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Store Exclusive Variants Thread!
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Started by Zacreth,

158 posts in this topic

TheRealVenom

TheRealVenom

Posted
Posted
20 hours ago, the authority said:

How much does it cost to produce a set ? 

Upwards of 15K

Thats just for stock paper, if you want something like a foil or high gloss it goes up from there. Plus you are locked in to printing a minimum print run of each cover. so say cover a is 3000 copies, b is 2000 and c is 1000

Its a ton of inventory to hold on to. If you can sell sets of a b and c together for say 75-100 then you have a decent shot at at least breaking even. Iv'e heard horror stories at some shops having over 2000 copies left after the hype died down on their book and they couldn't give them away at cover price.

Its why the book, artist and character mean so much when doing these exclusives.

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Hickok8AA8

Hickok8AA8

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59 minutes ago, TheRealVenom said:

Upwards of 15K

Thats just for stock paper, if you want something like a foil or high gloss it goes up from there. Plus you are locked in to printing a minimum print run of each cover. so say cover a is 3000 copies, b is 2000 and c is 1000

Its a ton of inventory to hold on to. If you can sell sets of a b and c together for say 75-100 then you have a decent shot at at least breaking even. Iv'e heard horror stories at some shops having over 2000 copies left after the hype died down on their book and they couldn't give them away at cover price.

Its why the book, artist and character mean so much when doing these exclusives.

Wow, I knew it was a lot but not that much. So these are $75-100 per set doesn't leave much on the bone? Man I feel bad for people pumping these out because of the success they've had in the past year or so. I feel like most people that would normally be a buyer are burned out, fatigued, and/or broke now. So odds of selling out are probably 50% less than what it was a year ago.

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TheRealVenom

TheRealVenom

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Posted

If its the right cover, book, or artist tho the sky is the limit. I know KRS did really well on those Venom Dell'Otto books. Same with comicxposure on those x-23/venom 4 cover books. If you have the support of guys like us on the forums, and get out to conventions I'd think you could do pretty well. 

But for all those complaining about only wanting to buy the virgin cover by itself, thats why you can't. 

I personally love most of these sets! I can't wait to get my Natalie sanders, Mattina and dell'otto books signed!

 

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rjrjr

rjrjr

Posted
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14 hours ago, TheRealVenom said:

Upwards of 15K

Thats just for stock paper, if you want something like a foil or high gloss it goes up from there. Plus you are locked in to printing a minimum print run of each cover. so say cover a is 3000 copies, b is 2000 and c is 1000

Its a ton of inventory to hold on to. If you can sell sets of a b and c together for say 75-100 then you have a decent shot at at least breaking even. Iv'e heard horror stories at some shops having over 2000 copies left after the hype died down on their book and they couldn't give them away at cover price.

Its why the book, artist and character mean so much when doing these exclusives.

This doesn't sound correct.  How are the stores that sell just 1 exclusive cover able to make a profit at $10 a book?

I'm having a hard time believing Marvel gives a store that buys 3,000 copies a better deal than a store that buys 6,000 copies.

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TheRealVenom

TheRealVenom

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2 hours ago, rjrjr said:

This doesn't sound correct.  How are the stores that sell just 1 exclusive cover able to make a profit at $10 a book?

I'm having a hard time believing Marvel gives a store that buys 3,000 copies a better deal than a store that buys 6,000 copies.

You think Marvel/Disney cares if you make money? lol no as long as they are getting paid. 

At the end of the day you gotta remember these are Paid Advertising. Hopefully your logo and website on a book will increase webtraffic and drive up other sales. Plus bringing these to a con could again drive other sales at your booth.  Iv'e seen stores do really well with these and others who still have huge amounts of inventory left and can't give it away. 

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aerischan

aerischan

Posted
Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, rjrjr said:

This doesn't sound correct.  How are the stores that sell just 1 exclusive cover able to make a profit at $10 a book?

I'm having a hard time believing Marvel gives a store that buys 3,000 copies a better deal than a store that buys 6,000 copies.

Probably depends on the artist fee. Dell'Otto is likely very expensive so higher overhead hence risk-reward ratio if doing just 1 cover isn't worth it.

I posted a quote earlier from Hall of Comics, a retailer who has released some retailer exclusive variants and I think it might have been deleted (might have missed deleting a Voldie reference). That one mentioned $12-15K ballpark for a set.

They had a Super Sons #1 3-cover set (Frank Quitely) that was $59, iirc.

Edited by aerischan
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Zacreth

Zacreth

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It does cost quite a bit for exclusives to be produced and no, they don't get 50% off. Maybe in terms of Midtowncomics they might get an extra discount due to their monthly ordering but it's less than 50% on 3k color runs and depending on the variant and artist it's costly to do the variants.

So what other variants are coming out?

Frankie's Comics - Babyteeth #1 Lenticular cover

https://frankiescomics.com/products/babyteeth-1-mike-rooth-lenticular

Not cheap though for just 1 issue...

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rjrjr

rjrjr

Posted
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3 hours ago, aerischan said:

Probably depends on the artist fee. Dell'Otto is likely very expensive so higher overhead hence risk-reward ratio if doing just 1 cover isn't worth it.

I posted a quote earlier from Hall of Comics, a retailer who has released some retailer exclusive variants and I think it might have been deleted (might have missed deleting a Voldie reference). That one mentioned $12-15K ballpark for a set.

They had a Super Sons #1 3-cover set (Frank Quitely) that was $59, iirc.

 

So, a store receives 6,000 comics and it cost them $12 - 15K which is $2 to $2.5 per book.  At $75 a set, they break even by selling only 200 sets which is 600 books or 1/10th of the product they purchased.

I'm not disputing some stores have a hard time selling out of these books depending on the artist.  I just don't understand how a store that is selling these for $75 or more is having a hard time "breaking even" at the ripoff price of $75 a set or $25 a book.

There are stores that make a profit at $10 a book for 3,000 copies.  Stores are not charities and not all of them are in this to just advertise.  For $12 - 15K there are much better ways to advertise.

Maybe one of you can show me using math how selling sets of 3 at $75 is barely break even.  Because I don't see it.

 

Edited by rjrjr
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aerischan

aerischan

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54 minutes ago, rjrjr said:

 

So, a store receives 6,000 comics and it cost them $12 - 15K which is $2 to $2.5 per book.  At $75 a set, they break even by selling only 200 sets which is 600 books or 1/10th of the product they purchased.

I'm not disputing some stores have a hard time selling out of these books depending on the artist.  I just don't understand how a store that is selling these for $75 or more is having a hard time "breaking even" at the ripoff price of $75 a set or $25 a book.

There are stores that make a profit at $10 a book for 3,000 copies.  Stores are not charities and not all of them are in this to just advertise.  For $12 - 15K there are much better ways to advertise.

Maybe one of you can show me using math how selling sets of 3 at $75 is barely break even.  Because I don't see it.

 

I expect aside from maximizing profit, the pricing is designed to greatly reduce risk/sell through required for break even and go into profit territory.

Like you mentioned, 200-250 copies of just the 3-set at $75 would be break even and anything sold above that is pure profit. The CGC 9.8 guaranteed reduces required units for break even, even more. Assuming a 50% discount on cover, selling out on the complete sets nets a very tidy profit.

I reckon it's probably harder to break even on the single cover 3K than on the sets. Lower profit margin means you need higher sell through.

That said, wow JSC must be making bank. He probably earns multiples of what artists actually doing interiors make with much less effort.

Edited by aerischan
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aerischan

aerischan

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Posted (edited)
On 5/18/2017 at 8:13 PM, Jonnywadd said:

Sure does depend on the collector.  Collectors may try to collect cover artists work no matter what it is, but from what I've witnessed these store variants have lead people away from certain titles.

This is true for me. Not quite retailer exclusives but the last few months, Marvel has been releasing ~3+ Skottie Young variants per month so I've been sacrifice getting ~4-6 regular books in favor of the Young variants.

The retailer exclusive variants usually takes funds from my collected editions budget but I rarely ever buy any.

Getting the Natali Sanders GotG, though. :x

Edited by aerischan
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Zacreth

Zacreth

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2 hours ago, rjrjr said:

ComicXposure has put up for sale on their online website their Darth Vader #1 exclusive:

http://shop.comicxposure.com/STAR-WARS-DARTH-VADER-1-FRANCESCO-MATTINA-EXCLUSIVE-DVFM1.htm

 

It has a very cool cover by Francesco Mattina.

Actually that's not their exclusive cover. It's Doug at ComicSketchArt exclusive cover but KRS and ComicXposure are authorized partners to sell them.

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Zacreth

Zacreth

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2 hours ago, rjrjr said:

 

So, a store receives 6,000 comics and it cost them $12 - 15K which is $2 to $2.5 per book.  At $75 a set, they break even by selling only 200 sets which is 600 books or 1/10th of the product they purchased.

I'm not disputing some stores have a hard time selling out of these books depending on the artist.  I just don't understand how a store that is selling these for $75 or more is having a hard time "breaking even" at the ripoff price of $75 a set or $25 a book.

There are stores that make a profit at $10 a book for 3,000 copies.  Stores are not charities and not all of them are in this to just advertise.  For $12 - 15K there are much better ways to advertise.

Maybe one of you can show me using math how selling sets of 3 at $75 is barely break even.  Because I don't see it.

 

Well I can tell you that when they sell for over $75 they are just raping customers in a way since that is high for a set. Look at the ComicXposure Mattina 4 cover set... they want $129 for a set of 4 books. I think that's pricing a lot of customer's out to buy those but they only need to sell even less to make up their money and hope that the cover stays hot to make larger profits.

There should be retailers that a) needs to make a profit b) keep prices reasonable c) have a good artist/artwork. Then you have a winner I think. I love Mattina/Dell'Otto/Sanders/Granov and look forward to more from them. I recently found some other artists that I'm starting to like but if the retailers charge a fortune for the covers, forget it.

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ygogolak

ygogolak

Posted
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16 hours ago, Zacreth said:

Well I can tell you that when they sell for over $75 they are just raping customers in a way since that is high for a set. Look at the ComicXposure Mattina 4 cover set... they want $129 for a set of 4 books. I think that's pricing a lot of customer's out to buy those but they only need to sell even less to make up their money and hope that the cover stays hot to make larger profits.

There should be retailers that a) needs to make a profit b) keep prices reasonable c) have a good artist/artwork. Then you have a winner I think. I love Mattina/Dell'Otto/Sanders/Granov and look forward to more from them. I recently found some other artists that I'm starting to like but if the retailers charge a fortune for the covers, forget it.

Free market, people can charge what they want.

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JDH-84

JDH-84

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There are some listings on eBay for an Old Man Logan #25 600 print run Deodato Virgin cover, a sketch cover of the 1:10 variant and a sketch cover of the regular cover. Does anyone know what store is doing these or who might be releasing them?

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Hickok8AA8

Hickok8AA8

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30 minutes ago, JDH-84 said:

There are some listings on eBay for an Old Man Logan #25 600 print run Deodato Virgin cover, a sketch cover of the 1:10 variant and a sketch cover of the regular cover. Does anyone know what store is doing these or who might be releasing them?

I believe it's Frankie's, SadLemon and Comic Mint.

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