Mayo Report

[JohnMayo]

Here is a quick chart for how some of the past Iron Man titles have sold:



Based on that, 30,000 units is pretty much guaranteed and anything over 80,000 isn't likely to happen shy of a first issue or other heavily hyped issue such as "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark" back in May 2013.

I'm enjoying the new Invincible Iron Man series and think it is well done.

The full data set gets released today which will shed a lot more light on this than just the top ten ranked items with no units or index value.

[doctormo]

I am really interested in seeing how quickly the Marvel titles stabilize. The Iron Man sales drop from issue 1 to 2 is kind of frightening (279,513 to 66,664). I know there were a ton of variant covers, but this cannot be good.

[NiklasJ]

I am really interested in seeing how quickly the Marvel titles stabilize. The Iron Man sales drop from issue 1 to 2 is kind of frightening (279,513 to 66,664). I know there were a ton of variant covers, but this cannot be good.

thats typical... nothing like statistics to ruin positive thinking

maybe we´ll see big reorders

[JohnMayo]

I am really interested in seeing how quickly the Marvel titles stabilize. The Iron Man sales drop from issue 1 to 2 is kind of frightening (279,513 to 66,664). I know there were a ton of variant covers, but this cannot be good.

It puts the title higher than it was typically selling in the past. While the drop was large, the second issue levels are entirely reasonable. I'd expect a drop of at least another 10% or more on the third issue.

[drew]

nearly 280,000 issues sold with no loot crate, I am surprised:

1 Invincible Iron Man 1 $3.99 Marvel 279,514
2 Amazing Spider-Man 1 $5.99 Marvel 245,873
3 Spider-Gwen 1 $3.99 Marvel 197,103
4 Secret Wars 6 $3.99 Marvel 192,244
5 Doctor Strange 1 $4.99 Marvel 145,456
6 Star Wars 10 $3.99 Marvel 134,613
7 Chewbacca 1 $3.99 Marvel 122,952
8 Star Wars: Shattered Empire 2 $3.99 Marvel 119,508
9 Guardians of Galaxy 1 $3.99 Marvel 118,342
10 Amazing Spider-Man 2 $3.99 Marvel 111,322
11 Batman 45 $3.99 DC 109,367
12 Star Wars: Shattered Empire 3 $3.99 Marvel 105,496
13 Star Wars: Shattered Empire 4 $3.99 Marvel 105,284
14 Uncanny Avengers 1 $4.99 Marvel 105,234
15 Darth Vader 10 $3.99 Marvel 94,372
16 Darth Vader 11 $3.99 Marvel 92,866
17 Uncanny Inhumans 1 $4.99 Marvel 90,528
18 Avengers 0 $5.99 Marvel 80,722
19 Contest of Champions 1 $4.99 Marvel 79,873
20 Justice League 45 $3.99 DC 77,192
21 Batman and Robin Eternal 1 $3.99 DC 76,882
22 Astonishing Ant-Man 1 $3.99 Marvel 75,598
23 Paper Girls 1 $2.99 Image 75,585
24 Chewbacca 2 $3.99 Marvel 74,311
25 New Avengers 1 $3.99 Marvel 71,243

[NiklasJ]

If we leave the inflated marvel#1 numbers for a moment (the future will tell...)

Is Justice league considered doing ok at a steady 77k?
Action Comics and Superman, #61 and #49 at 40k sales, the Truth isn´t helping numbers
BatmanRobin Eternal starts off good but since its a weekly we see the dropoff quickly (kindof similar to marvel #1s) from #1 76k to #4 49k. How does it compare to previous batman Eternal?

New Items; Marvel 68, DC 76, Image 44
In the latest weekly spotlight (I believe) you talk about marvel flooding the market with too many new titles and while I agree with that it seems theBig3 do follow each others steps in this as in most things. (Marvel is actually a bit lower than earlier months, regularly they are in the 70s)

Something tells me more of the newer DC titles will turn out to be mini-series from the start (or just plain cancelled): Telos, Martian Manhunter, Doctor Fate, Twilight children, secret six, JL3001, damn they have a lot titles around barely 10k sales.
(suspect the same will be true for many of the lesser marvel titles in a few months as well)

Looking back at earlier numbers you have (glanced back to april 2015), DC Total Reported Dollars Comics is dropping off a bit from 8M+ to now 7M, Marvels Total Reported Dollars Comics jumps up and down from 10M to 17M this October (SecretWars delays...).

SpiderGwen (2015b, funny nomenclature! and sad) is debuting lower than SpiderGwen (2015) still close to 200k, media hype turning into a money printing press for marvel? How did this happen?? Manaragate, Cho-outrage, Spiderverse, GwenStacy/EmmaStone, any press is good press?

[JohnMayo]

nearly 280,000 issues sold with no loot crate, I am surprised:

1 Invincible Iron Man 1 $3.99 Marvel 279,514
2 Amazing Spider-Man 1 $5.99 Marvel 245,873
3 Spider-Gwen 1 $3.99 Marvel 197,103
4 Secret Wars 6 $3.99 Marvel 192,244
5 Doctor Strange 1 $4.99 Marvel 145,456
6 Star Wars 10 $3.99 Marvel 134,613
7 Chewbacca 1 $3.99 Marvel 122,952
8 Star Wars: Shattered Empire 2 $3.99 Marvel 119,508
9 Guardians of Galaxy 1 $3.99 Marvel 118,342
10 Amazing Spider-Man 2 $3.99 Marvel 111,322
11 Batman 45 $3.99 DC 109,367
12 Star Wars: Shattered Empire 3 $3.99 Marvel 105,496
13 Star Wars: Shattered Empire 4 $3.99 Marvel 105,284
14 Uncanny Avengers 1 $4.99 Marvel 105,234
15 Darth Vader 10 $3.99 Marvel 94,372
16 Darth Vader 11 $3.99 Marvel 92,866
17 Uncanny Inhumans 1 $4.99 Marvel 90,528
18 Avengers 0 $5.99 Marvel 80,722
19 Contest of Champions 1 $4.99 Marvel 79,873
20 Justice League 45 $3.99 DC 77,192
21 Batman and Robin Eternal 1 $3.99 DC 76,882
22 Astonishing Ant-Man 1 $3.99 Marvel 75,598
23 Paper Girls 1 $2.99 Image 75,585
24 Chewbacca 2 $3.99 Marvel 74,311
25 New Avengers 1 $3.99 Marvel 71,243

I've posted the full list here on the site and it is up on Comic Book Resources.

[JohnMayo]

[quote="NiklasJSpiderGwen (2015b, funny nomenclature! and sad)[/quote]

I'm open to suggestions on how else to handle this. "Spider-Gwen (2015-10)" seems a little confusing.

[NiklasJ]

SpiderGwen (2015b, funny nomenclature! and sad)

I'm open to suggestions on how else to handle this. "Spider-Gwen (2015-10)" seems a little confusing.

2015b seems as good as any, you will have similar problems however you handle it since there havent been a need for something like this earlier (I guess?)

2015b where is 2015a
2015.1 but is the second
2015.2 where is 2015.1
2015-10 or 2015-Oct do you only do this for titles with multi-volume years
SpiderGwen (2015.vol1) since their earlier is SpiderGwen (2015.vol0)

On a side note I wonder which volume the new SpiderGwen#0 is part of?

Got to love Marvel

[JohnMayo]

I hit this problem once or twice before. There were two Superboy volumes that both started in 2011 for instance. I used the (2011b) back then too. In those cases, I leave the original series for the year without a letter so you should never see a (2015a). The reason being that I'd have to retroactively change the older data which doesn't make sense to do.

[NiklasJ]

The reason being that I'd have to retroactively change the older data which doesn't make sense to do.

editing old data don't seem very worthwhile...

I check BleedingCools wednesday bestseller list every week and always wonder why some comic book retailers are so negative about their products? Why trashtalk marvel and dc books if thats your biggest income?

[RowdyFromScrubs]

What would people suggest for Marvel Unlimited old The Avengers runs/arcs?

[SpideySavestheDay]

After hearing the discussion about variants on the Mayo Report, I wondering if the retailers who do order the superfluous number of copies of Iron Man already have a customer committed to the variant? The risk seems extremely high for small businesses. Then again, this Vader Down variant doesn't seem to have any trouble finding buyers -

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/11/18/ ... ll-3-left/

By the way Sam, even though a Bruce Wayne Batman can be found in Justice League, he's more Metron than the Dark Knight.

[erickowabunga]

I wondering if the retailers who do order the superfluous number of copies of Iron Man already have a customer committed to the variant? The risk seems extremely high for small businesses.

As a small comic shop owner, in most cases, yes we will have a buyer lined up ahead of time. There are a few small exceptions where we will go out of our way to order something (Alex Ross SW #1 variant) that we know will indeed be purchased with strong sales of the excess number we wouldn't normally order.

That being said, pricing variants is an extremely tough area when you get to the multiple tiers of ordering. For example, if you have the following variants ordering:
Standard Cover
Order 150% or more of your order on number 7 of god knows what title here - get this variant all you can order
1:15 A
1:15 B
1:25
1:50
1:100

For the sake of math, let's say we get 50% off the cover through Diamond, and our title is a $4.99 cover price (our copy costs $1.99). One of our regulars, Joe Buyer, comes and says he wants the 1:100, what's it going to cost him? First we tell him to give us a day to get out our slide-rule, abacus, Jack Daniels, and Advil, and we will call him back. After looking at the variants, we feel we might as well get all of the 1:X variants along the way, as we stand a chance to cover their cost to us more easily than the regular covers.

First step - how many books are we talking total (before the 150% of X malarky)? Guaranteed 100, plus:
(1) 1:100 var
(2) 1:50 var
(4) 1:25 var
(6) 1:15A var
(6) 1:15B var

That brings us to 119 books. Our normal sell thru on this title is 20. That means I have 80 books left before counting variants. 80 * 1.99 = $159.20 for me to break even by just selling the 1:100 to cover the cost of the other 80 that will likely sit on the shelf or be banished to a long box in the basement destined for a Con at $1 a piece.

Now I have the other variants, what the hell am I going to do with those, and how am I going to not screw Joe Buyer, but make sure I make money? This is where it gets tough. Do I play the game where I sell to Joe Buyer and aim to break even, and hope that I make my money out on the other variants? He is a regular, and a good guy. So, I suppose we can take a chance.

That means:
1:100 = $150 (we are really nice, we ate $9.20)

So, I have to make up another $150 to make my normal sell thru profit margin. Noticing that the variants are decently printed, I can't get carried away with pricing (and in all likelihood I consult DCBS to see what they have the price set at). I settle on the following:

(2) 1:50 = $40 ea
(4) 1:25 = $15 ea
(12) 1:15 = $8 ea

That gives me a total potential profit of $236 (not likely that I will make that, but potential is there).

So, now that I worked out my pricing, I am set to order the books, my normal cash outlay for this title is $39.80 per month (20 books @ $1.99). My new cash outlay is $236.81. Seems small, when you look at it like that. But if you factor in that this book is 1% or less of my order, and is now 6x more. Not too mention I have not even thought of the order 150% of XX, it only goes up. Then multiply it by the amount of other variants, and the number of other Joe Buyers that come in.

We do turn people away, because we simply can't tie up so much money in speculative sales, and one thing is for certain - the amount of time spent trying to figure these things out can be maddening every month.

[fudd71]

By the way Sam, even though a Bruce Wayne Batman can be found in Justice League, he's more Metron than the Dark Knight.

What do you want from me, it was the best I could do with the current DC line up.