ComicsPriceGuide.com Forums - Back Issues - New Back Issues - Messages https://www.comicspriceguide.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=18223 ComicsPriceGuide.com Forums - Back Issues - New Back Issues - Messages en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Jitbit AspNetForum Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:51:23 GMT Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:51:23 GMT https://www.comicspriceguide.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=18223 Message from Stormflora Captaindiptoad wrote:
Thank you guys for the info. Seems like its a combo f many variants ad publishers/distributors printing to order. I suppose that reduces the overhead for them. To bad though, it would be nice if they at lease had a few exras for he comics that end up being popular. So basically you just need to have a comic shop around that's willing to throw some money down, or hit the 2nd hand market.

The comic market is just like any market. Supply and demand.

Due to the wide availability of comics and new series coming out every week that are often rehashes of the same IPs, publishers effectively do limited runs of every single comic that they push out. They've crunched the numbers according to the number of preorders and guaranteed orders they've received and try to minimize any costs that would come from unsold copies. This was a huge issue back in the olden days with newsstands refunding unsold copies, which modern publishers have largely addressed via mail order or no-refund copies. But the latter actually caused more issues to present themselves, such as reduced order quantities or a devaluation of comics as a whole due to dollar (technically, cents) bins being stuffed.

If an issue of a modern comic ends up being a massively hot sell, they sometimes issue reprint variants to give people a second chance. But if you don't see that for the comics you are interested in, you know that they've sold their quota and have moved on with it, meaning you're forced to buy second-hand, or wait for a trade paperback volume release.

For limited runs, a series is only slated to be published for a designated number of issues. The publishers then crunch the numbers on the sales of that series' run as a whole to determine whether or not to renew it with its creators.

The manga publishing scene in Japan works very similarly. They publish issues inside of massive 1,000-page magazine tomes made out of toilet paper, which only costs a few bucks at most. However, not everyone subscribes to these magazines, meaning they will often end up with gaps. These publishers put in all sorts of series into a single magazine to entice readers to browse and look through other series as well and convince them to follow multiple. Interested readers would then buy the trade paperback volumes, which is where the real money is actually made, and the success of individual series can be gauged and measured by the publisher.

In any case, if your goal is to fill some gaps, the second-hand market is there to fill them for you.
edited by stormflora on 11/14/2023]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:51:23 GMT https://www.comicspriceguide.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=18223 Message from Captaindiptoad edited by captaindiptoad on 11/14/2023
edited by captaindiptoad on 11/14/2023
edited by captaindiptoad on 11/14/2023]]> Sat, 28 Oct 2023 16:35:03 GMT https://www.comicspriceguide.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=18223 Message from collectibleshop

dunno what the deal is these days, and publishers have switched to different distribution methods and companies, but Lokyel could tell you. but with regular comics hitting $4-$6 cover prices, plus 1,000 variants a week, shops can't afford to order many extras. so even new back issues can be hard to get. but 'last 5 years'? Nope. that's secondary market stuff.]]> Sat, 28 Oct 2023 14:57:35 GMT https://www.comicspriceguide.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=18223 Message from lokyel FRANK-N-FREDS comics & cards]]> Sat, 28 Oct 2023 13:34:55 GMT https://www.comicspriceguide.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=18223 Message from Captaindiptoad
I have about 15 comic stores in my area, all with varying degrees of stock/effort.

I overheard one clerk telling a customer he wishes you could order back issues. He told the customer if he could he would. Now I I was a bit skeptical of this as he had a very large store and one small corner was dedicated to comics, the rest was miniatures manga and hardcovers/traditional books. He had about 10 long boxes in total and one small shelf of this weeks comics, almost none of his long boxes had bags and even less were boarded. This left me with the impression he didn't actually care that much about them and didn't want to order them.
I have yet to ask directly but is it true stores can't order recent back issues? I'm talking issues published in the last 5ish years?

Any insight on this would be great!

Thank you!]]> Sat, 28 Oct 2023 10:06:35 GMT