Walking Dead #163 Variants 

Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment is pleased to reveal a very special limited variant cover for Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s THE WALKING DEAD #163.
With artwork by series artist Charlie Adlard, THE WALKING DEAD #163 Cover B will feature full colors by Dave Stewart and an image of series protagonist Rick Grimes dressed in series antagonist Negan’s characteristic leather motorcycle jacket and holding the iconic Lucille barbed bat.
THE WALKING DEAD #163 begins an all-new story arc which will explore the aftermath of the Whisperer War.

Limited quantities of both THE WALKING DEAD #163 Cover B by Adlard and Stewart and THE WALKING DEAD #163 Cover C (B&W version) by Adlard will be available on Wednesday, February 1st—the official date of Image Comics’ 25th anniversary. Final order cutoff for comics retailers is Monday, January 9th.
Update: The color variant will be a 1:200 variant. The black and white will be a 1:500 variant. The Comic Mint has the three cover set up for pre-order. 
The color variant is available on The Comic Mint as well.
 

61 thoughts on “Walking Dead #163 Variants ”

  1. I assume these are standard cover price and not the 25 cents of standard cover? And any idea how many they are limited too please Tony?

    1. When I find out I will let you know. I do know I must have them. No place has them for pre-order yet.
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      1. I’m willing to bet none of my shops get them. I’m gonna just send you paypal money now to get some copies for me. 😉

    2. Diamond indicates the following:
      WALKING DEAD #163 CVR B 200 COPY INCV
      NOTE: FOR EVERY 200 COPIES OF WALKING DEAD #163 COVER A ORDERED [DEC160627] RETAILERS MAY ORDER 1 WALKING DEAD #163 COVER B.
      WALKING DEAD #163 CVR C 500 COPY INCV
      (NOTE: FOR EVERY 500 COPIES OF WALKING DEAD #163 COVER A ORDERED [DEC160627] RETAILERS MAY ORDER 1 WALKING DEAD #163 COVER C.)
      Both have a $0.25 cover price

    1. At retail, yes that is correct. Midtown will probably sell them for $200 and $500 respectively. And when I say sell them I mean list them, much in the same way their Walking Dead 150 black and white 1 per store is still listed for like $400

    2. But retailers could or will sell the variant at $50 to recoup so their 25 cent issues are already paid for, which they’re likely paying slightly lower prices for. I think I read they’ll be paying 17 cents or so per issue, someone with a Diamond account correct me please…

      1. The Comic Mint has the three issue set up for $149, link in the story, shipping on 500 comics is over $50 freight alone, so that has to be taken into account. Not to mention what to do with the other 499 copies

        1. Yeah, I think most don’t realize a lot of shops will likely still pre-order what their own demand is in their own shop. I don’t think most are going to order enough just to get the incentives, not if it’s taking a chance on sitting on a very expensive variant.

        3. And damn you, I bought the 3 issue set from ComicMint.. cause these are going in PC but yeah, that’s not a bad price. Could easily go up from that.

          1. By the way, CHU beat Bleeding Cool (still hasn’t reported it) and comicbook.com with the story (they “broke” the story at 2:35 Pm) it was all based off a press release we were all sent though.

  3. $125 for 500 copies and both variants? Sounds like a win and I know what I’ll be giving out for Halloween instead of candy this year

    1. Haha.. never. I think issue 163 is gonna be a key issue, likely some key deaths, etc.

      1. I doubt my LCS will charge me for the freight. They bag and board every new issue that goes on the rack so if I tell them to not bother, I’ll save them a bunch on the b&b costs and we can call it even

        1. Oh I didn’t mean it that way that the local would charge you freight. Was just saying to Poyo that don’t expect to be charged .25 cents times 500 copies as shipping to store has to be built in the price
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  4. The cost is $0.13 per copy for a retailer.
    So do the math and try to get someone with a diamond account to hook you up for less than $0.25 per copy.
    🙂

      1. So if a retailer bought 100 copies at 13 cents, that’s $13. If they sell all 100 copies at 25 cents, they’ll net $25. If these weigh around 4 ounces each (rough estimate depending on number of pages, etc), from my lookups, shipping via UPS, USPS or FedEx ground can be anywhere from $14 to $25. I’m sure there might be other discounts depending on one’s standing on shipping (I’d imagine Diamond gets a really nice shipping discount and pass that along to customers). A store is still looking at a possible loss when a comic is only 25 cents an issue.

  5. Ask a few retailers about Diamond shipping policies. Interestingly, I just had a discussion with my LCS guy this afternoon. Seems Diamond sent an extra box this week, at an additional cost of about $20.
    And what was in that box? One single POP figure and lots of paper wrapping. Retail value-$9.99.
    After some heated discussion with his rep, Diamond refused to give him a shipping credit because the order came after a cutoff date or some nonsense. A supervisor was to call him back, but hadn’t all day.
    So don’t expect deals on shipping these WD issues. They are full size comics, regular issues with a reduced price. I’d think even for the variants the cost of shipping would be more than the #163 books will sell for.

        1. Lol. Agreed. I remember other distributors. Capital was one. But they were horrible at getting comics out on time. The history of Diamond comics is actually fascinating

  7. One of my LCS’s is offering the sets for $80 on pre-order for members of their shop club program. At least I won’t have to figure out where to store 500 copies

      1. Yup I already put in for my set. Oh I’ll still pick up like 20 copies or so. How can I not for just a quarter?

        1. Bagging and boarding those 20 copies will be more expensive than the comics themselves. Years ago Superman did the 10 cent adventure and Batman had the 10 and 12 cent adventure and I bought a couple of dollars worth. They ended up being worth a couple of bucks each and I sold them. I think they are still worth $2 today.

  8. Nice covers, but I know if I can find them they will be way over the price limit I set for myself.

  9. I’ve been calling couple of LCS to see if they can hook me up with there Dimond discount but no luck. I wouldn’t mind buying 500 copies just to get those variants. But the big question is where to store them? LOL. I also think that with thsee variants, this book is going to have a huge print run. Wich will suck!

    1. Yeah it will have a huge print run. But at 25 cents it doesn’t have to go up very much for you to start to recoup your investment. The variants will not have that big of a print run though.

      1. I ordered 13 from Forbidden Planet, they are a straight cents to pence conversion, so 25 pence per copy. For some reason they only charged £1 for ordering 13, if I tried 14 copies in the postage went up to £5.50! I’ll probably keep the order, £4.25 is not much more than a pint of beer lol
        In all honesty, do you think the variants will work out as a good long term investment, even at £150 (about $185)?

        1. Not sure they will work out at all. I just love the cover and am chasing them for myself. Initially they will see heat, most likely. Walking Dead does so few actual variants or incentives that I cannot see how people will not be chasing them.
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          1. Too rich for me for PC, just chasing the profit! And seeing as most variants like this seem to hit the UK way after the event, the heat may have gone out by then. Oh well, maybe next time!!

  10. Sad lemon comics in UK selling the set for £149.99 for “next few days only”, presumably to get the bulk in order with diamond before cut off date. Looks like the spec opportunity for cover A is now completely blown out the water with so many being ordered to get the variants so I think I’ll cancel my pre-order of multiple copies and just get one for PC. Can’t afford to buy the variants at the moment either ??

    1. Yeah. The final order cut off for these variants are the 13th so he can only sell them for the next few days without having to order crazy amounts and risk not selling the variants. All the preorders are for just the next few days.

  11. Haha I really enjoyed reading the thread for this one. Don’t get me wrong I like a good variant from time to time, but after reading the comments it makes me dislike them even more. I’ll just pay the 25 cents and get the same story. Also is it just me but Lucille seems a little too clean.

  12. Just been reading some articles on Comichron, saw something interesting, may be pertinent to this (maybe not.) In January 2002 Diamond decided to exclude any price promotional article off their charts after Batman 10 Cent Adventure sold over 700,000 copies and then Marvel doing a 9 cent Fantastic Four, though Comichron does have a asterisked entry for the Batman. Wonder if Diamond will take the same view with WD 163, especially as the figures will be even more artificially inflated by the variant issue? And I assume the sales figures will still be made available, even if they don’t place on the chart. Well I found it interesting ha ha

  13. Mmmmmm….gotta love end of year tax clearings! Gotta get that cost goods up to deduct from that profit! How charitable of them.

          1. I don’t blame you, it is tedious and boring in the extreme listing on eBay, even with loads of templates, taking the photos and all the other stuff takes time. Sleep is by far the better option!

                1. I’ve been trying to catch up on more comics…. Earlier today I read one and got sleepy so I took a nap instead.

  15. Well, I’m not gonna let you guys have all the fun, I bought in, too! Thanks for early head’s up, Anthony!

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