Are they actually counting the covers separately? Do they do that for other comics?

Simon | June 15, 22:00 CET

That's odd with the separate covers being counted.

Emmie | June 15, 22:05 CET

Apparently not, Simon, but I can tell you that it's the same case over at Things From Another World (Dark Horse' official online retailer)'s Best Sellers chart. From Safe onwards, it appears Dark Horse are soliciting the two covers with different pre-ordering codes, so they appear separately on the chart.

Perseo | June 15, 22:16 CET

I think covers are counted separately when they can be ordered separately. If there is only one order number all the covers a counted together.

Michael | June 15, 22:21 CET

I find it very odd that the Jeanty cover isn't even shifting 3699 copies (going by the estimates for the no. 300 position in April's charts). My comic book shop here usually orders a 50/50 split and they all go within one day.

Simon | June 15, 22:22 CET

What I've seen done at some shops (not necessarily with Buffy, but with other titles I used to buy) is stocking only a few of any cover marketed as a "variant", regardless of the print run, and then marking it up quite a bit higher than the regular even though they both have the same retail cover price. I have seen $3 comics priced at $10 or higher the day they hit the stands. I won't buy like that. I usually don't buy anything else from a store that does that, either.

Rowan Hawthorn | June 15, 22:58 CET

Rowan, I've seen that with the "virgin" (textless) covers, but not for normal variants.

jclemens | June 16, 00:09 CET

Simon, variants are very rarely counted separate, usually only if it's an enhanced cover (foil or whatever) that results in different cover prices. It's rather more common for the listmakers to forget to remove cover data when adding up numbers and putting the chart together, which I expect is what happened here.

Rowan, some "incentive" covers can only be ordered 1 per 10, 25 or 50 copies of the regular cover, so some stores order extra copies they don't expect to sell, and charge more for the rare editions to compensate. But I don't buy those marked-up comics either, just saying there's a reason behind some of that stuff.

But more importantly, the The New Mutants relaunch charts at number 20! Fingers crossed the drop-off will be low.

Niels | June 16, 01:18 CET