Has anybody heard about this? Being a Marvel fan for many years I can't believe they doing this. This seems cheap, specially since they seem to be singling (sp?) out DC.
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"A lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly hidden between two truths." Deep Throat.
Marvel are using cheap tactics to garner public interest. It's really pathetic and it just seems like Marvel are bitter because DC have done really well with titles like Blackest Night. I generally tend to favour Marvel but this stinks of sour grapes.
I say people should hit them where it hurts. Make February a Non-Marvel month. Buy a DC or other title instead of a Marvel for the Month of Feb and watch Marvel sales plummet in the diamond sales report whilst the retailers retain the same amount of sales.
LMAO, what a douche move by Joephisto and company.
I could give a shit about ultra rare variants (I only get them for select issues), but to each their own. Instead of trying to crap all over DC why don't they just instead promote Seige and their other events under their own steam?
Whether it's good or bad, the promotion obviously worked.
I.T.T: Nobody who grasps economics.
DC aren't losing anything, nor are they above marketing ploys to try boosting sales ahead of competition.
They offered rings with selected issues and most of the issues they offered them with were shit. The only issue that sold well despite the offer was the Blackest Night one.
Most people who don't even read those series' bought the comics for the rings.
On top of that, go look at sales estimates. The month prior, I believe, Booster Gold (One of the eligible titles) was around 21 thousand, dropping and with no rise in sight. As a result, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that those over-ordered copies will ever sell.
As my comic store retailer friend said:
"DC came up with something creative with the ring thing. Something fresh and new. It generated excitement and got mid-to-low selling titles into shops that chose to participate in order to make the collectible rings available. And like I said before, there was no wrong way to handle the rings. For a store to ask that the customer buy the book assigned to the particular ring was not unreasonable. What we did at Acme was give away 1 ring to every customer bringing in two cans of food that we gave to the Greensboro Urban Ministry. Even though we got the rings all at once, we released the rings basically every other weekend and have collected to date well over 1,200lbs of food that went straight to people who needed it. So cool. People have been extremely generous and supportive of this idea. And plenty of people have indeed bought the tie in books that they normally would not have. BUT, bottom line, we have books that we're never gonna sell. And Marvel Comics have one month on the sales charts that is all wonky because of DC's gimmick, which to be fair, was a good gimmick. However the sales charts reflect something that is not based upon the content of the books themselves. The sales results are based upon an incentive beyond what impact is felt by variants.
So, I guess someone over at Marvel had enough though and came up with this promotion which is equally crafty. Its not like they're asking for copies of random DC's they're asking for the specific series that artificially inflated DC's sales numbers. Marvel is offering taking the product that has super-saturated my market and will not sell, and they're giving me a special variant cover featuring a character that people will buy. This shows that Marvel remembers that comic shops, all small businesses in a difficult economy, cannot send back unsold product for full or even partial refunds. Marvel remembers that it doesn't work that way and came up with something to make them look like saviors, win support with shops who can participate (shops that didn't participate in the ring releases or sold the books with the ring may not be able to take advantage of the 50 copy requirement), and stuck it to DC. Hard and publicly. Its escalation, its underhanded, and I LOVE IT! Competition is a good thing. This is totally something I would have come up with from my 'I Didn't Know We Couldn't Do That' Playbook.".
If you don't know the story, don't write the blurb.
If DC did this, someone would have to type your replies for most of you because you'd already be lubing up the pom poms.
One of the reasons wrestling is shit is because there's no competition now. If Marvel and DC continue to push each other then the only people who win are the readers.
I'm interested in whoever will give me great comics. I don't wish bad on Marvel or DC, or any company. I hope they all do well and keep providing me with shit I like to read.
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
More like Mickey and Joephisto. This is JUST like the South Park Episode when Mickey beats up the Jonas Brothers lolz!
Here are few more responses from the comic book community on this insulting and lower than slime move by Shit Comics....err...I mean...Disney Comics....oops!...I meant Marvel Comics.
Not only am I baffled that the best you could do is THAT, but I do often wonder if the crushing shame of how a man your ages acts keeps you awake at night. Almost a decade older than me and my younger nephew offers greater examples of maturity. Odd.
Admittedly it IS baiting, but even I wouldn't reduce myself to looking like a tool in a Fisher Price box.
Disney also had nothing to do with this. Are you genuinely here to troll or debate this topic?
I'm not loyal to any one company. I'm loyal to comics, period. This ploy just seems a bit ridiculous and like others have said, a case of jealousy and sour grapes over Blackest Night. Why not offer their own titles as collateral?
My own local comic store thinks the move is in bad taste, and judging from these responses, many other retailers feel the same way. It's creative though.
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
It's a filthy and dirty thing to do but coming from Disney/Marvel...what else would one expect?
I call my local shop (Golden Apple Comics) and they also have some negatives. Marvel have always have good sales but this time is showing how terrible winners they're becoming.
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Last edited by WanderingDroid on Jan 16th, 2010 at 12:11 AM
There's literally nothing filthy or dirty about it, why are you taking this so personally? Also, why are you tagging Disney's name onto everything? It's not them, they're not involved in this.
Are you psychologically trying to make this a negative of the Disney/Marvel merge? Because that'd be a filthy and dirty debate tactic.
I don't get your personal investment. Did Joe Quesada not call you back? Did he hit 'n' quit Mr. WickedDynamite? Is that what it is?
Because it's competition.
As I said, many people here would be loving it if DC pulled this on Marvel, and if they say they wouldn't then they're utter liars.
It's not low, it's not jealousy, it's business.
DC artificially boosted their sales of comics that weren't selling (Because they were shit) with the addition of rings as an extra incentive. Where do you draw the line? It's only ok if your underhanded tactics involve your own product?
Besides, Marvel have lots of issues that literally sell out at the moment, so it's hardly jealousy. Deadpool alone has three on-goings, two of them sell out with almost every other issue.
It's not illegal and not EVERYONE is against it, it's just a surprising move that can ADMITTEDLY look underhanded on the surface. On closer inspection there are a lot of financial and practical reasons why this benefits people.
It hurts nobody except people who have emotionally invested themselves in this like it's a blood feud, WD for example. It's not personal, even between the companies. So unless you work for DC, I don't see how anyone's bothered.
The irony is that people are saying: "STOP BUYING MARVEL! LET'S SHOW 'EM! LET'S BUY MORE DC!" when half of you don't even pay for comics normally.
You're going to boost DC's numbers artificially because Marvel did something to hit back at DC trying to boost their numbers...artificially?
2) That's actually the most hypocrisy I've ever seen.
You spam this forum with so much anti-Marvel sentiment that it's honestly so strong I could wear it as cologne. It needs to stop NOW that I've provided info that means you were all talking nonsense about something you had no clue of?
That's like starting a fight then calling the cops.
KMC Community Forums
Jan 15th, 2010 10:31 PM
