Apr
24
Written by:
John Jackson Miller
4/24/2007 12:00 AM
And I now have the Top 300 Comics sales estimates and the aggregate sales figures for March 2007 online here. My analysis article, along with the trade paperback data, is here on CBGXtra.
A note about this data and timing, as my reports will be handled a little differently than others you may see (and, indeed, differently from what I used to do when I worked for F+W). Diamond releases not only its Top 300 listings, but market share data and other keys from which observers can estimate the size of the market.
With the Diamond orders of few comic books alone, anyone can calculate a reasonably accurate estimate of sales figures these days. (It was different before they went to Final Order reports — the variances were much higher — but today, most estimates out there hew pretty close to one another. In the case of my reports, I take an additional step. As you might expect, Diamond generates a complete record of what it sells each month for the major publishers — right down to single copies of trade paperbacks on the Star System — and that information, when applied to the market shares, generates the Overall calculations I've been doing for five years on CBGXtra.
Since the timing of that raw information doesn't always synch up with the release of the sales charts, the release of my analysis will vary from month to month, depending on what information has been disseminated. In some months, everything's available and there's very little lag time. Other times, there might be either because of the data being unavailable or scheduling conflicts on my part.
So begin checking The Comics Chronicles around the middle of each month for the prior month's data. On some occasions, if I have time, I may be able to get an intermediate report online, with the Overall final analysis to come.
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