Rembert Parker of Reader's Copies in Anderson, Indiana saw the comments by Dave Autzen of Reader's World on ordering Marvel variants (see 'Dave Autzen of Reader's World on Ordering Variants -- Redux') and has a different view:

Ordering variants from Marvel isn't all that difficult -- every week they send an e-mail detailing the requirements for variants on that week's FOC order form, clearly indicating which require minimum purchases of other comics and which can be ordered by themselves.  One click to the FOC page and it's easy to check on how many copies of each comic we have ordered and make adjustments (and adjustments can be made for all comics, not just the variants).  This makes up for the nuisance of not being able to order the variants with our initial Diamond orders each month.

What's not easy is ordering variants, new prints, incentives, etc. from DC.  They haven't followed Marvel's lead in giving retailers an order adjustment tool, and the only easy way I've found to figure out how many copies of any comic the store has coming is to call Diamond... the last thing I want as part of my busy day.

Could somebody give DC some feedback showing that our store's FOC adjustments for each week are almost always an increase in orders?  Maybe that way they'll give us a similar simple tool that allows us better control over how many copies of all the Crisis tie-ins we have coming each week.  At least DC has been reprinting most of the comics we need more of (whew!).

One last thank you to Marvel -- our variant copies of House of M #4 came bagged and boarded and clearly labeled as the variants this week, so they arrived damage-free.

The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.