And the plot thickens. Initially, there were three covers; a color at 3,000 copies, a black and white at 2,000 copies, and a special hat-less cover at 1,000 copies. Aspen, in a pure cash grab move, tripled the print runs. Making them available again tomorrow morning for those who missed out. The color was now 9,000 copies, the black and white at 6,000 copies, and the special cover at 2,500. People who got their orders in were outraged. Me included. Fans who wanted to buy the new copies were happy as they would be given the chance to buy the now devalued books. Now, Aspen has responded, muddling it up even more. Looks like the Puddin Pack will not be made available and they are keeping the print run of that one at 1,000 copies. Surely those who planned to buy it tomorrow are upset, while those who have already purchased sets still have the increased print runs on the other two books. A real lose/lose situation.
From Aspen’s Facebook page:
Aspen fans and customers,
To preface this post, for over 13 years now, we’ve always strived on providing our fans and customers with the best possible products and services. And I’m not just speaking about the comic buying public, but also all of the other companies we do work for from Marvel and DC, to the many artists and creators we collaborate with, the many convention promotors we support and countless other events and charities we partake in. Michael Turner founded our company with the intentions of providing great stories, fantastic art, an open and friendly environment for our staff and fans, but most of all, having strong character and integrity. Which brings me to the reason for my post…
For several years now, we’ve been working closely with Marvel and DC on many of their biggest projects. Though Mike passed away in 2008 (over 8 years ago now) and wasn’t here to work on them, (and you may not have even noticed), but Aspen has played a large role in books and series such as Ultimatum, Brightest Day, Savage Wolverine, Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, and many others. We’ve loved working on these books but also patiently waited years to hopefully see some of the artwork Mike had drawn prior to his passing, grace some of their covers again. Well, as all of you know, that time finally came last month.
Our new Michael Turner variant covers have been received better than anything we could have predicted. Michael is still a force to be reckoned with years after his passing and it’s a testament to all of you for still keeping him in your thoughts and comic book collections. The response to each new book has gone beyond each previous release and with the new Harley book, we knew it would push those boundaries even further.
After selling out in mere minutes on Tuesday morning during the pre-sale, we literally received hundreds of messages from fans and customers who were unable to obtain any copies. We understand our website had a few problems due to the extreme amount of visitors at one time attempting to make purchases, but we felt something had to be done to try and still help out as many people as we could. This was the first time the book we were pre-selling had not gone to print yet so after several long discussions, we decided to increase the initial print run with DC. This wasn’t done with any other intent than simply providing more books to those that were trying to get them.
With that said, after announcing earlier today that we would be making more books available, we understand all of the feedback we received, both good and bad. As I mentioned earlier, and for many of you who knew him, Michael was always about making as many people happy as possible. He would sign for hours and never charge, do free sketches whenever he could, and as long as the person left smiling, it didn’t matter to him the value or cost of time, just that they were satisfied. That was our goal with releasing more books, but we also need to be respectful of what we announced prior to the start of the pre-sale. Michael was also about integrity and though many of you now feel we don’t have any, we most certainly do and want to make sure we do what’s right for as many people as we can. So…
We spoke with DC a short time ago and will be DECREASING our orders for the 3rd Harley unmasked variant, keeping it to the initial 1000 copies as advertised. The color version will still be set at 9000 copies and the black and white version will be set at 6000 copies. We will still be releasing a limited amount of the color and color/B&W sets tomorrow for any of you who may have missed out the first time. All of these books are first printings and will remain that way. There is no talk of a 2nd printing at this time and DC hasn’t announced they’ll be doing one anyway. These will be the final numbers for the Turner Harley variants, love them or hate them.
We’re a small family owned operation and though we try to do what we feel is best, it’s impossible to please everyone. However, we hope this final adjustment to the Harley books will help appease. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone as we certainly didn’t mean to ruin anyone’s buying experience of these beautiful covers. Michael deserves to be celebrated every day and having these new covers out is just one small way of doing that.
Lastly, for those disappointed that we will not be offering any more of the ‘Puddin’ Sets tomorrow, we will be going through every single Harley order that was placed. Any duplicate or multiple orders will be cancelled so anyone thinking they’ll be receiving more than one set is unfortunately going to be disappointed too. Many of you also requested your orders to be cancelled due to the earlier announcement. We will certainly honor any of those requests if you still would like to do so. I’ll be helping to go through all of the multiple orders and anyone who emailed us about missing out on the 3-pack set, please sit tight for a few weeks until the books come out in early August. Once we’re done processing the orders, we’ll do what we can to possibly help some people out with any of the cancelled or duplicate book orders that we have left over.
All Star Batman #1 goes up for pre-sale this coming Monday morning, the 18th. Peter just finished the cover and it looks incredible. We’ll be announcing the print run AHEAD OF TIME for it later this week with the cover image. Hopefully many of you will stick around to pick it up. It’s definitely going to be worth it. If you have any questions, please message us below or contact our Aspenstore. We’re always here to help. Thanks for your time!
Frank Mastromauro
President/ Co-Owner
Aspen MLT Inc.
Keep on sucking aspen.
I see a few puddin sets sold today for 80$…although I presold mine the day I bought mine I have absolutely 0 faith in aspen moving forward.
An avalanche of text from aspen..Probably should have read it.
Please add the phrase: “Unabridged Ashattery” to your lexicon….
I only ordered 1 color variant so this isn’t really a huge deal for me. I guess my only complaint would be I paid $14.99 (same price as their other books with a 3,000 print run) so maybe they should be a little cheaper with a print run of 9,000? I’m not going to complain over a few dollars though.
However, I missed out on their Batman #1 so if I do complain maybe they could get DC to print 1 extra first print for me? =P
They still have copies they’re selling at sdcc.
At least they are letting folks cancel, what a hassle though. Why not just do a “new printing” like they did for Batman and avoid the bad will? Crazy
because a 2nd print has not been announced yet for Harley. You can bet they will do a second print at some point
I think the blowback from everyone about this whole thing is a little excessive. I understand being frustrated about having bought something that was stated to be more rare than it actually is, but the buyers in the spec’ing community aren’t any more important than fans that just want the variant because it’s cool.
I love this site and I like this community a lot but I often sense an absence of perspective when it comes to the needs of investers/spec’ers and those of ordinary comic fans.
Aspen says, “This wasn’t done with any other intent than simply providing more books to those that were trying to get them”…”but we also need to be respectful of what we announced prior to the start of the pre-sale.” I like to give people the benefit of the doubt so I will assume these statements are genuine. And if they are, there really shouldn’t be much to complain about.
Even if the intention was pure, that is a high premium for a not so limited edition. If they were upfront about the print runs, some folks may have passed on such a pricey variant with high print run. I think it’s fair for customers to be dissatisfied in this scenario if they were not allowed to make an informed decision before buying
Admiral, I respectfully have to disagree on several points. First, I am not sure the average comic fan would be chasing a $60 set of three comics. More likely, they would be buying the A and B cover. This was more for the hardcore collector or Michael Turner collector, initially. Second, they are not being respectful to “what we announced prior to the pre-sale” they have changed two-thirds of what they said before the pre-sale. They tripled the numbers of the print run, after the book sold out, and long after they announced what the print run was going to be. To me, it is being sold a bill of goods that they are not coming through with. I ordered a set that was to be 3,000/2,000/1,000 and am getting a set that is 9,000/6,000/1,000 after I have locked in and paid already. It is not sense of entitlement for exclusivity, it is an expectation to be sold what was advertised which made me spend over $100 on comics I wouldn’t otherwise have done if the second set of numbers were presented to me.
You are correct, speccers are no more important than any other fans, but the fans who wanted the variants too are also not getting their money’s worth out of the books.
I still see you as a friend and valued member of the community Snackbar, but I think we just have a difference of opinion on this one. It happens.
Let’s face it, the average collector has no idea any of this transpired today. I wouldn’t have even bought a set if the numbers announced today were the original ones and to be honest, I’m not a fan of the covers anyway. Yea, I did get a puddin set and requested a refund hours ago. If it goes up 50 bucks, so be it. I’m disgusted by this and the lack of gratitude that the collector was given. It won’t happen again
I agree that stating a print run and then changing it is not only wrong, it’s wrong on so many levels. That being said, I know they quoted the hatless at 1k, but I never saw anything from Aspen that said the color was 3k and the B&W was 2k. I figure they realized they had to stand by what they said to save face and went back to the original 1k on the hatless variant, but they didn’t reduce the others, making me wonder if they did indeed say what the other print runs were. Just as the Legacy Harley print run was never quoted on their site, it just said “very limited”. It was the Legacy facebook representative that quoted the 3k/1.5k, and that’s where they messed up. I’m not calling you a liar, and I don’t agree with what they tried to do with the hatless variant, but if they indeed did not give a print run for the other two variants then I don’t think they should be demonized for increasing the print run for those two variants.
Isn’t the ol’ bait and switch illegal?
Gotta love the Batman All – Star #1 plug at the end. LMAO!
At least the Dell Otto stuck to its print run. First Legacy now Aspen.
They should lower the price at $9.99 instead for such a big print run for a $2.99 book. Then and maybe then I would buy it for the wife’s PC. I will wait a year or 2 and will most likely get it for cover lol
I’m going to stay away from this one…. For once I think I am sticking with my original plan of limited variants…Can’t believe it! The sucking sound coming from my wallet has decreased as well!
I don’t think it’s legal to have people buying a limited to x comic then increasing the limit…. it’s a bate and switch operation, and a recognized illegal scam….
Aspen sucks still won’t buy again. Waste of money.
Down fall of comics…aspen sucks
Why is this the downfall of comics? Getting more books in hands of collectors and people to actually read and enjoy. Isn’t that the goal of a company?
More new Harley variants FML!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harley-Quinn-1-Rebirth-2016-EBAS-COLORED-BY-NEI-VARIANT-PRESELL-/361645921779?hash=item5433c6d5f3:g:o3EAAOSw7s5XhvwD
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HARLEY-QUINN-VOL-3-1-PHILIP-TAN-COLOR-VARIANT-REBIRTH-3-000-MADE-SUICIDE-SQUAD-/172265990062?hash=item281bda67ae:g:-5AAAOSw-KFXfc8m
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HARLEY-QUINN-1-DC-REBIRTH-JAE-LEE-DF-RETAILER-COLOR-VARIANT-BATMAN-VERY-RARE-HOT-/201622738839?hash=item2ef1a6d797:g:~iEAAOSwzJ5XfU3D
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-REBIRTH-HARLEY-QUINN-1-COMICS-TO-ASTONISH-STORE-EXCLUSIVE-VARIANT-COVER-POPE-/252459027842?hash=item3ac7bb0d82:g:3BQAAOSwRJ9XhT4G
I mentioned the Comics To Astonish Paul Pope ones. Pope is my favorite artist so I will be taking a drive as opposed to paying $30 for their color variant
I guess I have to take back what I said about not getting sucked into the Harley variants as I just ordered the Pope. Now, let’s hope there won’t be a Brandon Graham or James Stokoe variant, or I’ll be spending more money.
Hi Alana. The first one is by ebas and it can be purchased at the Most Good Hobby website for half that ebay price. They have a sketch variant for it. This is the first time I see it in color. It’s one I will get for the PC.
5 new Harley variants up today.
Yeah, what a bunch of a-holes for wanting to make some money….oh wait!
Lol
This is what brought about the downfall of American girl dolls and muffin Vanderbear. When you take away the rarity of a formerly rare item and decide to mass produce to fulfill a perceived demand (or greed from the makers), interest for the product goes down by those who made your item desirable in the first place. They never learn from the tale of the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Muffy vandetbear not muffin
I think the re-sale is useless. I would have maybe gotten the set because I like the regular cover, flipping the other two to pay for it.
I’m not paying $15+ for a book there’s almost 10,000 of. So now the re-sale is pointless to me.
Does anybody know if there is actually anything spec worthy inside the “covers” of this book?
It is a Harley #1 so I would say yes, it is spec worthy. Will be a slow burn but with the million of copies coming out maybe not so much.
AspenStore can sell with whatever print runs they so desire. It’s their business. Plus, it’s a Turner variant and Turner’s art will ALWAYS be in demand.
Yes, but the price of the book is based on the number of copies that will be available. So to say something will be limited to 1000 copies, then triple that print run, is shady at best.
they went back to the 1k run on the hatless, they increased the other two which they never gave a definite print run on. Yes, they messed up trying to increase the hatless, they realized they were wrong and made the correction. Now they should be criticized for increasing the hatless, they have been and have heard the complaints and have rectified that problem. They definitely have hurt their reputation big time and it’s their fault and very deserved. BUT, they never gave an initial print run on the color & the B&W, so if you speculated and gambled what those print runs were going to be then that was your own fault for hoping it would be lower.
They mentioned it would be I line with that of the other variants which have been at or around DC’s minimum of 3,000/1,500
I’m pretty sure they never advertised a print run for the color/bw ones. So we can’t really complain that it’s been changed. Plus, they’re letting people cancel orders. I may not like how they handled it, but no one can say they got ripped off — they were never promised a specific print run AND you can get your money back!
Amen!!!
People really need to separate their feelings towards online scalpers from Aspen’s false advertising.
Maybe, it’s karma for all of us evil scalpers, guilty as charged. That doesn’t give Aspen a free pass to falsely advertise a print run and charge a 30 dollar premium for it.
Instead of increasing the print run, they should have just done another separate Variant with a different color scheme. That would have separated one run from the other. At least they are allowing people to cancel their orders. I wonder how many people will actually do so.
That is a good question. If enough people cancel there would be no need for the additional print run.
I’ve sent in a request to cancel my entire order, which included the pudding pop or whatever it’s called. Have heard nothing in return so far.
I can’t say whether or not the re-sale even happened. Unless it was over again in a minute or two I never saw the books showing as available. I have my pre-orders for in for the Benitez cover and that’s it. If you order every single variant to try to find a hit, you wasted what you would have made on all the ones you won’t be able to unload. So I stick to the LCS philosophy of get what you like (and maybe an extra one or two, just in case). The wife and I are Lady M fans primarily for the art, and to have that carry over to Harley is intriguing, so we went with that one.
All that said, what Aspen did was wrong. You can’t set a price based on a print-run and then increase that print-run after. It’s unethical. 2NC and BAM! are learning this with the switch to Fried Pie variants that are immune to the rules of the store named variants. We went from hardly being able to find 2NC/BAM! variants in the store to the store now having an extensive back-issue section dedicated solely to Fried Pie. They can’t give them away.
People can hate on flippers all they want, but they are an integral part of moving books off the shelves. I like one of my LCS’s who operates under the premise of “if they’re there on Friday, take all you want.”
It is true. Spec guys do move a ton of books off the shelves. Think about X-Men The Worst X-Men #3. No one was buying copies until we spotlighted it. Copies sold locally, and Midtown, TFAW, and Mycomicshop sold out. Those were stale books that became fresh.
I don’t post here much but I feel compelled to. Love this site.
The Batman #1 Turner 2nd prints are now suddenly in stock again. I cannot believe this. Did they cancel those who ordered too much or just increase the print run again?
I am glad they limited the puddin’ pack to 1000, but those who are getting on the “scalpers” need to understand they reduced the value of the color and sketch variants. Those of us who ordered on Wednesday feel like we overpaid for those books. When supply goes up and demand stays the same the value of the book goes down. I actually like the cover and am keeping the puddin’ pack for myself.
I feel bad for those I have sold Turner comics in the last few days.
Thanks Kyle. It is odd the Batman 2ND prints are back up for sale. Wonder if those were a pre-order too that they upped the print run on as well, just never told anyone. For the record I have everyone of the recently released Turner variants and have not listed any of the copies to date. This whole thing has soured me towards Aspen and I will not be purchasing from them in the future. Period. Once I get the Harley’s in I am contemplating listing them all as one big group and getting rid of them. Hopefully will remove the sour taste in my mouth in reference to this whole ordeal.
Sent from my iPhone
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Looks like the Batman Turner 2nd prints are gone again.
Again I really appreciate this site. Thanks.
and this is why variants just need to calm the f down . there are way to many good for nothing variants in the market. this has been going on since the darkness #11 with its eleven variants . don’t get me wrong variants reek of awsomness but this Harley Quinn #1 and especially aspin sisuation is insane . as a retailer I feel let down by a business partner in aspin and will not be ordering the all star batman #1 i am glad the pudding packs were sold out when i tried to order them . more order to ofer the frankies blank variant blind adam out
Well, they did it. Thousands of copies now available on aspenstore.com
I just hope my two buyers don’t get wise. Why should I suffer because of this B.S.? I was on top of it the first time they pre-sold.
Doesn’t look like the demand is as much there as they originally intended.
2 hours in 2 packs still for sale. Where’s that demand? They should have just offered prints/lithographs/posters for those who “had to have” Turner’s art. Would have probably satisfied everyone.
Not a bad point. But yes. The books are still very much for sale and I will be canceling mine shortly. Still getting the Puddin Pack but canceling the rest of my order.
Such bs, aspen comics doing bigger print run is all about being greedy and more money. If it was about getting the comic into more hands they should of lowered the price and had bigger print to begin with and limit one per person. These variant cover exclusives is all about the money and starting to get ridiculous. The starting price point is too high on most of these variants.