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RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

ckillian — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:28:40 GMT

Yeah! What he said!

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

Havok — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:39:56 GMT

[quote][b]Schmiggy_JK23 (7/28/2008)[/b][hr][quote][b]ckillian (7/26/2008)[/b][hr]I gotta say that this sucks. Marvel pulls this kind of crap and it is us the collectors and the LCS's that have to pay for it. It is just plain ridiculas. I've made no effort to hide my dislike for marvel as of late and I gotta tell you that this just adds to it.

SO STAND UP MY COMIC COLLECTION BRETHEREN AND STOP BUYING MARVEL AND MAKE THEM TAKE US SERIOUSLY. WE PUT THEM WHERE THEY ARE TODAY AND WE CAN BRING THEM BACK DOWN!:hmmmm:[/quote]

Okay I don't get the hate. There are 6 other covers of this book, 5 that should be easy to get a hold of. So what if you can't get the sketch? No one forces these on any one, not the fans, not the LCS's, etc. No one is "paying" anything for it except the fans, and resellers that really want it. I being a completist happen to chase them down quite often. But I also know I don't have to.

No one loses except the completists who can't happen to track them all down. It is profitable for Marvel, and the shops, so of course they are going to do it.[/quote]

There has actually been quite a bit of hate across the board on these 1:200 covers. Even my local Comic Shop who is not big on variant covers commented that it would have made much more sense for them to do a 1:100 variant instead of 1:200. His comment was that there a tons of shops that buy under 100 issues, but would have been close enough to bump up orders slightly to get a 1:100 variant. But with the market in the state that it is, having a 1:200 variant makes no sense since so few retailers actually have the customer base to justify ordering that many issues.

As for my own disdain for this 1:200 variant... 1) Theres 2 of them. Why the hell did we need 2 1:200 variants for the same issue. Thats just ridiculous. 2) Why was a 1:200 variant necessary in the first place. 1:100 variants are more then ridiculous enough to cause shortages, and yet available enough for the trully hardcore completist to find a copy. I am a hardcore completist, and will eventually have a full collection of every known Uncanny X-men, X-men, and Astonishing X-men book, however for the kind of money that a 1:200 book demands, I can fill in several holes in my back issue collection. Essentially all Marvel has done is limit there own profits by producing an unobtainable book on the market, when a 1:100 variant would have guarenteed resulted in more books ordered per shop equaling more money per store and for Marvel itself.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

Schmiggy_JK23 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:16:53 GMT

[quote][b]ckillian (7/26/2008)[/b][hr]I gotta say that this sucks. Marvel pulls this kind of crap and it is us the collectors and the LCS's that have to pay for it. It is just plain ridiculas. I've made no effort to hide my dislike for marvel as of late and I gotta tell you that this just adds to it.

SO STAND UP MY COMIC COLLECTION BRETHEREN AND STOP BUYING MARVEL AND MAKE THEM TAKE US SERIOUSLY. WE PUT THEM WHERE THEY ARE TODAY AND WE CAN BRING THEM BACK DOWN!:hmmmm:[/quote]

Okay I don't get the hate. There are 6 other covers of this book, 5 that should be easy to get a hold of. So what if you can't get the sketch? No one forces these on any one, not the fans, not the LCS's, etc. No one is "paying" anything for it except the fans, and resellers that really want it. I being a completist happen to chase them down quite often. But I also know I don't have to.

No one loses except the completists who can't happen to track them all down. It is profitable for Marvel, and the shops, so of course they are going to do it.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

ckillian — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:19:20 GMT

I gotta say that this sucks. Marvel pulls this kind of crap and it is us the collectors and the LCS's that have to pay for it. It is just plain ridiculas. I've made no effort to hide my dislike for marvel as of late and I gotta tell you that this just adds to it.

SO STAND UP MY COMIC COLLECTION BRETHEREN AND STOP BUYING MARVEL AND MAKE THEM TAKE US SERIOUSLY. WE PUT THEM WHERE THEY ARE TODAY AND WE CAN BRING THEM BACK DOWN!:hmmmm:

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

StarWarsEd — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:02:38 GMT

$489 + 10 for shipping, /sigh $500 and you only get 4 of the 7 covers.

I think of all the silver age books I could pick up for $500, and I believe I'd rather have the silver age.

As a hard working completest this is depressing. I've tracked down some rare variants, but this one is going to have the double whammy, hard to find and expensive.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

DeadOne — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:28:46 GMT

Saw this while strolling around on ebay (4 comics not even released yet)

http://cgi.ebay.com/UNCANNY-X-MEN-500-Turner-and-Dodson-Sketch-variants_W0QQitemZ270256804196QQihZ017QQcategoryZ63767QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

catal77 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:41:45 GMT

if my lcs sells it for 200 i wonder how much i can get for it on ebay?

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

Havok — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:03:04 GMT

[quote][b]Speedy-D (7/18/2008)[/b][hr]I spoke to the owner of this great comic store in Manhattan. He knows a lot, and he said that the ratio was indeed 1:200. Meaning that for every sketch variant he ordered, he had to order 200 regular covers. That's the real scam of variant covers man. Forget about how much they cost us as buyers, the dealers are forced to buy so many extra copies of a comic, it's like a windfall for the publishers. And it must have a big impact on sales numbers too.

He also said that unfortunately, it was looking like he'd have to charge $200 for the sketch variant. he's always very cool about his pricing, he has a strong dislike for modern comics and the whole variant cover thing, and I could see him cringing at the price he'd be forced to charge. He usually sells the $10 variants for about $5, and sells them for cover price to regular customers. He was only getting the sketch variant for people who specifically ordered it, and I got the impression that they'd agreed before hand on a price in that range.[/quote]

Variant covers do nothing but help comic shops. No one forces any shop to order a set number of comics. They have the choice of ordering that many covers or not. Assuming they do order that many issues, then there is nothing stopping them from charging a rather profitible premium on day one for the variant to cover the cost of unsold regular versions, plus add a little bit extra to their bottom line. If a shop chooses to give a discount on it, then thats there choice, but they are by no means obligated to do so. With a ratio this high, I just can't imagine anyone getting a reasonable discount on this issue, meaning the few comic shops that do get this issue should be charging fairly substantialy for it. We the consumers get the shaft in this scenario, not the LCS.

Bottom line though is that this is just ridiculous. Even for a well selling title like X-men their just isn't the demand or fan base anymore from the 90's to justify a 1:200 variant. I hate 1:100 ratios, but at least with those I know I have a small shot. With this book, I'll be looking for deals in like 5 years, rather then 5 months.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

Speedy-D — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:24:17 GMT

I spoke to the owner of this great comic store in Manhattan. He knows a lot, and he said that the ratio was indeed 1:200. Meaning that for every sketch variant he ordered, he had to order 200 regular covers. That's the real scam of variant covers man. Forget about how much they cost us as buyers, the dealers are forced to buy so many extra copies of a comic, it's like a windfall for the publishers. And it must have a big impact on sales numbers too.

He also said that unfortunately, it was looking like he'd have to charge $200 for the sketch variant. he's always very cool about his pricing, he has a strong dislike for modern comics and the whole variant cover thing, and I could see him cringing at the price he'd be forced to charge. He usually sells the $10 variants for about $5, and sells them for cover price to regular customers. He was only getting the sketch variant for people who specifically ordered it, and I got the impression that they'd agreed before hand on a price in that range.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

VenomZeus — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:58:54 GMT

They will give the variant at the Fan Expo Toronto Convention next month if you buy a premium pass (~$70) plus I'm guessing they'll sell the sketch book for $10. They always have tons of exclusives every year... The 1/500 ratio doesn't seem so believable when there will be so many at the convention.

http://www.hobbystar.com/fanexpo2008/tickets/index.html#premium

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

The Joker — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:03:09 GMT

I have come to find, that the stated variant ratio is accurate, but not in the way you think. As with Civil War and other "event" books, the ratio was actually worked out after the fact, not during the fact. Do you remember the rush of sketch variants that hit the market after Civil War was over? The ratio is still 1 in 75 but because there were so many stores that either didn't or couldn't order 75 copies of a book, the ratio was skewed. After the print runs were done, Marvel re-issued the remaining Variants per the ratio to any store that would order them, not revealing the reasoning, and thereby forcing dilution of the price for the book, which has never recovered because people "perceive" that there were too many copies just offered up later on and no one knows which is which.

This is the problem with variants. If 500 is 1 in 200, then somewhere someone is making a deal with some store to get leftover copies of the variants.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

StarWarsEd — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:55:16 GMT

I've checked with all of the comic shops I do business with and none of them will be ordering enough to get the sketch variants.

I personally think that the number may be an overstatement. I got to thinking about this from a mathematical standpoint. The recent monthly sales figures for Uncanny are in the 90,000 to 100,000 range. If we take the high end of 100,000 and add an EXTREMELY generous 25% boost for the anniversary issue sales, thats 125,000.

125,000 divided by 200 = 625. So if every copy of the issue was ordered by the same dealer there would only be 625 copies on the market. Then subtract out the orders to all the comic shops that don't order 200 copies and that would place this issue at around 500 total copies. I seriously doubt they would spend time printing such a book.

I really hope the 1:200 ratio wasn't what my LCS owner meant, and rather a mistake. If the book is indeed 1:200 and my math isn't in crazy town (it rarely is) then this book is going to be shipped to CGC the minute it arrives by most dealers that get them and getting one could become a pointless effort unless you want to spend crazy sums.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

DeadOne — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:25:21 GMT

[quote][b]batfan (7/12/2008)[/b][hr]quit. :hmmmm:[/quote]

Is that English, because I do not know what that word means, "quit"...sounds like gibberish..."quit" :D

I know how you feel Havok...and it feels like hell.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

batfan — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:17:56 GMT

quit. :hmmmm:

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

Havok — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:12:33 GMT

1 in 200? If thats true thats just ridiculous. What's the point of even making a variant if it's going to be so ridiculousy low print that no one can get it? I'd much rather see this just get a $40-50 price tag on Marvel.com and just market it as an exclusive that way. At least then theres a stable price, and everyone that wants one can get one.... It's going to drive me nuts if this is in fact a 1:200 and I have to pay some ludicrous some of money to pick this up. I'm already being pushed to my limit with the 4 or 5 astonishing x-men 25 covers, most of which are harder to come by, and now the 4 variants for x-men 500 along with some really shitty ratios... Damn my completist mentality, and Damn Marvel for doing 5 variants for a single issue rather then 1 or 2 for ever couple of issues.

RE: Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

StarWarsEd — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:00:54 GMT

I spoke with my comic shop guy today and he said the Turner sketch is 1:200 . I asked about the non sketch variants and he said they are 1:30 but come packaged together, so if they order 30 standard covers they get one of each.

Michael Turner Variant Ratio for UXM #500?

Titans Collector — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:06:56 GMT

Was wondering what the ratios will be for the M. Turner sketch variant for Uncanny X-Men #500. Has anyone heard, yet?