I sold my 2nd print BTTs issue 1 and issue 2 A & B this past weekend as well.
I had them shipped to me, but made a small profit nonetheless.
Ultimate Spider-man #1 Klein Variant is now sold out at Penguin Random House sometime between when I ordered more yesterday and right now. No UPS delivery today so that means most stores start getting restocked tomorrow from PRH thru Thursday and whatever Diamond sends out scattered over the next 2 weeks with their replenishment shipments. That should put plenty of copies on the street the next few weeks for those who just want to read and don’t have to wait for the 2nd print. I still haven’t ordered any 2nd prints and with so many Klein 1st prints expected I’m not sure the demand will be there for them. I figure the bubble has 24 hours left before UPS starts restocking stores and cutting back asking prices thru undercutting and FOMO dying.
Do you know if prh is sold out of ultimate invasion 1 2nd print?
It appears PRH has every cover of all the 1st prints and the 2nd print still orderable of Ultimate Invasion #1. The poster is also still showing in stock.
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I wonder what the minimum print run is for later printings at marvel. There’s no way to know, I guess
Well, usually only the cover is changed so the print press is already setup and ready with the guts of the books so there’s likely no minimum limits.
They obviously print more than what’s ordered. A lot have sold on eBay recently
Well, they likely do print more to cover damages and such but I’m sure its much smaller now to a print to order type of ratio. The world is changing, nobody wants to sit on stock of products they’re not sure will sell or not. That’s just bad for business and honestly, it’s wasteful with an environmental impact. I’m all for products only produced for the amount that is in initial demand. Print or make more when the orders increase. That’s just how the world should operate going forward!
It depends on who’s doing the ordering. Diamond and PRH tend to overorder enough to cover damages and last until at least the second issue is on the shelf. Lunar is a crap shoot if they’ll even have anything after the release week or by the time #2 arrives. For instance, when Justice League Godzilla #2 arrived a week before street date, #1 second print arrived the same day and when I tried to reorder a week ahead of street date, I was able to get more #2’s but nothing for #1 1st or 2nd print making the #2’s unsellable outside of E-Bay and the extra #3’s ordered at the same time, until the reprints of 1 and 2 combined hit the shelf tomorrow. we haven’t been able to start a new customer this long period of time due to underordering by Lunar. A wholesalers job is to make large purchases and have the inventory on hand for the smaller sellers which are stores.
If you dig around Comichron for most months sales bottom dregs you’ll see numbers that typically are 2nd print sales.
I should be set on US1 with the number of Kleins ordered and that guy on the phone just now sounds like he’ll be thrilled to have the chance to buy a copy tomorrow afternoon instead of waiting for a 2nd print. I like it when wholesalers act like wholesalers. Another example from last week, Lore Olympus, which is the best selling title in the building for females. Every single buyer is a female or picking up for their mates they say. They’re taking orders for vol 7 and 8 right now but still have every issue in stock in both hard back and tp so we don’t have to tie up large amounts of money buying extras ahead of needing them. A new lady started 1 and 2 in December and hubby picked up #3 Monday, PRH restocked me with another copy by Wednesday. Now I just need confirmation from Diamond that they’ve begun the USPS shipping testing I’m signed on for so I can reorder those Invincible trades Lunar refuses to keep in stock. 
Diamond is sold out of Ultimate Invasion #1 but they should be by now. It’s kind of like the 3 Bears story. One’s got a little too many, one doesn’t have enough and one was just right. With spec potential for UI#1 as you’re thinking, that’s just another benefit of dealing with Papa Bear over mama and baby Bear.
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That can also include 1st print sales or other printings as well. It’s all guesstimates, take it with a grain of salt.
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They’re distributors. They’re being smarter so they’re not sitting on stock they lose money on like Diamond did for many many moons. 
Times are changing and nobody likes to waste time, money and resources now…
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If you want to make sure you got enough inventory for the “just in case” then you go ahead and order extra copies so they sit on your shelves. Why place that burden on the distributor? That’s basically what you’re implying… “You order more so I benefit without losing money!” The distributors are just being smarter now financially since we never know what book will be hugely popular and in huge demand. If people miss out, so what if they have to wait for the additional prints and if they really want to just read it, there’s alternatives like digital available. It’s a no brainer…
I’m not seeing signs that Diamond was losing money outside of the Covid period where stores were not paying their bills. If anything they appeared going into the Covid period to be extremely profittable having just spent millions on their new move the boxes around the warehouse automated system they were promoting. The premise you’re believing for losing money is being stuck with inventory but Diamond is never stuck. The have a clearly established system for moving inventory after the period they want it in stock and many of us actually benefit from that greatly by being able to go back and add back stock from titles that are a year or more after street date or prior to stores having opened their accounts if they are new. Some of the sales are actually insanely great deals and hugely profitable. One of the problems with your thinking is what got a lot of stores into trouble during the pandemic. When the system shut down, stores that only dealt with new inventory had nothing coming in to sell. The one’s that survived had back stock to sell to hold them over and others made that their focus almost entirely from then on. My goal isn’t to sell out everything. If that happens then I’m underordering. My goal is simply to sell enough to cover my expenses plus whatever profit amount is desired and at the same time have enough inventory left over to gradually build an enormous backstock inventory. Never have all your eggs in one basket. Try to build multiple options simultaneously. A thousand new comics a month added to a couple hundred thousand items in back stock. That way when a customer comes in the door hoping to find something, they don’t automatically leave disappointed. I’m not even in a race to put all the backstock on the internet. I figure it’s a gradual job. Continually introduce a steady supply of new back stock so customers always have a reason to check back regularly and/or stop by to shop.
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Diamond is on their way out so they likely weren’t doing things right as publishers have started dropping them left and right… We’ll never know what their financials were since they were a private company. I’m just going to guess they were more in the hole than not and they’re definitely not making as much money now since they’re just a glorified retailer for the most part, having to order from Lunar and PRH now for most of their books for the remaining retailers still ordering all their products from them.
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Well obviously, gotta keep more product coming in but the goal is to move all inventory, not just buy and sit on it hoping it sells. It’s why we see big clearance sales, it’s all the junk shops bought too much of and now losing money or breaking even on.
That’s your goal. I really like you but you’re wrong on this completely. Just this week I’ll have numerous customers THANKFUL PRH had additional stock available to ship. I don’t make money sending customers out the door for the next 3 to 4 weeks hoping they don’t purchase elsewhere waiting instead of waiting for a 2nd print. A wholesalers job is to supply stores. If they don’t have enough to meet demand, then they aren’t doing their job and that is costing stores potential sales and themselves as well.
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BJ I appreciate all the insight you give us from a retailers perspective. Very insightful.
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That’s great to make customers happy but you’re wrong in trying to say distributors are on the hook to over order just in case so you benefit in such cases!
Nobody can predict what book will be hot so I applaud smart business decisions. We live in a world where we can produce goods much faster and ship more efficiently, in a rather fast time. So while it’s your job to sell goods to consumers, distributors only job is to distribute goods based on initial orders from retailers like you. So really, when they run out of products, it’s on the retailers for not ordering enough to meet demands… You can’t go and blame distributors, they’re only job is to distribute the goods, not predict foot traffic in all the different demographics stores are located.
Blame yourself as a retailer first for not ordering enough products to meet the demands I say…
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We should move on and get back on topic though…
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I love helping but I stopped 4 years ago because it just isn’t worth the effort to continually have to try to explain things over and over again. We expect certain things from certain parts of the hobby. Diamond and PRH take the burden off stores backs by keeping a little extra on hand for a period of time. Stores with any back stock capability and desire try to keep a little extra for a period of time for customers that show up later on. Then you have Lunar which is basically a discount dumper turned wholesaler that does a lot of things great but hasn’t quite made the transition to traditional wholesaler yet. I lose sales and lose customers because Lunar can’t restock me frequently. I really hope to see them increase things gradually and I’d really like to see them start making the leftover ratio’s available to stores. I believe it was Anthony that mentioned some rumor about them disappearing to the other side of the warehouse and DC wanting them back. I’ve got a customer right now who will not take a Red Light #2 or start the series because a week before the street date for #2, #1 was out of stock at Lunar. They showed the LCSD one available for back order but even that didn’t fill so now there’s no reason to order issue #3 or any of the others if it keeps going.
Lunar’s costing me money in lost sales and PRH is making me money this week and hopefully some of those customers transition into subscribers and regular buyers for the series now that I’ll have backstock to supply them 6 days after street date and 5 days after selling out unexpectedly.
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