VALIANT March 2013 Sales Discussion

[Donovan]

Anyone else see the FB post from a disgruntled collector who was angry at VEI for having too many variants?? He was angry at VEI for HIS collectin habits. Too funny Instead of saying that collecting all of the variants was too expensive for HIM he was blaming VEI for OFFERING variants.. good grief!

I'm in full agreement with how you summed that attitude up, but be careful! Some here are of that mindset as well!

[MarkRoseHFX]

Anyone else see the FB post from a disgruntled collector who was angry at VEI for having too many variants?? He was angry at VEI for HIS collectin habits. Too funny Instead of saying that collecting all of the variants was too expensive for HIM he was blaming VEI for OFFERING variants.. good grief!

I don't see it, taken down maybe

[ErikG]

Variants... Oh boy. These were something I hated about the 'old' Valiant. I know it was necessary for the company then to make a mark in the industry and to generate collector excitement, but it did help fuel the speculation frenzy with the result that, when it collapsed, the name of the company was tarnished so badly you couldn't give the comics away, which gave Valiant a bad name that lingers to this day. Of course, speculators will never blame themselves...

So I hope that VE does not go overboard with regard to variants in case it happens again. That said, I personally don't give a hoot for variants as long as they are not essential to the ongoing storylines. I'm here for the stories, not the covers or the foil or the holographs or the stampings or even the cover artists. I hope there will never be mail-in coupons (as per Magnus #1) or licenced special story editions put out by comic dealers. I want all of what I need from Valiant available in my pull-box, and not via the post office. Yes, I'm a collector-completist, but only in terms of story, not variant product, and I READ what I collect.

And shouldn't that be what it's all about -- the story?

[hawkeyeps]

Anyone else see the FB post from a disgruntled collector who was angry at VEI for having too many variants?? He was angry at VEI for HIS collectin habits. Too funny Instead of saying that collecting all of the variants was too expensive for HIM he was blaming VEI for OFFERING variants.. good grief!

I don't see it, taken down maybe

Yeah I did see that and Valiant wrote him nice long reply stating they also didn't like variants and explaining market reasons for doing them.

It was a good reply, it's too bad if they took it down.

I thought it was very cool that Valiant took the time to write such a detailed reply to a disgrunteled fan.

[manga4life]

#s from Comichron:
135 X-O Manowar 11 $3.99 Valiant 15,765 ----------- Very nice! If X-O keeps it's number between 13.8k-16k than that would be awesome!
153 Shadowman 5 $3.99 Valiant 13,145 -------------- Solid number! Keep it between 12.3k-13.5k and it's an indy hit!
167 Harbinger 10 $3.99 Valiant 12,196 --------------- I can live between 11.5k-13k, that's a respectful number. If it falls to like 11.5k than it's dipping too far.
180 Archer & Armstrong 8 $3.99 Valiant 11,072 ---------Need's more readers, its in danger or falling into the 10k's......
183 Bloodshot 9 $3.99 Valiant 10,959 -------------------I'm sad about this. Sure, compared to some other company 10.9k is great, but I would like to see this at 12k or higher.....

[greg]

Magnus #1 had a cover date of May 1991.
The lowest print runs for Valiant were in March and April 1992... before Unity.

X-O Manowar #1 has a cover date of May 2012.
We'd be in good company if March and April 2013 weren't the best months.