Dark Knight 3 1:5000 Hand Drawn Jim Lee Sketch cover

It was there yesterday, I swear. A comic shop in Virginia Beach named Comic Kings had a listing for a 1 in 5000 hand drawn Jim Lee sketch cover for the upcoming Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1. The listing has since been removed. Needless to say, there will be at least one shop ordering 5,000 copies of Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1, and yes, there will be a 1:5000 variant.

Here are the variants for the book.

DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #1
Written by FRANK MILLER and BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by ANDY KUBERT and KLAUS JANSON
Mini comic art by TBA
Cover by ANDY KUBERT and KLAUS JANSON
1:10 variant cover by KLAUS JANSON
1:25 variant cover by ANDY KUBERT and KLAUS JANSON
1:50 variant cover by TBA
1:100 variant cover by FRANK MILLER
1:500 variant cover by JIM LEE
1:5000 original sketch variant by JIM LEE
Blank Sketch cover (commission Jim Lee to draw your own variant)

The auction that was up also included 1 of each of the other covers as well. All the variants, plus the super rare 1:5000, with the asking price of $9,999.

Think about the logistics of this for a minute. The cover price of the books is $5.99. Even if the store was getting a 50% discount, 5,000 copies would cost $14,975, a pretty hefty Diamond bill for the month (and the shipping must be murder!) If the auction (now down) sold for $10,000 that would still mean you would have to move the other nine 1:500 variants, forty-nine 1:100 variant, ninety-nine 1:50 variants, one hundred and ninety-nine 1:25 variants, 499 1:10 variants, and 4,999 regular cover. Seems like a lot of work to turn a profit!

7 thoughts on “Dark Knight 3 1:5000 Hand Drawn Jim Lee Sketch cover”

  1. Putting a comic up for pre-sale just so you can order 5,000 comics off of it….

    Shady business.

  2. That shop is a total pit, and a stain on the Hampton Roads area. Pretty much the only good shop in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area is Local Heroes. Comic Kings over prices their books like crazy, the owner openly admits he doesn’t even read comics anymore, and the employees are what you’d find in a dictionary under the definition of “lackluster”. Not at all suprised Comic Kings pulled that. When I still lived in Norfolk I’d pay internet prices before I’d set foot in that place.

  3. Yea, I saw that crazy auction yesterday as well. My first thought was that there’s probably easier and cheaper methods to get ahold of some Jim Lee art .

  4. When variants started coming out years ago one out 1 in 20 was considered very rare. It was fun at first, every now and then having an issue come out that had a more rare cover but now things have gone crazy and have been out of control for a while with many multiple variants of a book each and every month. I know they say if buyers buy than there will be a market but sometimes comic companies create a false market knowing that there will be completionists out there that will buy a variant even if they really don’t want it, just to have the complete set. If the comic industry ever has another early/mid 90’s type of cool down it will be because of variants driving consumers away. Constant re-boots of comic worlds with massive variants won’t help either.

  5. I don’t think its that hard to turn a profit honestly. The only thing I see wrong with it is, if you’re gonna want the 1:5000 cover you might as well try and get a deal with Diamond and be approved for it by then. I heard most comic shops only pay about $1.50 per new comic from Diamond. that means they will only pay about $7500 + tax. Not a bad deal considering the 1:5000 will go for ATLEAST $10,000+. which gets you your initial investment for all the comics and more, AND THEN you still have the 1:500’s to sell which will go for $600+ probably, AND THEN you still have 49 1:100 variants to sell which usually go for around $100 depending on the artist and art. From those alone I think you find a profit pretty easy.

    Now I agree with the other poster, I barely joined the comic book scene a year ago and I can tell these variants are getting out of hand. Star Wars was ridiculous, besides the action figure variants because I think those are awesome.

    1. At least $10,000..?

      That’s just a BS number by one Ebay seller. Whose to say how much the variant will be worth. Sure, comic stores can to sell the variant to cover the costs of ordering 5,000 comic, but it’s still depends on what buyers will pay.

      My guess, stores wont be able to sell the variant to recoup the cost of the 5,000 comics.

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