoy.

[jmatt]

Stop trying to be a killjoy.

QFT. I eagerly await the efforts of others to collect all of these figures, nuanced or otherwise, and spend a few days compiling them into charts.

If you're not prepared to do that, please be happy with what Swift has compiled here and/or be more tactful with criticism.

Thank you, SwiftMann. I appreciate what you've done here.