The Walking Dead #163 the highest ordered comic in nearly 2 decades

[Erndog]

25¢ promotion successfully expands readership, pre-orders exceed 730,000

 

As final orders rolled in this week from Diamond Comic Distributors, THE WALKING DEAD #163 pre-orders exceeded 730,000 copies—without the aid of subscription box numbers to bolster the overall total—making the goal of expanding readership through a promotional 25¢ price point an overwhelming success.

 

 

 

I hope thread doesn't lead to bashing TWD or moderns in general, but I thought this was a good strategy to try and help expand readership. Obviously this will only help so far, but at the end of the day it's a great jumping on point for a lot of people. If that leads to even a small increase in readership, it'll be worth it. Hey, at least they're trying!

 

I guess it may become sort of a test run for the rest of the industry as well.

 

Haven't seen pre-orders that big since... Spawn #1?

 

[Rhymenoceros]

How many people - not retailers - are ordering 500 25¢ (or less) comics just to get the 2 variants? For this book I'm guessing there are a good handful. I'm not one of those people since I'm in the process of cutting the collection vs. expanding.. but I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of the A covers for years. Not "bashing" as it's always great to get more readers, but I don't see it as a jumping on point.

[1Cool]

I applaud them for trying something different. Hopefully the book is good and people will keep buying.

[Bill1]

My LCS was ok with me ordering them all to get the incentives, $125 retail, but then we agreed for $100 I can have one 1:200, one 1:500, and up to 50 of the regular cover. Probably won't want 50, but nice of him to work with me.

[1Cool]

So the 730,000 orders which is being bragged about may just be a couple hundred guys ordering 200 or 500 copies to get at the variant covers. Sounds about right for the modern market.

[DarthBane]

Looking @ sold auctions bundled BINs of 1:200 + 1:500 variants are fetching $125-$130+ shipping (There were some outliers as well.) Keep in mind these are RAW.

 

The 1:500 alone is getting $85ish RAW

 

So if you could get a 9.8 slab imagine what multiple those would fetch?

 

If you came in here with $500 and scoop up 2000. This would give you 10 and 4 variants respectively.

 

So if you do the math on that, I think you would really need to hit a 9.8 slab or two for a legit payday.

 

UPDATE. Actually the 1:200's are getting $39-$49 with BIN listings including cover issue @ .25

 

So say you could get $39 for that and $85 for the 1:500 all individually style BINs. For $500 cash outlay you would net $643ish after fees ebay/paypal. Thats an ROR of 28%.

 

 

[mysterio]

Looking @ sold auctions bundled BINs of 1:200 + 1:500 variants are fetching $125-$130+ shipping (There were some outliers as well.) Keep in mind these are RAW.

 

The 1:500 alone is getting $85ish RAW

 

So if you could get a 9.8 slab imagine what multiple those would fetch?

 

If you came in here with $500 and scoop up 2000. This would give you 10 and 4 variants respectively.

 

So if you do the math on that, I think you would really need to hit a 9.8 slab or two for a legit payday.

 

 

503 comics x 12.5 cents apiece wholesale = $62.88 (plus shipping, I imagine) to get your comics plus buy the 3 variants you'd qualify for. In the short term, assuming the variant prices hold up, its not a horrible payday plus you get 500 of the regular cover with zero cost to try to unload.

 

Of course, if you're paying retail (or retailish) for your books that adjusts the cost structure quite a bit.

[DarthBane]

Looking @ sold auctions bundled BINs of 1:200 + 1:500 variants are fetching $125-$130+ shipping (There were some outliers as well.) Keep in mind these are RAW.

 

The 1:500 alone is getting $85ish RAW

 

So if you could get a 9.8 slab imagine what multiple those would fetch?

 

If you came in here with $500 and scoop up 2000. This would give you 10 and 4 variants respectively.

 

So if you do the math on that, I think you would really need to hit a 9.8 slab or two for a legit payday.

 

 

503 comics x 12.5 cents apiece wholesale = $62.88 (plus shipping, I imagine) to get your comics plus buy the 3 variants you'd qualify for. In the short term, assuming the variant prices hold up, its not a horrible payday plus you get 500 of the regular cover with zero cost to try to unload.

 

Wow did not know @ 12.5 cents! I just randomly picked 2000 comics as a # & great point about 0 cost on regular issues. Are you doing this? Where can we pre-order?

 

 

[mysterio]

Looking @ sold auctions bundled BINs of 1:200 + 1:500 variants are fetching $125-$130+ shipping (There were some outliers as well.) Keep in mind these are RAW.

 

The 1:500 alone is getting $85ish RAW

 

So if you could get a 9.8 slab imagine what multiple those would fetch?

 

If you came in here with $500 and scoop up 2000. This would give you 10 and 4 variants respectively.

 

So if you do the math on that, I think you would really need to hit a 9.8 slab or two for a legit payday.

 

 

503 comics x 12.5 cents apiece wholesale = $62.88 (plus shipping, I imagine) to get your comics plus buy the 3 variants you'd qualify for. In the short term, assuming the variant prices hold up, its not a horrible payday plus you get 500 of the regular cover with zero cost to try to unload.

 

Wow did not know @ 12.5 cents! I just randomly picked 2000 comics as a # but that would only mean $250 cash outlay + shipping. & great point about 0 cost on regular issues. Are you doing this? Where can we pre-order?

 

 

Dealer price is typically half cover, and I have heard that is what they did on this book as well.

 

No, I'm not doing this, but if you wanted the variants for yourself it wouldn't have been a bad idea to get a shop to order them for you. Even if they raise the cost a bit you'd still likely come out ok.

[1Cool]

If the book was more young kid friendly it would be worthwhile as Halloween giveaways next year.

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

I think the jury is still out on if this promotion actually expanded readership. As others stated, some of the additional sales are due to people going for the "x:xx" copies.

 

Let's see how sales are in the upcoming following issues.

 

In regards to Spawn #1 having big pre-orders...I remember buying multiple copies because I wanted the actual book. No gimmick. No price cut. No other reason.

 

***"A" for effort though

[ygogolak]

Looking @ sold auctions bundled BINs of 1:200 + 1:500 variants are fetching $125-$130+ shipping (There were some outliers as well.) Keep in mind these are RAW.

 

The 1:500 alone is getting $85ish RAW

 

So if you could get a 9.8 slab imagine what multiple those would fetch?

 

If you came in here with $500 and scoop up 2000. This would give you 10 and 4 variants respectively.

 

So if you do the math on that, I think you would really need to hit a 9.8 slab or two for a legit payday.

 

UPDATE. Actually the 1:200's are getting $39-$49 with BIN listings including cover issue @ .25

 

So say you could get $39 for that and $85 for the 1:500 all individually style BINs. For $500 cash outlay you would net $643ish after fees ebay/paypal. Thats an ROR of 28%.

 

 

Cost of grading? People who pre-order typical are paying for a window that they miss on items being cheaper upon actual release. I would bet two weeks after release sales will not see that much.

[the blob]

are they trying to sell these other than in comic shops? if not, i don't see how they're going to expland readerhsip. of course, by today's comics standards it is selling fine normally. still worth it to do the book at 60K copies, right? has kirkman reduced his role on the book now that he is a celebrity?

[catman76]

All this sounds like the early 1990s all over again

[aerischan]

are they trying to sell these other than in comic shops? if not, i don't see how they're going to expland readerhsip. of course, by today's comics standards it is selling fine normally. still worth it to do the book at 60K copies, right? has kirkman reduced his role on the book now that he is a celebrity?

At 60K per month, and with Image's fixed fees covered by the first 5-10K in sales, assuming LCS gets 60% cut, Diamond 15% and printing costs $0.25 per copy, that's roughly $25K/mo or $300K annual (minus taxes) going to the creators' pockets.

 

That's not including sales from collected volumes and digital. Granted, probably dwarfed by revenue from HBO. I reckon as long as the HBO TV series continues, so will the comic.

[ygogolak]

All this sounds like the early 1990s all over again

 

[paperheart]

are they trying to sell these other than in comic shops? if not, i don't see how they're going to expland readerhsip. of course, by today's comics standards it is selling fine normally. still worth it to do the book at 60K copies, right? has kirkman reduced his role on the book now that he is a celebrity?

At 60K per month, and with Image's fixed fees covered by the first 5-10K in sales, assuming LCS gets 60% cut, Diamond 15% and printing costs $0.25 per copy, that's roughly $25K/mo or $300K annual (minus taxes) going to the creators' pockets.

 

That's not including sales from collected volumes and digital. Granted, probably dwarfed by revenue from HBO. I reckon as long as the HBO TV series continues, so will the comic.

 

there's a tv series on HBO?

[aerischan]

are they trying to sell these other than in comic shops? if not, i don't see how they're going to expland readerhsip. of course, by today's comics standards it is selling fine normally. still worth it to do the book at 60K copies, right? has kirkman reduced his role on the book now that he is a celebrity?

At 60K per month, and with Image's fixed fees covered by the first 5-10K in sales, assuming LCS gets 60% cut, Diamond 15% and printing costs $0.25 per copy, that's roughly $25K/mo or $300K annual (minus taxes) going to the creators' pockets.

 

That's not including sales from collected volumes and digital. Granted, probably dwarfed by revenue from HBO. I reckon as long as the HBO TV series continues, so will the comic.

 

there's a tv series on HBO?

Whoops, my bad. AMC. I was marathoning Westworld so HBO was on my mind.

[Westy Steve]

You guys know that there will be so many of the 1:50, and 1:100 variants that they'll be pretty common, right? IN THE LONG RUN, the value of the variants won't hold up because there are more. My advice...sell those variants as quick as you can before the general public figures it out.

[loadstone]

Not to stir up another debate but are you saying these variants are going to be the anti-dell'otto 667 variant for WD. Sounds like even the 1:500 will be readily available allotted to qualified orders. Roughly 1,460 if the regular cover order is at or over 730,000? With maybe a few hundred held back if bulk printing leaves no cost difference between alloted quantities and tiered order quantities if that's how it works. We shall see.