In try to run down various hardcover comics-related series, it always seems like there's one volume that's unusually rare and doesn't show up very often--and when it does people want more for it. You can get the others fairly easy, but that one elusive volume makes it hard to complete the set without really paying for it.
Lately, it seems like that volume is number 2.
Over the holidays, I was trying to complete the sets of Star Hawks, the newspaper strip by Goulart and Kane, collected in three volumes by IDW in 2017. I got volumes 1 and 3 fairly easily, but 2 doesn't seem to show up in a price range I'm willing to pay for it. It doesn't show up as often and some places goes for 4-5 times as much!
Then there's the Star Wars newspaper strip collections also from IDW. Here, there's supposedly a Marvel Omnibus coming, but I assume it will be based on the Dark Horse reprints that were arranged in portrait, comic book format and colored, and I don't think they are planning on reprinting the earliest, Russ Manning strips. Here again, the second volume with the great Al Williamson material is the tricky one to find. Not quite as bad as Star Hawks, but the available ones tend be in pretty heavily used condition. I finally relented and got one, though.
So what's the deal? Do these middle volumes just happen to get lower print runs?
Love it. 2 is traditionally underordered because retail is willing to take a chance on a new series but then dials back to a more conservative "wait and see" approach on sell through. As a result when a series gets good word of mouth there isn't time to boost the run before you hit 3 or 4.
ReplyDeleteAnother notorious pain point is later volumes of an extended run where the audience has had plenty of chances to hit fatigue and so the "long tail" gets thin in the secondary market.
Well, there you go. Mystery solved!
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