July 2019 sales

[rpmaluki]

Aero was overshipped also by 100%. And Swordmaster as well, according to Comichron.


Loki and Invaders #7 were also overshipped by 100%.


Marvel is looking inflated.

Loki was overshipped by 50% at least that's the last I heard of it.

[Raye]

Yeah, it was reduced to 50%. but it also got a second printing after the overship, so not like those issues went to waste, at least some of the stores actually did sell the extras and came back for more. Same with Invisible Woman. https://www.previewsworld.com/NewPrintings Marvel is not going to pay the extra money it takes to print thousands of extra comics just for minor bragging rights on books in the middle of the charts. They do it because they are hoping to attract new readers to those titles and/or they think the retailers under-ordered. and it appears in the case of Loki and Invisible Woman, they were correct. (maybe Aero too, just not enough to get a second printing)

Invaders does not appear on the second printing list, nor does Aero. That doesn't mean the overship didn't work at all, just not to the point of a second printing, especially with Aero, which was apparently a much larger overship, so it still may have managed to move some extra copies an entice people to come back for issue 2 and beyond. The Invaders one is kind of baffling to me, tho, because overshipping makes sense for a #1 where the publisher thinks the retailers under-ordered, but Invaders was in the middle of the run, I mean, if people missed out on it so far, they're unlikely to jump on now because there are some extra issues on the shelves... but hey, at least it worked in Loki and Invisible Woman's favor.

[Woozie]

Yeah, it was reduced to 50%. but it also got a second printing after the overship, so not like those issues went to waste, at least some of the stores actually did sell the extras and came back for more. Same with Invisible Woman. https://www.previewsworld.com/NewPrintings

Invaders I doubt they managed to sell the extras though, it does not appear on the second printing list, nor does Aero. (tho Aero was apparently a much larger overship, so it still may have managed to move some extra copies an entice people to come back for issue 2 and beyond) The Invaders one is kind of baffling to me, because overshipping makes sense for a #1 where the publisher thinks the retailers under-ordered, and it appears in the case of Loki and Invisible Woman, they were correct, (maybe Aero too, just not enough to get a second printing) but Invaders was in the middle of the run, I mean, if people missed out on it so far, they're unlikely to jump on now... but hey, at least it worked in Loki and Invisible Woman's favor.

There's no way Aero was a large overship. The dollar amount doesn't support that. Like Rrobin mentioned. The Dollar amount and Aero's actual rank aren't far apart. Unlike Invisible Woman and Sword Master which are both double their dollar amount ranking

[Raye]

Ah, ok, I hadn't actually looked at the numbers on that one. Then good on it, i guess. Though we will have to see if the numbers hold.

[Woozie]

Ah, ok, I hadn't actually looked at the numbers on that one. Then good on it, i guess. Though we will have to see if the numbers hold.

Yeah ultimately it comes down to whether it manages to retain a majority the amount the retailers were willing to put down for the book.

[JKtheMac]

And on the subject of subscriptions, I really don't know about that one. Midtown Comics handles Marvel's print subscriptions, I am not sure though if Marvel ships the subbed issues to them bypassing Diamond, like apparently happens with Scholastic, or if they are added to their usual Diamond order. though considering all print subscriptions are discounted by 40% of cover price, I am leaning towards bypassing Diamond.

Comichron publishes subscription data when it can get it, which is not very often. It isn’t part of the Diamond figures.

[Raye]

Ah, ok, so as I suspected then. Good to know.

And yeah, the debut numbers are just part of the equation, just as important is how fast it drops off in the next few months, and that's anyone's guess. Though a dropoff of some kind is typical and expected after the first issue, especially if there are things like lots of variant covers or overshipping involved, it can be small, or it can be huge. I've definitely seen books that debuted high just bleed readers month after month until they were cancelled, or you have something like Immortal Hulk which actually gained readers over time.

[MajorHoy]

Yeah, there's a Diamond UK, but they also only do comic shops. 2000AD notably is also sold in newsstands, and seems to be distributed by someone else, even in the US (notice how it's not on the sales charts?). Some comics, like The Beano, are ONLY sold in newsstands and supermarkets, not the specialist shops. They use magazine distributors instead (Menzies or WHSmith, I think?) - I don't know why US publishers don't do that, using magazine distributors to get into supermarkets rather than selling exclusively through Diamond.

I believe Marvel specifically stopped using magazine distributors for newsstand sales (that would include supermarkets) is because those books are RETURNABLE if they aren't sold, unlike with Diamond where the comics ordered by stores aren't returnable (unless special exceptions are made by the publishers or something).
And from my days way back when from when I use to work at a Waldenbooks, those comic books that were "returned" involved tearing the front cover off of the book being returned and the store trashing the remainder of the book. (Which made sense from a standpoint of the shipping costs for one cover page vs an entire issue.) What's the point of a publisher printing all those copies and then having to basically eat the cost of books that aren't sold?
And many non-comic book stores probably preferred not to stock low-selling comic books and instead using that space for other items that bring in more money for the store (and with less hassle than constantly restocking the comics on the rack / shelf).

[Digifiend]

That's weird, because I've seen magazines (and newspapers) bundled up to be returned when it's near closing time at the shops! I thought tear off the cover was a thing of the past.

[MajorHoy]

That's weird, because I've seen magazines (and newspapers) bundled up to be returned when it's near closing time at the shops! I thought tear off the cover was a thing of the past.

Perhaps it is "a thing of the past" (that was the way it was done a long time ago) in terms of comic books.
But I'm assuming it would still be the case of stores in the U.S. who sold the "newsstand" copies (versus the "direct sales" copies sold through local comic book shops) being able to return any copies of comic books not sold for whatever reason and not being charged $'s for them.
And it would still be the case of many places like supermarkets not wanting to carrying the comic books. Around where I live, most supermarkets and drug store chains have greatly reduced the amount of space they dedicate to magazines. Even the Walmart magazines sections have been reduced.