Registered: 04/11/08
Posts: 8223
Loc: Stay 9.8 thirsty my friends.
So I was told by a local retailer that Diamond/Marvel are changing the way they are selling the blanks wholesale to retailers starting with January/February's books.
They are no longer selling them at the usual 50%+ wholesale but at 30% off... unless you meet a purchase target on another title that will be named for each blank. So unless you buy XXX of one title you can't get the blanks for another title at 50%+ off. This starts with the blanks for Wolverine 300.
This may force certain retailers to limit the number of blanks they order, or order none at all.
#5240439 - 11/18/1109:55 PMRe: More new blanks coming - but they may start being harder to get...
[Re: BeachBum]
MenaceMenace
FACT if I stop posting, trillions and trillions of transistors would be out of work.
Registered: 01/05/11
Posts: 4145
Loc: Idaho
I'm no lawyer.. but sounds like a violation of the Sherman Act. Not allowed to attach sales or discounts to other products. Not sure if / how it related or applies to the comic industry. Seems like a few things in violation of the Sherman / Clayton Act's in the comics industry. However I have only cursory knowledge of both the situation and the law.
#5241476 - 11/19/1110:46 AMRe: More new blanks coming - but they may start being harder to get...
[Re: .Troy]
MattPMattP
Up 20 words per minute since I signed up
Registered: 03/07/11
Posts: 1023
Loc: Northern California
obviously they are trying to leverage as many titles as they can (and quite possibly the ones that suck donkey bong); out of curiosity, i wonder how these blanks do outside of the cons and the sketchers (i.e. us) - ... does Marvel really think that they can move unpopular titles based on blank popularity?
_________________________
Wine + Comics ... is costing me a lot of money.
Want List:not in any particular order - *Buying* ROM CGC 9.8; 9.9 gets extra $$ -Tec 31 < we all need dreams.
#5243113 - 11/20/1112:44 AMRe: More new blanks coming - but they may start being harder to get...
[Re: MattP]
Joel EladJoel Elad
The Post-man always rings twice. Uhm... ring ring?
Registered: 04/12/08
Posts: 1681
Marvel puts conditions on quantity of books ordered all the time, hence the chase variants (1:10, 1:15, 1:25, etc.) They obviously think this "blank cover" business is free money for them, since they only have to pay a small fee at the printer to switch out the cover image, and they can sell thousands more of the same comic without even having to pay for a new cover image! That's why there seem to be more and more blanks. Used to be once a year, then twice a year, now 4-5 times a MONTH!?!?
I must've completely been asleep when they announced these new rules, but I haven't placed my November order yet. It's very strange that for a market they were killing/flooding with 4-5 NEW blanks per month, now suddenly they want to pull back and restrict the number of blanks floating out there?
I am thinking this policy is NO coincidence with the fact that a number of previous blank covers are currently available to retailers (for the next few days) at a price close to 45% off cover price. I don't have access to that list, but I'm sure someone does. Obviously, Marvel way over printed on those, and now want to cut down, or something is going on.
I'm sitting on at least 2 short boxes worth of blank covers I haven't used yet, so methinks I need to whittle through those first.
