Don't forget who DC/marvel shows and film showcase tend to be many of the characters you can't find in the books-especially characters that are not liked by management or fans or retailers.
Black Aqualad- aside from his upcoming OGN-what does he have in comics? 1 TT arc, the few older YJ trades and background duty in now delayed Aquaman trades.
Black Lightning daughters-we are now talking a decade of them not in comics.
Static-EVERYTHING with him is out of print. The new 52 Static trade at my library that copy has been read to death and any other trade with him-folks stole those trades including Teen Titans runs.
John Stewart-a ton of stuff with him is not in trade. He has the same issue as Guy Gardner, anyone who was in Justice league, Justice League Europe and a few others. The writer was Gerard Jones. We know that stuff will never hit a trade.
Manga does not have that issue. Kid see One Punch on tv- everyone on that show is in that manga. Even if they don't act like their counterpart.
It depends does or can that publisher turn and sell those copies to someone like Half Price Books or Movie Trading Post or Thrift stores or an unnamed vendor.All books being returnable? Sure. Publishers won't like it but it'll probably benefit the industry long term by encouraging retailers to take a few more risks in their orders, which will lead to at least some fans getting books they otherwise wouldn't have tried. I'm not sure how big a return anyone would see on this, since most LCS customers are established readers who, by and large, know what they're after, but it's definitely worth a try from what I understand. It'd suck for publishers in the short term but might make things more stable long term and remove some of the publisher's reliance on their biggest sellers to the exclusion of other products.
Half Price is getting some of those books from somewhere besides the public.
I have been to too many thrift stores where polo golf shirts with major companies names on them in mint condition (with tags)like Capital One.
And where are these 3 comics for X amount coming from and the constant Living Social ad for 50 DC/marvel book for $20 on Facebook.
Someone is selling that stuff wholesale to others.