That helps. I want the book, but Iām a sucker for foilsā¦so if theres a foil open order For cover thatās what Iām going for.
If get/find a 1:10 secret variant, even better. More fun to chase those than blowing my wad on high ratios.
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Cant go wrong with that NHOTL homage cover too
The original house of slaughterā¦
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Feels like the 90s all over againā¦ letās just see who can print the most.
Publishers thoughts: To shit if people actually want itā¦ letās trick these retailers into buying all these effing copies to get those cool really high and hard to get ratiosā¦ we donāt give a damn if the remaining copies sit on their shelves for the next 2 decadesā¦ thatās their own fault!
And if they are doing such things, theyāre right. Who can you blame for this nonsense ratio half a million or more copies of bullshit books? The retailers acting like consumers instead of retailersā¦ 
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Been saying it for awhile now that the 90ās are back. This is another example.
I can not fathom why retailers continue to fall for the high ratio scamā¦
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Theyāre weak, they run piss poor comic shops that will likely go under sooner rather than later until they change their ways, knowing their customer base, etc.
Only order what you know you can sell!
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My main shop is relatively small. They maybe order 5-20 copies of each title. At least thatās what I see on shelves, so Iām not sure what pulls do to that number. But, they got 250 of Spawn 1 to get the signed incentive book. They sold that book for $750, which Iām guessing more than paid for all of their 250 copies. Now, they are going to have those 250 copies for a LONG time, as thereās no way theyāll sell them all. Maybe they are dollar bin books in a year or two.
But, itās kind of our fault here. People were willing to buy that book for that much. I have to believe a ton of shops did the same. I know 500,000ish Spawn 1 were printed, but I wonder if even 150,000 sold to actual people.
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Yes, they sold the ratio to pay for their full stack of the regulars but some forget to count, sitting inventory costs you money as well, long term. They take up space. Space costs money (if youāre a retailer who doesnāt own your building and youāre paying lease fees based on square footage, youāre just losing money even with a square foot of product sitting there doing nothing).
If I were a retailer, my main objective in the retailer business is to move inventory, not let it sit for weeks, months or years. Sure you might of broke even or made small profit but now you got inventory not moving. Time, space and resources in handling the inventory now are eating away your small profits you just made by deciding to buy 200+ of a book you couldnāt sell just to sell 1 ratio that came along with it.
To each their own I suppose, run your business how you want, but I think itās bad for business to have inventory sitting.
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I treat my own hobby the same way. If I have a book that I donāt see having much value, or I missed my window to sell, Iām often times ok with selling that for a small profit or at cost for me, just to move it out and allow me to use that money elsewhere.
Shops do a poor job of this. I think Midtown does this really well, actually. They have constant sales and are drumming up ways to get books moved out. Iād bet their revenue has gone up considerably since they started doing this 6-8 months ago.
I think they also lost a lot of cash when they tried to be a distributor. Also, last summer they were plagued with shipping delays and such (like TFAW is experiencing) as they were focusing on distributing. They really seemed to pump up their sales again right after stopped playing distributor and I must admit, their shipping now is spot on. Last few orders Iāve made with them, even media mail arrives within a week almost. Last summer I gave up as some orders would sit with tracking but no movement for 30 days or so before actually being dropped off to start the actual shipping. I even had like 2 packages ship and never arrived, had to put in paypal disputes as their customer service was unresponsive.
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Yup, Iāve dumped plenty of books at Half Price for pennies just to make space and I got my $2-$5 entertainment out of the books by reading them. Not all comics are going to appreciate in value and if you dump a book for below cover and it just happens to heat up later on, oh well, thereās always other books to win on with speculation and profit.
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Really Basilisk #1 2nd print is the only HoS book I can think of that Iād want from a spec perspective. Other than that, Iām guessing Iāll quite enjoy the read.
Is there anything in the preview of HoS from Basilisk 1 thats worth keeping tabs on? Didnt open my copy since i only got 1.
I feel like the prices would dip once HoS #1 arrives if thereās nothing worth noting in the previewās guts. Unless if thereās an appearanceā¦
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Maybe, one has a half million print run and one has, what, a few thousand max?
This preview may hold longer than it should just because of the insane print run for HoS itself.
Hard telling, I know I have 3 copies of Basilisk and didnāt order a single copy of HoS, so I hope it holds over time. Haha.
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