September 2014 Sales Discussion

[Keith]

Wow, number seem early this month!

The prelims:

RETAIL MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER - SHARE
DC ENTERTAINMENT - 36.58%
MARVEL COMICS - 32.04%
IMAGE COMICS - 7.49%
IDW PUBLISHING - 4.52%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 4.11%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 2.34%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 2.18%
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD - 1.29%
RANDOM HOUSE - 1.15%
VIZ MEDIA - 0.96%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 7.34%

UNIT MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER - SHARE
DC ENTERTAINMENT - 40.76%
MARVEL COMICS - 34.11%
IMAGE COMICS - 8.24%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 3.30%
IDW PUBLISHING - 3.24%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 2.31%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 2.28%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC - 0.71%
AVATAR PRESS INC - 0.66%
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC - 0.63%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 4.77%

[ilzuccone]

DOOM

[Aram]

AND GLOOM

[jeremycoe]

I did some math that I don't wish to repeat, but basically Valiant's unit sales for September can be estimated at 82% of their unit sales for August.

[FormerReader]

I wonder why? Fewer titles?

[greg]

I did some math that I don't wish to repeat, but basically Valiant's unit sales for September can be estimated at 82% of their unit sales for August.

I'll repeat it.

Valiant unit sales in August was 1.07%.
Valiant unit sales in September was 0.71%.

That's 71/107, which is 66%.

But, the industry sold 24% more books in September than they did in August.

66% times 1.24 = 82%

[Captain Craig]

My layman look at it says BUMMER, not good.

Am I missing something?

[jeremycoe]

I did some math that I don't wish to repeat, but basically Valiant's unit sales for September can be estimated at 82% of their unit sales for August.

I'll repeat it.

Valiant unit sales in August was 1.07%.
Valiant unit sales in September was 0.71%.

That's 71/107, which is 66%.

But, the industry sold 24% more books in September than they did in August.

66% times 1.24 = 82%

Your explanation is easier to understand than mine would have been.

[bygranddesign]

I think a drop off for September should have been expected

No Rai

And the Valiant First title was Dr. Mirage which evidently sold out .. but probably didn't have a big print run (no incentive variant, no multiple covers)

All the other titles probably saw normal drop off from previous month (armor Hunter related titles, Delinquents..etc)

[wwise03]

Hopefully the Humble Bundle will help turn the tide a bit. Also Valiant is making a number of new announcements next week. So if the worry is that Valiant is going out of business, I don't think these numbers are too important.

[kjjohanson]

What determines what is a 4-week and what is a 5-week month? The number of Wednesdays?

[jeremycoe]

What determines what is a 4-week and what is a 5-week month? The number of Wednesdays?

When you're talking comic sales, yes.

[Chris Campbell]

What determines what is a 4-week and what is a 5-week month? The number of Wednesdays?

exactly.

and I think the humble bundle may help TPB sales in the near term. Not so sure about single issues.

[Keith]

I'm not sweating it.

There are companies selling far less, and they have been around for much longer than VEI (Avatar, Zenescope, to name a couple). If they are surviving then clearly Valiant will, too. And till they start going out of business, I see no reason why we should be worried about Valiant...

...unless there is something we don't know that makes Valiant a different/more expensive a company to operate. Like Dino's silk-laced toilet paper requirement. Or Warren using $100 bills as post it notes and fire starters.


And from our days of Doom Prophesying Past, here are some other Greatest Death Knell hits for your reading enjoyment:
The Beginning of the End
The thread formerly known as Forbidden Planet Manager Gives Valiant Six Months

[Tim]

There are companies selling far less, and they have been around for much longer than VEI (Avatar, Zenescope, to name a couple).

Do either one of those sell outside ads?

[ilzuccone]

I did some math that I don't wish to repeat, but basically Valiant's unit sales for September can be estimated at 82% of their unit sales for August.

I'll repeat it.

Valiant unit sales in August was 1.07%.
Valiant unit sales in September was 0.71%.

That's 71/107, which is 66%.

But, the industry sold 24% more books in September than they did in August.

66% times 1.24 = 82%

your words mean nothing to me

[greg]

I did some math that I don't wish to repeat, but basically Valiant's unit sales for September can be estimated at 82% of their unit sales for August.

I'll repeat it.

Valiant unit sales in August was 1.07%.
Valiant unit sales in September was 0.71%.

That's 71/107, which is 66%.

But, the industry sold 24% more books in September than they did in August.

66% times 1.24 = 82%

your words mean nothing to me

5318008

[ilzuccone]

I'm not sweating it.

There are companies selling far less, and they have been around for much longer than VEI (Avatar, Zenescope, to name a couple). If they are surviving then clearly Valiant will, too. And till they start going out of business, I see no reason why we should be worried about Valiant...

...unless there is something we don't know that makes Valiant a different/more expensive a company to operate. Like Dino's silk-laced toilet paper requirement. Or Warren using $100 bills as post it notes and fire starters.


And from our days of Doom Prophesying Past, here are some other Greatest Death Knell hits for your reading enjoyment:
The Beginning of the End
The thread formerly known as Forbidden Planet Manager Gives Valiant Six Months

looks like i have my weekend reading picked out for me.

[ilzuccone]

I did some math that I don't wish to repeat, but basically Valiant's unit sales for September can be estimated at 82% of their unit sales for August.

I'll repeat it.

Valiant unit sales in August was 1.07%.
Valiant unit sales in September was 0.71%.

That's 71/107, which is 66%.

But, the industry sold 24% more books in September than they did in August.

66% times 1.24 = 82%

your words mean nothing to me

5318008

[dornwolf]

wasn't it stated once that Valiants literally doing better than they originally expected.

[leonmallett]

wasn't it stated once that Valiants literally doing better than they originally expected.

I think so.

But once again, it seems to me that the obvious point is simple: VEI surely cannot grow significantly while they self-impose a 9 books per month limit, unless they get a breakout hit. So they will bounce around a narrow range in their numbers (accepting those numbers are estimates, right?).

Add in that the minis over ongoings strategy *may* offer a jump-off point in some instances, but that is highly debatable of course.

[drmirage]

That's not good for the entire industry. 24% less books!

Valiant unit sales in August was 1.07%.
Valiant unit sales in September was 0.71%.

That's 71/107, which is 66%.

But, the industry sold 24% more books in September than they did in August.

66% times 1.24 = 82%

[krylox]

cbr has the numbers. and they don't look too nice...

227 X-O Manowar #29 8,566 -1,068 units -11.09%
244 Unity #11 7,602 -889 units -10.47%
263 Death Defying Doctor Mirage #1 7,154
273 Delinquents #2 6,964 -5,948 units -46.07%
280 Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #3 6,681 -605 units -8.30%
281 Armor Hunters: Harbinger #3 6,681 -362 units -5.14%
297 Harbinger: Omegas #2 6,373 -1,943 units -23.36%



armor hunters #4 and a&a #24 are missing from the chart, though. it's possible that a&a missed the top300, but i can't imagine this to be true of the armor hunters finale.

[nycjadie]

Bummed about the numbers. I wonder if there is any uptick with digital and collected editions to offset the print copies.

From an old school comic guy, these numbers look abysmal, but I realize that low numbers are the new normal. Gone are the days of print runs of 1 million. Heck, even print runs over 100K are rare. Print runs of 15K appear to be the new healthy?

[jeremycoe]

302 Archer & Armstrong #24 6,262
306 Armor Hunters # 4 6,070

as per comichron