We usually do the Wednesday Winners when there are actual winners and now we have the Month in Review. So I pitched the idea of a weekly review, a way to see what’s happened since our picks a week later. We can spotlight winners, losers and books you can still find at cover price.
We have to stay on top of our game when it comes to spec’ing comic books so hopefully you all find these reports useful. If a book is’nt mentioned, it’s likely because it’s still available online or at your local comic shop for retail price.
DC Books
Aquaman #40 Cover B was a Middleton cover that was very eye appealing but is certainly hard to live up to Batgirl #23
level of appreciation on the secondary market.
Batman Damned #1 Covers A and B was the winner from last week (people paying some crazy prices just to see some Batman penis) and could be a winner for ages to come.
I briefly mentioned it but it wasn’t my top pick out of the DC books (I didn’t know it was going to show a first appearance.. or should we consider it a cameo appearance, I mean, you only really see the outline of it, that’s a cameo right? I’m calling it a cameo and will wait for the first full appearance in a future Batman book). Anthony claimed in his picks this was the DC book to grab and he was right. I’m sure he’ll remind me of that in NYCC next week.
At the time of writing (Monday evening), Midtown listed Cover B as available for $60. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Midtown jack up their prices on books to secondary market prices within the first week of release.
Justice League #8 Jim Lee Cover B actually turned out to be around a $10 book and is still sold out at Midtown and other online retailers.
There’s still a good chance you can find these out in the wild. For me it was a book for the personal collection.
Marvel Books
Edge of Spider-Geddon #3 Cully Hamner cover b is selling anywhere between $4.99 to $9.99 with some sets of both covers A and B for $19.99.
Lot’s of these still listed with some auctions. Will be interesting to watch if this stays consistent or start to drop. Guess we’ll find out in the monthly review next month and Shawn B’s One Year Later. I think this one was hyped due to the semi-success of issue #2.
Mr. and Mrs. X #3 isn’t getting much love for a new character appearance, Professor X’s alien daughter.
The higher ratio variant isn’t doing too bad if you got it for cover or for cheap ($20 or less). A quick brief lookup shows these selling between $35 and $50. Maybe this one is long term but that all depends if this new gal sticks around in the X-Men Universe (maybe a future movie could push it along).
Indie and Small Press Books
Junior High Horrors #1 was that indie book that I think got shadowed by all the Batman Damned
news and was the only book worth mentioning for this review.
This was a $10 to $25 book. With sets of all the covers selling for upwards of $45. The winner was the Exorcist Homage cover with sales peaking around the $25 range and the 1:5 variant selling for a solid $22 to $25 each.
So if you missed out on Batman Damned, be on the lookout for this book, there’s still money to be made.
21 thoughts on “One Week Later Report for 09/19/2018 Releases”
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Solid write-up AP! For today’s “Wednesday Winner”, check out the Doctor Aphra #24B —the Galactic Icon Boba Fett cover….
Yeah, that Boba Fett is a solid $15 book or so right now.
Called up an LCS who had a SW Aphra Boba variant left. I collect classic Boba covers and action figures so he held it for me until I could get there. Got it for cover…staying in the PC regardless.
Got one Aphra 24 at the LCS today but trying to decide on picking up another one tonight. Curious what happens by tomorrow. Do the $15 ones get cleared out and prices start to rise or is there a flood coming that keeps it at $10-15? Thoughts anyone?
Just gonna have to watch the secondary market to find out. What usually happens is the Boba Fett fans are trying to get their copy if their local shops didn’t have them or they missed out. Doctor Aphra has a smaller print run so that could assist in keeping this one the Galactic Icons cover to have as Boba Fett has it’s fans, usually has it’s demands and smaller availability certainly doesn’t hurt in the case where there’s demand.
I personally think it’s going to get more expensive and it won’t take that long to get there. AP is correct on the demand side as Fett has a very large fan base….AP is also right with regards to Doctor Aphra having a lower readership and print run size. The key issue here is that this was a “meet or exceed” variant and I just don’t think many dealers hit that threshold. A lot of online dealers don’t even show that they ordered it. Print run on this one should be small….demand should be higher than normal….should equate to higher $$. Just my opinion of course.
What was the threshold? My shop didn’t have many regular cover on the rack…I doubt they ordered 10 copies total including pull lists…
I agree, there’s also completionists out there that are gonna want this for the entire set. I’m not collecting them all but just ones I’ve liked. Got 2 of the Fett. may get one graded
The threshold was a ratio that the dealer had to meet or exceed. For example, 150% of issue #20. The specific issue used for the ratio and the required numbers to hit are only known to each individual retailer. It is all based on percentage increases to a prevous order. Sometimes it is actually on another title that Marvel is trying to prop up.
Yeah, one shop owner I knew hated the way Marvel did these order techniques for shops. He never budged cause he didnt like ordering X amount of books that will sit on his shelves for years just so he can get a few copies of another cover.
There’s not many who like this form of ordering—if you are absolutely certain you are going to up your orders to qualify, that’s one thing. Most retailers don’t know they will qualify until very close to the deadline. It actually works in the favor of small retailers….and against large ones. Remember all of those homage lenticulars marvel did? Yeah….there are a lot of places that are stuck with those.
That’s always been my philosophy .. and one of the reasons I’ve stayed in business since the Revolutionary War .. 😉
And as a consumer, I will never blame a shop owner for not getting cover X or cover Y when it comes to Marvel’s crazy ordering requirements. I expect everyone else to respect their shop as well if they don’t want X amount of copies of a book just to even qualify to buy X title and cover.
The crazy part to me is apparently MyComicShop isn’t meeting the threshold? They didn’t have the Boba or Yoda covers. That seem weird to anyone else?
Still sitting at $15+shipping this morning. We’ll see what the day brings. Hopefully a Batman Damned like tidal wave! ?
These thresholds are always a percentage of a previous issue order (usually that title but sometimes a different title if it’s a new book).
So for example, monthly orders are due today for November. Doctor Aphra #26 has another one of these Reis Galactic Icon variants. The triggering threshold isn’t “order 50 copies to qualify”, it’s “meet or exceed 100% of orders for Doctor Aphra #23”.
100% thresholds aren’t usually a problem when a title is on issue 10+. But, if for example, the threshold was 100% of issue #1 in order to get a special variant of issue #4? Very, very few retailers are going to qualify. Because a “natural” order volume for an issue 4 is around half of an issue 1.
Where Marvel really annoys retailers is with things like Avengers #10, shipping in November. That book has a Skottie Young variant. Skottie Young sells. The consumer issue of Previews shows there is a Skottie Young cover. Customers want the Skottie Young cover… well… the ordering threshold to be able to get the Skottie Young cover is 150% of issue 6. And the Young covers don’t count toward the total. So if we ordered 30 copies of issue 6 because that’s what we had customers for, and now 8 of those customers are asking for the Skottie Young of issue 10? We have to order 45 regular covers PLUS 8 Skottie Young covers to appease those customers. 53 copies of a book where 30 was the correct order volume 4 issues earlier.
Now multiply that by MYCS’s likely order volume… Beating a threshold by overordering 5-10 copies isn’t a big deal. But overordering 200-400?
Less annoying are things like Uncanny X-Men 1. Here, Marvel has a triggering threshold of 250% of the order volume for Avengers 5. If we were a store ordering 30 copies of Avengers 5, there is a decent chance we could justify an order of 75 copies of Uncanny X-Men 1. We have to hope there is pentup demand for Uncanny. We have to hope it gets good buzz. But that threshold “might” work. And if we have a customer preordering the 1 in 50 variants, it might be easier to get to that order volume. But, it’s also a $7.99 cover price book that is immediately followed by weekly $3.99 books. How many customers will make a $16 commitment just to get the first three issues in November?
I can tell you that my shop isn’t going heavy on Uncanny. Marvel has to prove to me they have X-Men stories worth reading before I’m willing to back them with heavy orders. I’ll back anything Donnie Cates or Al Ewing does, and I’m warming to Nick Spencer again. But I’m not ordering 100 copies of Uncanny out of nostalgia…
Nice info.
I always pre-order these from Midtown so I don’t have to worry about finding them on Wednesday’s.
Great column idea Poyo! Thoughts on if the Junior High Horrors Exorcist is gonna stay sought after or become forgotten? Seems like an all-time classic horror movie homage but I dunno if the book is good?
Its been done numerous times. If you want for PC… Keep a copy but I’d say sell sell sell if you got extra copies.
Thanks..I only ask because they’re still selling at Keenspot’s site…about $5-6 shipping tho and who knows how long that takes or condition you get them in..keep up these posts tho, cool idea!
Yeah, I’ve never bought from Keenspot directly. I’ve had some bad luck with some publishers I’ve bought from directly. They treat the books like periodicals and not collectibles.