Top 300 Comics for March 2008

1. 

   DrStrangeCubicle on April 22, 2008 5:20 pm

   Looks like Booster is doing well still, which is good. I just hope it can keep up the good sales even after Johns and Katz leave. Glad to see GLC is still holding up well after the Sinestro Corps Wars too, even if the Alpha Lantern arc was really not that great.

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2. 

   Stacy B. on April 22, 2008 10:50 pm

   Comformation: This is just from the Diamond to retailer sales, right?

   The reason I ask is, that I always wondered how many of those comics are actually sold through to the consumer. I know that when I worked at one of the local comic shops, we ordered more Marvel and sold more DC. Sound weird? Well, Marvel had more instances where you had to order a certain number to get the incentive/variant cover. We had a couple of customers who would pay big bucks for those, and it was almost worth having half a title go to the back issue bins to make those sales.

   Is there any industry standard for tracking sales to the consumer?

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3. 

   Stephen Schleicher on April 23, 2008 12:04 am

   Stacy, you are absolutely right, this data only tracks what went out the door at diamond, not returns, and not how many issues actually made it into the hands of readers. This is something I’ve been trying to track down for the last couple of years, to try and determine how much money a particular company made during this time period. This is where the tricky math and what not comes into play. Since the USPS dropped the requirement to include how many issues are circulated (for postal purposes) it is nearly impossible to guestimate the exact number of titles that ship each month/year. Other sites do a really good job of attempting to come up with the answer (through inside contacts and what not), but all of the companies keep this info close to the chest…except for Archie Comics which still publishes the data. I have that info around somewhere on this computer, and when I get a free moment, I’ll dig it up, plug it into the table and the numbers should spring to life. That being said, this data still only tracks the number of titles that went out the door at Diamond.

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4. 

   Josh P. on April 23, 2008 7:10 am

   I would think it would be near impossible to track what actually ended up in consumer’s hands.

   But it would be great to know how many issues Diamond actually distributed of Dark Tower, Buffy and so on.

   It would help get a clearer picture of the overall health of the industry.

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5. 

   Stephen Schleicher on April 23, 2008 8:13 am

   Josh: Actually it would be very easy to track what ends up in the consumer’s hand right at the cash register. It can easily be done with a tracking/database system. When a customer checks out, the book is scanned by a bar reader and that data is saved on the local LCS machine. Each evening, or each week that data is then uploaded to Diamond to track what is being sold, and help the LCS know what s/he should restock, what sells, place reorders etc. With that kind of a system in place it would be very easy to get an exact number of copies sold. Too bad everyone is too scared about numbers to actually publish the information ;)

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6. 

   Josh P. on April 23, 2008 8:54 am

   Cool.

   I’m still running under the impression that most LCSes are afraid of sharing info with other LCSes.

   And the owners are afraid of sunlight. But that’s just me.

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7. 

   Stephen Schleicher on April 23, 2008 9:24 am

   You are certainly correct there – sharing of actual data is a big secret for everyone. Websites are cautious about sharing statistics on unique visitors and pageviews, podcasts are ultra-secret when it comes to downloads, and LCS are worried the shop on the other side of the city are selling more comics than they are.

   I smell a rant coming from me on this subject soon …

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8. 

   Josh P. on April 23, 2008 10:47 am

   That’s what that smell is.

   I thought it was the large dude from the LCS.

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9. 

   Stephen Schleicher on April 23, 2008 11:16 am

   I am that large dude at the LCS :D

   Reply
10. 

    Josh P. on April 23, 2008 12:05 pm

    Oops….

    Reply

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