The problem with reading the charts is that these are Diamond's sales to retailers, not ultimate sales to comics buyers. So these are retailers' guesses as to what their customers want, not what comics buyers are actually getting.
If retailers order and then re-order when they sell out, or order copies when someone asks for them, then these figures might be a little high, as they're stuck with the ones they order wrong and can only adjust when they under-order. But if they don't reorder and just tell customers that they're sold out on a comic when they run out, then the numbers are self-fulfilling.
Sales bounce up when there are incentives or alternate covers on comics, which no doubt is why we are getting more and more of those. But I'm not sure that's driven by buyer demand. I imagine a lot of it is driven by retailers wanting the incentive, figuring they can sell that one special comic for more than the extra dozen or so comics will cost them to throw out.
Even so, the dramatic dropoff for figures for #2 issues really doesn't bode well. Apparently they figure that buyers are getting extra copies of that first issue (still?) or sampling them at this "jumping on" point, but then a huge number won't be back. I can't imagine that's easy to estimate on so many comics each month.
Well, the second issue drop-off has been around in one form or another as long as the Direct Market, if not longer.
Back when comics ordering had a 2-3 month lead time instead of the 1-2 month lead time that it has today, the big drop used to be on issue #4. This was because issues #2 and #3, and sometimes #4, had to be ordered before issue #1 had been released, or been out long enough to gage the demand for future issues. Retailers essentially order blind on the first several issues of any title.
That led to Marvel having an (allegedly) official policy of having Spider-Man (later Wolverine or Punisher) making an appearance in #4 of every new series, to keep the orders higher slightly longer.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out theSecret Headquarters(my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen toWOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
Do you get much information about fan interest ahead of time from customer preorders, Dagwan?
Incidentally, I was very interested to see that The Walking Dead's sales trend has been steadily upwards, but I want to note that it doesn't sell as well as the stronger Marvel and DC titles. On the other hand, its trades seem to keep selling.
Do you get much information about fan interest ahead of time from customer preorders, Dagwan?
Absolutely. For example, Nonplayer has gotten some advance buzz in the past week. I had no pre-orders for it at the time of initial solicitation, so I ordered my standard "3 copies of this Image comic that looks okay but who knows?" Monday was my Final Order Cutoff (FOC) for the title, and I bumped it to 5 copies due to the buzz. By Wednesday I had 2 pre-orders for it, and it's possible all 5 copies ordered will be accounted for before the issue ships! If the buzz (and subsequent pre-orders) had been a week earlier, I likely would have ordered 10 or 12. Image has already posted that most of their overprint has been eaten up by advance reorders placed since Monday!
It's really tricky. For every Nonplayer or Morning Glories or Unwritten, there are a dozen Critical Millenium, Traveller, or Wulf out there.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out theSecret Headquarters(my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen toWOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
Replies
The problem with reading the charts is that these are Diamond's sales to retailers, not ultimate sales to comics buyers. So these are retailers' guesses as to what their customers want, not what comics buyers are actually getting.
If retailers order and then re-order when they sell out, or order copies when someone asks for them, then these figures might be a little high, as they're stuck with the ones they order wrong and can only adjust when they under-order. But if they don't reorder and just tell customers that they're sold out on a comic when they run out, then the numbers are self-fulfilling.
Sales bounce up when there are incentives or alternate covers on comics, which no doubt is why we are getting more and more of those. But I'm not sure that's driven by buyer demand. I imagine a lot of it is driven by retailers wanting the incentive, figuring they can sell that one special comic for more than the extra dozen or so comics will cost them to throw out.
Even so, the dramatic dropoff for figures for #2 issues really doesn't bode well. Apparently they figure that buyers are getting extra copies of that first issue (still?) or sampling them at this "jumping on" point, but then a huge number won't be back. I can't imagine that's easy to estimate on so many comics each month.
Well, the second issue drop-off has been around in one form or another as long as the Direct Market, if not longer.
Back when comics ordering had a 2-3 month lead time instead of the 1-2 month lead time that it has today, the big drop used to be on issue #4. This was because issues #2 and #3, and sometimes #4, had to be ordered before issue #1 had been released, or been out long enough to gage the demand for future issues. Retailers essentially order blind on the first several issues of any title.
That led to Marvel having an (allegedly) official policy of having Spider-Man (later Wolverine or Punisher) making an appearance in #4 of every new series, to keep the orders higher slightly longer.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen to WOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
Do you get much information about fan interest ahead of time from customer preorders, Dagwan?
Incidentally, I was very interested to see that The Walking Dead's sales trend has been steadily upwards, but I want to note that it doesn't sell as well as the stronger Marvel and DC titles. On the other hand, its trades seem to keep selling.
Absolutely. For example, Nonplayer has gotten some advance buzz in the past week. I had no pre-orders for it at the time of initial solicitation, so I ordered my standard "3 copies of this Image comic that looks okay but who knows?" Monday was my Final Order Cutoff (FOC) for the title, and I bumped it to 5 copies due to the buzz. By Wednesday I had 2 pre-orders for it, and it's possible all 5 copies ordered will be accounted for before the issue ships! If the buzz (and subsequent pre-orders) had been a week earlier, I likely would have ordered 10 or 12. Image has already posted that most of their overprint has been eaten up by advance reorders placed since Monday!
It's really tricky. For every Nonplayer or Morning Glories or Unwritten, there are a dozen Critical Millenium, Traveller, or Wulf out there.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen to WOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY