My DC orders for September are coming in about about double the normal level.
To remind everyone, DC comics are starting 52 titles over again at number #1. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern -- all the big names, as well as a bunch of new (or old, defunct) titles: Nightwing, Batwoman, Justice League international.
It felt like a struggle to keep it down to double. I handed out "interest" sheets, and signed up people for a huge number of new titles.
I got them to fill out the sheet by telling them that the title they express interest in would be "optional". They could buy them or not. And I'm going to tell them they can return them for credit.
The danger is, they will either not buy after all, or they will return them because they don't like them, or they will drop the title after a month or two.
It was a real eye opener for me how many people expressed interest. Some titles I would have had no idea that I should order higher; Justice League Dark, for instance.
It's got me thinking that -- if this works, I need to find an excuse to list all the Marvel titles for people to fill out a sheet; and all the Dark Horse and Image and so on.
Of course, this starting over at #1 may be the trigger I can't reproduce.
My DC are higher than Marvel for the first time in ages. When DC went to a higher minimum per month for the bigger discount level, I found even with all the graphic novels I sell, I would come up just a little short of the level every month, even when I was looking for extra stuff to buy.
Once I can can't reach a plateau, I feel like I have no incentive to order the extra -- in fact, I have the opposite incentive. Since I can't lose the next lower level, I pare it down. So I've been WELL below the that better level for a long time.
I easily hit Marvel's higher level without trying.
It used to be the other way around, by the way.
If nothing else, I'm hoping this venture will push me permanently into the higher bracket for DC. I went into this thinking that if I get a semi-permanent boost in subs, it'll be a winner. I'm not thinking, with any decent response from non-regulars, we might see much more than that.
Of course, the higher the sales, the higher the risk, but that's showbiz.
"Hopefully this relaunch doesn't set off a rush of similar relaunches over the rest of the publishers as a sales incentive as well." A comment from one of the other comic shops.
With all these new sign-ups I've gotten, I actually wonder if it wouldn't be a good thing....
I think what I'm seeing are people who have always wanted, in the back of their minds, to buy Batman or Superman, but haven't because it seemed too overwhelming.
I think I'm seeing people who might sign up for Nightwing or Red Hood, but because they aren't paying attention, miss the first few issues and then skip it altogether.
I hope that I'll have time to absorb the lessons of this surge first, though. It may be that we will have a backlash. Normally, a comic I put on someone's shelf as an 'optional' will be bought; usually if I say they can return it for 'credit' they don't. Usually they continue to buy that comic for awhile.
So we'll see.
Meanwhile, I'm having such a good summer, I'm thinking of holding back a couple of thousand for cash-flow and investing even more in the DC titles -- with the idea that I can return them.
They have three incentive levels.
For some of the biggest titles, we'll get variant covers. For half a dozen other titles, they'll give us 15% extra. For all the rest, they'll give us the right of return, at a 10% charge.
The incentive covers, unfortunately, aren't much of an incentive for me. The 15% extra, more so. The returns seem like a no brainer. But I've still got to PAY for these comics in the short run, even if I get money back in the long run, so I need to be conscious of the cash-flow. One good thing is, I can currently afford to spend a little extra -- with July and August and December in this half of the year. By the time I get the credits -- first half of next year -- I could probably use them...
I've got to mix that alchemy in such a way that I don't lose money.
5 comments:
Just say no. Just say no dunc.
I would love to see a list of all the Marvel comics currently running. The website isn't super clear about it, and even without restarting it, I know there are comics I am interested in that I miss out on because I don't notice a couple issues, then I forget about them. Or, like you said, I feel overwhelmed and don't want to get into them late.
"The Fix is IN"
In dirty back room deals, Obama's out in front arranging it, doing what no Republican leader would dare. No wonder Hudson accused him of governing to the right of George Bush, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann - America's right-wing lunatic fringe.
Notably, only Republican Nixon could go to China when America had no diplomatic relations. Only Democrat Obama dares ending America's decades-long social contract, especially Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and publicly funded pensions.
"Life is Good, We live in the best of times here in Bend"
"Washington's priorities and those of its presstitutes could not be clearer. President Obama, like George W. Bush before him, both parties in Congress, the print and TV media, and National Public Radio (dubbed National Pentagon or Petroleum Radio) have made it clear that (imperial) war(s are) far more important priorit(ies) than health care and old age pensions for Americans."
***
I love this word 'presstitute' so HBM...
Yep, NPR nation-petro-radio, been calling it that 20+ years.. yep, ... no diff between pug&dem, .. yep hl-mencken said so in the 1920's, ... yep ... The only new thing here are the 'imperial clone wars', ... so comical you know star-wars. Everything must go except funding for endless war's. Dunc's social-security will go.
What of it? Well its been clear for a long time that the USA is to be the world's policeman. That the USA is the ultimate 'mercenary army'. That unless you work as a world-cop, e.g. carry a gun for the gubmint worldwide, you and your family will starve. So ROMAN it is ...
Futility or to quote hbm "FRUSTRATED"? hell no, ... I was raised on this shit. I remember when my PA landed at Normandy during D-Day he told me that his outfit was taken directly to a US oil refinery, and they're told that was why they were there, to protect "US OIL INTEREST", ..not much has really changed. It's been the same old game since the 1915. That was the game-changer. A return? Probably not. These massive shifts in power never go down. Sure destroying their currency is just a mile-stone, already 'they' have new alternative currency's ready at the BIS/NWO/CFR call it what you want.
In the grand scheme of things we live in a 'high tech dark ages', which just maybe some LUDDITE could end. But its really all quite comical. The outcome of the future looks more like "TERMINATOR", than anything else, just a bunch of freedom fighters fighting corporate robot's all controlled from the beltway. That is the future.
But ahhh hell just another reason to VOTE ameriKKKan with your feet, and find real freedom.
Talking about reading lists.
I always make a point of reading everything left & right, bottom & top.
Probably the biggest wake-up call in the past week is the bitch-slap up in Norway.
The Norwegian has been compared to our own Ted Kazincsky, aka unibomber. However reading his manifesto long ago, it was amaterish and jibberish. This Norwegian's manifesto titled '2083: Euro' ... is quite well written and articulate. This guy was no mathematician gone nuts in a cabin. This guy is a methodical intellectual. The CIA's worst nightmare the REAL 'lone wolf'.
I don't think I have ever read anything like this since 'mein kampf' as a child ( hitlers manifesto ). I think right-wing nutism is on a HUGE return in EUROPE while of course its alive and well in the USA, .e.g. OKC-WACO ( mcVeigh et-al ), ... largely the outcome of a boy taught by the USA empire all about making bombs, and then that boy turning on this mentor (US MILITARY).
Just saying that if you want to know about trends, and the future download the 7.5mb PDF before the GUBMINT's alter or take the manifesto offline. It's quite hard to imagine this guy was acting alone, my personal thought that even while he did the work alone, his passion comes from another source, albeit his hatred of ISLAM reminds me of that you see on FOX-NEWS everyday by CAIN and company, ...
The cognitive dysfunction I don't understand is harming liberal children in order to punish ISLAM. His goal wasn't to blame the Muslims as he turned him self over. Most interesting is that FOX-NEWS from first minutes tried to blame ISLAM for the event. For that matter they did the same with OKC, nobody ever wants to believe that a right-wing white-boy could do such a thing. I guess in some twisted way the bombing of GUBMINT was to punish GUBMINT, the shooting of liberal-children was to punish liberals for creating political-correctness, that is what I got out of reading the manifesto (2083).
I think this event will be a game-changer in the ongoing collapse of the west.
Read the manifest for yourself, don't let the pressitutes 'inform you' about what the fuck is going on in the world.
"INVEST in GOLD, and avoid the EURO & USD"
Standing far back from all this insanity I really think the issue is young white men have been emasculated. They have no hope, of marriage, or future. Whether the boy in FL who killed his parents with a hammer, or NORWAY's man-boy. The recurring theme here is young people are very angry. The same in world of ISLAM there too young men are very angry.
If I had would good bit of advice for the powerful of this world it would be that they're in deep shit because like IRAQ or any other US clone-war, THEY'RE (elite) making these lone-wolves quicker than THEY can kill them. What's also fascinating from the manifesto is how this NORWAY man-boy avoided detection. He knew the inside of law enforcement very well.
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