Ninjak #4 A cover

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kjjohanson
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Ninjak #4 A cover

Post by kjjohanson »

Over on the CGC boards there's a thread on the "Best Modern Covers" and I posted the Ninjak #4 A cover (http://www.valiantfan.com/issue/show/n4_a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), because since it was solicited I loved the artwork, and it struck me as just the sort of cover that collectors shell out good money for regardless of the content of the story. (It just so happens the issue also features Roku's origin and the first appearance of a few members of the Shadow Seven.) It seems to have gotten a good reaction from people that weren't aware of it (or in some cases already were), and after looking into it more, I see that sales (price and quantity) of this book on the secondary market has a lot more activity than a normal A cover. I checked a few online comic stores and none of them have copies available. Just wanted to give a heads-up for completists that don't have this book already to maybe put it on your radar and keep your eyes open for a cheap copy. Note that the price guide here has the value at $20, but recent eBay sales have been a little less than that.

DISCLAIMER: Full disclosure: I own a good number of copies of this book. I hate when people on boards pump and dump; that's not what I'm looking to do here. While I may look to move a few of my under-copies in the near future, I think the book is a hold until Valiant movies/televisions shows draws more eyes to the brand.

Something else worth noting: Comichron has the following numbers for #4 and the two issues surrounding them. I imagine that retailers pretty much split their orders evenly amongst the order-all covers. Issue 4 has three order-alls, and the surrounding two issues only have two. But I imagine that the total number of Valiant issues ordered in a month has more to do with the total number of copies needed to fill incentive requests than the number of order-all covers available. So I think that the spike in orders for this book is probably due to people (like me) that pre-ordered copies of the A cover, rather than there being an additional order-all available. (Perhaps someone more familiar with retail sales can advise on this?)
3: 9,553 (2 order-all covers)
4: 10,873 (3 order-all covers)
5: 9,425 (2 order-all covers)
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greg
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Re: Ninjak #4 A cover

Post by greg »

I would guess the Ninjak #4 Cover A was at least 7,000 copies. The number on Comichron is always too low, according to Dinesh, and Cover A is usually a majority even when there isn't an awesome cover. The awesome #4 cover was previewed in #1 on the editorial page, so the "wow factor" had the effect you mentioned... selling extra copies.

Dinesh might tell us the number if we ask nicely. :)

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kjjohanson
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Re: Ninjak #4 A cover

Post by kjjohanson »

greg wrote:I would guess the Ninjak #4 Cover A was at least 7,000 copies. The number on Comichron is always too low, according to Dinesh, and Cover A is usually a majority even when there isn't an awesome cover. The awesome #4 cover was previewed in #1 on the editorial page, so the "wow factor" had the effect you mentioned... selling extra copies.

Dinesh might tell us the number if we ask nicely. :)
I think orders will skew towards the A cover (especially since DCBS has a discount bundle every month of the A covers, and I imagine that they're responsible for a good chunk of monthly orders). When I try to estimate, I figure that half of sales would be the A cover (in a month with 2 order-alls) with the remaining number covering the other order-all and all of the incentives. But for this month I imagine it would have been skewed even more towards the A, as you suggest.
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Re: Ninjak #4 A cover

Post by nycjadie »

This is one of those classic covers for sure. It will probably be iconic among the best Ninjak covers, and for Roku for sure (if not the best, in my opinion). I like the 2nd print for this reason. I don't know the print run, but it had to be small. I've been trying to find 9.6/9.8 candidates, and this year was the one I found the printing to be incredibly poor (although, recent Ninja-K issues have been atrocious, especially variants). Best I've been able to score is a 9.6 2nd print.

Roku is one of my favorite Valiant villains. Much of Valiant is derivative of something, but Roku seemed fresh and original, at least from what I've been exposed to.


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