DKIII Master Race #7 1:500 Jim Lee Variant2218

Originally Posted by OrbitCityComics


Very Rare is 1-10 copies.
Rare is 10 - 20 copies.
Scarce is 20 - 100 copies.

This is how Overstreet defines these terms.

Originally Posted by DarthLego
Most of the store exclusive variants have 3000 color copies, then 1500 black and white.

The retailer incentives depend on how much a retailer buys to get them so each one is different.

I personally don't prescribe to that Overstreet definition. If 10,000 people want something and only 3,000 exist, then it's scarce in my opinion.

Supply and demand.

Originally Posted by DarthLego
You think books with 3,000 and less print runs will be in dollar bins? I applaud your pessimism sir.

Originally Posted by DarthLego
1:25, 1:50, 1:100, etc. are retailer incentive numbers. Retailers must pre-order X number of regular books to get one copy of said incentive. Once orders are in the book goes to the printer and DC, Marvel, etc print what they require to fill orders. Now there are likely to be overruns to cover damaged copies, but they are not printing massive amounts of these books.

Originally Posted by KingNampa
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Originally Posted by DarthLego
You think books with 3,000 and less print runs will be in dollar bins? I applaud your pessimism sir.

yes i do. Its artificial scarcity, you think it is rare because a corporation tells you so. How can you even trust that they are limited runs to 3000? There is no 3rd party verification. If they say something is 1:500 people will pay more, doesnt mean its really limited to that. If you need another example of this "limited" BS look at car companies. Limited edition versions of cars what a joke.

Originally Posted by KiloGraham
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Originally Posted by DocBrown
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Originally Posted by shrewbeer
Was it a straight 1:500 print run or was it a 1:500 dealer incentive?

If dealer incentive you then need the number of shops as a secondary variable and even then its still a crapshoot guess. 238 would be the maximum if only 238 shops ordered any at all and equally, but its a good starting point.

Consider 1,000 shops ordering 50 each. There's almost half of the total run right there bringing that 238 possible copies down to 138.

70 sounds pretty close. Unless it was a straight dealer luck of the draw 1:500 print run, in that case @OrbitCityComics is correct...

That's not how it works. Those ratios have nothing to do with print run.

Really.

Exactly. If every store ordered 99 copies, none of them would get a 1:100 incentive but the overall print run could be tens of thousands. The DKIII #1 sold almost 500,000 copies but that doesn't mean you there are almost 5000 copies of the 1:500.

Originally Posted by jimmylinguini
Ok I looked into it. Valiant Gold variants were given to retailers based on support of the Valiant Brand.

How that worked out I have no idea.

You can read more about that here but they are 100% variants given to retailers based on their orders, not a ratio based incentive variant. (although there was apparently an issue with the X-O Manowar #1 gold distribution)

Originally Posted by DocBrown
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Originally Posted by OrbitCityComics
Take the Batman 608 Jim Lee variant. Originally it was believed that there were less than 200 copies out in the wild. By the end of last year CGC had graded 292 copies.

Couple of things...

First, where did the "less than 200 copies" number come from, and when did that number become "accepted"? (Not questioning that that "estimate" was thrown out a lot; I remember it, too. But was that number ever accurate?)

Second, the Batman #608 RRP (I assume that's what you're referring to?) wasn't a retailer incentive...it was given out at Diamond's annual retailer meeting that year.

Third, it is absolutely imperative that people using the census understand that the census doesn't represent actual copies...it represents potential copies.

That means: if there are 292 "grading events" (as they call it on the coin side) that doesn't necessarily mean that there were 292 unique copies graded...with resubmissions, Sig Series, and people not turning in labels (I have about 50 here to turn in), the more the census grows, the more the chances that the number only becomes potential, rather than actual. That is, at MOST there are 292 copies slabbed by CGC, but probably that number is more likely to be in the 200-260 range.

There's just no way to know. That doesn't mean the census is rendered useless...but it's not quite as accurate as the numbers suggest.