I put this in Hidden Fortress since it involves both Marvel and DC. So Marvel is pissed that DC sold so well with their Blackest Night titles, so they're offering a super-duper-ultra-rare cover for retailers if they return the tie-in issues from Blackest Night. Shit is hitting the fan
I don't really see the point of it. But I don't see why there is so much hatred for that.
So obviously those books are not going to fly off the shelves, I mean, the reason the retailers bought them was cause they wanted the rings.
Now they have many issues of Booster Gold or REBELS that nobody wants and taking space in the quarter bins. And for them, Marvel offers extra-rare Siege variant that some Deadpool-completist nut is going to pay dollar for.
So I'd say it's win situation for the retailers.
Marvel pretty much said DC sales pitch was shit, and we know it, so trash your books that the dealers paid for for this cover of deadpool you can sell for a couple hundred bucks.
I wonder though how much these will go for. Can I buy 25 copies of booster gold, have them sent back, then sell my deadpool cover for twice the price?
"French is like anal, exotic but oh so unnecessary."
It's a good business strategy but a king-sized douche move by Marvel. Shitting over each other's product is pretty commanplace, and not a big deal but the way Marvel goes out of their to get rid of DC comics and artifically inflate the price of their shitty variant cover is pretty low. What pisses me off the most is the that they require the DC comics that are being shipped to them for reimbursement be stripped of their cover. Destroying books is just shitty; donate them or recycle them at the least.
I do agree that it's good for retailers, but it's a shitty tactic from Marvel. One of the comments was from a retailer in the thread and he said even he did have leftover copies he'd refuse to send them to Marvel. He also stated how DC is a much better retailer than Marvel because they actually do allow you to resend certain issues back (Marvel doesn't allow that except in very rare circumstances). Either way, it's just a dick move on Marvel's part. I'm actually glad I refused to buy Siege and chose to download it instead. I was tempted to get the variant and not the regular issue but it's pretty shitty...
Returning books happens a lot, and when I worked in a comic shop we would return them to distributors by taking the covers off and shipping those back to retailers, rather than just the books, so I understand the covers coming off.
BUT for no reason should Marvel say the only way to get the variant is by sending in books from the opposition. What Marvel books are not selling well? What ones were expected to be huge hits that fell flat on their face? Send THOSE back. Don't ask for your competitions books to be set off the market so they're not there, especially because they're the books that came with promotional items that actually sold and worked out well for DC.
Most retailers agree this is a shitty move on Marvel's part. One stated to make a profit he'd have to sell the variant at $100 which he just can't do. Another brought up a great point that Marvel actually doesn't expect many to do this offer but instead want people talking about Siege and this thing. Very good insight...
DC kinda fucked the retailers with the rings. The retailer had to order a specific amount of issues to be eligible to get the rings, and then they had to pay for the rings which they then went and gave out to free to the customers. My retailer gave his usuals a ring, not sure about other people. I know other local retailers just did straight up "buy the issue and get the ring" but I heard some retailers did "buy the issue, pay an extra $1, and get the ring."
My store got them, and if you bought the specific issues that came with specific colors you got the ring as well. So for each 3.99 comic I got the ring 'for free' even though most of those books are usually 2.99.
But, my store also made it available for you to buy the rings for only 1.99 as well. As far as I know, they don't have many left, or if they do they're just not really advertising that they do.
I think meek? said his store just put them in a giant bucket and let people have them for free. But that left a lot of people not able to get them all he said.
