Variant Covers Are Propping Up the Comic Market

[ckb]

The numbers analysis seems flawed. That 43% is a worst case impossibility.

It's better to think of it this way:

Publisher Foozle Comics, incorporated publishes 25,000 copies of Schnitzel #17.

45% of them are cover A
41% of them are cover B
10% of them are cover C
4% of them are cover D

C and D are limited and will sell for a premium. It's likely that a buyer of those will also buy A or B or both. But a vast majority of buyers are just going to buy A or B based on what strikes them or what is available.

While there is some duplication that plays to collectors, it is not 43% - the pullbox type variant does not factor in heavily, it's just part of the regular run. Does all this boost the books a bit - sure. I'm not sure why that's bad. I lived the 90s glut. Foozle was printing 250,000 copies for cryin' out loud. VEI is printing 15,000! This is not 1994.

What bothers me more about the market today is that publishers think they need to keep printings of their books in the distributors hands. For books that are true sellouts that's probably a great idea. But the way you figure a sellout isn't to call Diamond and see if they have any left. You call the 10 shops that ordered the most books and see if THEY have any left.

[The Dirt Gang]

What bothers me more about the market today is that publishers think they need to keep printings of their books in the distributors hands. For books that are true sellouts that's probably a great idea. But the way you figure a sellout isn't to call Diamond and see if they have any left. You call the 10 shops that ordered the most books and see if THEY have any left.

This is a very interesting and enlightening discussion. I agree, ckb, I don't understand that either. My local shop has not sold out of one Valiant book. They are close to selling out of Q&W but they've still got a number of copies of every issue that Valiant has put out. It seems that stores selling out would be more of indication of a true sell out. I understand that Diamond selling out indicates demand at least to a certain degree.

I don't get variants, just my favorite cover. I've always been more of a reader of comics rather than a collector. I kick myself now because over the years I've passed over hard to find VH1 issues because I already had a copy.

As long as they don't put out 12 variant covers and you have to buy them all to get a special #1/2 issue or something, I'm okay with the variants. I am always a wee bit nervous about the market's ability to handle all the variants but that could just be post 90's jitters.

[Heath]

I agree with the title of this thread. Variant covers are to the comic industry what the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing is to stocks. It's short term gain, but is going to cause a lot of problems later when people lose faith in the value of a variant cover or the dollar.

[Chiclo]

I agree with the title of this thread. Variant covers are to the comic industry what the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing is to stocks. It's short term gain, but is going to cause a lot of problems later when people lose faith in the value of a variant cover or the dollar.

Helicopter Dino?

[Savant]

Aside from the less spending capacity aspect, I'm alright with variants. I have a choice of different covers, and I get the one I like most. Pretty simple.

On very rare occasions, I might buy two different covers if I like them enough.

[Paradigm38]

I grab what is in the pullbox, and that is about it. I do like that pullbox usually has a different cover than the "shelf" (though sometimes I will switch them out depending on my visual mood). I'm a reader now instead of a collector. Chase those covers if you want them kids, but really not necessary if your content is top notch. The industry as a whole has this set up, and so it goes...

[Aram]

All I know is.. almost all my local comic shops are selling out of Valiant and will not reorder.

You know why?

Because they only order 3-6 copies at most. There is no incentive to up their order to 20 because they cant sell that many.

Not ordering means no Valiant on the shelf. No Valiant on the shelf means no new readers from that store and no free advertising.

Variants are hurting the growth of Valiant due to lost advertising by not being on more shelves across the US. If most larger cities are like mine.. then Valiant is statistically losing ground to other publishers because of the variant ratio.

A 1:10 variant with no pullbox variant would keep it simple. 1 variant to get. An affordable price increase over the regular issue with more availability to the collector, and 10 is a reasonable upsale to the small lcs that make up the majority of shops in the US.

Bigger shops can order bigger numbers, but they also order many more titles by other publishers and frankly though they may have Valiant in stock, they are lost in the sea of titles. There are 4 shops out of 15 in my city that usually have left over Valiant. 3 of those 4 have new comic walls that are 30-40+ feet long and over 100 titles to choose from.

It takes meticulous searching to find the Valiant there. The other shops? 1/4th the titles. Valiant would have 4 times the chance of being picked up by new readers if they increased the in stock ration in these smaller shops.

[lorddunlow]

I need to ask my LCS why there are no longer any VEI titles on the racks. He never ordered enough for any incentive variants, but there were always a handful of the current issues on the shelf that would eventually sell. However, my last two trips, there have been none, and when he forgot to order my Q&W, he didn't have a copy on the shelf for me.

I'm not sure if he has gone to orders only for VEI or what. I will say this: the trades are selling like hotcakes. I try to make it in every week, and I always check what's on the stands at his shop. There is always a different amount of VEI trades on the shelf, indicating that he restocks, and subsequently sells the trades. Sometimes he has none, but often there are a handful of every one of the available trades. I suspect this is why he doesn't bother ordering more for the shelf. Over the long run, the trades may make more money for VEI than the current titles' sales.