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Comics a week in advance question

Started by Darthdiesel,

13 posts in this topic

Darthdiesel

Darthdiesel

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Dealers, question for you. I know lighthouse has mentioned this passing.

 

Who uses the Marvel Look Ahead (If that is what it is called? I know DC has one too) program, where retailers get sent a copy of next week's books in advance? Is this available to the general public?

 

what purpose does it have? If it generates interest to customers you show them to, what if you find that you have to order more? The Diamons order deadline for these books in particular have been long gone and forget about reorders for Marvel.

 

What are the rules? Can you sell them ahead of scheduled release date? Are they free? How much are they? What happens if you sell them before official release date? I've seen some books sell for a week before they are due on eBay sometimes...preorders and some books from this program I suspect.

 

Please share. Thanks!

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Darthdiesel

Darthdiesel

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I'm just curious as to how this works. I've been able to read my local shop's copies but they will not sell them to me and byw these copies have been handled by numerous fanboy subscribers so they are not CGC potentials...I think it is aneat way to figure out if you want to buy more of an issue the next week as it is a better read/potential key possibility/big event to hype up.

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COI

COI

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Darth,

 

I've got a dealer friend who specializes in stocking new books, and subscriptions. I can email or phone him to ask for you, but it'll take a few days. If this thread is dead by then I'll post a new one with the answer.

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lighthouse

lighthouse

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Glad to be of help... Here goes...

 

Who uses the Marvel Look Ahead (If that is what it is called? I know DC has one too) program, where retailers get sent a copy of next week's books in advance? Is this available to the general public?

 

The Marvel program is called Marvel First Look, DC is Sneak Peek. It is a program retailers have to sign up for, limited to one per account (even if it's a six-store-chain). It is not available to the general public.

 

what purpose does it have? If it generates interest to customers you show them to, what if you find that you have to order more? The Diamons order deadline for these books in particular have been long gone and forget about reorders for Marvel.

 

The stated purpose of the program, as taken directly from the flyer that accompanies the books each week: "Marvel's First Look Program is designed to give retailers more time to gauge the sales potential of a title and place advance reorders with Diamond..." The reason for this is that the reorder cutoff for each week is Tuesday to receive items the following Wednesday. So the only way to get a second batch of a new book the week after they come out is to place a reorder the day before they come out. With the First Look program, you have a chance to see that next week's Uncanny 416 explores what it was like to be a mutant prostitute with scales instead of skin, and decide whether to try to reorder more.

 

While the Diamond order deadline has long passed, over 95% of all DC books are still available if reordered by the Tuesday before they come out. And surprisingly, over 70% of Marvels are as well. Marvels dry up very quickly, because over-printing is limited to expected damages, but most of the time books I order the Tuesday before they come out are shipped just fine the next week.

 

What are the rules? Can you sell them ahead of scheduled release date? Are they free? How much are they? What happens if you sell them before official release date? I've seen some books sell for a week before they are due on eBay sometimes...preorders and some books from this program I suspect.

 

Technically, the flyer indicates that the material is not for resale, for promotional use only. But in my discussions with Diamond their only real concern is with violation of the street date, after that it's fair game. The books are not free, they cost $6 a week per company. And you don't get every book that comes out the next week, just the ones Marvel and DC feel like sending. Marvel sends 6-8 books most weeks. DC sends 8-10.

 

Violation of street date is one of the few ways to lose your Diamond account. And it's one of the few things that hated rivals completely agree on. You may not have respect for your crosstown competition, but you better respect the street date. People who sell them early on eBay probably figure they aren't hurting anyone, since between auction time and shipping time, it's unlikely books get delivered early anyway. I don't agree with the practice, but it's not a hanging offense either.

 

One reason I would never sell my prerelease books early is simple greed. Four times in just the last two years those books have proven to be variants from the regular comics. The DC Millenium Mad, the paper cover Tangled Web, and the two books with expletives all sold way over cover price. So I wait, and after a week or two, I make the copies available on the shelf. Frequently I wind up making a customer happy with a book that has already sold out by digging out 'my' copy...

 

BTW, other companies do provide advance copies of books to certain large accounts. I know of stores that receive Dark Horse, Image, and Crossgen a week early. But the Marvel and DC programs are the only ones every Diamond account can sign up for...

 

Hope this answers your questions...

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Darthdiesel

Darthdiesel

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Excellent answer! Thank you so much...I can go now and digest my turkey giblets in peace.

 

That is true about the variants appearing in those. I heard about my store's good fortune in getting an Elektra 3 nude variant in their preiview pack. Thiis statement needs some clarification for me:

 

And surprisingly, over 70% of Marvels are as well. Marvels dry up very quickly, because over-printing is limited to expected damages, but most of the time books I order the Tuesday before they come out are shipped just fine the next week.

 

First off, if Marvel prints off enough over order copies, as many as you mentioned, then why are all the retailers going crazy about the misnomered "Marvel No reorder" policy when it almost doesn't exist. Any retailer that needs more copies can say their copies "got damaged in transit".

 

Thanks for sharing!

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lighthouse

lighthouse

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First off, if Marvel prints off enough over order copies, as many as you mentioned, then why are all the retailers going crazy about the misnomered "Marvel No reorder" policy when it almost doesn't exist. Any retailer that needs more copies can say their copies "got damaged in transit".

 

Most comic retailers don't pay enough attention to their business to be able to predict what they need so they get caught with their pants down. They don't even realize that a book is popular until they have no copies left, then they suddenly scream that they can't get any more. I mentioned that 70% of the books are available. Well things like Ultimate Spider-Man and Origin aren't part of that 70%...

 

The average comic order is placed 6 weeks before release. Previews is two months out, but our orders aren't due until the very end of the month. My Diamond order for January product isn't due until next Tuesday, just five weeks before the product starts to ship. Anything I order by that date is guaranteed. Marvel prints around 1.5% above the total of those orders to be able to cover damages (DC it's more like 5% on most books and as much as 15-20% on books like the Jim Lee Batman).

 

Well if I put in an order the week after initial orders are due, I lock in my place in the pecking order for any extra copies that turn out to be available because damages were lighter than what they compensate for. This process continues until the week the books come out. And all those orders sit waiting in line to see who gets filled.

 

By the time First Look books are out, most of the hot titles have more advance reorders outstanding than what will be gleaned from potential damages, so they fill orders as they were received and everybody after that gets nothing. But the titles that aren't hot, which is most of them, usually still have 200-300 copies that turn out to be available the week before they ship, because few people are waiting in line hoping for extra copies of FF Icons: Herbie. Even still, with 3500 stores, those 200 disappear pretty quickly the week of release.

 

What bothers retailers is they no longer have the luxury of sitting around to find out what sells and then order more... whereas on a DC title, I know I can order my sub pull plus just two shelf copies and know that I can order that same book 6 more times if I need to...

 

As far as the question of reporting damages to get more copies, Diamond keeps a ridiculous amount of statistical information on patterns of damages, which makes this a tough road to hoe. And while Diamond normally instructs the retailer to destroy damaged issues, they sometimes ask for the damaged copies back...

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