Posted in: Recent Updates | Tagged: brightest day, dc comics, direct market, geoff johns

DC Comics Makes First Six Brightest Day Issues Returnable

Published Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:27 -0600

There has been a bit of fuss regarding the solicitations for DC's new series Brightest Day. While the creative team is solid, no one is exactly sure what it's all about. And without that knowledge, how can a comic retailer order in confidence?

DC have tried to solve that by making issues 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of Brightest Day returnable. No matter how many copies are ordered, retailers can return unsold copies to DC for credit.

Which means shops can take a real gamble on the book. And make it less likely that the book will sell out, even if DC do deliver a real surprise.

There are conditions of course. Issue 0 must be ordered at the same or greater levels to Blackest Night #7. DC will charge 10% of the cover price to refund – around 20% of the wholesale price.

But this could be a good deal for those who want to give it a go. If, say, a retailer ordered 100 copies of Blackest Night #7 but was conservatively thinking of ordering 50 copies of Brightest Day #0, that would net them around $100 in profit. If they ordered 100 for the new deal but now ended up selling 70 because they had extra copies available, that would net them $140 – 30 x $0.40 = $128. And indeed if all 100 copies sell, then that's double the profit for our hypothetical retailer. It shares the risk between DC and the store and helps everyone maximise sales for both the book and all its various spinoff strands.

DC are also offering 1:50 variant editions. The sting is that these have to be included in the same proportion for any returns. So if a retailer sells all its variant covers on the day the book comes out – they won't be allowed to return any.