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What was an average print run?

Started by jonnydouble,

26 posts in this topic

jonnydouble

jonnydouble

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Hey guys,

 

Does anyone know what an average print run was for a Silver (or Bronze for that matter) age book?.......was it much different for DC titles than Marvel??......and what exactly did they consider a low print run?

 

 

Jonny confused.gif

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HighVoltage

HighVoltage

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I can tell you that in 1969-1971(ish), Amazing Spider-Man had a print run of around 500,000 copies per issue, as I had just looked at some of those books just a day or two ago & noticed the required 'annual copies per average issue' info that happened to be in those particular books.

 

I'm sure other forum members can give you more specific info regarding the rise & fall of print runs, but I'd take an educated guess that most of your bronze books had a lower circulation than that (maybe 250-350,000 for the 'big' books?).

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awe4one

awe4one

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Getting average print runs will be easier for Marvel vs. DC as they were printed in the comics themselves as mandated by the Post Office for periodicals that offerred subscription services. DC stopped providing subscriptions sometime in late 60s/early 70s (? not sure when) and didn't have to provide the numbers from then on as a result.

 

Comics Buyers Guide prints a price guide that contains these circulation numbers though I don't have a copy.

 

 

Jim

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Zonker

Zonker

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Getting average print runs will be easier for Marvel vs. DC as they were printed in the comics themselves as mandated by the Post Office for periodicals that offerred subscription services. DC stopped providing subscriptions sometime in late 60s/early 70s (? not sure when) and didn't have to provide the numbers from then on as a result.

 

Comics Buyers Guide prints a price guide that contains these circulation numbers though I don't have a copy.

 

 

Jim

 

Yes this is called the Standard Guide-- I've been trying to nab a cheap one on eBay, but the several BIN listings tend to be about $30, and it is a thick book so shipping can be expensive. It is also on the shelf at the local comic shop for $35 or so.

 

I do remember the Statement of Ownership being included in DCs once a year through at least the mid-1970s. My fuzzy memory has most healthy books in the 300,000 paid circulation range in the pre-Direct Market days (1970s), and a middle-of-the-pack post-Direct (1980s) sales figure being 120,000 to 150,000.

 

Apparently DC can now keep publishing books that sell only 30,000 thanks to the higher cover price and no-returns distribution. frown.gif

 

Cheers,

Z.

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jonnydouble

jonnydouble

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The most recent one I see listed on amazon.com has a publication date of 1997...Is this something that is produced yearly?...or was that the last time it was updated??

 

Jonny D.

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MikeS

MikeS

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Yeah, don't be paying $35 for it!! They are brand new at Amazon for $24.27. You can also buy it from a third party seller at Amazon for $15 (of course, there's only one copy at that price, but there are few under $20 at the moment). Media mail shipping is cheap as well....

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MikeS

MikeS

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The one at Amazon is from 2002, make sure you are looking for the right title "Standard Catalog of Comic Books".

 

I think I read in CBG that they do have plans for another updated version this year....

 

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Zonker

Zonker

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The most recent one I see listed on amazon.com has a publication date of 1997...Is this something that is produced yearly?...or was that the last time it was updated??

 

Jonny D.

 

No, there was a major revision within the past year (2002 or 2003). Believe up until this year the format was much smaller, and I'm not sure if previous versions had the circulation figures (that was a feature highly touted in the CBG ads for the recent edition).

 

As far as what the numbers are, I believe they report the "total paid circulation" number (= # printed - # returned,given away, or damaged). But perhaps one of the board members who owns a copy can confirm? (Joe C. maybe?)

 

Cheers,

Z.

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jonnydouble

jonnydouble

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The one at Amazon is from 2002, make sure you are looking for the right title "Standard Catalog of Comic Books".

 

I think I read in CBG that they do have plans for another updated version this year....

 

Thanks Bud,

 

I was looking at a completely different book..

 

Jonny D. acclaim.gif

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Lofwyr

Lofwyr

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Wow it's amazing how high some of those old print runs were. These days a comic is considered "popular" if it has a print run of 100,000. What's the average title print runs today somewhere around 50-80k?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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jonnydouble

jonnydouble

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That's average for the Top 25 or so. After the Top 10, the numbers slide from 50,000 to 30-35,000 average rather quickly.

 

 

Jim

 

Dude,

 

I just noticed you are member #666...that kind of scares me.... goodevil.gif...like it's some kind of omen or something.

 

J.D.

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lighthouse

lighthouse

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Most Silver Age Marvels and DCs had print runs between 250,000 and 500,000... and typical sell-through (the only number the publishers really cared about in the pre-direct market era) was around 60%.

 

The Standard Catalog does a pretty good job of reporting the print run info, but with the early data they report the run, not the number of copies sold... Beginning around 1990 they report the orders from Capital City as a representative sample of the direct market, and they suggest multiplers for determining total production from those numbers. Starting in 1996 or so, they include Diamond's total orders, which represent over 95% of all production for non-Archie titles. Since Diamond moves less than 10% of all Archies sold, that data has to be gathered separately (not than many people here would care about the print run for recent Archies anyway)...

 

One STRONG word of caution I have regarding the Catalog... If you buy a copy, double check the signatures of the book when you first get it in. The book is bound with 48pg signatures, so take the time to skip through the book every 48 pages and verify that you have a complete copy. I ordered 20 copies for the shop, and FIVE of them had duplicate signatures somewhere in the book (where pages 289-336 would be repeated instead of having 337-384 as an example). Such errors happen from time to time with any publisher, but for some reason there were real problems on the earliest copies of that book... If you do have a problem copy, contact Krause and they will swap it out for you, but once they run out of copies they can't very well do that...

 

Some free advice from the 'House... and I will double-check, but I don't believe I have any extra copies left... just the two I keep for the shop...

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jonnydouble

jonnydouble

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Thanks for the tip...

 

I ordered one from amazon today for $24.50 and they even waived the shipping...so I'll check it carefully when it gets here to make sure there are no duplicate pages

 

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