Big Time and the fresh start -- the new sales results and predictions mega-thread

[Ben Smith]

Yup. Over the years I've purchased comics many different ways to get the most bang for my buck. Amazon.com. Internet mail order. Now I get them digitally on my iPad. But the amount of money I spend each month hasn't changed much for over a decade, even though I've been able to bring the per issue cost down.

so, it really sounds like you're reinforcing his theory that you would not spend more

[Scott Taylor]

Sales are just a matter of demand. Spider-Man is in demand, and ASM is the comic series everyone associates with Spider-man. I don't think price is a big factor for people for the premiere flagship type of characters in their main mags.

Where it probably matters is in minis like Venom. I know the $3.99 price tag turned me off along with knowing it wasn't anything but a mini.

[mistergoodman]

Yup. Over the years I've purchased comics many different ways to get the most bang for my buck. Amazon.com. Internet mail order. Now I get them digitally on my iPad. But the amount of money I spend each month hasn't changed much for over a decade, even though I've been able to bring the per issue cost down.

so, it really sounds like you're reinforcing his theory that you would not spend more

I am. Clearly pricing something too high can dampen sales, and many retailers feel that is happening right now. But many fans have an exaggerated idea of how much sales would go up if prices were slashed dramatically. If you slashed the price of Amazing Spider-Man or Avengers in half, I suspect sales would go up very little. If you like what Marvel is doing with those books, you probably already buy them. If you don't, cutting the price in half won't make you buy something you don't like.

Lower prices would certainly benefit the more marginal titles. Those are the ones that people cut when prices go too high, and Marvel publishes a lot of them. And the current high prices (and glut of marginal material) may be leading some high-volume customers to walk away from the hobby entirely. As with every item, there's a sweet spot, a price that maximizes profits for the seller, and maximizes purchases from the buyer. I don't think $4 is that sweet spot. But slashing prices to $2 during a recession wouldn't necessarily lead to an increase in the dollars people spend on comics.

I buy exclusively digital though, which is a different market entirely. I buy assloads of comics during digital 99 cents sales, but I understand that pricing comics that way regularly wouldn't be economically viable at the moment.

[Ben Smith]

I buy exclusively digital though, which is a different market entirely. I buy assloads of comics during digital 99 cents sales, but I understand that pricing comics that way regularly wouldn't be economically viable at the moment.

I'm not exclusively digital yet, but I did just spend about $60 on DC's St. Patrick's Day Green Lantern sale.

plus, Marvel's Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine sale

[mistergoodman]

I'm not exclusively digital yet, but I did just spend about $60 on DC's St. Patrick's Day Green Lantern sale.

Yeah, I bought a boatload of those too. For 99 cents a comic I can be pretty open-minded.

[Duy]

Quoted for the ever lovin blue eyed idle of millions Ben "the Thing" Grimm truth.

Kurt's entire post needs to be both linked to and copied and pasted on every price discussion thread.

Which means, of course, that lowered sales doesn't mean less success if every title has raised prices.

[ShaggyB]

That last statement is wholly inaccurate.


Some are performing similarly in the DIRECT MARKET. Most are not doing as well in the DIRECT MARKET.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is currently one of the BETTER performing books in the current comic book market.

One more time:
The "numbers" you are citing are Diamond Estimates. They are always low. Very low. And they are ALWAYS wrong.

Here's a recent article about just that fact:
http://www.weeklycrisis.com/2011/03/...g-glories.html

More importantly-- here's the kicker-- even though they're low AND incorrect, even then they're still not the entire picture. They're faulty data about just the DIRECT MARKET (comic book shops). They do NOT reflect sales in the newsstand, bookstores, online bookstores, legal downloads, subscriptions, and many other areas. So you're basing a lot of your incorrect assumptions on a misrepresentation of a PORTION of the whole pie.

What CAN you determine from the Diamond Estimates? How the book is ranking compared to other titles. That's about it. We've been pretty darn consistent about pointing that out too.

Okay...

Here goes.

Since the start of "Big Time":
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has broken into the Top 10 for three out of four months in the DIRECT MARKET.

You'll also notice that:
It is one of Marvel's best performing titles (usually around its 4th best selling title).
And it is regularly Marvel's best selling solo book.

These rankings (and sales ESTIMATES) do not include 2nd Printings.
The demand for ASM: BIG TIME has been more than many retailers anticipated-- enough for the book to go back to press for 6 out of its first 7 issues. (A 2nd printing of ASM #654 goes on sale next week.)


Outside of the DIRECT MARKET, ASM: BIG TIME has performed well in other areas, most notably subscriptions, where week to week it has consistently held either the 1st or 2nd spot of all Marvel's titles.
Here's this past week's list:


I understand that you, personally, did not like the status quo change that took place back in '07. But that bias of yours is giving you a bit of myopia in this area, causing you to ignore obvious signs of the book's performance, and letting you take for granted some inaccurate statistics, misinformation, and faulty reasoning that's being put out there in the internet by people who share a similar mindset to yourself.

If you labor under the belief that the book is NOT performing well in regards to other titles in the current market place, you are clearly mistaken.

lol, I said all this before.... but you have pictures... Hopefully that will be the difference maker.

[pedroparkero]

from

i know how to do business better than marvel

we are now back to

OMD killed ASM sales hehe

nice very detailed info Dan

wow almost all had 2nd printings...

[Blade X]

Which means, of course, that lowered sales doesn't mean less success if every title has raised prices.

Well that goes without saying. However, that wasn't Kurt's point. What Kurt was saying is that just because the price of a comics are lowered that doesn't mean that (a) more comics would be sold/experience a sales increase and (b) that if sales do increase, that those extra sales would be profitable enough for both the publishers and the store owners.

[Mister Mets]

This is pretty cool.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/0...ics-starbucks/

[CyberHubbs]

Well, looks like I'll be dragging the old laptop to Starbucks with me come April 23rd. I hope all the hipsters and yuppies don't mind my five year old warhorse of a laptop while they're flicking through iPads and other tablets.

[CloneSaga]

This is pretty cool.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/0...ics-starbucks/

Agreed. It makes some sense to have the real world Coffe Bean offer Spider-Man. Don't know if it will be successful in terms of increased sales, but a cool marketing approach.

[Scott Taylor]

Thanks for bringing that to our attention, Mets. I foresee...a date night at Starbucks in my future.

[Johnny Sorrow]

...I understand that you, personally, did not like the status quo change that took place back in '07. But that bias of yours is giving you a bit of myopia in this area, causing you to ignore obvious signs of the book's performance, and letting you take for granted some inaccurate statistics, misinformation, and faulty reasoning that's being put out there in the internet by people who share a similar mindset to yourself.

I always like it when someone on either side of the argument refers to the other side of the argument as biased. It's amusing.

Everyone who has strong feelings one way or the other about what was done to Spider-Man lets their biased cloud their view and pick the information that suits. Obviously they indignantly swear blind that their information is the correct stuff but it's fairly safe to say, everyone's got an angle in this discussion.

[Dan_Slott]

...everyone's got an angle in this discussion.

Correct. And my angle happens to be:
Since the start of BIG TIME, the book's been in the Top 10 for 3 out of the 4 months it's been on sale.
That it is currently one of Marvel's highest selling titles.
That it's regularly Marvel's best selling solo title.
That 6 out of its first 7 issues had to go back to press for 2nd printings.
And that it's regularly been one of Marvel's two best selling subscriptions EVERY week since Big Time has started.
Those are pretty good angles to have, right?