We continue to get comments from retailers on Marvel's reprinting and overprinting policy. This one is from Gail Burt of Metropolis Comics, Cards, and Collectibles in Downey, California. For the last round of comments, and links to other articles on Marvel's policy, see 'Retailers Respond -- To Marvel on Origin #1.'
While I basically like the no overprint policy, what I would like to see is a RE-print. Do I think Marvel should print zillions of copies of books whose normal circulation would be 100,000 or less? No way. Jemas is right on this - it fuels a speculator mentality which allows investors to purchase multiple copies of an item while inflating the circulation numbers and causing a massive problem down the road when sales (as they eventually do, most of the time) slow down. When the speculators attempt to take their profit a few years down the line, the first to sell get big bucks. All the rest are left holding worthless paper, because once everyone realizes how many copies there are out there, nobody wants to pay for them...
If [Marvel}...put[s]out a right-sized first printing, and subsequent reprints to demand, then the real collectors who found the concept interesting enough to have it pulled for them starting at #1 can all get their copies, and late-comers who hear a good buzz and decide to jump on later can also get copies of #1 - clearly imprinted as SECOND PRINTINGS, similar to the way DC's Green Arrow has gone. The retailers who hate the no-overprint policy are right to hate it, because, as one of them, I can attest to the fact that we are losing potential customers to the fact that they cannot start with #1 for less than $30 if they aren't there on the first day the book arrives. Jemas may cavalierly say 'Well, if they're late, that's too bad - they need to get in there on time or face missing out.' But that doesn't take into account the newcomers who have no pipeline to comics, but rather hear about something from a friend or on Entertainment Tonight, or on the Today Show.
All I'm saying is that if we're going to get all the customers we can, we need to cater to them at least a bit, and not force the retailers to take it on the chin when one of the highly-touted Marvel titles tanks, as 'The Brotherhood' has. I, for one, will never again order more than 25 shelf copies of a Marvel #1, no matter how much buzz surrounds it, precisely because of this title. I have a box full sitting here that I will never sell - but I felt compelled to over-order because I knew Marvel would not over-print. I won't make that mistake again. I'd rather take my chances and order conservatively - if a book goes hot, I'll go out and pay two times retail to get additional copies for customers who ask for them, and then charge them an extra buck over what I paid for them. It's a lot of trouble, but at least it opens a conversation with a potential customer, and they're usually willing to trust me and pay the buck over my cost for the book. But I won't be sitting on 200 copies of a crappy book that I have to take a loss on.