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Marvel Comics' Free Overships For April

Published Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:00:56 -0500

We've been following Marvel's revived policy of overshipping certain comics to comic book stores with interest. The intention is to provide stores with more sampling and promotional activity, to counter natural conservative ordering practices and help retailers discover a greater demand for a comic book than they may have previously expected.

And it has the added benefit as counting as a sale on the Diamond monthly charts, bumping it up the ranks and on the marketshare.

After a series of large overships on specific titles towards the end of 2016, in January Marvel shipped an extra 10% of all their superhero books.

Then in February, none at all.

March has seen certain titles to be overshipped if retailers match their orders on certain titles to previous issues. As has May.

And April too now, with X-Men Blue #2 getting retailers an extra 10% free if they match 90% of sales on X-Men Blue #1. The same applies to their respective first issues for Weapon X #2, Generation X #2, Jean Grey #2, and Secret Warriors #2.

But in April, it's also back to specific titles being picked out for overshipping. America #2 as Ming Doyle joins the creative team and Iron Fist #2 will both be overshipped by 10%.

Retailers often drop orders for second issues believing some readers won't choose to return for a second chapter. This is an attempt to make up for that.

And maybe help those reported statistics just a little…

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