Marvel offers retailers a 'rare' variant, in exchange for unsold DC comics

shining knight wrote:Never ever thought I would be writing this but I agree with hitler

Rath99 wrote:I don't know but I don't see the uproar over this.

I don't view this as malicious by Marvel. We have to keep in mind that this is a business. There will be some retailers who think it's worth it and will look forward to getting rid of some of their stock of books that haven't sold. Others will do the math and see that it's not worth it. Either way I don't see how this affects me as a fan.

For one I didn't buy many of the ring books I just bought a set of the rings which was cheaper than buying all the books. The reaction this is getting just seems over the top. If this makes you stop buying Marvel comics then you are swayed very easily or just caught up in all the fanboy uproar. As fans we tend to forget that this is still a business that needs to make money to function. Sometimes that means taking shots at the opposition. It's done in all business.

Relax and enjoy comics

QFT. Comic fans tend to grossly overreact to pretty much EVERYTHING, so I'm not surprised at all by this reaction. People need to put things in perspective before losing their shit and swearing off a company's entire line of books, as if they'll actually hold to that swear (I just never understood that silly reaction...like are you reading for the stories or for some other reason?). Its not like DC's losing any money from this, those comics have already been sold to retailers, nor is Marvel gaining any money by it. And stores have the option to participate or not, its entirely up to them.

I was one of the people that bought all those books for the rings, and I literally had to force myself to read some of them cuz they were books I would never read, yet I paid for them so I kinda had to. I'm sure there are a lot of stores that ended up with a lot of those books on their shelves that are just gonna sit there cuz the vast majority of sales on a book happen within the first couple weeks of release anyway. The only people actally effected in this are the retail stores if they choose to participate or not.

And sure, its not the nicest move in the world by Marvel, but it really isn't all malicious or whatever like some people are making it out to be. It ain't that big a deal. And since when is business competition supposed to be all unicorns and rainbows? I love comics, but sometimes comic fans just annoy me with their overreactions to things.

Rath99 wrote:I don't know but I don't see the uproar over this.

I don't view this as malicious by Marvel. We have to keep in mind that this is a business. There will be some retailers who think it's worth it and will look forward to getting rid of some of their stock of books that haven't sold. Others will do the math and see that it's not worth it. Either way I don't see how this affects me as a fan.

For one I didn't buy many of the ring books I just bought a set of the rings which was cheaper than buying all the books. The reaction this is getting just seems over the top. If this makes you stop buying Marvel comics then you are swayed very easily or just caught up in all the fanboy uproar. As fans we tend to forget that this is still a business that needs to make money to function. Sometimes that means taking shots at the opposition. It's done in all business.

Relax and enjoy comics

Yeah, doesn't seem like all that big of a deal to me. I mean, this is pretty tame compared to Marvel of a few years back.

I think I'm most upset knowing how much dough I'm going to fork over for that variant. I love deadpool and if I can get the book for Under $150 I will.

hrdwrkngXsoldier wrote:I think I'm most upset knowing how much dough I'm going to fork over for that variant. I love deadpool and if I can get the book for Under $150 I will.

Rath99 wrote:I don't know but I don't see the uproar over this.

I don't view this as malicious by Marvel. We have to keep in mind that this is a business. There will be some retailers who think it's worth it and will look forward to getting rid of some of their stock of books that haven't sold. Others will do the math and see that it's not worth it. Either way I don't see how this affects me as a fan.

For one I didn't buy many of the ring books I just bought a set of the rings which was cheaper than buying all the books. The reaction this is getting just seems over the top. If this makes you stop buying Marvel comics then you are swayed very easily or just caught up in all the fanboy uproar. As fans we tend to forget that this is still a business that needs to make money to function. Sometimes that means taking shots at the opposition. It's done in all business.

Relax and enjoy comics

When some of your closest friends run a store (which sold out of the ring books)you see all of the shitty things marvel does, It gets you upset. This is just a another notch in a long list of shitty done in the name of business by Marvel. It just reeks of them throwing stones from inside their glass house. They need to fix their own problems first.

Also everyone should be weary of Marvel shipping product directly to stores

Matt wrote:

Rath99 wrote:I don't know but I don't see the uproar over this.

I don't view this as malicious by Marvel. We have to keep in mind that this is a business. There will be some retailers who think it's worth it and will look forward to getting rid of some of their stock of books that haven't sold. Others will do the math and see that it's not worth it. Either way I don't see how this affects me as a fan.

For one I didn't buy many of the ring books I just bought a set of the rings which was cheaper than buying all the books. The reaction this is getting just seems over the top. If this makes you stop buying Marvel comics then you are swayed very easily or just caught up in all the fanboy uproar. As fans we tend to forget that this is still a business that needs to make money to function. Sometimes that means taking shots at the opposition. It's done in all business.

Relax and enjoy comics

When some of your closest friends run a store (which sold out of the ring books)you see all of the shitty things marvel does, It gets you upset. This is just a another notch in a long list of shitty done in the name of business by Marvel. It just reeks of them throwing stones from inside their glass house. They need to fix their own problems first.

Also everyone should be weary of Marvel shipping product directly to stores

If a retailers sold out of their copies of ring books...good for them. They ordered the amount needed to suit their customer base. DC ran a promotion to highlight books that don't sell well by tying them to the ring promotion. I don't think anyone can doubt that the numbers sold of those books were inflated by the ring promotion. If Marvel thinks that they can exploit that to their benefit then as a business they have every right to do so. No retailer is forced to participate. DC is not losing anything from this because they've made their money already. The only people this effects are the retailers. If they think it's a shitty move by Marvel then they don't have to participate (and if they sold out then they can't). They have to figure that out for themselves.

Bottom line is that selling comics is a business. Part of that business may mean you have to say your stuff is better than the competitions. Coke and Pepsi do it, so do the fast food chains. This is no different. When you buy a Big Mac you don't do so thinking of McDonald's promotion where they disparage Burger King why do that with comic books? Buy the books you like and enjoy to read.

According to something I read off of the Beat, several retailers report ordering more issues from DC to have stock to get the variant. So Marvel... DC thanks you. lol

All those years we were lied and DC actually bought Marvel back in the eraly '60s.

hrdwrkngXsoldier wrote:I think I'm most upset knowing how much dough I'm going to fork over for that variant. I love deadpool and if I can get the book for Under $150 I will.

I love Deadpool as well, but for $150 you might as well wait for a high end collectible to come out. I'm not paying 150 dollars for a 22 page book!

prescribeddrone wrote:I love Deadpool as well, but for $150 you might as well wait for a high end collectible to come out. I'm not paying 150 dollars for a 22 page book!

No, it's $150 for a cover... a single page of paper. As far as we know, the contents are the same as the issue it variants.

That's the whole point of a variant cover...

Tomer Soiker wrote:That's the whole point of a variant cover...

I don't get it. Never did.

I know, but paying more than 10-20 bucks seems really crazy to me. It must take some insane dedication to do that. I payed 230 dollars for my Deadpool statue and so Im just thinking add a little more and you'll have something cooler.

I have 2 rare Spawn (headless variants #185 covers) that are going for 150 bucks, but if I sell them I'll sell them for like 40-50 bucks instead. But I got them for cover price.

@Jerry: Neither do I. The only variant I ever bought -- and it was without owning any other version of that issue -- was New Avengers #1 Director's Cut, which had plenty of content to justify the variant edition. It's just a remainder of the bad days of the industry, a trend that should die this decade.

I'll buy a variant if it's the same price as the normal book and I think it looks cooler. More often than not my LCS will put the variants in my box instead of the normal cover.

I've been to a LCS in Brooklyn that doesn't charge extra for variants. Cool looking store but it's far from me.

It's not the cover price, though. It's just that to trade in 50 issues at $3.99 each, that's $199.50. Of course, retailers don't pay cover price, so I'm guessing analysts are putting the price to recoup at around $150 in order to turn a profit. With Siege #3 at $3.99 cover, it's almost like saying the variant issue is worth forty times any of the Blackest Night books, which I guess is where the fervor is coming from.

Interestingly enough, I read Marvel is going around Diamond for this which may bring them all kinds of trouble they didn't take into consideration.

alucardbarnivous wrote:It's not the cover price, though. It's just that to trade in 50 issues at $3.99 each, that's $199.50. Of course, retailers don't pay cover price, so I'm guessing analysts are putting the price to recoup at around $150 in order to turn a profit. With Siege #3 at $3.99 cover, it's almost like saying the variant issue is worth forty times any of the Blackest Night books, which I guess is where the fervor is coming from.

Interestingly enough, I read Marvel is going around Diamond for this which may bring them all kinds of trouble they didn't take into consideration.

Very good point.

jaydee74 wrote:

alucardbarnivous wrote:It's not the cover price, though. It's just that to trade in 50 issues at $3.99 each, that's $199.50. Of course, retailers don't pay cover price, so I'm guessing analysts are putting the price to recoup at around $150 in order to turn a profit. With Siege #3 at $3.99 cover, it's almost like saying the variant issue is worth forty times any of the Blackest Night books, which I guess is where the fervor is coming from.

Interestingly enough, I read Marvel is going around Diamond for this which may bring them all kinds of trouble they didn't take into consideration.

Very good point.

I don't know what kind of trouble Diamond can give Marvel. It's not like they are going to cut Marvel off. Maybe there's something I'm not considering.

I don't see much of a problem anyway.

Anytime Marvel self distributes everyone should be weary. Another Heroes World fiasco will most likely kill the industry this time

Rath99 wrote:I don't know what kind of trouble Diamond can give Marvel. It's not like they are going to cut Marvel off. Maybe there's something I'm not considering.

Sue them for breach of contract. Potential millions.

Tomer Soiker wrote:I don't see much of a problem anyway.

Lets say I have a contract with you for backrubs exclusively. Then, I go to some place in Chinatown and you have evidence of this. That means I breached contract and you can punish me for being a bad, bad boy.

alucardbarnivous wrote:

Rath99 wrote:I don't know what kind of trouble Diamond can give Marvel. It's not like they are going to cut Marvel off. Maybe there's something I'm not considering.

Sue them for breach of contract. Potential millions.

I am kind of curious as to DIamond's stance on this little stunt.