If you've been reading Blackest Night, you'll probably want to read this. What if after the first issue (issue #0), you decide you don't want to read the rest? All you have to do is stop buying the rest of the series. But what about retailers? They need to order the books three months in advance in order to guarantee the books will be on the shelves when you walk into the comic shop. How do you base your orders on a book with no information? The way it usually works is a store orders X copies and whatever doesn't sell, sits around until they throw them in the bargain bin. They have to decide carefully how many copies to order. Order too few will result in disappointed customers who may find a different comic shop for their purchasing needs.
DC is coming to the rescue. According to Bleeding Cool, they have made issues 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 returnable. Any unsold copies can be returned to DC for credit. This means comic shops can order extra copies and not have to worry about being stuck with tons of unsold books. There is one small catch.
What about the variant copies? There is a 1 in 50 copy coming. Does this mean they can over order just to sell the variant at a higher price? Not really. The variant would have to be included in the same portion of returns. If they sell the variants on day one, they can't return the extra copies.Issue 0 must be ordered at the same or greater levels to Blackest Night#7. DC will charge 10% of the cover price to refund – around 20% of the wholesale price.
Bottom line, what this means for you is you should be able to find a copy but don't expect it to skyrocket in value. Chances are the issues won't see a second printing either since there will be enough copies to go around. What is important is DC has confidence in these books and are probably not expecting to get many returns.
Are you looking forward to Brightest Day?