Check out this stunt by Marvel. In exchange for certain unsold DC Comics, Marvel is willing to exchange a special Siege #3 Deadpool variant with retailers.  The titles in question are the Blackest Night tie-in issues that came with the Green Lantern ring promotion. Since many people wanted a complete set of the rings, retailers had to purchase additional copies of these books, which may have put the retailer in a tight economic spot. With this promotion from Marvel, the comic store owner could theoretically charge top dollar for the Siege #3 Deadpool variant or put it up on eBay.
Complete press release after the jump.
Press Release
In an effort to provide assistance to comic retailers in 2010, Marvel is offering retailers an opportunity to turn unsold comics into an extremely rare Siege #3 Deadpool Variant!
Retailers – for every 50 stripped covers of the following comics sent to Marvel, you will qualify to receive one FREE Siege #3 Deadpool Variant. The 50 stripped covers can be any combination of the comics listed below and all submissions need to be received at the Marvel office at the address below by Tuesday 2/16/2010.  Also included with the stripped covers must be your store contact information including Diamond Account # and email address.
Stripped Covers To Be Sent:
Adventure Comics #4
Booster Gold #26
Doom Patrol #4
Justice League Of America #39
Outsiders #24.
R.E.B.E.L.S #10
Address To Send Submission:
James Nausedas
Marvel Entertainment, LLC
417 Fifth Avenue, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Information To Be Included With Submission:
Store Name
Store Address
Contact Person
Email Address
Phone Number
Diamond Account #
List of stripped covers being returned and their quantities
All the directions above must be adhered to in order to receive the free Siege #3 Deadpool Variants and the submissions must be received by Tuesday 2/16/2010 in order to qualify.
Please note that this is not a Diamond-affiliated promotion and Diamond should not be contacted. Retailers will be contacted via email once Marvel receives the submissions. Retailer with further questions should contact helpme@marvel.com.
20 Comments
5,6,7,8 I bet DC will reciprocate.
9,10,11,12 are all those books really just sitting on shelves?
13,14,15,16 Not at any shop I’ve seen.
Seriously, gimme the Outsiders issues, people. I want to read the story!
damn, better get those last two rings I need…
50 comics for 1 alternate. That better be a valuable alternate.
I have no idea what stores pay for their comics, but assuming a 30% mark-up to get the cover price, that’s basically asking for stores to destroy ~$100 worth of books to get one variant cover.
Now, I’m not entirely certain, but I don’t remember many ‘variant’ covers selling for $100 or better since the ’90s …
I’m confused…or I’m being an idiot. What is Marvel’s benefit in getting unsold books?
The books that they’ve targetted were all books that were part of DC’s Blackest Night ring promotion. They’re not getting the books, they’re having retailers rip the covers off of the books (thus, destroying them) and send them just the covers as proof that the books have been destroyed.
I’d also heard that they had considered doing a Brown Ring with Deadpool’s logo on it in conjunction with Siege #3 as a way to mock DC’s promotion and, honestly, I think that would’ve been funnier.
I love me some Deadpool, but this seems like a dick move for Marvel.
That’s no surprise. The EiC is already a dick. ;p
Like everyone else pointed out here, it doesn’t seem like anything close to a fair trade, unless Marvel is that self-assured that a variant cover for a third issue is going to be that valuable. Maybe they still think the bubble’s going strong.
Whether it’s equal or not doesn’t matter to me, though. DC & Marvel always seemed to have a gentleman’s agreement to never target each other like this in the past, so this seems very petty and classless to me. This is a new level of tackiness for one of the Big Two, and it’s left me with a very bad taste in my mouth for Marvel since I first heard it this morning. It just seems like needless chest-beating.
It would be nice to hear from some comic book shop managers on here about what they think about this and if they are going to comply with this stunt?
50 comics for 1. If there are only going to be 100 of the variants printed, there would probably be a high enough demand to sell the variant for a break even or profit. It would maybe be worth it to stores that needed to order the comics just to get the rings, now have 200-300+ unsold comics which will never be sold. But I would think you could still get $1-$2 for the $4 comic on ebay. Therefore the variant would necessarily need to bring in more than $50-$100 to make it worth the trade. It is also easier to make the trade for a smaller store which doesn’t ebay stuff or like (or have time) to mail. You may also be able to presell the variant for $100 to a customer to return the actual cost of the comics to the store. They also “in theory” sold the rings to cover the value of the comics they had to buy. So it would be possible to add additional profit to the bottom line here.
I’m a retailer, so I know some of the decisions that could be made here. Discounts through Diamond are tiered, so different stores pay different amounts for the comics. I didn’t over order to get the rings, I found out who wanted rings and got them from another store.
I doubt that many stores will take advantage of this unless they have a glut of these comics.
wait, are we pretending comics go up in value again? I don’t think any of the books mentioned will be worth anything. ever. even the archaeologist that digs them up 1000 years from now won’t want them. because he will still have them. in his computer.
I’m pretty sure any “value” to a comic is…whether or not you dig the characters/writers/artists in them! bizarre. marvel’s not going to swipe any lantern fans with this, it’s the retailers that are deciding what they want. and hopefully they know their business and logic well enough to know that just because you get 500 copies of something doesn’t mean you’re gonna sell 500 copies of something.
Or any.
Man, I think I’m missing a step in whatever the thinking here is!
Considering how bad Seige 1 was compared to Booster Gold or Action Comics, I wouldn’t trade one Blackest Night book for an “Ultra Rare” Deadpool variant of a book that’s gonna suck.
Yeah, seige felt a bit too epic for it’s own good. also, they played the whole thing with osborn talking to loki like osborn was a r-tard.
What the Germans think of this 50 for 1 trade.
Warning: Adult Language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8KbNag962A
Great video, but I feel a bit guilty now.
Oh my God, toward the end I was dying laughing. Hitler saying, “I miss the days of Image Comics. The stories sucked but at least there were thousands of copies. Even Leifeld. I went as Badrock for Halloween once.” That’s great!
You won’t find loads of those darkest night titles in bargain bins now, potentially preventing some people from becoming fans that way. I like the idea myself.