How to Buy Limited Edition Virgin and Variant Covers 0

[Immortal Hulk]

So I've noticed companies such as Midtown Comics and DCBS services will put these limited edition covers up for sale at very high prices, like 400 dollars for a PRE-ORDER.

I've taken over a decade hiatus from collecting comics - but "back in the day" a limited edition cover\comic would go on sale just like the rest of the comics to give fans a chance to pay MSRP (or some fair price).

 

Are these limited edition covers just given to distributors now and priced at what ever speculative price they want? Obviously on the book themselves there is no 400 dollar price tag. If there is a "fairer price", since I'm not sure it's a given nowadays you should pay 400 up front for some of these limited editions, what are some sources besides the ones I mentioned to buy or pre-order?

[Lazyboy]

Q: How to Buy Limited Edition Virgin and Variant Covers?

A: Don't

Retailers can charge whatever they want, and they do because they can and mostly have to. Some LCSs may make some variants available for cover price (or close), but you have to be in their area and find them.

3 hours ago, BetaRayBill said:

but "back in the day" a limited edition cover\comic would go on sale just like the rest of the comics to give fans a chance to pay MSRP (or some fair price). 

[Immortal Hulk]

10 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

Q: How to Buy Limited Edition Virgin and Variant Covers?

A: Don't

Retailers can charge whatever they want, and they do because they can and mostly have to. Some LCSs may make some variants available for cover price (or close), but you have to be in their area and find them.

So yes the variants with no ratios are not an issue to get, but it seems anything that is 1:100 for example, immediately goes into pre-order with a jacked up price - those seem to never go on sale for anything close to a regular comic book price.

[chrisco37]

Don't retailers have to buy X amount of the standard issue to get a variant?   There's a cost to that.   

Say a shop typically has 10 customers that subscribe to The Amazing Super-Guy.   Each month, they order those 10 copies + a few extra for the shelf (let's say 15-20 total in a given month).   But, the publisher announces that Jim Lee is going to do a limited variant 1:100 and so is Adam Hughes 1:100.  Instead of the shop buying their typical 20 copies for the month, they have to order 200 copies so they can get 1 Jim Lee and 1 AH variant.    The chances are, they'll never get their money back on the 180 surplus of regular issues they had to buy to get the variants.  So, the price of that is baked into the sticker price of the variant.    

[Immortal Hulk]

21 minutes ago, chrisco37 said:

Don't retailers have to buy X amount of the standard issue to get a variant?   There's a cost to that.   

Say a shop typically has 10 customers that subscribe to The Amazing Super-Guy.   Each month, they order those 10 copies + a few extra for the shelf (let's say 15-20 total in a given month).   But, the publisher announces that Jim Lee is going to do a limited variant 1:100 and so is Adam Hughes 1:100.  Instead of the shop buying their typical 20 copies for the month, they have to order 200 copies so they can get 1 Jim Lee and 1 AH variant.    The chances are, they'll never get their money back on the 180 surplus of regular issues they had to buy to get the variants.  So, the price of that is baked into the sticker price of the variant.    

I'm not contesting how they should make their money, what I'm asking about is the regulation of the pricing of the comics. For example, if said price of those X amount of comics are 3.99 a pop, I'm sure Marvel would have a fit if they were selling them for 4.50 each (or hell maybe not even). However, when it comes to those ration (incentive) comics, publishers seem to let the vendors have free range on what they sell those for; I'm just curious if that's the case, if it is fine, just wondering how it works.

[Lazyboy]

There is no regulation of retail prices. The publisher and distributor have been paid and don't care what the retailer does with their copies.

[RockMyAmadeus]

4 hours ago, BetaRayBill said:

So yes the variants with no ratios are not an issue to get, but it seems anything that is 1:100 for example, immediately goes into pre-order with a jacked up price - those seem to never go on sale for anything close to a regular comic book price.

That's because that number is the amount of regular copies that a retailer must order to obtain a single copy of the variant (that number means nothing else, by the way.)

If a retailer has to order additional copies of a book that they don't think they will sell, that additional cost has to go into the price.

If you must have it, buy it. Otherwise...don't waste your money. 99% of all variants can be bought for literal cents now. I just bought 18 short boxes of variants for about 80 cents each.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Just now, RockMyAmadeus said:

 I just bought 18 short boxes of variants for about 80 cents each.

...because I'm stupid.

But they were all cheaper than I could have bought them "new."

[RockMyAmadeus]

6 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

There is no regulation of retail prices. The publisher and distributor have been paid and don't care what the retailer does with their copies.

Literally. 

The scam is to get them to the next level down; after that, they don't care.

[Immortal Hulk]

I guess that's how the cookie crumbles - thanks everyone!