DC 100 Page Giants Walmart exclusive 2 2

[aardvark88]

From Diamond Comics Scoop, DC will be distributing 100 Page Giants (Superman, JLA, Batman, Teen Titans) exclusively to Walmart's 3,000 outlets in USA starting July 1, 2018:

Scoop: DC Walmart exclusives

Is this a stab in the back to the loyal direct sales comic market or our saviour by DC being in partnership with Walmart trying to grow the market? Opportunity for specs and hording, as it seems these DC 100 Pagers will not be distributed in Canada or in major USA cities (e.g. Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, Boston, Mass.) that do not have Walmart within city boundaries?

[ygogolak]

2 hours ago, aardvark88 said:

From Diamond Comics Scoop, DC will be distributing 100 Page Giants (Superman, JLA, Batman, Teen Titans) exclusively to Walmart's 3,000 outlets in USA starting July 1, 2018:

Scoop: DC Walmart exclusives

Is this a stab in the back to the loyal direct sales comic market or our saviour by DC being in partnership with Walmart trying to grow the market? Opportunity for specs and hording, as it seems these DC 100 Pagers will not be distributed in Canada or in major USA cities (e.g. Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, Boston, Mass.) that do not have Walmart within city boundaries?

Stab in the back to what has sustained them the past few decades. When newsstands died out, LCS grew. They suffered attrition during the 90's decline, but that happens with any retail. Now they are offering a product that can only be purchased by the largest retailer in the world. Great...we already have eBay exclusives. When do the Amazon exclusives start?

Edited June 29, 2018 by ygogolak

[aardvark88]

8 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

Now they are offering a product that can only be purchased by the largest retailer in the world. Great...we already have eBay exclusives. When do the Amazon exclusives start?

If this is a successful outreach program for DC with $4.99 Giant comics through Walmart USA then perhaps Marvel will copy with their own Giant 100 page comics only with a lower cover price of say $4.95 via Amazon exclusive? Think Diamond Comics Distribution has about 1,200 direct sales accounts in USA and Canada left. Just look around at your LCS to see how many have closed the last 2 years or stopped ordering new issues but still running the gaming side of the shop.

[ygogolak]

6 minutes ago, aardvark88 said:

If this is a successful outreach program for DC with $4.99 Giant comics through Walmart USA then perhaps Marvel will copy with their own Giant 100 page comics only with a lower cover price of say $4.95 via Amazon exclusive? Think Diamond Comics Distribution has about 1,200 direct sales accounts in USA and Canada left. Just look around at your LCS to see how many have closed the last 2 years or stopped ordering new issues but still running the gaming side of the shop.

Around me the comic shops are going strong. The gaming stores are completely different shops. I have been to many shops across the country though where they do both.

Last I head there were about 2k Diamond accounts. There are a lot of new ones that popped up to get their own store exclusives.

[fastballspecial]

7 hours ago, aardvark88 said:

8 hours ago, ygogolak said:

Now they are offering a product that can only be purchased by the largest retailer in the world. Great...we already have eBay exclusives. When do the Amazon exclusives start?

If this is a successful outreach program for DC with $4.99 Giant comics through Walmart USA then perhaps Marvel will copy with their own Giant 100 page comics only with a lower cover price of say $4.95 via Amazon exclusive? Think Diamond Comics Distribution has about 1,200 direct sales accounts in USA and Canada left. Just look around at your LCS to see how many have closed the last 2 years or stopped ordering new issues but still running the gaming side of the shop.

I agree its my hope it reaches kids. This isn't really a spec grab unless one of them is really hard to find. Many learned their lesson from the last round.

[Brock]

7 hours ago, ygogolak said:

Stab in the back to what has sustained them the past few decades. When newsstands died out, LCS grew.

I have to admit that I'm not really buying this outrage/argument. It does make me wonder if newsstands accused Marvel & DC of stabbing them in the back when they began to work with comic shops.

i love LCSs. I visit dozens every year. But I'm a middle-aged guy who knows how they work, and that might just make me part of a a dying breed...

Right now, publishers desperately need to sell more books to remain viable, and the whole variants/relaunches/crossover stuff in the traditional market has gone as far as it's capable of going. If we're brutally honest, the number of LCS owners or retailers that are aggressively GROWING their markets is pretty limited. There's a few out there (Brian Hibbs springs to mind), but they're scarce.

Now, we can certainly blame the publishers for producing substandard work, or for using lousy business practices. We can blame Diamond for poor performance. But we also have to acknolwege that the TYPICAL LCS is not an innovative engine of growth for the marketplace.

Of course, this is happening as SOME comics are selling literally millions of units in non-LCS venues - see Raina Telgemeier's books as the prime example.

What rational, responsible publisher would hide from this kind of opportunity? You could relaunch Iron Man again and sell a hundred thousand copies, or revive the Creeper and sell rwenty five thousand copies... or, you could try to launch into a massive potential market that is already seems to be proven and is only available outside the LCS. It may be a shot in the dark, but after twenty five years of offering product more or less exclusively to LCSs, and seeing poor results, you have to admit that trying a new approach makes sense.

We all love our LCS, but we cannot truly be surprised by this latest experiment.

 

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

100 pages.  Good luck finding a 9.8 copy....

[ygogolak]

10 hours ago, Brock said:

I have to admit that I'm not really buying this outrage/argument. It does make me wonder if newsstands accused Marvel & DC of stabbing them in the back when they began to work with comic shops.

i love LCSs. I visit dozens every year. But I'm a middle-aged guy who knows how they work, and that might just make me part of a a dying breed...

Right now, publishers desperately need to sell more books to remain viable, and the whole variants/relaunches/crossover stuff in the traditional market has gone as far as it's capable of going. If we're brutally honest, the number of LCS owners or retailers that are aggressively GROWING their markets is pretty limited. There's a few out there (Brian Hibbs springs to mind), but they're scarce.

Now, we can certainly blame the publishers for producing substandard work, or for using lousy business practices. We can blame Diamond for poor performance. But we also have to acknolwege that the TYPICAL LCS is not an innovative engine of growth for the marketplace.

Of course, this is happening as SOME comics are selling literally millions of units in non-LCS venues - see Raina Telgemeier's books as the prime example.

What rational, responsible publisher would hide from this kind of opportunity? You could relaunch Iron Man again and sell a hundred thousand copies, or revive the Creeper and sell rwenty five thousand copies... or, you could try to launch into a massive potential market that is already seems to be proven and is only available outside the LCS. It may be a shot in the dark, but after twenty five years of offering product more or less exclusively to LCSs, and seeing poor results, you have to admit that trying a new approach makes sense.

We all love our LCS, but we cannot truly be surprised by this latest experiment.

 

Newsstands sold more than comic books. A lot more. How many do you see around today?

[Michael Browning]

My thoughts are that for three decades, the comics direct-sale market has been in decline. We don't have any YOUNG readers coming into the hobby and it's very hard for most kids to get to a comic shop. Spinner racks were the bread and butter of comic companies and kids' parents bought them comics at the grocery store, the drug store, the convenience store ... wherever there was a spinner rack that usually read "Hey, Kids! Comics!" Let's face it, comics aren't geared at kids these days, but when they were AVAILABLE to kids, they bought them and comics were selling pretty well.

My LCS owner was telling me recently that back in the late 1980s, when the newsstand was still the main vehicle for new comics, the shop was selling around 300 copies of Uncanny X-Men a month. Now, the shop sells 17 copies of Uncanny X-Men.

I don't think Walmart selling comics in this new format is anything that is going to take away from the comic shops; in fact, I think it helps foster a new generation of comic book readers, if it is successful. Walmart has tried selling comics before and it hasn't worked. The graphic novel sales at my LCS didn't go up or down from Walmart and Target selling trade paperbacks and hardcovers and I don't think this will hurt the local comic shops at all.

Also, don't think these LCS owners won't go out and buy these comics from Walmart, hoping to resell them at a higher price point when they become "collectors' items". They definitely will.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Michael Browning

[Artboy99]

19 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

I agree its my hope it reaches kids. This isn't really a spec grab unless one of them is really hard to find. Many learned their lesson from the last round.

the Facebook comic groups are posting about this a lot, many people already have copies, some posting that they bought all that was displayed including the display stand.

Seems speculative to me.

[Not A Clone]

1 hour ago, Artboy99 said:

the Facebook comic groups are posting about this a lot, many people already have copies, some posting that they bought all that was displayed including the display stand.

Seems speculative to me.

Well I first heard about this I thought it sounded like a good idea. What a great way for kids to get exposed to comics. Get 'em hooked and then they can find out about LCS. But if speculators are buying them all up then it kind of sucks. 

[ygogolak]

3 hours ago, Michael Browning said:

My thoughts are that for three decades, the comics direct-sale market has been in decline. We don't have any YOUNG readers coming into the hobby and it's very hard for most kids to get to a comic shop. Spinner racks were the bread and butter of comic companies and kids' parents bought them comics at the grocery store, the drug store, the convenience store ... wherever there was a spinner rack that usually read "Hey, Kids! Comics!" Let's face it, comics aren't geared at kids these days, but when they were AVAILABLE to kids, they bought them and comics were selling pretty well.

My LCS owner was telling me recently that back in the late 1980s, when the newsstand was still the main vehicle for new comics, the shop was selling around 300 copies of Uncanny X-Men a month. Now, the shop sells 17 copies of Uncanny X-Men.

I don't think Walmart selling comics in this new format is anything that is going to take away from the comic shops; in fact, I think it helps foster a new generation of comic book readers, if it is successful. Walmart has tried selling comics before and it hasn't worked. The graphic novel sales at my LCS didn't go up or down from Walmart and Target selling trade paperbacks and hardcovers and I don't think this will hurt the local comic shops at all.

Also, don't think these LCS owners won't go out and buy these comics from Walmart, hoping to resell them at a higher price point when they become "collectors' items". They definitely will.

When your shop was selling 300 X-Men there weren't 75 spinoffs on sale at the same time. They probably aren't selling as many ASM and Batman either. I can pretty much guarantee that. But comics in general are selling fine.

[fastballspecial]

2 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

21 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

I agree its my hope it reaches kids. This isn't really a spec grab unless one of them is really hard to find. Many learned their lesson from the last round.

the Facebook comic groups are posting about this a lot, many people already have copies, some posting that they bought all that was displayed including the display stand.

Seems speculative to me.

The problem is they have to convince others to buy them at a profit.  Walmart did the same thing with DC's Rebirth relaunch a few years ago.  I remember seeing Superman, Batman, Flash and Harley I think.
I also remember seeing them mangled.

So far 2 sets of sold. So you pay around $22.00 for the books plus your 15% on ebay. So really its not a bad profit for a set. You just have to convince others its worth buying.

 

 

[The Professor]

Purchased the Batman one today. Love the throwback cover. 4.99 for 100 pages, great deal compared to other comics today.Hopefully brings in new readers

 

[ygogolak]

17 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

The problem is they have to convince others to buy them at a profit.  Walmart did the same thing with DC's Rebirth relaunch a few years ago.  I remember seeing Superman, Batman, Flash and Harley I think.
I also remember seeing them mangled.

So far 2 sets of sold. So you pay around $22.00 for the books plus your 15% on ebay. So really its not a bad profit for a set. You just have to convince others its worth buying.

 

 

These each have new content.

[kenaran]

I'm all for bringing new people in, great to hear that DC is at least trying things out.  When out doing general grocery shopping all I ever see are Archie Digests.  Might be time for a return of the digest format.  The smaller size may convince more retailers to give it a shot.  Both Marvel and DC certainly have a collection of stories to cherry pick from to attract new readers.

[Joosh]

I just checked the 2 closest Walmart’s and found nothing ? 

[fastballspecial]

THey will be there eventually we are talking about Walmart here.

[ygogolak]

3 hours ago, Joosh said:

I just checked the 2 closest Walmart’s and found nothing ? 

 

2 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

THey will be there eventually we are talking about Walmart here.

Only 3k of the total 5k Wal Mart's are getting them. Some are saying maybe it's only the Supercenters.

Edited July 1, 2018 by ygogolak

[Coolio McCool]

Most of the content is reprint, but it seems like a decent product for new readers. I don't understand why they choose to sell it at Walmart of all places, couldn't they sell them to comic stores also? I refuse to step foot into Walmart for various reasons which are off-topic here so it looks like I'll have to pass on these.