Green Lantern At Less Than 1/3 Cover Price

You'll find it for just that price (pops up automatically for me, but some may need the discount code of GREEN to be put in on the final checkout page).

I've been beating this drum for awhile, but the online deal site, Tanga.com, has had several DC relaunch titles for postal subscriptions at less than one-third the cover price.

Snail mail subscriptions are always cheaper, but never before have they regularly beaten even the discount that retailers get in buying the book through Diamond.

If you couple this with the returnability commitment that DC keeps expanding out for additional months, it might seem to indicate that the publishing strategy on the physical side is to increase circulation so that ad buys will be more attractive and/or increase the pool of potential digital subscribers.

Six or so DC titles offered up at a dangerously low price (not quite a loss, necessarily, given DC cutting out retail and distribution, but having to pay lower class mail rates) upping the circulation and putting them in direct contact with the customer in a way that retailers won't be as alerted to as Marvel's "free digital copy for every comic" idea seems like it is good for the reader and possibly the publisher, but not anyone in between.

Why $1 Extra For Digital Is Better For Retailers

Much is being made of the Avenging Spider-Man free digital copy with every print copy. Great for customers, to some extent, but shitty for retailers.

Why?

With the extra dollar charged for the JUSTICE LEAGUE copies that have a digital code, the retailer at least knows they're sending their customer to a competing delivery service and is getting their money up front.

With Marvel's plan, the retailer gets a $.50 credit somewhere down the line for every redeemed code.

But how do they track that?

Is it reliant upon the customer filling out a referral field that says they bought the book at BOB'S BIG COMICS? Or is it reliant upon Diamond records having the right batch assigned as being shipped to the right store and that batch matching up with all the proper codes?

And what system could possibly be in place for a retailer to be assured that they're getting the full credit they earned? Seems like it comes down to "hey, trust us, we're Marvel...have we EVER done you wrong?"

DC Comics: Quietly Undercutting The Direct Market

A big deal has been made about digital pricing, with an eye towards how DC will try to discount the cost of electronic comics to increase readership. Currently, the pricing is identical to the printer cover price for the first four weeks of release, which essentially makes it cost more than the print version, given the assorted discounts that can be found at brick and mortar shops as well as online retailers.

Enter Tanga.com.

If you search for Tanga and DC Comics on some of the discount deal sites, like SlickDeals.net, you'll find them offering full year subscriptions to their physical books FOR LESS THAN A DOLLAR PER ISSUE. That is a discount that beats anything an actual retail partner could ever afford to regularly offer.

At the link above, you can see they have made this offer on Batman & Robin, Batman (twice!) and Swamp Thing. They've done this for Justice League and Green Lantern, as well. Some of the offerings came before the relaunch books were on the shelves, but I believe all came after the relaunch push was announced.

I could be wrong, but I believe at least four of the five are among their "greater than 100k sold" titles in the relaunch, with Justice League purportedly being well in excess of 200k. To put the fine point on it: they're largely cherry picking what are their bread and butter titles for the direct market to push for an obscene direct-to-the-customer discount.

You can name all the postal subscription drawbacks you like, but at a greater than 66% discount, you're increasingly likely to find a reader willing to make that sacrifice for a sweetheart deal.

Blackest Night #6 Leaked

Update: From the comments in the thread on CBR about the article, it would appear less likely that the mention of the scan being "lower quality" was pulled from popular opinion of other readers of the illegally available comic book. Given that CBR banned a member who posted a few images from the book, it seems more and more likely that the comment may have been made to discourage others from seeking it out.

Original Post:

OK, we all knew that Blackest Night #6 would not successfully be embargoed when there are no proper checks and balances in place to keep it from getting out. There are no carrots and no sticks; any retailer who sells a few copies early to their best customers will likely be found out. Probably the only DM retailers that wind up following it are just the online variety (and even then, I don't think there are any that are STRICTLY online, so just the online segments of full service retailers).

But one of the things I found odd is the following in an article on CBR about the leak, specifically discussing the scanned book offered via torrents:

The scan itself was of lower quality than is typical of the pirated books, indicating that it was scanned, compiled and distributed in a bigger rush than usual.

The above quote was not placed in any context as being based on comments culled from the sites offering the torrent, but put forth as a statement of fact or judgment by the author of the column, Kiel Phegley.

If that statement is completely genuine, it suggests that a regular contributor to one of the top two sites covering comic books downloads and reads torrents on such a regular basis as to be able to compare and contrast scan qualities enough to make that assertion.

If that statement just isn't in its proper context (it WAS, in fact, made based on the opinions of others, not the author), then it runs the risk of people drawing the incorrect conclusion that Phegley is a connoisseur of scanned comics.

The third less likely option is that the statement is being made regardless of the real quality of the scan, only being there to serve as a slight attempt to dissuade readers from seeking it out.

I'd be curious to know which, if any, is true.