Welcome once again to the second installment of the One Week Later Report. This week we’ll cover the books released for 10/03/2018.
A new Mattina book heated up before release date with some retailers claiming they were shorted. We saw some really horrible foil covers all arrived damaged from for DC (bad idea using such thin stock) and many others. Let’s do the week in review.
DC Books
The clear winner from last week was the book it seems no one could even get in some areas. This was Mattina’s Deathstroke #36 Cover Killer B.
I was actually at Midtown in NYC and they all claimed they were shorted copies everywhere. That’s the word on the street at least and from what I overheard one employee telling a potential customer at the store in Times Square.
This quickly jumped to be around a $50 book but some recent sales are now around the $10 to $15 range. If you missed out and you need this for your Mattina collection, now’s likely the time to buy.
It’s strange that we always mention or point out these Mattina covers but the once we stop spending time on them, an issue pops. Was it due to limited availability or because it’s Mattina or just the artwork. We can keep guessing how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll lollipop but the world may never know.
Nightwing #50 actually was sort of a surprise after digging around recent sales. Seems sets of both A & B have sold as high as $20 range.
Most sales have been cover price or a little over but with the few sales peaking over $10, might not be a bad flip if you find some out in the wild.
The winner out of both covers is the Jonboy Meyers cover that most are listing from $10 to $15 currently at time of writing.
The new Wonder Woman And Justice League Dark Witching Hour #1 Cover B Variant Riccardo Federici Cover Killer B cover done by was not a bad pickup either this week to round out the top DC books, which surprisingly had a really good week for flip potential.
These saw a peak of up to $20 range, had solid sales in the $15 range and still are being listed in the same range of $10 to $15. I’m kind of kicking myself now as I saw a nice stack of these at Midtown last Wednesday.
I guess with the convention, I just didn’t have that much time to be looking up sales and such for the week in review. I’ll just have to do better next time so I don’t miss out on potential flips.
Marvel Books
The Marvel winner isn’t that much of a surprise but it’s also a regular cover A, which was hard to come by. That winner goes to Deadpool #5 Nic Klein’s Garbage Pail Kids parody cover.
This cover peaked at around the $40 range but has since settled and been a solid $20 book since, give or take a few bucks on some recent sales.
Regardless of the flips, this is just a great cover, particularly for any Garbage Pail Kids fan. I was able to snag 2 copies at Midtown and there were probably only around 2-4 left in the stack. Nobody was going for the Gwenpool
Battle Lines Variant
cover B, despite it being sold out online now at Midtown, I’m sure you can still find these in the local shop and your own local shops.
That’s really all the exciting stuff out this week from Marvel. The Battle Lines covers have sold out at some or all online retailers but these are or have sold at, under or slightly over cover price for the most part. I think these themed variant sets each month fair well for some collectors but judging from history, these don’t hold any value long term for the most part.
Indie and Small Publisher Books
If you could find them cheap, the Dead Rabbit #1 Dave Johnson incentive variant wasn’t a bad flip for some, reaching at peak prices of around $30.
It’s still an easy $20 book if you can still find it out in the wild for cover price or under $10 for the quick flip profit.
The Dead Rabbit NYCC Exclusive (for those in attendance) was reaching peak prices of around $24 dollars. But at $10 initial retail price, that really cuts into the profit. That’s a far cry from past con exclusives coming out of Image which in the past would see prices in the $50 to $100 range for some books.
Long gone is the days it seems for Image to put out really hot convention books. Unless they get optioned and become popular TV shows later on, I’ve tread lightly lately on Image convention books. I didn’t even bother picking up any of their exclusives this year. I did pick up a few of their ashcans, which qualified me for the exclusive Deadly Class #1 NYCC
Reprint, which will come in another article more than likely.
That’s about it for the week in review. Most if not all the unmentioned books you can likely find at your local retailers or online for cover price.
Solid write-up AP—solid!
Thanks brother.
I could not find that Deathstroke last week.
Nobody could.
Preordering can be your friend gents and ladies…..order a few copies before FOC and be “guaranteed” your books. ***nothing is guaranteed except for death and taxes***
Preorders also got me in trouble with a bunch of garbage books that end up at half price as well. 🙁
Dredd Final Justice looks like the clear early,winner this week. On no ones radar. I only grabbed a copy because Anthony wanted one and couldn’t find it. I only saw two all day, all in one shop. Will keep looking. Should have trusted my gut and bought them both. Oh well!
Second place may be the Venom 6 secret variant.
3rd place is too close to call at this point.
What’s radar?
Doesn’t anyone read my picks.. Dredd was one of my picks. 🙂
So you did! Usually I don’t pay too close attention to independents unless it’s mentioned multiple times or there’s consensus from those posting here it’s a book to get. You did call it out, but no one have it any love! Getting some love now though!
Im a big Jock fan and I totally missed this book. Im having a hard time finding one. Issue #2 will also feature Jock art. I preordered that today.
I got lucky and was able to get 5 of the Deathstroke B’s last week (after visiting 3 shops). Found 3 of the Suicide Squad B’s this week…that one was actually more difficult to get…my LCS said they would have ordered more but the cover was not known before FOC. I sadly missed out on the Venom secret variant…partially my fault for waiting until the last minute to let my LCS know I needed it…by then, they were all spoken for.
My LCS said they sold out of both the Deathstroke and Witching Hour B covers (even though I was there when doors opened up on Wed.). A week later they had a copy of both up on the wall. Hmmmm
Two of my local shops now hold back all B covers by DC and mark them up to $10-15 day of or sell them online. That seems ridiculous to me.
Call them out. Do it publicly. I don’t think shops deserve anyone’s business since they’re the retailer. If they want to play the secondary market game, they can close their Diamond Account, close up shop and stand in line like the rest of us and pay full cover price.
So I went today and called them out for lying because they said they were sold out and they had multiple copies of both books on the wall for 3-4x cover (and to buy other stuff bc otherwise that would be a little psycho). They said it was because certain people come and buy multiple copies just to flip. I told them I understand but at the same time that doesn’t justify jacking up the price and there are some people who make the effort to come in when the store opens up just to get a copy of something and if they wanted to do a one per person policy (which they have done in the past) is totally okay with me. I want my LCS to make money and succeed but I guess its a double edged sword. They get mad at flippers who come buy all the stock of a single book, which yeah sucks for everyone else but at the same time the named “flipper” does spend $100-200 a week in there.
Yup, why does it bother them someone is buying the product from the wall. If they want it to be fair for all customers, limit the total one caj grab in the first week. It’s a relative easy solution.
But basically they’re mad at flippers but yet they turn around and do the same thing by being flippers themselves. You know how ass backwards that is?
Agree. Their explanation makes no sense. Theyre excuse is “can’t beat them, so they join them.”
It’s their right, but you don’t have to buy from them. And no one else will if they keep that up. Majority of B covers aren’t worth any more than the A covers. I know a shop that’s widened up and orders more DC B covers than A covers…because 9 out of 10 times th B cover is better! And other shops around do not order them! So there’re not really competing as they are carrying different stock!
I think you are seeing this far more frequently now. Here’s the rub; By being an idiot now….and burning customers, more will leave over time. On top of that, these same store owners (who are the biggest speculators) will get torched by over-buying these books/covers themselves. It happens all the time and these idiots will be out of business…..again.
I totally agree. Problem is my LCS is the biggest and best in town and going somewhere else would take an additional 30 minutes drive and most of the smaller LCS don’t deal with variant covers at all. So I guess this shop is getting too comfortable and are willing to take the risk with such practices. Argghhh.
Order from midtown or other online retailers I say. I’d call them out though here or online, they wont change their ways unless more people are aware…. Plus public shaming goes a long way.
AP is very accurate in his comments Andrew. Do you have any good relationships with any eBay sellers? Perhaps you could have a running account with one of them. I don’t mean an online comic store, but a person who knows how to grade and will charge you decently…not obscenely. There are benefits to sellers who sell to people they are familiar with—a lot less risk being a big one. Actually, it’s less risk for both of you. Lots of sellers out there like that—try and connect with one.
I stopped with midtown, to many sub NM books and they don’t care.
I’m contemplating abandoning Unknown Comic Books as my online go to. Up until about 4 weeks ago they were shipping me books the day of release..and all were NM or better, many 9.8s. All of a sudden they’re not shipping books…I have 3weeks of back orders just sitting there now…the last time I had to call them and someone had to pull a book off the shelf to complete my order…frustrating. Fortunately all the books on back order I can replace…but next week is Batgirl 28 Middleton and that one will be tough to find.
Managed to get hold of 4 copies of Deathstroke 36 Mattina, put 3 up on eBay sold 1 removed the listing and listed 1 with intention to keep 2 copies, changed my mind and relisted without checking Quantity on the listing and listed both, to my dismay both sold, leaving me with none.
Keep telling myself I’m not to worried and don’t t need this for PC, but still rue this schoolboy error.
I hear you. I have to remind myself why I’m buying sometimes. I only buy for the PC but I do find myself buying for the cover sometimes (such in case with all these Mattina covers). At the end of the day I’d rather have books I enjoyed reading, or a good key, in my PC then something just for the cover.
In a year buy the cover back for half off or more if you really want it in the PC.
Yea shops wonder why people go online to get what they need. What is really irritating about this situation is the DC cover Bs are open to order! They are not incentive based in any way. Shops pay the same for these as Cover A. If it’s a 1:25 it makes sense a shop would charge $25 because they have to order 25 regulars to get one.
Yup. If it’s open order and you’re a retailer, you deserve to fail as a business if you decide to jack up the costs on release day for books you got for wholesale prices that required zero jumping through hula hoops to get.