Marvel Offers Free Comics To Retailers In Exchange For Unsold DC Issues

We get a lot of press releases from all the various comic book companies both big and small. 95% of the press releases are met with a glassy-eyed ho-hum and a yadda yadda yadda.

That was my reaction whie reading the first two paragraphs of the latest Marvel press release. And then I got to the third paragraph and I nearly spit out my coffee. Okay, that's a lie. I don't drink coffee. It was water. Coffee sounds more dramatic, though. So hold onto your beverage while you read it for yourself:



MARVEL OFFERS RETAILERS COMICS FOR COMICS

In an effort to provide assistance to comic retailers in 2010, Marvel is offering retailers an opportunity to turn unsold comics into an extremely rare Siege #3 Deadpool Variant!

Retailers – for every 50 stripped covers of the following comics sent to Marvel, you will qualify to receive one FREE Siege #3 Deadpool Variant.  The 50 stripped covers can be any combination of the comics listed below and all submissions need to be received at the Marvel office at the address below by Tuesday 2/16/2010.   Also included with the stripped covers must be your store contact information including Diamond Account # and email address.

Stripped Covers To Be Sent:
Adventure Comics #4
Booster Gold #26
Doom Patrol #4
Justice League Of America #39
Outsiders #24.
R.E.B.E.L.S #10

Address To Send Submission:
James Nausedas
Marvel Entertainment, LLC
417 Fifth Avenue, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10016

Information To Be Included With Submission:
Store Name
Store Address
Contact Person
Email Address
Phone Number
Diamond Account #
List of stripped covers being returned and their quantities

All the directions above must be adhered to in order to receive the free Siege #3 Deadpool Variants and the submissions must be received by Tuesday 2/16/2010 in order to qualify.

Please note that this is not a Diamond-affiliated promotion and Diamond should not be contacted. Retailers will be contacted via email once Marvel receives the submissions.  Retailer with further questions should contact helpme@marvel.com.



Wow. Right? I mean — wow! I haven't seen a blatantly public shot across the bow between Marvel and DC like this in quite some time. Marvel is taking a very public shot at DC and their Blackest Night ring promotion (unless I'm wrong all of the issues that they listed were from the ring promotion) and the increased orders that went with them. Things have the potential to get really interesting.

Comments

  1. LOL … just tell me how much the average Joe on the street will have to spend to obtain a copy of the Siege #3 Deadpool variant… 

  2. The gloves are coming off, wow.

  3. This almost sounds fake, like one of those spammed chain letters.  It’s a bit crazy to comprehend.  I don’t quite know what retailers pay on a per issue basis, but would they be shipping $100s of dollars of comics for just 2 or 3 comics?  I guess if you have customers that are heavy collectors that would want this, you could sell it at a premium, but I guess I fail to see the business sense in it…

  4. This is what Marvel vs. DC should have been

  5. 50 comics? Will stores even have enough to get more than one copy of the variant? hmm D:

  6. My bet is that the Deadpool variant is the Quesada cover that is retailing for $120 on DCBS…

  7. This is bizarre…and desperate, I think. It makes Marvel look bad, I think.

  8. While this is a pretty good jab at DC, I don’t see the point of it. They’re making fun of DC’s blatant grab at promoting books with the rings… by promoting a "rare" variant cover to a Book? And really, if you’re sending in 50 unsold issues (Figure the store makes 1/2 the cover price for arguments sake) that’s $100 worth of merchandise traded in for 1 variant cover, this will then prompt the store owner to sell that issue for at least $100 to make a profit on the whole situation (probably more, considering shipping.) Are people really going to shell out $100+ for a variant cover of an event just for Deadpool (who might not even end up in the event?)? I doubt it. Very cool ploy on Marvel’s part, but in the end, retailers are going to end up stuck with $100 worth of unsold stock.

  9. Did I fall asleep on January 12 and wake up on April 1?  That’s the only way this makes any kind of sense to me.

  10. Dick waving prick contest bullshit. Just make good comics and stop acting like children.

  11. Wow. Interesting. So, as Conor notes, they’re banking on the fact that retailers have unsold copies of the (weaker) Blackest Night "Ring" tie-in books. I suppose it’s good for retailers. Back issues are pretty irrelevant these days, so it’s just stock they can’t return and can’t sell. But they CAN get a rare comic they can price and sell to collectors.

    And the more variants they ship, the more bragging rights they have.

    The fewer they ship, the rarer the variant, thus retailers who do do it make out better. That doesn’t serve Marvel, but it could serve the retailers. And that makes Marvel look good in the eyes of the retailers? Does it? I’d be curious to hear some retailers weigh in on this. I mean, I’m not really seeing a downside here — except, of course, for the "meanness" of the general "stab" at DC…

  12. One time back in my newspaper days we received an ad from a company that was hilarious. After we printed it they called in a panic because they’d accidentally sent us an inter-office gag. This reminds me of that.

  13. This just seems stupid on Marvel’s part. It kinda makes them look like crap for trying to get retailers to do this… especially for just one variant comic. Its seems pretty dumb to me.

  14. the guy at my comic shop seems pretty excited. he has a shitload of that doom patrol issue and now he can get rid of them and get a variant of a character he likes. he intends to keep the deadpool cover for himself so it’s cool for him

  15. I don’t see what harm there is in leaving unsold copies of DC books on the shelves or in the shop’s back closets.  Why would Marvel be so eager to get these books out of retailer’s hands? 

  16. This is fucking ridiculous.

  17. This is odd. I’m curious what retailers think about this.

  18. I wanna see DiDio and Quesada come to blows.

  19. @fiakbait @daccampo I particularly like the "This isn’t a Diamond offer. Diamond should not be contacted." 

    @sgrsickness Yeah, this really only benefits large stores. Even the small comic shop I’ve been going to recently has sold off the minimum orders on these books to get the rings. However, they still have 10 rings and 10 copies of REBELS they’ve been trying to sell online. 

  20. I’m going to stop at 2 shops here in Chicago tonight and ask them what they think.

     

    I have a feeling they’ll both shrug and say "whatever"

  21. I think this is funny. These are back-issues that, if they haven’t sold yet, aren’t going anywhere. Marvel aren’t trying to force DC books off the shelves, they are poking fun at an equally silly promotion by DC.

  22. Say what you will about how this seems to you the regular readers, but from a retailer standpoint, if they are active with the Variant market (Which many are), this is going to be gold for them – no one bought those issues of REBELS…

    This is ballsy on Marvel’s part…ballsy.

     

  23. It’s cause these issues aren’t selling.

  24. @doski – from the retailer’s POV, they can have dozens of books taking up useless space OR they can trade it in for ONE book that could be very rare and thus valuable if they can find a collector to buy it. So there’s the motivation for retailers to do this.

    For Marvel, I think they a) make retailers happy by giving them a choice and b) get to brag about how many variants they ship, and thus how many DC books went unsold.

    I understand the logic. It’s a way of saying "hey you can’t inflate your sales with events because you’re taking advantage of the retailers and making them order and then sit on unsold books."

    The problem is, they’re taking the low road by doing that.

  25. Even if this wasn’t immensely disrespectful of Marvel to another comic publisher for suggesting a store should remove content they don’t own, its even more insulting to the industry as a whole. The deal isn’t even for the comics, so if retailers want to get rid of them, they can’t. It’s only for the covers. The idea of buying a comic book is that it is a keepsake and something worth maintaining and collecting, and for anyone to suggest to ruin a comic, the very product Marvel is trying to sell, really shows a lack of respect for the medium and is disrespectful to their fans who might not like DC, but definitely don’t want to run into shops and ruin the books for people who like them. This might be a bit of a DC bias in me, but doing this, Marvel is really crossing a line that I don’t think can be justified as either friendly competition or environmentalism. The line is simple, if comics are to survive in the sea of mediums that they compete with, telling retailers to rip out covers and destroy comics that still have the potential to be sold is a strategy that is going to destroy any hope the medium has of growing (I’d love to rip all of the deadpool covers they have off for the Jim Lee Green Lantern #50, if you can see the chain that might start). they deserve all the negative criticism that is coming there way. Thanks for hearing me out, love the site,

  26. Good deal for readers or retailers aside, this is more interesting as a deliberate shot at DC.  I think I like this.  My small LCS probably won’t get involved but WOW, check out the big balls at Marvel.

    Until DC gives away Psycho Pirate variants of Blackest Night #8, Make Mine Marvel!

  27. @vod89 Ripping covers off of books has been the standard practice of removing magazines and books from circulation for quite some time as it is against the law to sell a product sans cover. The unethical nature of this is that they’re not Marvel’s books, I’d be interested to know how they can make this offer.

     

  28. It also removes DC product from stores and replaces it with Marvel product. interestingly enough.

  29. @Ron – oh, but surely Marvel’s not thinking of *that*…

  30. Thanks for responding back Prax,

     

    Truth is thinking about it more, if this leads to DC doing the same thing for the Jim Lee GL #50 variant, I’ll give Joe Quasada a hug 🙂 

  31. Between this and the Kirby lawsuit details from this weekend, not real great PR for Marvel.

     

    Not that I was interested in reading Siege #3 anyway

     

  32. Wow, this makes me want to read Marvel books even less.

  33. Blah. 50/1 ratio means this promo is going nowhere. Retailers would rather stick em in a dollar bin. Nothing to see here, folks.

  34. Clearly an attempt to climb on the Blackest Night Bandwagon and get a buck or two.  I don’t blame them. 

  35. Even if these issues are still clogging the shelfs, it seems like they could be put to better use than trading them in for a comic that you’d have to sell at a huge markup just to make a profit on. A retailer could generate more future sales and interest by selling them to his customers at cost or even giving them away on free comic book day. Get a reader to buy a single comic and that’s all the money you’re getting. Get them to start picking up a monthly series and you keep generating income.

  36. Destroying comics is not good, plus I think they just made these issues a lot more valuable, I was going to look for them in the dollar bins, I guess I won’t find any.

  37. @Hellhound – but that’s the thing — it’s up to the RETAILERS. They aren’t being coerced into this, and most of the retailers I know are very savvy about their business. THEY’LL know if it’s better to have $50 free issues or one $100 collectible. They get to weigh what’s more important.

    At the end of the day, this is  a definite "low road" tactic from Marvel. I don’t think anyone denies that. However, I have to admit, on the flipside DC should be able to stand up to the scrutiny of their original ring promotion. Many retailers and fans weren’t too happy with it.

    Separate thought: I wonder if Marvel is actually testing the market with this tactic. How big a draw are "collectibles" to retailers? How how badly DO retailers want to get rid of the weak titles they were forced to purchase to get the rings? How many issues really did sell? The results of this test may actually lead to an increase in variants or any other number of resulting tactics that I’m too dense to figure out.

  38. I think a lot of you guys are making way too big a deal about this.  Dollar bins are not very profitable (probably not profitable at all if they’re full of new books, but I don’t know) and the chances of selling 50 copies of these books are not good.  They take up a lot of room that could be used to stuff that will actually sell and make money.  Making retailers order tons of copies of books that they know won’t sell in order to get some plastic toy rings seems just as bad and costs the retailers a lot more money.  It takes away their ability to take chances on indie books by clogging the shelves with low selling DC books and taking away any money they have to put towards smaller companies.

    …But now I’m thinking too hard about it, too. 

  39. This just seems weird.

  40. I love it!

  41. If they aren’t selling them anyway and can get a variant they can upsell for a ton of money, why not?

  42. This seems like a very odd move.  This seems as if it will be rather costly for Marvel with vague benefits.  I agree with Mike’s assessment.  Seems desperate. 

    I also agree that is good for large retailers.  However, my shop doesn’t get very large shipments and is not going to have 50 of these comics left over.  I assume that is the case for most small retailers.

  43. Who pays for shipping?

  44. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    In my neighborhood this is referred to as a "dick move."

    @Ron – Well, I bought those issues of REBELS and they were badass. 😉

  45. @stuclach- they have a special shipping price of $3.99, the same as their crappy comics.

  46. @PaulMontgomery- It’s creepy that you just said exactly what I was going to say.  Almost verbatim. Swear to God.

  47. @HailScott – I assume this is a joke. If not, then this deal makes even less sense.

  48. While this is a somewhat goofy publicity stunt, you guys are making too much out of this.  Stripping and destroying unsold books is standard practice in the world of mass market paperbacks. 

  49. Stuchlach – I don’t know who pays shipping, but it won’t be a significant ammount.  The whole point of stripping the covers is that you’re only sending one sheet per book destroyed.

  50. Marvel looks like an asshole with this.

  51. Keep in mind Marvel dominates the market share consistently and usually dominates the top ten– though not lately with Blackest Night going.

    I don’t think desperate is the best term.

    This has no impact on me, so I don’t really have an opinion.

    I’d like to hear from the retaliers on this.

  52. Along with the Siege #1 news, I wonder if this means that Marvel/Disney are shooting towards a collecter friendly business model also. Not to mention get the DC titles off the shelves. Kind of like how Disney used to release animation videos on a limited basis (are they still doing that?)

  53. @AmirCat Ahh yes… the Disney Vault model of selling things. An amazing piece of marketing, but it’s totally silly. "Oh no, you can only buy this for 2 years, then we’re going to secret every copy away for 10 years."

  54. @PudgyNinja – Shipping costs could be rather important if you are only receiving one book (regardless of the fact that it is a "rare variant") in return. 

  55. @stuclach The thing that kills me about the whole "rare variant" thing is that it’s a pseudo-event: it just exists as a publicity stunt. It’s not rare, it doesn’t even exist yet. As well Marvel controls the rarity. They could choose to flood the market with Deadpool Siege 3s at any moment. It’s all just so silly.

  56. Wow, Marvel. You only want the covers? Are you sure you don’t need the already burned ashes of the comics as well? You know, just to prove the retailers’ sincerity and all. How about for every 50 covers of a DC title used as toilet paper, Marvel will send you one variant copy of a book? That seems just as classy, and more to the point. If you want to do something like this, offer it with your own ridiculously unnecessary Civil War/Secret Invasion/Dark Reign tie-ins, because it’s really not going to be that hard for DC to do the exact same thing. I really don’t consider myself a DC or Marvel guy one way or the other because I’ll read anything as long as the story is good, but this is really, REALLY classless of someone to do.

    (Although it does strike me as just a little bit ironic that DC came up with a good enough promotion that Marvel is anticipating most retailers ordered AT LEAST 8-10 extra copies of each of those books mentioned to make this worth anyone’s while. And Marvel’s counter to that promotion is this, where they’re essentially saying either the plastic rings are stupid or the content of the books they came with are terrible. Instead, you can trade those in for one book with the exact same content you could get for regular price, only with a different cover on it. So, if my math is correct, that works out to: 50 plastic rings + story = 1 variant cover. Did I do that right?)

  57. Two words work for Marvel: F’n ‘A’ holes.

    That’s what Marvel is. Desperate, petty, and down right arrogant works well too.

    They know for a fact that they are going to lose this battle and they are trying DESPERATELY to make sure people still pay attention to them. All of those titles (except for JLA) are done by incredibly talented people and they are very good comics. To do this to the men and women who work so hard to publish these comics, it’s just a kick in the teeth.

    I’m really thinking of stop reading Marvel books entirely. Dan Didio might be a jerk, but he has never gone this low to sell books.

  58. You guys are seriously over-reacting.

  59. They’re not even really taking the book they’re taking the cover which still leaves retailers with a shit ton of unsellable books that now no one will want.

  60. Heroville – That’s how you do returns in publishing – you strip the cover and send it back and destroy the book.  This is because the actual book is virtually worthless and not worth shipping – it’s cheaper to print new ones.

  61. I broke the news to the guy who runs my LCS, and he seemed pretty estatic about it. When I asked if he was going to take part of it, he said "Are you kidding? If I could, Id be sending Marvel lonboxes just full of covers!" He seemed pretty annoyed at DC for coersing him to order 50 issues of a title he only sells like 4 of in order to get the rings, and so Im sure he’s glad to get these issues out of his hair instead of letting them stagnante in storage 

  62. I shouldn’t have made that swipe to Robinson so I apologize there. Him and Bagley are working just as hard on JLA as much as anyone else. So even if I’m not a fan, it still screws them as well.

    Here’s something I thought of though. This is just a test, to see if anyone will agree to do this for Marvel. What is stopping Marvel from saying:

    "Oh you have this many copies of Blackest Night #7? Well you give them to us all and we’ll let you have more copies of Seige #3 for free." They will do this to current books being sold and not just random issues from the past.

  63. I don’t know a retailer is less likely to send back a book that’s selling well like Blackest Night, then one that doesn’t sell at all. I know people that don’t read comics ona  regular basis but are aware what Blackest Night is and will walk in buying only that book.

  64. @TimmyWood I have a friend who just got into comics and is trying to stay indie, but he knows Green Lantern is my favorite and tried Blackest Night. I suggested Booster Gold and RBEELs as tie-ins. 

  65. That’s what we should all be doing.

    Recommend Booster Gold, REBELS, Adventure Comics, and the rest to all of our friends. Let the LCS’s run out of copies before they can even think of agreeing to this.

  66. This is diabolical.  And I love it.  

  67. This is both obnoxious and stupid.

    I fail to see how this helps Marvel sell any comic books and it could possibly leave them open to a lawsuit for antitrust violations.

  68. This is fucking hilarious!  I love it!

    here’s the thing: Marvel and Joe Quesada have been taking tongue-in-cheek jabs at DC for years now.  it’s been in good fun, but they have always followed it up by saying they have respect in the company and characters.  they’ve even said they are willing to do business with DC and maybe even still do crossovers.  DC has basically said "fuck you" and that they aren’t working with Marvel until a certain someone (I wonder who) steps down.  there has been a lot more animosity coming from the DC side.

    let’s face it, what those issues are worth to retailers is a matter of cents, not dollars.  they could probably charge list price for those Deadpool variants and are still making a profit.  it’s a winning situation for them.

    Marvel wants to have fun with the state of the comics industry.  DC wants to cry about it.

  69. Ha HA i LOVE IT. Time  to chose sides people. the war of superheroes is starting

  70. I dunno. Wouldn’t it be slightly more noble for Marvel to collect the whole issue and then redistribute them to, like, schools in poor areas or maybe even to the troops overseas? Is there a retail issue why that’s not possible? It just seems like a massive waste of comics, regardless of whether or not they "sell."

  71. @abirdseyeview If they’re only getting 1 Deadpool variant for 50 issues, how could the recoup their losses? Stores get a little less than 1/2 what the cover price for a book is. So… it is a matter of dollars.

  72. @TheNextChampion – No retailer is going to strip and destroy books that are selling well.  They make much more profit by actually selling them – go figure.  Returning books only makes sense when they aren’t selling.

     @Lostboy1074 – Even if the shipping costs weren’t prohibitive (they are), that would seem to run counter to Marvel’s interests.  

     To lostboy and others decrying the waste and the amoral nature of destroying books – this happens every single day in every part of the country.  Every book store has a procedure for stripping and destroying books that don’t sell.  Back in the day, before direct market, comics were like that too.  It’s just a fact of life for publishing.  

  73. @Pudgy: What is stopping a retailer from thinking:

    "Well Action Comics sell well for me, but I’ll get a bit more money from getting more copies of Hulk"

    I think usings event books as a guide in the future is a bit faulty. Cause of course someone would like to sell more, bigger titles then the normal issue of ‘such and such’ title. But what is stopping Marvel from doing this? What is stopping Marvel from telling bigger retailers to give them DC books so they can ‘think’ of getting bigger profits with Marvel? With Diamond not being involved at all with this (in theory right now): Nothing.

  74. they are not selling those books anytime in the near future.  those are books from when? november?  who will be buying those issues? even if someone is finding out about Blackest Night now, they probably won’t be directed to single issues of the tie-ins.  more likely, if there is a collection of those tie-ins then they will be directed to that.  if such a collection never exists, then oh well, those will be forgotten.  maybe they’ll be included in trades for each respective series.  the kind of reader that wants single issues buys them when they come out.  best case scenario, 5, 10, 15 years from now, someone hears about the great DC event from 2009-2010, Blackest Night, says, "what was that about?", and their retailer (if retailers even still have back issues at this point) points out the meaningless tie-ins that are available in the dollar bin.  but, this probably will happen at a con or on a big sale day when the retailer is trying to liquidate their stock.  so these dollar books become quarter books.  and that’s the best case scenario.

  75. and now that I think of it.  I don’t believe Marvel is thinking that anyone comes out on top of this as a business transaction.  it’s a jab at DC.  it’s for fun.  if it works, it’s more market research than anything else, because it shows how many retailers are willing to aid them in taking a jab at DC.

  76. Returning covers of unsold books is the norm for returns.  Marvel ISN’T making any money on this, even if it works and gets them lots of attention, they’re not going to do it for random books because IT COSTS THEM MONEY.  This could potentially help retailers make money off of books that they over ordered to get gimmicky promotional items.  The real insult to the creators of these books is that the only way their own publisher can seem to sell them is by offering plastic rings as an incentive to ordering them. 

  77. Sure seems weird, but I don’t think people would flip out if Coca-Cola did a similar thing to Pepsi or McDonald’s to Burger King. As much as these characters (both fictional and actual creators) seem like out friends, they are just rival publishing businesses, right?  Then again, I like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s a lot, myself.  

  78. I think this is kind of funny.

  79. geez does everything having to do with deadpool just stir up some shit? SUCK IT DP HATERS!!!  🙂

  80. @peterporker: For the first time in my life, I am angry at Deadpool.

    This better be the best fucking variant ever.

  81. If DC was smart they’d offer up a free trade program in exchange for these issues. Mail in 10 issues of REBELS and get the first trade free.

  82. If they made the variant cover a Black Lantern Zombie Deadpool, it would be just about the best thing ever.

  83. Seems stupid, I wouldn’t even respond if I was DC.

  84. I still don’t understand why some of you are angry or annoyed at Marvel for this.

     

  85. Wow, seems like a bit of overreaction here. Honestly, the dickish move came from DC. Think about it for a moment. If they really wanted to give those rings out to the fans, why not include one with each issue of Blackest Night? Or Blackest Night and Green Lantern? Instead they tied the majority of them into lesser selling comics and forced stores to order a certain number of them before they could get the rings.

    Now the store I go to is a small one in a nice suburb. They sell sports cards, Magic cards and comic books, mostly superhero with some other stuff sprinkled in. I figure on an average month they maybe order a dozen copies of Doom Patrol at the most and don’t even sell all of them. Now along comes this promotion that promises them rings if they DOUBLE their standard order of this comic. I suppose they could then sell the rings and get some money back that way but it seemed like everyone was giving them away.

     So what did they do? They passed on the rings, except for the ones tied in with JLA and BN which they already ordered enough to qualify for in a regular month. I was dissappointed but totally respected their decision. I was ready to even buy each tie in issue to get the ring, but DC blew it with the way they put them out and I bought none of the tie ins I wouldn’t regularly buy. I have to imagine that some stores did bite the bullet where mine didn’t and now are sitting on stacks of Doom Patrol and REBELS.

    Now Marvel comes along with this promotion that gives them an easy excuse to trash all of these issues that they may never sell anyway and get a variant that will likely sell for more than the trashed comics ever were. They only have to make one sale as opposed to 50 to make the money back. Why wouldn’t they do it?

    As for why Marvel doesn’t offer this with all sorts of DC comics I think the answer is obvious. This one time DC pinned retailers with a really popular promo, forcing them to order extra copies. Normally they order as many as they can sell. If Sige is selling twice as well as Blackest Night, you just order twice as much. Sure you have to estimate a bit since you have to order well ahead, but I’d hope most stores would know what their customers want.

     And as for the artists and the writers being disrespected but, correct me if I’m wrong, at the point the comics are delivered to the store they belong to the store. That means they can do pretty much whatever they want with them

  86. As a retailer, I can tell you, I love this idea.  We do have TONS of these titles are on our shelves.  Far too many to burden our back issue bins iwth.  We’ve already lot our money on these issues, so anything that gets this product off our shelves, and new products on it, is fine by me. 

    DC should fire back by offering some sort of variant in exchange for those hundreds of copies of Fall Of The Hulk that were ordered against my advice.

    Right now, from a retailer perspective, Marvel is murdering DC.  We have dozens of 50% off trades tha Marvel sent us recently of titles that people will actually buy, like Annhilation and Astonishing X-Men.  Coupled ith their vastly superior trade paperback program, they are successfully muscling DC books off of shelves.

    What I find most interesting is that this is purely a Marvel/DC thing, as Marvel isn’t bothering with Image, Dark Horse, Boom! or any of the other sm’m curious to see ho DC will strike back, if at all.

  87. I get the fact that it’s a business, and it’s about making money, but at the same time I don’t quite see how this achieves that aim.  Is it really going to help Marvel public relations or help them shift more regular books month in month out?  I think people buy what they like, and I really see less of the exclusive Marvel zombie or DC buyer. All I see is a potshot at DC, and while I accept that neither company seems capable of "taking the high road" these days, this seems like a particularly blatant dig.  If you want to make money your only real focus should be putting out a decent product – THIS contributes nothing to that goal

  88. Everyday I like the people running Marvel less and less. I wish they would stop dicking around pulling slimy marketing stunts like cheap second hand car salesman and concentrate on improving their product rather than taking shots at DC.

    Lets face it, DC have been outscoring Marvel creatively for 12 -18 months now at least and this kind of stunt does nothing to improve Marvel’s image in my eyes. In actual fact it makes me less inclined to try stuff from them until they grow up a bit.

     

  89. when you say, "lets face it", you should follow it up with something that is not subjective.

    akamuu gave the most telling point: retailers have LOST money on those issues already.  correct me if I’m wrong, but that is because they will probably not sell those copies for years to come, if ever.

  90. These two companies need to be working together to increase the visibility (and demand) for their product, not trying to kill each other.  They are fighting over control of a sinking ship rather than trying to keep it afloat.

  91. @ABirdseysView  – ”Lets face it’ is subjective I wasn’t issuing a statement of fact. It’s like saying ‘it’s a fairly common opinion’ so I don’t think there was anything wrong in the way I worded it. (unrelated point, I don’t know why this text is blue. I don’t seem to be able to ‘un-blue’ it :-p ).

    I also agree entirely with akamuu. I’m sure this is great for retailers. If however you tell me that’s the reason Marvel are doing it I won’t believe you for a second.

    It’s a cheap publicity stunt trying to score points off DC. If Marvel were really doing it for the retailers they would exchange Siege #3 for some of there own unsold product that is littering stores everywhere (my store still has shelves full of Siege #1 for instance).

  92. @mattstev2000 – FYI, Siege #1 is returnable to Marvel.  They made a special offer to accept returns for this title to entice retailers to purchase more of them.

  93. @TheNextChampion – I have no idea what you’re talking about.  Are you suggesting that somehow Marvel could get retailers to strip books that they would otherwise be able to sell?  That’s not going to happen.   As I stated earlier, if retailers could sell these books instead of stripping them, they would.  If they could sell them for a quarter a piece, that would be a better return than the incentive Marvel is offering.  

  94. …and a quarter a piece is only a better return if it could be done right now and all at once, which it can’t.

  95. @pudgy

    I think mattstev was talking about why marvel can’t have a similar program with its own books?

  96. Hmmmmm, me thinks Marvel was none to happy with DC being top of the sales. This is certainly interesting…

  97. In my neighborhood this is referred to as "HILARIOUS"! XD 

  98. I’m not a fan of this kind of marketing ploy, and I think the reason it comes off as petty is b/c Marvel is perceived to be the gorilla in the room. That said, ultimately it’s harmless gimmickry. There are no high horses in this. DC didn’t do the ring promotion to be altruistic, they sold a few pennies worth of plastic for $8 to retailers AND made them buy 2x-10x (depending on the book) the amount of issues the retailer normally would’ve ordered to get said rings. DC pocketed a few extra million dollars, whether the rings helped retailers was (and is) secondary. Meanwhile for all the sturm und drang about rare variants, there’s a reason those variants exist…they have demand. I can’t fathom why someone would ever pay $100 for a comic they can get for $3 just because it has a different cover, but hey…to each his own.

    Ultimately this is about the retailers. If an LCS owner thinks he can make more by keeping 30 extra copies of Doom Patrol and REBELS and selling them for $1 a piece at conventions, he’ll do so. Or, if he thinks he could have an easier time flipping a Variant Deadpool comic, he’ll do that. The retailers have the optionality here.

     

  99. I talked to 2 retailers here in Chicago last night about it. Both kind of laughed it off and said it was pretty stupid. One of the retailers doesn’t sell marked up variants (God bless them) and the other retailer has been selling Blackest Night product like gangbusters and wouldn’t be able to fill that 50 copy order. He also said that he’d have to sell it for $150 to make any scratch on it, and doubted that anyone would be even slightly interested.

     

    Bottom line for these two shops: Didn’t really care.

  100. The DC-loving part of me thinks this is a douchey move. But the 9-to-5 version of me thinks this is bold and brilliant marketing. I think someone said it earlier, but Marvel is literally pulling DC comics off the shelves and replacing them with their own comics – they’re eliminating competition. It’s genius!

    Although, I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at Geoff John’s comic shop when this news hit. Talk about a sticky situation.

  101. Instead of this crap,how about reducing the cover prices back down to $2.99 each.

  102. I think we need a retailer’s perspective to know:

    1. Do retailers ever return books or do they keep everything they buy?

    2. If they are returned to the publisher, what is the incentive? Is Marvel’s incentive better?

    3. If they aren’t returned, do they all go to back issues or do some get tossed?

  103. Everyone stop! @akamuu is a retailer and he says he loves it. the guy who my shop loves it as well

     

    suck it nerds

  104. I would like to see DC respond by keeping their books at 2.99 and putting a ton of great writers on their biggest books like Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, and Geoff Johns, oh wait, they are already doing this, funny.

  105. @leonard

    Here are some answers to your questions:

    Q. Do retailers ever return books or do they keep everything they buy?

    A: The direct market is based on non-returnability. What’s ordered is what’s sold to the publishers. The onus falls on the LCS owners to get their order levels right, otherwise they’re stuck with overstock.

    Q. If they are returned to the publisher, what is the incentive? Is Marvel’s incentive better?

    A: As noted above, with very rare exception, comics are not returnable. Ultimately the LCS owners will have to decide if they get more value from selling 50 books in their discount bins (e.g., for $1 a piece) or whether they can get more $$$ from said variant cover. It will, no doubt, be a case by case basis. I know stores like Midtown Comics can, and do, move high priced variants with ease. Whereas a local store down the road from me avoids them like the plague b/c he has no market for them.

    Q. If they aren’t returned, do they all go to back issues or do some get tossed? 

    A: They’re not returned. But this offer evokes the more traditional periodicals market. Historically, all periodicals (e.g., magazines on newstands) WERE returnable and store owners would have to tear off the covers and send them back for refunds. The reason for this was so that stores wouldn’t keep copies and lie about their inventory (i.e., asking for money back for stuff they already sold). To this day, you can often find magazines with the covers off sold on the cheap at places (illegally). I know as a kid there were guys that would do this at a local flea market.

  106. We just announced a promotion for Around Comics. E-Mail us 50 unlistened to episodes of iFanboy and we’ll send you an EXCLUSIVE episode of Around Comics.

  107. @ Chris:Done! These guys delete my comments anyway…

  108. @Chris: Ha!

    Yes this is a dickheaded move by Marvel but it piqued my interest.  As @wonderali has said, "Marvel is literally pulling DC comics off the shelves and replacing them with their own comics". I wonder how this situation will end.  It looks like the retailers will be happy to get rid of several BN tie-in books that will never sale. However, at what price will they sale the variant cover book?  Would any of you guys pay $50-$100 for the variant?  I know I wouldn’t buy it.  One other thing to think about, retailers would still get to keep the rings they got and could still sell those to make their money back.

  109. @JesTr, Wonderali – Actually, the timing on this is near perfect.  Marvel isn’t pulling DC books off of the shelf – the retailers were going to do that anyway.  Most places I’ve been keep about 3 months worth of issues on the shelves and after that they go into the back-issue bins.  So, retailers are going to be pulling these DC issues off of the shelves themselves already.  If Marvel had offered this earlier, they probably wouldn’t have gotten many takers because retailers would still hope to sell more issues.  Later and they’d already be in the back issue bins.  But in this window, you gotta wonder – do they really want to make space in the bins for these over-ordered comics?  Wouldn’t it be easier just to strip them and then get something that might actually sell?

  110. @PudgyNinja: Will it sell.  It’s just for 1 comic.  They should send at least 5 variants for every 50 sent.

  111. @JesTr but the reason these variants have ‘value’ is because they’re scarce. If they had to send 5 for every 50, the variant collectors wouldn’t be interested in paying the higher prices needed to make this transaction work.

     

  112. @JesTr – I’m not sure what your question is.  Will a variant cover to Siege #3 sell?  Probably, though I can’t see into the future.  As to the amount of issues sent in exchange for covers – I dunno.  We’re probably already at the limit of how much money Marvel is willing to lose on a publicity stunt.

  113. @simmons: I wish that just keeping prices down, and putting good creative teams on a title meant that books would sell better.  That’s not the case.  So while DC is winning the battle for your heart and dollar, they are, at least in the stores that I work at, losing the sales war.  We order many more Marvel titles than DC, not because we enjoy Marvel titles more, but because people buy them.  And the main reason is because Marvel is much better at marketing.  PudgyNinja is spot on about DC uing the rings to push the weaker selling (I’m not commenting about their content, just how well the titles sell) titles on retailers, while Marvel has been doing things like the 50% off hardcovers incentive.  If they’re going to return fire in this (and maybe they won’t), it needs to be something creative.

  114. Fascinating insight Akamuu.

  115. Talk about a shot across the bow…

    Is a Deadpool variant worth the loss of $51.87 in merchandise? That’s assuming that all of those issues were $3.99, and not marked up in the weeks following as most shops in my area do with crossover issues that have been out for more than two weeks, you’d have to turn in at least 13 issues to get the credit on one item. That and every store that I’ve been to that has those rare one-per-x ordered covers have them sitting on the shelves collecting so much dust.

    I don’t know. Seems rather petty.

    -J.

  116. Oh. I misread. Marvel wants 50 issues in exchange for one Deadpool variant cover? That’s $199.40 in on shelves merchandise! That’s insane.

    That means the issue has to be marked in the $200.00  Who has that sort of money for a Deadpool variant in this economy?

    -J.

  117. @james: No one has bought those isues in the last three months, so they are unlikely to sell at all.  So any new product results in stores making more money.

  118. @akamuu:  If stores were going to pitch these issues or were basically resigned to doing so because the issues won’t sell, wouldn’t they have already done it to close out the tax year?

     

  119. I love how this turned into a scrum around Akamuu.

  120. @JumpingJupiter: I’m not trying to jump on anyone.  I am curious as to how this makes any sense for Marvel, or for the retailers.  akamuu knows more about the industry than I do, and I’m not about to go ask the guys at my LCS how they do their taxes.  That’s all.

  121. @akamuu: I suppose there is that.

    This seems in bad form for a company that’s already dominated the market share for 2009. Maybe, during the good ol’ days of Bill Jemas/Joe Q. it made sense to take this sort of pot shots at "AOL Comics." They were on the verge of bankruptcy, they needed to make radical moves and quickly to separate them from the old model of how the industry works. But Marvel’s a stable company now, one with deep pockets supporting it and its buisness practices. I don’t see why Marvel needs to be doing this.

    -J.

  122. i work part time at my store and we have more issues of wolverine, xmen titles and other marvel books taking more space on the rack sitting there. at the last free comic book day we gave out a whole bunch of cap and wolv b/c no one was buying them. our DC consistanly sells well. and figures marvel would continue to push deadpool on us with the variant, what does he have to do with Siege?

  123. I’m starting to think Marvel thinks the rabid Deadpool fans are more rabid than they actually are…  Didn’t they also just announce a fourth Deadpool book?

  124. @gaffer: I know, I wasn’t accusing anyone. Just observing how Akammuu’s position created a sort media scrum.

  125. Why doesn’t DC offer a buyback of any Dark Reign tiein or anything with the word Frontline.  But seriously, a "Deadpool" variant.  How lame.

  126. Totally agree with ChrisNeseman and it bares repeating    "Just make good comics and stop acting like children". For the record, two LCS’s that I frequent DID NOT give away rings with a purchase of any of the above mentioned titles. They are now selling them @$1 each and that everpresent box o’rings just shouts "MONEY GRAB!!"

    But really a DEADPOOL variant?

  127. Put me in the ‘What the fuck?" camp.  I understand what marvel is hoping to accomplish here, but it all just seems kind of stupid.  At least the DC Rings promotion was fun and had a benefit for all who wanted to take part in it.

  128. I don’t think anyone’s posted this yet, but it’s making the Twitter rounds… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8KbNag962A

    Hysterical…

  129. @gaffer: I can’t speak for other retailers, but we don’t throw out any bookss for tax reasonsssssss, which is why we still have thousands of copies of the 1991 X-Men #1.  If DC offered as Brightest Day variants in exchange for them, we’d be glad to strip them and ship them their way.

    @jamie:  It’s mean marketing, and maybe unnecessary and not a wise long-term decision for them.  But, in the short term, it’s a tactic that helps larger retailers like the one I work at.

    @knightwing: Deadpool is Marvel’s (little a) avatar right now.  He is their Wolverine, and there are people who will buy anything with him on it.

  130. Either my "s" key is ssssssssstuck, or I’m sssssssssssssspeaking in parssssseltongue.

  131. That video is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Total lollercaust.

  132. Of possible interest:

    This is pulled from Tom Breevort’s Twitter feed today, where he talks a bit about the promotion:

     

     "Dirty? How so? We heard from a number of retailers who got stuck with books chasing rings and decided to do something.

    "We’re not making any money on the deal, but we are helping our retailer partners during a tough economic time.

    "Making sure that our retailers can keep the doors open if they tied up a lot of cash on inventory they can’t move.

    "I see there’s a lot of chatter about our SIEGE #3 offer, so I have to ask the question: how is this bad?

    "We’re making no money on the deal (actually losing a little) but it will put some more much-needed cash in retailers’ pockets,

    "And if your retailer doesn’t have these books in stock, excellent! Good on them, they ordered appropriate to their customer base.

    "But while no retailer wants to hurt their relationship with DC, we’ve been hearing from lots of them that they’re happy we’re offering this.

    "As for the stripping, that’s all about making it cheaper for these guys to send the books back. But we’ll take complete copies too.

    "And sure, send the stripped insides to the troops–well done, you! They tend not to keep comics mint on the battlefield in the first place.

    "And while we listed the titles we’d be taking–all of the "ring"books– we never mentioned either DC or Blackest Night at all. Not a knock.

    "And if DC wants to make their own offer, let ’em! That’s cool too, if it frees up deadlocked capital for retailers to order new stuff."

  133. I found this hilarious:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8KbNag962A

    If this is inappropriate, please remove

    "Fucking Deadpool!" 

  134. I find it extremely hard to find something funny when there is a glaring spelling error.  one’s ability for humor is diminished when one cannot remember "i before e".

  135. @akamuu: thanks

    i asked the guy who works at my lcs today about it, he was not at all pleased with the idea.

  136. @gaffer: While I can completely understand not wanting to take the offer, but why was he displeased?

  137. Forgive the grammar, I’m multitasking, and wan’t watching the screen: why was he displeased?

  138. This is a dick move by Marvel.

    BLEEP a Deadpool variant.

    Matthew

     

     

  139. I am so sick of Deadpool

  140. @ABirdseysView: One is very sad that one cannot enjoy the comedic value of something simply due to a spelling error. One was able to experience great enjoyment from that video and laughed heartily. It is a shame that one cannot experience similar joy.

    "Fuck a duck!!" 

    "I miss the days of Image comics. The stories sucked but at least there were thousands of copies" haha. That video is easily the best thing to come out of this. 

  141. Could this be considered retaliation for the mini-controversey with the Nemesis cover?

  142. no, it was funny, but come on.  you’re going to type out the word "siege" how many times? and you can’t even make sure you’re spelling it correctly?

  143. I was determined to stay out of this discussion (because frankly, I could care less)but then I read this line…

    Tom Brevoort: "We’re not making any money on the deal, but we are helping our retailer partners during a tough economic time"

    Really?  Really?  That’s your defense?  Benevolent Marvel is just trying to help the poor retailers during tough economic times, huh?  Aren’t you the same company who raised the price of their product 33% right smack dab in the middle of these "tough economic times"?  How about helping your fans during these economic times?  Or do we not matter to the benevolent Marvel?

    I want to like Marvel Comics, I really do.  They have some fabulous writers and artists working for them, and some fantastic books right now.  But then I read a dumb comment like that from one of the people in charge, and I get completely turned off to them.

  144. @daaccampo’s Breevort Twitter

    " "Dirty? How so? We heard from a number of retailers who got stuck with books chasing rings and decided to do something."

    Mostly I was pretty amused by the hypocrisy of Marvel’s offer, but I was less inclined to judge them cause its just business. But seeing them trying to rationalize it they way they are in these twitter quotes, I think I’m reconsidering towards thinking yes they’re pretty scummy dips.

    They’ve "heard" disatisfaction from retailers who had to buy tons of comics in order to chase promotional rings, have they? What about all the Marvel books retailers have to sit on for chasing Marvel’s own promotional variants!? You’re not going to relieve them of those books?

     How can he think he can in any way retain an image of honesty about taking away idle DC comics out of stores when in any comic shop the boxes of unbought Marvel back issues will vastly dwarf those of any other publisher’s 9 times out of 10?

     Wow. Scumbags. 😛

  145. "Leave the gun. Take the canoli."

  146. @akamuu: He thought it was a dirty move and didn’t see the point of ripping up any books to get a variant cover, especially one that they’d have charge $200 for to recoup the sales.  I don’t think they do a lot of variant business and could seem to care less. 

    I didn’t do much investigating to see how many of these were still around, but they asked us ahead of time if we wanted the rings and kept a list, so I do not think they over-ordered the books to a great extent to get a bunch of rings.  They still have a few sets of rings left, though.

  147. @gaffergamgee – Anybody who thinks that retailers are going to recoup $200 in sales from this doesn’t understand the offer at all.  They aren’t offering this variant cover because it’s worth $200.  They’re offering it because the issues being returned for it are worth near nothing.

  148. Just clarifying a few points:

    @Kory – To be fair, the price increase is to off-set increased costs. Marvel still has to make a profit to stay in business. And the increase goes right to the customer, not the retailer. Changing the price point doesn’t affect them directly. It only affects them if people stop buying comics because of the higher price point, and that affects the retailer AND Marvel equally. Thus a price increase isn’t a "dick move" to retailers.

     @Muady – I don’t know what Marvel’s variant policy is, but if it’s similar to the ring campaign, you have a solid point. That said, I think Breevort offsets that by welcoming DC to make a counter-offer. 

    Also: i don’t think you can make claims like  "in any comic shop the boxes of unbought Marvel back issues will vastly dwarf those of any other publisher’s 9 times out of 10" unless you have some empirical evidence to back that up.

    @gaffergamgee – Breevort also notes that retailers do NOT have to rip up the covers. They’re just saying you can only send the covers — to save on shipping. So the "ripping" should be a non-factor in this argument. He also did recommend shipping the remaining "guts" of the books to our troops. Justification? Sure, but it’s also a pretty cool idea.

  149. @PudgyNinja: They are not worth nothing.  They all have a list price of 3.99 each, I think.  Therefore, it is not out of the realm of possibility that they could (eventually) all be sold at that price.  If nothing else the retailers have already paid the wholesale price of the books plus shipping.  One would expect that the retailers would at least want to recoup that value by selling the variant at an equal or greater price, which still puts it well over a hundred dollars.  From an accounting standpoint, it does not make sense to jump into a loss at the beginning of this year, even if mitigated, when you could have taken a bigger loss at the end of last year and used it to offset your tax liability.

    @daccamo: I think the point is more that he did not see the point in removing inventory that could be sold in exchange for a variant cover that the shop had no real interest in selling.  Plus, Marvel originally asked for ripped off covers and did not mention shipping the rest of the books the troops.  You will have to forgive those of us who do not closely follow Tom Brevoort’s twitter page.  I do agree, it would be a wonderful idea if Marvel and DC were to work something out with the retailers to exchange their own stale product for new stuff and then send the unsold comics to the troops.

  150. Lol, empirical evidence is for science and academics. 😉  Its not slander, and nothing against Marvel, but I’m confident its true, so I can say it. Its up to you or anyone else reading how much stock to put into it, but if its empirical evidence you need to put stock into any claim I’m alright with that.

    Also, I don’t think welcoming DC to make a counter offer absolves him or Marvel as a whole in the least. The offer is a silly way to try to "help" retailers in the first place. It is far easier to sell lower-priced items in volume than a single high priced item. Its really not helping them at all–they would still have the same $$ worth of stock that is harder to move. If anything, since during rough economic times consumers are less likely to buy variants that retailers need to charge 50x a normal comic price for, the only people Marvel are helping is themselves by removing competitors comics from the shelves.

  151. @gaffergamgee – Oh, it has nothing to do with the troops idea — I suspect that was an afterthought. But the point is what IS real is that the stripped covers IS a standard practice and sending ONLY the covers IS actually saving shipping costs. And that can be understood from the press release itself. As for your retailer — he simply doesn’t have to partake in this offer. His choice. He’s not hurt by it if he doesn’t do it, is he?

    @muady – I’m not confident it’s true. Retailers are very different, and savvy retailers don’t over-order on books because they know they’re customer base. And again, no ones forced to take Marvel up on the offer. It’s purely voluntary. 

    I’ve said from the beginning that this is definitely a "low road" tactic, but I think people are mixing up the facts.

    For example, Marvel *isn’t* removing product from the shelves. These are OLD books, and they would likely be removed from the shelves anyway. It is up to the Retailer to decide if he wants to remove the books. The retailer knows what will sell and what will not. So your comment about low-cost high volume is moot. If Retailer A thinks he can sell the books, then he WILL. He’d be a fool not to. He doesn’t need to take Marvel up on the offer. So where’s the harm?

    I keep seeing comments where people seem to think that Marvel is forcing the retailer to push DC books off the shelves, and that’s simply not accurate. They’re just giving them a choice.

     

  152. I’m curious if other publishers have used similar tactics – i.e., Would the New York Post give newsstands promotional Yankees commemorative pendants for every 50 New York Daily News they sent them?

    If they have, what was the impact? 

    Personally, I don’t see what the fuss is other than the usual jockeying. I can see the press release come April: Siege 3 Variant worthless as Marvel forced to ship more variants than original covers.
    Fun stuff.

    I real dick move would be if Marvel took the covers of indie books…or the whiskers off kittens. 

  153. You seem to be misunderstanding what I find distasteful. Like I said, I don’t care about Marvel’s offer. They can do what they want and the retailers can do what they want. But now i read them acting as if their offer is some kind of humanitarian effort on their part, when in fact its obviously an effort to smear their rival for practices that they are guilty of themselves tenfold, and I find that quite appalling.

  154. @Muady – Well, I personally think you’re overstating Marvel’s response, but you’re definitely entitled to your opinion. 😉  I was really only clarifying certain things in your post, such as the idea that "more Marvel comics are universally left on shelves", or that it’s "easier to sell lower priced items in quantity,"  a concept which is not necessarily true in this case. Those points need clarification. What you find appalling is up to you. 😉

  155. I know that the retailers were in no way obligated to offer the rings for free with the purchase of the nominated book it shipped with but any retailer worth it salt should have. It works on two levels, one they would not have stock of that issue lying around and two they would have potentially introduced a new title to a customer. One they may enjoy enough to continue reading on an ongoing basis leading to increased regular sales. I think that was the smarter way to go about this.

  156. @Akuma…  You say that Deadpool is Marvel’s Wolverine… Isn’t wolverine Marvel’s Wolverine?

     

    I’d also like to say that this seems to me to be a gigantic TROLL.  Anyone who is a Marvel fan at heart is defending it.  Anyone who is a DC fan is attacking it.  Why don’t we all shut up and talk about something else?

     

    PS.  I’m fairly certain that if my shop participates they will just lay the uncovered comics on the end of the counter and let people take them for free, so YAY! for me not buying ANY of those tie-ins.

  157. it’s possible the two most intelligent comments yet in this thread were just made

  158. Well, even still, idk how’ve you clarified anything I’ve said at all. Marvel has the largest market share, even if retailers were all astute enough to maintain a solid ratio across all publishers of sold/unsold books, there would still be vastly more Marvel books left on shelves. And Marvel also likes inflates their sales all the time with variant offers identical to the ring promotion. I dont think its any stretch of the imagination that that my point may be true. But thats was never much a point in the first place.

    Because a few shops might be able to find someone who would pay the $150 for a special variant doesn’t make the offer anything universally better for retailers; I’d guess the chances of one of them selling the variant for as much capital as the stock they gave up to earn it are as slim as selling all of that stock in first place.

    They’re not offering anything essentially better than having 50 unsold book for retailers at all, yet you quote Breevort youself:

     "We heard from a number of retailers who got stuck with books chasing rings and decided to do something"

     "Making sure that our retailers can keep the doors open if they tied up a lot of cash on inventory they can’t move"

    "if it frees up deadlocked capital"

    "it will put some more much-needed cash in retailers’ pockets"

     I don’t think I’m overstating it at all. They’re making it sound like they’re galloping to the rescue with a surefire way to earn back money they need after being hoodwinked and left in the dust by DC.

  159. I’ve changed my mind about this. It’s the property of the LCS, if they want to trade for something they can make a profit off of, why shouldn’t they. Anything that keeps the LCS’ in business or gives them an advantage I’m for.

  160. Maudy said, " I don’t think I’m overstating it at all. They’re making it sound like they’re galloping to the rescue with a surefire way to earn back money they need after being hoodwinked and left in the dust by"

    Ok, I think that you are overstating, and if not overstating, you are at least overreaching your authority to speak for Marvel.  I have read the release and while I think they may be implying an awful lot, they certainly are saying it clearly like you would imply.  The fact that these are all Blackest Night Tie-Ins is a connection that has been made by all of us, it wasn’t said by Marvel.  Furthermore, I don’t think Marvel said in the press release anything specific like, we know DC sucks and that you all lost money, so we’re here to help.  Again, we all inferred that.  

     The thing that I can’t help but come back to is the fact that, like Conor said, a hundred of these press releases come out every month, and we hear nothing about them.  This one has been receiving a ton of hype and has been the subject of conjecture and debate, but not by Marvel, it’s been a huge fuss created entirely by us.

     Lastly, to all of the people up in arms over the destrution of comics (also known as the people who don’t understand the business at all)  I have a suggestion.  Go down to your local comic shop, and purchase one of each of those titles, and then give them away to someone who you think might enjoy them.  If, as you state, these are perfectly good comics with good plots and stories, then this will be an excellent way to get new people interested in books.  

  161. I’ll admit I’m not adding much here, but…anyone who’s worked in a bookstore knows ripping off the covers is a standard means of returning unsold copies. (Like it or not, but it really has nothing to do Marvel’s intent to "destroy". It’s just proof of removal.)

    Overall its an "interesting" campaign. (Yes, "interesting" is perhaps a less than descriptive word.)

    Sorry if someone has already asked this (I zipped through the comments and didn’t see it asked/answered), but has this sort of thing ever been done before in the comic world?