Book of Death: Legends of the Geomancer

[Tim]

Assuming the LCS wants your money (otherwise why is he in business)...

I thought people owned comic book stores for nerd cred and so they could sit in judgement of their customers' bad taste in comics and promote their own superior taste and knowledge. That's always been my experience.

Yes, yes you're right..........................and to make money.

I was half joking, but you have to admit, a LOT of stores put the former reason way above the latter.

[geocarr]

Nope .... It really is that simple. Sorry.

no, this is a question about some people being excluded from getting comic they want.

NO ONE is excluded. If you can't afford it it isn't the same as being excluded. If a kid has only $1 and goes into a comic shop he isn't exluded from buying a $4 book, he just can't afford it.

Access isn't just based on price, but willingness to order sufficient copies of BoD to qualify for levels of LotG by desired bys store's customers; limited access = limited availability = by extension, some will be excluded by default.

NO ONE is excluded. Even if your LCS won't receive any it doesn't mean you are excluded. You are still able to order one. Even if that is cost-prohibitive you aren't exlcuded.

Really? A book VEI themselves have cited as 'rare'? Rare is the definition of scarce, and scare means that 'some' will by default be excluded. VEI have set out to make this 'rare' They have scored themselves the win of dialogue. they have also probably scored very high orders on a book that might have otherwise seen fewer copies ordered. But the moment demand outstrips supply, and VEI seem to be engineering that through the ratio and the fact they have a set aim to make it rare, then by extension some are excluded.

As a UK fan, I could not obtain a copy of Rai Plus 1. Pretty rare on these shores in my experience. I was excluded unfortunately by the seeming way it was distributed. The point is, that access will not be totally equal, therefore there is exclusion on a local level.

Access is always equal until the moment that demand exceeds supply, and then it's not equal. Life isn't fair. No man is an island. Platitude, platitude, platitude. But waste exists as along as supply exceeds demand, so are we going to complain about that too?

[iwantvaliant]

Grown adults , complaining about a comic they can't afford to own is whining to me.

I'm glad you're in a financially stable situation where affordability is not an issue for you. Please don't belittle people in a different situation.

[magnusr]

Here's the email I got:

Hi,

I apologize. We sell so many bundles each month and the cost to purchase 25 copies of another book for each bundle makes that cost prohibitive. Because almost all of our books are discounted so heavily, we are unable to “make up” for those instances and it would only be a considerable loss for us.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and are sorry that we do not have a regular option for you.



Thanks,

Christina

co-owner

I afriad I will have to call BS on that reply. It has been said repeatedly that the books are both discounted and returnable. For every 1:60 variant they sell for $60 they have 6 1:10s to sell @ $6, 3 1:20s to sell @ $10 and 60 regulars to sell at $2. At it only cost them $48. If they manage to sell a quarter of the earned copies they make $58 profit and have earned two Legend books. Of course the sad reality could be that they barely sell any 1:60s, but even so I counted that they don't return any books. If they do, they still get a neat profit. So no matter how you see it, it is not a question about them avoiding a loss, it's a question of them trying to squeeze even more profit out of the speculators and not having the honesty to admit so.

Reminds me of when they cancelled the Q2 1:50 long after the order period had ended. First they openly said that they had decided to cut their order to save money, then they realized how bad that sounded and changed their story claiming they had miscounted the eligibility. Nothing wrong in maximizing their profit, but real bad that they lie about it.

Extra bad that it creates bad feelings against VEI, even though VEI has said that they will do everything to explain matters to the dealers.

/Magnus

[tiredofmyself]

All the talk of supplies and demands and let market decides reminds me that we all know that the free market in practice has known to fail once in a while and that's why socialists are ruling America now.

Does the shop need to pay upfront for all the ordered book, and get the refund when returned?

[jeremycoe]

Grown adults , complaining about a comic they can't afford to own is whining to me.

I'm glad you're in a financially stable situation where affordability is not an issue for you. Please don't belittle people in a different situation.

I don't think he was belittling anyone's situation.

[tiredofmyself]

Realistically how do you know someone is whining on internet?

Dictionary says whining is give or make a long, high-pitched complaining cry or sound; or complain in a feeble or petulant way.

Either way you need to *hear* it and listen to the pitch/volume to know whether it's whining or complaining or just saying.

[greg]

Realistically how do you know someone is whining on internet?

Dictionary says whining is give or make a long, high-pitched complaining cry or sound; or complain in a feeble or petulant way.

Either way you need to *hear* it and listen to the pitch/volume to know whether it's whining or complaining or just saying.

WHAT DOES THE DICTIONARY SAY ABOUT YELLING?

[jeremycoe]

Realistically how do you know someone is whining on internet?

Dictionary says whining is give or make a long, high-pitched complaining cry or sound; or complain in a feeble or petulant way.

Either way you need to *hear* it and listen to the pitch/volume to know whether it's whining or complaining or just saying.

WHAT DOES THE DICTIONARY SAY ABOUT YELLING?

Yelling:
adjective

1. To type a message board post in all capital letters.

[Joshua]

Here's the email I got:

Hi,

I apologize. We sell so many bundles each month and the cost to purchase 25 copies of another book for each bundle makes that cost prohibitive. Because almost all of our books are discounted so heavily, we are unable to “make up” for those instances and it would only be a considerable loss for us.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and are sorry that we do not have a regular option for you.



Thanks,

Christina

co-owner

I afriad I will have to call BS on that reply. It has been said repeatedly that the books are both discounted and returnable. For every 1:60 variant they sell for $60 they have 6 1:10s to sell @ $6, 3 1:20s to sell @ $10 and 60 regulars to sell at $2. At it only cost them $48. If they manage to sell a quarter of the earned copies they make $58 profit and have earned two Legend books. Of course the sad reality could be that they barely sell any 1:60s, but even so I counted that they don't return any books. If they do, they still get a neat profit. So no matter how you see it, it is not a question about them avoiding a loss, it's a question of them trying to squeeze even more profit out of the speculators and not having the honesty to admit so.

Reminds me of when they cancelled the Q2 1:50 long after the order period had ended. First they openly said that they had decided to cut their order to save money, then they realized how bad that sounded and changed their story claiming they had miscounted the eligibility. Nothing wrong in maximizing their profit, but real bad that they lie about it.

Extra bad that it creates bad feelings against VEI, even though VEI has said that they will do everything to explain matters to the dealers.

/Magnus

Do you think there were customers adding a lot of these issues into their cart? Might be why they had to do this.

[Donovan]

Oooookay, waitaminnit, waitaminnit...

I think my opinions were formed under the assumption that LOG was a one-shot.

Is LOG#2 going to be ordered in a traditional fashion?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/05/ ... gust-2015/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jeremycoe]

Oooookay, waitaminnit, waitaminnit...

I think my opinions were formed under the assumption that LOG was a one-shot.

Is LOG#2 going to be ordered in a traditional fashion?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/05/ ... gust-2015/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LOG is a 4-issue mini. issues 2-4 will be 1:10 incentives.

[Donovan]

Oooookay, waitaminnit, waitaminnit...

I think my opinions were formed under the assumption that LOG was a one-shot.

Is LOG#2 going to be ordered in a traditional fashion?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/05/ ... gust-2015/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LOG is a 4-issue mini. issues 2-4 will be 1:10 incentives.

Oh, ok, cool. I can deal with that!

Although my earlier characterization of this being a risky business venture should now essentially CAPITALIZE (or yell, depending on what side of the tracks you're from) the word RISKY. I thought it was risky enough doing a one-shot. That's pretty ballsy to NOT collect a 4 issue series...

[tiredofmyself]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

[jeremycoe]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

I think that's what I heard, but I'm not 100% sure.

[lorddunlow]

no, this is a question about some people being excluded from getting comic they want.

NO ONE is excluded. If you can't afford it it isn't the same as being excluded. If a kid has only $1 and goes into a comic shop he isn't exluded from buying a $4 book, he just can't afford it.

Access isn't just based on price, but willingness to order sufficient copies of BoD to qualify for levels of LotG by desired bys store's customers; limited access = limited availability = by extension, some will be excluded by default.

NO ONE is excluded. Even if your LCS won't receive any it doesn't mean you are excluded. You are still able to order one. Even if that is cost-prohibitive you aren't exlcuded.

Really? A book VEI themselves have cited as 'rare'? Rare is the definition of scarce, and scare means that 'some' will by default be excluded. VEI have set out to make this 'rare' They have scored themselves the win of dialogue. they have also probably scored very high orders on a book that might have otherwise seen fewer copies ordered. But the moment demand outstrips supply, and VEI seem to be engineering that through the ratio and the fact they have a set aim to make it rare, then by extension some are excluded.

As a UK fan, I could not obtain a copy of Rai Plus 1. Pretty rare on these shores in my experience. I was excluded unfortunately by the seeming way it was distributed. The point is, that access will not be totally equal, therefore there is exclusion on a local level.

At this point in time anyone can order it. I don't doubt you might have a hard (probably next to impossible) time finding it if you just go to the stores on release day asking for it. Same with Rai 1 PLUS edition. The fact that at this time anyone can order it means no one is excluded.

Okay. Let's do an example. Looking at the February sales numbers, Rai #7 and X-O #33 both sold about 7000 copies. that's a good estimate for what a typical VEI book sells now.

Both had 2 variants each (in the 1:20-25 range - God, I love that Valiant Database site!!!), so let's say 2000 of the books sold were only ordered to qualify for variants (that seems like an overestimation, but makes the math easier). So, lets assume 5000 readers of those books.

If those 5000 readers want to read LotG, then that requires orders of more than 125,000 copies of BoD #1. (There would have to be more than 125,000 copies because if ten shops order 10 each, none of them would qualify, but that's 100 books which should equate to 4 copies, but wouldn't.)

Rocket Raccoon #1 debuted after GotG was huge, is a Big Two book, had Skottie Young attached, and sold 300K copies (100K of which were due to the nerdbox or something of the sort).

So, you really think LCS's are going to go all in on BoD #1 almost at the same numbers (taking into account the 100K LootCrate orders - I knew what it was called I just wanted to make the joke) as Rocket Raccoon?

It is not feasible that every "reader" will be able to get a copy of this book. And this promotion pits customers and retailers against each other.

[magnusr]

Do you think there were customers adding a lot of these issues into their cart? Might be why they had to do this.

Unfortunately that is a very likely scenario. It explains DCBS' action, but not their pattern of writing lies in their customer replies.

/Magnus

[lorddunlow]

Really? A book VEI themselves have cited as 'rare'?

Valiant promoting this book as 'rare' in a solicit is about as honest as Billy Mays describing Oxy Clean as "amazing". That doesn't mean it'll be as easy to find as a Tim Hortons in Calgary, but they're obviously pumping it up a bit...

How DARE you sully the memory of Billy Mays AND include him in a Canada reference!

[lorddunlow]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

This is the $100,000 question.

If they don't do 80% discounts and don't allow returns for LCS for 2-4, then even some of the people who do manage to get a copy of LotG #1, won't be able to read the rest of the damn story!

Realistically, what I figure will happen is VEI gets the buzz they want out of this, prop up their numbers for BoD #1 (and likely #2-4 as well, although not as much), (hopefully) add some to the readership to make up for or exceed the customers they *SQUEE* off with this promotion, and then release the series in it's own HC as well as digital (probably shortly after #4 hits the shelves).

It probably also won't be long until they start screwing over creators in royalty checks, getting lawyers to tell V-ditty how he didn't create GIN-GR after the GIN-GR Transformer deal goes through, constantly killing off and recycling characters, and basically are indistinguishable from the Big Two that everyone hates.

(By the way, I love Marvel, so I'd still buy the hell outta some VEI books if the stories are still awesome.)

[greg]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

This is the $100,000 question.

If they don't do 80% discounts and don't allow returns for LCS for 2-4, then even some of the people who do manage to get a copy of LotG #1, won't be able to read the rest of the damn story!

Realistically, what I figure will happen is VEI gets the buzz they want out of this, prop up their numbers for BoD #1 (and likely #2-4 as well, although not as much), (hopefully) add some to the readership to make up for or exceed the customers they *SQUEE* off with this promotion, and then release the series in it's own HC as well as digital (probably shortly after #4 hits the shelves).

It probably also won't be long until they start screwing over creators in royalty checks, getting lawyers to tell V-ditty how he didn't create GIN-GR after the GIN-GR Transformer deal goes through, constantly killing off and recycling characters, and basically are indistinguishable from the Big Two that everyone hates.

(By the way, I love Marvel, so I'd still buy the hell outta some VEI books if the stories are still awesome.)

You forgot to complain that there will be comics written exclusively in Chinese, so we'll need hire someone to translate for us because VEI won't send complimentary translators to our house in a limousine like we asked.

[jeremycoe]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

This is the $100,000 question.

If they don't do 80% discounts and don't allow returns for LCS for 2-4, then even some of the people who do manage to get a copy of LotG #1, won't be able to read the rest of the damn story!

Realistically, what I figure will happen is VEI gets the buzz they want out of this, prop up their numbers for BoD #1 (and likely #2-4 as well, although not as much), (hopefully) add some to the readership to make up for or exceed the customers they *SQUEE* off with this promotion, and then release the series in it's own HC as well as digital (probably shortly after #4 hits the shelves).

It probably also won't be long until they start screwing over creators in royalty checks, getting lawyers to tell V-ditty how he didn't create GIN-GR after the GIN-GR Transformer deal goes through, constantly killing off and recycling characters, and basically are indistinguishable from the Big Two that everyone hates.

(By the way, I love Marvel, so I'd still buy the hell outta some VEI books if the stories are still awesome.)

You forgot to complain that there will be comics written exclusively in Chinese, so we'll need hire someone to translate for us because VEI won't send complimentary translators to our house in a limousine like we asked.

I'm not asking, I'm demanding complimentary translators. They don't have to come in a limousine, though.

[Elveen]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

This is the $100,000 question.

If they don't do 80% discounts and don't allow returns for LCS for 2-4, then even some of the people who do manage to get a copy of LotG #1, won't be able to read the rest of the damn story!

Realistically, what I figure will happen is VEI gets the buzz they want out of this, prop up their numbers for BoD #1 (and likely #2-4 as well, although not as much), (hopefully) add some to the readership to make up for or exceed the customers they *SQUEE* off with this promotion, and then release the series in it's own HC as well as digital (probably shortly after #4 hits the shelves).

It probably also won't be long until they start screwing over creators in royalty checks, getting lawyers to tell V-ditty how he didn't create GIN-GR after the GIN-GR Transformer deal goes through, constantly killing off and recycling characters, and basically are indistinguishable from the Big Two that everyone hates.

(By the way, I love Marvel, so I'd still buy the hell outta some VEI books if the stories are still awesome.)

There are lots of ways I would like VEI to be like marvel and DC. Like tons.
And I would say there is more marvel and DC love than hate. I think economics proves that.

[greg]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

This is the $100,000 question.

If they don't do 80% discounts and don't allow returns for LCS for 2-4, then even some of the people who do manage to get a copy of LotG #1, won't be able to read the rest of the damn story!

Realistically, what I figure will happen is VEI gets the buzz they want out of this, prop up their numbers for BoD #1 (and likely #2-4 as well, although not as much), (hopefully) add some to the readership to make up for or exceed the customers they *SQUEE* off with this promotion, and then release the series in it's own HC as well as digital (probably shortly after #4 hits the shelves).

It probably also won't be long until they start screwing over creators in royalty checks, getting lawyers to tell V-ditty how he didn't create GIN-GR after the GIN-GR Transformer deal goes through, constantly killing off and recycling characters, and basically are indistinguishable from the Big Two that everyone hates.

(By the way, I love Marvel, so I'd still buy the hell outta some VEI books if the stories are still awesome.)

You forgot to complain that there will be comics written exclusively in Chinese, so we'll need hire someone to translate for us because VEI won't send complimentary translators to our house in a limousine like we asked.

I'm not asking, I'm demanding complimentary translators. They don't have to come in a limousine, though.

If they don't come in a limousine, how will you know they're incentives?

[tiredofmyself]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

This is the $100,000 question.

If they don't do 80% discounts and don't allow returns for LCS for 2-4, then even some of the people who do manage to get a copy of LotG #1, won't be able to read the rest of the damn story!

Realistically, what I figure will happen is VEI gets the buzz they want out of this, prop up their numbers for BoD #1 (and likely #2-4 as well, although not as much), (hopefully) add some to the readership to make up for or exceed the customers they *SQUEE* off with this promotion, and then release the series in it's own HC as well as digital (probably shortly after #4 hits the shelves).

It probably also won't be long until they start screwing over creators in royalty checks, getting lawyers to tell V-ditty how he didn't create GIN-GR after the GIN-GR Transformer deal goes through, constantly killing off and recycling characters, and basically are indistinguishable from the Big Two that everyone hates.

(By the way, I love Marvel, so I'd still buy the hell outta some VEI books if the stories are still awesome.)

You forgot to complain that there will be comics written exclusively in Chinese, so we'll need hire someone to translate for us because VEI won't send complimentary translators to our house in a limousine like we asked.

I'm not asking, I'm demanding complimentary translators. They don't have to come in a limousine, though.

I'll do the translation! No need for limousine, I prefer working over Internet.

[jeremycoe]

Are Book of Death #2-#4 going to be returnable as well?

This is the $100,000 question.

If they don't do 80% discounts and don't allow returns for LCS for 2-4, then even some of the people who do manage to get a copy of LotG #1, won't be able to read the rest of the damn story!

Realistically, what I figure will happen is VEI gets the buzz they want out of this, prop up their numbers for BoD #1 (and likely #2-4 as well, although not as much), (hopefully) add some to the readership to make up for or exceed the customers they *SQUEE* off with this promotion, and then release the series in it's own HC as well as digital (probably shortly after #4 hits the shelves).

It probably also won't be long until they start screwing over creators in royalty checks, getting lawyers to tell V-ditty how he didn't create GIN-GR after the GIN-GR Transformer deal goes through, constantly killing off and recycling characters, and basically are indistinguishable from the Big Two that everyone hates.

(By the way, I love Marvel, so I'd still buy the hell outta some VEI books if the stories are still awesome.)

You forgot to complain that there will be comics written exclusively in Chinese, so we'll need hire someone to translate for us because VEI won't send complimentary translators to our house in a limousine like we asked.

I'm not asking, I'm demanding complimentary translators. They don't have to come in a limousine, though.

If they don't come in a limousine, how will you know they're incentives?

True. I demand limousines.