Already saved me $60 JClu I was on the fence for the Mattina Batman #100 I have the Metal fishhook this is suppose to homage but it’s not really a fishhook cover it’s a PG version so I feel I don’t need it.
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I think that’s part of the problem with everything today. They don’t need to prove anything. If someone doesn’t believe what they state, don’t buy it. You aren’t obligated to buy, they aren’t obligated to show you their purchase invoice. I wouldn’t ask my LCS to show me their Diamond invoice.
An additional factor is most of these store variants are split between many stores. The partner stores wouldn’t have the invoice anyways.
An interesting debate was brought up in Frankies group a week or so ago. People were complaining about books selling out so fast and people flipping them on eBay. So he started posting his actual inventory numbers (as all theirs are split with a few stores). So Frankies started to increase the print run a bit to meet demand. He decided that he wasn’t going to state print runs anymore as it was just causing all these arguments. If you like the book buy it. Don’t buy it to flip because there are only x copies. I understand that logic. A lot of stores are not announcing exact print runs lately.
But people were bringing up a very valid point, the limited nature is built into the price. It’s very different asking someone to spend $40 on a 1000 run virgin vs a 5000 run virgin. Print run does matter in price.
So he has said he will state the run sometimes.
Exactly. This is a reason I just don’t debate the “print run” with store exclusives cause yes, we’ll never truly know. If it’s Marvel, they likely break the NDA if they do. Why it’s all hush hush? I don’t know. That’s a question for Marvel, not the retailers.
We all know why retailers market a number with their exclusives, it’s just marketing 101. The lower the number, the better it seems on it’s “exclusiveness”…
But yes, buy what you like, don’t buy what you don’t like. If you think you’re gonna get rich buying a bunch of store exclusives, great, I hope you do… but when you don’t, well, lesson learned right?
I’m sure most shops you could already ballpark figure what they buy since most of it is in plain site on the shelves each week (unless they buy boxes and boxes of product and never set it out).
You’d be surprised if you got a local shop you’re loyal with in them spilling the beans. The one shop that closed, the owner would be pretty open on what he was ordering and such. A simple, you didn’t get this ratio? And he’d go off saying nope, I didn’t buy 200 copies of a book from Marvel from 2 months that would still be sitting on my shelves for the next 10 years or longer just to qualify for this ratio variant I can sell for $100… guy was hilarious but at least honest. He didn’t fall prey to becoming a consumer instead of a retailer from Marvel’s qualifications for getting the hip cool ratio books…
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Alana, no disrespect intended. You know I value your opinion on comics. We always have had a civil discourse in these forums. I know you know your shit. You know the history of store variants a lot better than I do, and I just had to let you know how I felt. Just as you would of to me.
PS. Frankie’s is one of the better online shops, from my experience. I don’t shop online anymore, but when I did, Kevin was good to me. But that doesn’t change anything about how I feel when that misleading verbage is used to advertise ‘print runs’. Stadium Comics, which is an old LCS in my area, is very open about their print runs. And they have typically always used the actual words ‘print run’ in their advertising, just like all the stores used too, before they decided to get all misleady.
Cheers, bud. Stay safe, And enjoy your weekend in paradise with your young family. Aloha, Hau’Oli Maoli Oe, Alana. 
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I don’t agree. I think between you and some others there is enough counter points to store variants that people can make their own decisions. The fact of the matter is some are actually pretty cool, and have become collectible. So you can’t ignore their role as n comics.
I also think percentage wise if you look at comics released every month across all companies, including all covers, statistically store variants are are not any more likely to go up Or down in value by % of covers released. They’re just a different market and a higher buy in which personally makes me shy away.
Store variants are just another way shops diversify and make money.
It’s an awful cover. I guess Mattina can’t get into trouble tracing his own work, right? 
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I grabbed my 3 copies last week…fingers crossed this picks up some heat. I would think it would, it checks multiple boxes…
- Virgin Cover
- Popular young hero heating up w/ movie/show rumors on cover
- 2nd printing
- Multiple 1st appearances
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Its a store variant bud… dont get your hopes up, do some homework, better picks
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I’m not expecting to retire off this…lol. Also I don’t put all my spec eggs in one basket. I have spread my investments out.
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I ended up with two copies. One for spec, one because I really like the new characters in it and needed a good Silk cover to display.
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It is a nice cover. With all the hype and spike in prices Silk still hasn’t exploded yet (IMO). Wait until they show a live action production photo of her in costume! Still a good time to buy her books…even for spec, definitely for the pc.
“The point of my thread is to point the toxic part of the industry right now…the point is people are Hating on books they dont have, sorry grapes, thats the point. Its okay to Not Like a Book, but no need to Disregard it or Hate it on it.” - Stameco the other day
Practice what you preach. No need to rip a guy for buying what he likes and telling him to do more homework. We are all on the same team here trying to enjoy the hobby we love. Cheers 
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My favorite part was the “sorry grapes.”
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After ordering some of these when this post went up, I finally got the ones I ordered today. And 2 of them are pretty visibly damaged. One has a totally bent corner (crease and all), and the other has a huge line from a marker or something it looks like down the side.
Not a great first impression to take almost 2 months to ship something that was in stock, ship things that were damaged before packed, and the few times I emailed to ask what the status was I just got a generic form reply back with the schedule for their upcoming pre-orders.
I got mine and they were in great shape. I would hit up their email and send pictures.
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Mine arrived yesterday…have yet to open them. Really curious now as to the condition. Sounds 50/50…fingers crossed!! I also agree…2 months for in stock items, not a good look.
I received 20 copies in total in a couple of different shipments. All minty fresh. However, it took a VERY long time to receive in-stock items.
My two copies took forever but they finally arrived!
Mine was received 2 days ago and was in great shape.