[Originally posted 5/3/2007]
n a press release about Free Comic Book Day, Diamond announced that "comic shops sold over 100 million comic books and graphic novels in 2006 worth approximately $385 million at retail — an increase of approximately 18% over 2005."
That figure tracks remarkably well with the $395.5 million I had estimated for Diamond's overall comic book, trade paperback, and magazine sales, now up on the yearly synopsis page. I always assumed the magazine share (which includes not just magazines about comics, but all magazines Diamond sells) was unlikely to be higher than $10 million a year — and indeed, that does seem to be the difference between the two figures.
It's only one data point, but it's heartening to see that at least in the 2006 case, the process used to estimate the total came pretty close.