January 2013 Sales Discussion

[400yrs]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

Perfect.

[Phantom]

If it was me at valiant (if it was legal) I would sell variants direct.
If they are all printed at about 1000, three/ four months after release denote a price as suggested by ebay sales and put some up for sale
As long as you do not flood the market.
Dribs and drabs through a 3rd party.
After sale of the comic at comic shop level, distribution ~ valiant makes what $1.25 each issue ? ~ not deducting costs.
Sell a harbinger 8 sketch variant $100 via 3rd party. Now to company $100 is not much but its all profit, do it 100 times with different variants ~ pays for another issue to be printed?
Like everyone, finding the time to do this stuff is the problem. Plus if its legal to do.
Plus rather with small returns I think valiants focus with there time is advertising / attending comic cons / movie deals / toys and clothing

Or valiant store, with variants for sale direct at set prices.





THought harbinger would be selling higher. Really enjoying it, as in much more than I imagined.
Thanks for the sale figures

There's no way the company would do that, it would contradict their entire business model.

Point taken.
Don't want to lower the bar on your own company.

[GGSAE]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

Perfect.

I'm a visual guy...a graph would be nice!

[400yrs]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

Perfect.

I'm a visual guy...a graph would be nice!

[Phantom]

made me giggle.

[greg]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

Perfect.

I'm a visual guy...a graph would be nice!

[GGSAE]

Ask and ye shall receive! Awesome, thanks!

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

Perfect.

This is great to see! So insightful! Some great months in there, some not so great. Hopefully they're doing enough to keep going on all titles?

[BugsySig]

From this month's Mayo Report (complete with graph if you click the link ):

The question of what constitutes "good sales" is very subjective. The same sales seen as unimpressive for a Marvel or DC title and grounds for ending the series can be very health sales of a smaller publisher. Part of the reason for that is the lower overhead the smaller publishers on a per title basis compared to the larger publishers. At Valiant, sales similar to the titles cut at DC seem to be perfectly viable.

Graph: http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_ ... 1360852540

Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Dynamite Entertainment, BOOM! Studios and Valiant are all small enough to operate in a lower sales range, yet big enough to have some of the advantages of scale. These are the publishers who could push the top 300 comics break through that 8,000,000 unit mark. Valiant is currently the smallest of the bunch in terms of sales and number of titles but the one with perhaps the most unrealized potential. The average sales of Valiant titles are stronger than the average title sales for Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Dynamite and BOOM! Studios. Valiant has been able to maintain sales reasonable well so far. The question is if they can extend the line over time without hurting the sales of existing titles or dropping that sales average. This is a case in which slow and steady should win the race.

[FormerReader]

From this month's Mayo Report (complete with graph if you click the link ):

The question of what constitutes "good sales" is very subjective. The same sales seen as unimpressive for a Marvel or DC title and grounds for ending the series can be very health sales of a smaller publisher. Part of the reason for that is the lower overhead the smaller publishers on a per title basis compared to the larger publishers. At Valiant, sales similar to the titles cut at DC seem to be perfectly viable.

Graph: http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_ ... 1360852540

Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Dynamite Entertainment, BOOM! Studios and Valiant are all small enough to operate in a lower sales range, yet big enough to have some of the advantages of scale. These are the publishers who could push the top 300 comics break through that 8,000,000 unit mark. Valiant is currently the smallest of the bunch in terms of sales and number of titles but the one with perhaps the most unrealized potential. The average sales of Valiant titles are stronger than the average title sales for Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Dynamite and BOOM! Studios. Valiant has been able to maintain sales reasonable well so far. The question is if they can extend the line over time without hurting the sales of existing titles or dropping that sales average. This is a case in which slow and steady should win the race.

Very cool!

[somewhatlazy]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

Thanks, Greg.

[jmatt]

Yeah, thanks Greg! It looks like steady readership is settling in around 12,000-ish.

Man, this industry is a shadow of the nineties. I remember people freaking out and going gaga for Rai #4 because it supposedly only had a print run of 10,000!

[Daniel Jackson]

Yeah, thanks Greg! It looks like steady readership is settling in around 12,000-ish.

Man, this industry is a shadow of the nineties. I remember people freaking out and going gaga for Rai #4 because it supposedly only had a print run of 10,000!

Looking back it's almost unbelievable to have print runs like Turok #1. Sad to think about how many people have given up the hobby since then.

[GGSAE]

Yeah, thanks Greg! It looks like steady readership is settling in around 12,000-ish.

Man, this industry is a shadow of the nineties. I remember people freaking out and going gaga for Rai #4 because it supposedly only had a print run of 10,000!

Looking back it's almost unbelievable to have print runs like Turok #1. Sad to think about how many people have given up the hobby since then.

Well, take away the spectator bubble and what should the print runs really been with declining demographics in a shift away from traditional mediums. That's the affect of a bubble, things get inflated beyond what they should have ever been, so the fall is that much more dramatic.

[kevinbastos]

Yeah, thanks Greg! It looks like steady readership is settling in around 12,000-ish.

Man, this industry is a shadow of the nineties. I remember people freaking out and going gaga for Rai #4 because it supposedly only had a print run of 10,000!

Looking back it's almost unbelievable to have print runs like Turok #1. Sad to think about how many people have given up the hobby since then.

Well, take away the spectator bubble and what should the print runs really been with declining demographics in a shift away from traditional mediums. That's the affect of a bubble, things get inflated beyond what they should have ever been, so the fall is that much more dramatic.

Truth.

[jasont215]

Why do you think XO has increased? Are all the Valiant books about to follow XO and break the downward trend?

[greg]

Part of X-O's increase is probably the Planet Death Prelude beginning in #9.
Planet Death promos were probably as strong as the promos for the re-intros of Ninjak and Eternal Warrior.

I'd say the trades coming out may be a factor as well. Some people don't buy singles until after trying a trade.

[BugsySig]

Part of X-O's increase is probably the Planet Death Prelude beginning in #9.
Planet Death promos were probably as strong as the promos for the re-intros of Ninjak and Eternal Warrior.

I'd say the trades coming out may be a factor as well. Some people don't buy singles until after trying a trade.

I would agree. If it is that Planet Death was the cause, hopefully Harbinger Wars will have a similar effect for Harbinger and Bloodshot.

I do feel the tides turning on XO, Harby and A&A at the least. Everywhere I look they are getting positive talk and eventually that has an effect amongst our community. Not only that, but I see more and more people saying they are thinking of picking up more titles because they like the one or two they read.

We're also closing in on a full year without a single delayed issue, and vastly positive reviews. It's at the point now where there can't be talk of Dark Key or Atlas type mistakes or failures. So customers can be confident the product will be there month to month.

[jmatt]

Truth.

Personally, I think eBay had a lot to do with it. Suddenly there was a global marketplace where comic buyers and sellers could meet each other. This rekindled the interest of old readers who could now find every comic they ever wanted to buy without having to traipse through a hundred comic book stores.

This new-found interest in collecting then led people to begin speculating... the value of old books went up and it occurred to people that they'd always be able to find others interested in buying back issues at a marked up price.

Before that, no casual buyer would ever purchase a hundred copies of Jim Lee's X-Men #1 reboot... without owning a comic store how could he ever hope to find buyers? But now this eBay thing made it seem possible.

The rest is history.

[FormerReader]

Part of X-O's increase is probably the Planet Death Prelude beginning in #9.
Planet Death promos were probably as strong as the promos for the re-intros of Ninjak and Eternal Warrior.

I'd say the trades coming out may be a factor as well. Some people don't buy singles until after trying a trade.

I would agree. If it is that Planet Death was the cause, hopefully Harbinger Wars will have a similar effect for Harbinger and Bloodshot.

I do feel the tides turning on XO, Harby and A&A at the least. Everywhere I look they are getting positive talk and eventually that has an effect amongst our community. Not only that, but I see more and more people saying they are thinking of picking up more titles because they like the one or two they read.

We're also closing in on a full year without a single delayed issue, and vastly positive reviews. It's at the point now where there can't be talk of Dark Key or Atlas type mistakes or failures. So customers can be confident the product will be there month to month.

I agree with everything you said.

[Carson]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

Perfect.

I'm a visual guy...a graph would be nice!

Now THAT is a chart. I wish Charty were still around to see it.

[Burrito Boy]

Is there a thread where the monthly sales are tracked all together? I hate looking through the forum to try to find prior month sales numbers.

I'm sure a thread can be created that will keep up with the monthly sales.

In the mean time, Here's a screenshot of an Excel table:

A table is just another kind of chart. GET HIM!!!

[GGSAE]

Truth.

Personally, I think eBay had a lot to do with it. Suddenly there was a global marketplace where comic buyers and sellers could meet each other. This rekindled the interest of old readers who could now find every comic they ever wanted to buy without having to traipse through a hundred comic book stores.

This new-found interest in collecting then led people to begin speculating... the value of old books went up and it occurred to people that they'd always be able to find others interested in buying back issues at a marked up price.

Before that, no casual buyer would ever purchase a hundred copies of Jim Lee's X-Men #1 reboot... without owning a comic store how could he ever hope to find buyers? But now this eBay thing made it seem possible.

The rest is history.

There were plenty of speculators (everyday regular joes) buying 100s of copies of ______(insert random 90s drek title). Remember there were 6 times as many comic book stores back in the 90s. But I agree with you on what you said since the conception of ebay, it's facilitated a more efficient marketplace when prices were otherwise a huge guessing game for a lot of people.

[SJS4]

January estimates have been posted at Comichron.com:

119 X-O Manowar 9 $3.99 Valiant 16,599
145 Shadowman 3 $3.99 Valiant 13,327
151 Harbinger 8 $3.99 Valiant 12,824
155 Archer & Armstrong 6 $3.99 Valiant 12,642
161 Bloodshot 7 $3.99 Valiant 11,918

Total comic sales = 67,310 (Avg = 13,452)

44 Harbinger Vol. 1 Omega Rising $9.99 Valiant 1,656

Cool thanks for posting these, almost forgot all about this.

Nice to see X-O see another spike. One thing I have noticed in the data is that X-O has the highest number of books sold for each issue (ie: X-O # 4 sold more than Harbinger #4, Shadowman, #4, A&A #4, etc....). I think you are right that X-O is indeed the "hit" of the Valiant universe.

For posterity here is my estimate for February Sales (based on trending, except Harbinger 0):

X-O Manowar #10: 15,987
Harbinger #9: 12,217
Bloodshot #8: 11,908
Archer & Armstrong #7: 11,690
Shadowman #4: 12,729
**Harbinger 0**: 15,000

[greg]

For posterity here is my estimate for February Sales (based on trending, except Harbinger 0):

X-O Manowar #10: 15,987
Harbinger #9: 12,217
Bloodshot #8: 11,908
Archer & Armstrong #7: 11,690
Shadowman #4: 12,729
**Harbinger 0**: 15,000

Just curious why you have A&A #7 below Bloodshot #8?

A&A has not sold fewer than Bloodshot in the same month.