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From Diamond Daily (Wednesday, August 260, 2009):

Comics has modified the Blackest Night Promotional Rings program solicited in the September PREVIEWS.

“We’ve made these changes after receiving great suggestions from some of our retailers,” notes DC Vice President – Sales Bob Wayne. “We’re confident these changes will make it easier for more of our retailers to participate in the promotion.”

Under the new revision, retailers who qualify on titles other than Blackest Night #5 can now purchase two bags of promotional rings instead of only one.

Also, the promotional rings will ship on the same day as linked titles instead of the previously announced schedule.

Retailers may order the rings based on orders of Blackest Night #5 and these November tie-in issues: Justice League of America #39, Booster Gold #26, Doom Patrol #4, Adventure Comics #4, R.E.B.E.L.S #10 and Outsiders #24.

Retailers may order Promotional Blackest Night Rings as follows:

• For every 25 copies of Doom Patrol #4 (SEP090105D, $3.99) ordered by the Final Order Cut-Off date of October 15, retailers may order two bags of 50 Yellow Promotional Rings (SEP090106J) at a net cost of $8 U.S. per bag. The Yellow Promotional Rings are now scheduled to arrive in stores on the same day as Doom Patrol #4, which is November 4.

• For every 25 copies of Booster Gold #26 (SEP090103D, $3.99) ordered by the FOC date of October 22, retailers may order two bags of 50 Orange Promotional Rings (SEP090104J) at a net cost of $8 U.S. per bag. The Orange Promotional Rings are now scheduled to arrive in stores on the same day as Booster Gold #26, which is November 11.

• For every 25 copies of R.E.B.E.L.S #10 (SEP090110D, $3.99) ordered by the FOC date of October 22, retailers may order two bags of 50 Indigo Promotional Rings (SEP090111J) at a net cost of $8 U.S. per bag. The Indigo Promotional Rings are now scheduled to arrive in stores on the same day as R.E.B.E.L.S #10, which is November 11.

• For every 50 copies of Adventure Comics #4 (SEP090100D, $3.99) ordered by the FOC date of October 29, retailers may order two bags of 50 Blue Promotional Rings (SEP090101J) at a net cost of $8 U.S. per bag. The Blue Promotional Rings are now scheduled to arrive in stores on the same day as Adventure Comics #4, which is November 18.

• For every 25 copies of Outsiders #24 (SEP090113D, $3.99) ordered by the FOC date of October 29, retailers may order two bags of 50 Violet Promotional Rings (SEP090114J) at a net cost of $8 U.S. per bag The Violet Promotional Rings are now scheduled to arrive in stores on the same day as Outsiders #24, which is November 18.

• For every 50 copies of Blackest Night #5 (SEP090092D, $3.99) ordered by the FOC date of November 5, retailers may order one bag of 50 Green Promotional Rings (SEP090095J) at a net cost of $8 U.S. The Green Promotional Rings are now scheduled to arrive in stores on the same day as Blackest Night #5, which is November 25. (Please Note: Unlike other issues mentioned in this article, the Blackest Night #5/Green Lantern Promo Rings incentive did not change from the terms accompanying the listing in the September PREVIEWS Retailer Order Form.)

• For every 50 copies of Justice League of America #39 (SEP090107D, $3.99) ordered by the FOC date of November 5, retailers may order two bags of 50 Red Promotional Rings (SEP090108J) at a net cost of $8 U.S. per bag. The Red Promotional Rings are now scheduled to arrive in stores on the same day as Justice League of America #39, which is November 25.

BobBretall wrote:Personally, I think giving the rings out with various comics is more effective for DC than handing them out at cons.

Sure, I was at the con but:

1) Would I have been walking by the DC booth when they were giving them out?

2) Would I have wanted to spend 30+ minutes in a line to get a ring?

In general, giving away rings at the DC booth at a con would have a lot going to people who are not reading the comics and are not going to read the comics even if they get a ring, and a lot would end up on eBay anyway.

I like the idea of getting a ring if you try out an issue of a comic.

Plus, if people have to get comics to get the rings, I'd hope they read them and not just take the rings and toss the comics out. What DC needs to do is make sure that the issues that come with rings are accessible to people reading them as their 1st issues. This will be a "we'll see" moment on how they leverage this promotion.

I don't think DC should have given out the rings in limited quantities at conventions. I think they should have given them out by the truckload. They should have been impossible to not get if you were at the con. And, by given them away to everybody at all times, there wouldn't be long lines to stand in to get one and, as a result, the rings would be dirt cheap on eBay.

DC did give out Black Lantern rings in San Diego. I know this only because my sister got some. I never saw any sign of them any of the times I was at the DC booth all weekend. So, had it not been for my sister, the promotion of giving away the Black Lantern rings in San Diego might have only served to annoy me since I never saw them being given out at the DC booth. (Although I think Bob managed to get one for me too.)

As it is, stores are going to have limited quantities of the other rings which will mean that some will end up on eBay since they have limited availability. Not all stores may be able to justify getting enough of the various issues to get all of the rings. That creates a situation which damages the store in the eyes of the customers and generally annoys the customers.

But, since a store can get 100 rings for an order of only 25 comics, they rings aren't going to be limited to just people that get the comic. That seems to partially defeat the purpose of them as a means to increase end reader sales of those comics. It also creates a potential dilemma for retailers of figuring out a fair way to give away or sell the rings they got above the associated number of comics.

While I agree with Bob's point that these issues ought to be good jumping on points and that we'll see if that actually happens, I really question if these issues will have anything to do with the specific Lantern Corps that the associated power ring is for. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do.

The bottom line is that DC can and should be doing everything that they can to get people interested in Blackest Night as early in the event as possible and keep them interested in it throughout the run of it. This isn't an either-or situation. DC could have been giving the rings out at conventions and still done this promotion with these issues.

I'm curious as to what shops plan on using as a strategy for giving these out. Since they can potentially order 100 rings for ordering 25 books this makes it interesting. If I can buy the rings for $7.00 for a set it would be cheaper than buying all 7 books if I don't want them all. Even at $0.50 per ring the retailers would come out on top selling them. I guess they could do a minimum sales threshold. Set aside enough sets of rings that if you buy all 7 books you're guaranteed rings and then for every customer that spends $X.XX dollars you can get a set of rings to account for the other 25-75 sets.

What's funny is I know that they're only cheap plastic colored rings but for some reason I want a full set. Call me Larfleez.

From Diamond Daily, Wednesday, October 14, 2009:

Diamond Retailers to Receive Sample of DC’s Blackest Night Promotional Ring Sets

On October 14, retailers will each receive samples of all seven new Blackest Night Promotional Rings included in the program this fall.

The sample ring sets will be provided one per store, giving retailers a chance to see the their quality. They will appear on invoices at no cost under seven item codes to be announced.

I was at a store the other day that had a set of the rings on display. They look cool!

I am a Larfleeze too! I am ordering all the books and will have a set.....

I need to ask my LCS (Austin Books) what they have planned for the rings.

BobBretall wrote:I am a Larfleeze too! I am ordering all the books and will have a set.....

I get Booster Gold anyway, so I'll be getting the Orange Ring for sure. I don't know if I'll get any of the others...but I may pop in the ol' LCS to see if they have any.

I still say they should only have made one Orange Ring, made it out of metal, and given it out randomly to just one person. Can you imagine the frenzy? Life imitating art...

80sJunkie wrote:I need to ask my LCS (Austin Books) what they have planned for the rings.

When you find out, please let us know.