Image Comics Reduce Discounts To Comic Book Stores Significantly

Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Image | Tagged: diamond, lunar

Image Comics Reduce Discounts To Comic Book Stores Significantly… what will your store now qualify to get?

Article Summary

Image Comics shifts distribution from Diamond to Lunar, changing store discount tiers.
New discount tiers recalculated monthly, with significant changes for small-mid-size stores.
Largest stores maintaining discounts, smaller ones face increased costs for stocking Image Comics.
Cost implications may affect pricing or profit margins for comic book stores in 2025.

As Diamond Comic Distributors declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy and comic book stores shift their Image Comics orders from Diamond to Lunar (they have no choice in the matter now), so Lunar and Image are setting new discount levels and tiers for stores. and a number are really not happy about it. Lunar does, however, say that “Lunar will honor existing Image discounts through Diamond. To receive a matched Image discount through Lunar, please reply to this email providing your recent Diamond invoice verifying your Image discount. This must be provided by no later than 1/24/2025. ” That’s four days time… and depending what your discount is, you really might want to.

Image Comics by Jack Anderson

These are the old Image Comics discount tiers; how much in the value of Image Comics titles have to be ordered to qualify for a certain discount off the cover price, from which a store can make a profit.

$0-$1,000 40%
$1,000 – $3,000 50%
$3,000 – $4,500 52.5%
$4,500 – $17,000 55%
$17,000 – $35,000 57%
$35,000 and up 58.5%

And here are the new Lunar tiers, recalculated for average monthly amounts rather than annual.

$0 – $300 40%
$300 – $1,000 50%
$1,000 – $2,000 52.5%
$2,000 – $5,500 55%
$5,500 – $12,000 57.5%
$12,000 and up 58.5%

This is what the old Image Discount Tiers look like, if they are split monthly, for comparison.

$0 – $83 40%
$84 – $250 50%
$250 – $375 52.5%
$375 – $1416 55%
$1417 – $2916 57.5%
$2917 and up 58.5%

What does that mean? The discount numbers are the same, but the amount necessary to order every month to qualify now differs dramatically. Apart from the very biggest stores that order over $12,000 of Image Comics titles a month, comic shops will see their Image Comics discount drop significantly as a result. The biggest discount used to be available to those who ordered $3000 worth of Image Comics a month. Basically, Image Comics will cost more for comic book stores to stock going into 2025. This means those costs may have to be passed on, or the store is just going to have to eat the difference. I talked to one store that previously had a 55% discount rate that now has a 50% discount rate; that’s a loss of twenty-five cents for a five-dollar comic they sell based on what they would have made before. They would have to quadruple what they sold of Image Comics titles to qualify for their old rate. And it all adds up…

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