I agree with Jerry, Marvel should revert to the previous practice of giving the retailer and consumer some hint as to the content of new comics coming out.  The notion that the retailer can just continue to absorb all risk by over-ordering Marvel stuff just to be sure that, in case the book goes hot they have enough, can't continue indefinitely.  I've already put a stop to it at my store -- too many titles in recent months have tanked, leaving me with too many unsold copies to feel good about.  Instead, I've decided to return to my BNR (Before No Reprints) policy of ordering a maximum of 25 copies of any new Marvel comic.  If I sell out, I'll get what I can from some local dealers who are friends.  And my customers will simply have to deal with the fact that, 'Sorry, we're sold out.'  The advantage we retailers have with our customers is this: most of them are weekly repeaters, and we get to know them fairly well.  All we have to do is talk to them like people, let them know that because comics are not returnable, anything unsold is something we have to store or blow out at a loss.  When I've explained this to my customers, they have completely understood the need to mention new things they will want -- that way, I make sure to put a copy in their reserve box.  Otherwise, I simply have to tell them that I'm sorry, but telling me the day or week before the book ships is just not sufficient notice to guarantee them a copy -- I GIVE them a FREE copy of Previews.  If they are too busy to look at it and let me know before I place the order that they'll want it, I can't get too upset if they don't get it.  I feel bad that I won't make that sale, yes, and I will immediately call and increase my orders on #2.

But my days of assuming all the risk of carrying Marvel books are done.  I will order the way I normally do, and not allow myself to give in to the 'what ifs'.  If the book is a real comer, I'll make more money by increasing orders slowly on #2, #3, and onward, and if the book is just a one-issue wonder, I'll take a little hit on those extra copies, but at least I won't be sitting on 75 copies of #1.  I think a lot of other retailers feel as I do, and I believe the monthly figures show that sales are not quite as hot as they were a year ago.  That's because Marvel has mistakenly identified its customers as the consumer.  The truth is that the retailer is their customer, and if we don't have confidence in their products, sales will suffer.

It's too bad, really.  I know I can generally get re-orders on DC books, so I've encouraged my customers to go ahead and buy issue #3, because I know we'll still be able to get #1 and 2, or that DC will put out a bumper issue, combining them in a reprint.  Most are only too happy to do this.  But I can't do that with Marvel customers, because I know I likely to be able to get additional copies of #1 and/or #2.  I tell them that if they want to read it, they would do best to jump on and get the current issue, and let us search for their earlier issues at current market prices.  I do caution them that with time, it may be that the comic cools off after all, and the first two issues either settle down in price or freefall to no value.  They risk ending up with a #3 and maybe a #4 on a book that suddenly goes cold; but overall it's best for them if our store stays in business.  The risk to them is between $2.25 and $4.00, while the risk to our store is in the hundreds of dollars sometimes.  I make no bones about the fact that the customer needs to share responsibility for helping us to make sure we order enough to go around -- we can only do that if they express interest to us.  That said....

It's hard to express interest in an unknown quantity, particularly when Marvel has seemed content to return to its old policy of putting out a few gems amongst the pile of mediocre stuff each week.

And finally, in the same vein, but more along the lines of a rant on the no overprint/no reprint policy, which goes hand in hand with the No Description policy: Perhaps if Marvel could look around and realize that the retailer really does want to sell as many copies as there's demand for, they could also use that brilliant brain of Jemas' to realize an important fact -- yes, while I think he's a bit of a jerk, I also think he's brilliantly turned that company around, using Joe Quesada in a complex game of good cop/bad cop.  The thing he needs to get is that nobody wants to buy a pig in a poke.  They want to have some idea of whether or not the thing is interesting before they commit their dollars to it.  Nobody I know is willing to be a slavish completist to the point where they just buy anything a publisher puts out.  They want to buy what interests them, and once they realize that a thing doesn't interest them, the great sales on #1 quickly dissipate into what appears to be a very depressed 3rd or 4th issues by the time the order cuts kick in.  The other thing he needs to realize is that overprinting = bad.  Reprinting = GOOD.  I've sold 35 more copies of Herobear and the Kid #1 because Astonish Comics has reprinted it 4 times than I would have.  That means I can sell 35 more copies than I would have otherwise of #5.  I've sold 25 more copies of Y - The Last Man #3 because of DC's reprint bumper issue containing #'s 1 and 2 than I would have been able to.  That's how to grow your base on a title.  Glutting the market with a million copies of something that is ostensibly a collectible item eventually is stupid.  But offering a SECOND, THIRD, or COLLECTED edition, clearly marked as such, just causes the FIRST printing of those early issues to be MORE in demand.  And as a lifelong collector as well as a retailer, I can attest to the fact that this, indeed, is how an audience for a title builds.  People who read a description in Previews are interested, and ask for it.  People who get the first issues read them, and then recommend them to people.  Those people then begin to search for the early issues.  80% of those searching will NOT purchase issue #4 if they cannot get issue #1.  Sale lost, customer lost, title starts a downhill slide from which it never recovers.  Title gets cancelled due to lack of interest, Marvel bigwigs scratch their heads, at a loss to understand why the orders on #1 never met expectations, orders then shot up on #2 and #3; but when #1 proves unattainable and the retailers are stuck with a bunch of #2 and #3, they cut orders to the bone on #4.  Marvel will get a nice big check for those two subsequent issues, and think they have a winner, but more often as time goes on, I think they'll have to see that without providing a way for a reader to read the books, that bump in sales doesn't last.

And now, we can hardly even start that cycle, because Marvel doesn't give a description in Previews of what the book is about.  I have customers who tell me they'll wait until it comes out and check it out.  But to me, that's not an order for the book.  It's an offer to examine it.  So I'm not going to stick my neck out too much just so some guy who was 'sort of interested' might take a look and maybe decide to get it.  I'd much rather get a limited number of copies, find out it's good, recommend it to some, wait till it sells out and try to get more copies locally -- what I think will actually sell over the next several months.  If I sell out, I sell out.  At least I won't have the storage issues I have right now.