Comic Reviews by Walt

While not actually a comic or graphic novel, I was looking for a copy of a D&D volume, and basically the only one the HPB I was at had was the (3.0, I believe) Players Handbook II. For $35. Because (gasp! shock! awe!) it’s out of print.

$34.95 cover price, but hey, let’s add 4 cents and call it a day. But I did notice more than other times–there’s a date on the sticker…06-06-16. So I believe this means the book has sat there unsold for three months at that price. Makes me wonder if I could "make an offer" on it–would they rather move the book, or let it sit there as a potential sale?

And as I’ve mentioned before: they have a whole separate section for rare/out of print/"collectable" volumes. I REALLY wish they would NOT shelve full-price/OOP-priced stuff with "everything else"!

Huntress volume. Half-Price Books wants $24.99 for it. Not half price.

Heck, this one’s not even full price.

Seemingly JUST because it is "out of print," they’ve tacked on an additional 25% to the cover price. And with the date on the sticker, the thing’s been there nearly three months. This is at LEAST the SECOND time it’s caught MY eye before I (re)realized the price.

TWO times at least that I would have bought this–at $10. But it’s not something I’m willing to pay $19.99 for…and sure as heck not willing to pay a marked-up price for it just because it’s out of print!

Particularly maddening on the pricing is finding this volume.

Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage. This looked like an "original edition," from the early/mid-1990s (when collected volumes at all were a relatively rare thing!). Sure, the book is pretty beat-up: white edges, bends/folds in the covers, torn spine, etc. But it’s an original edition! (or close enough to it–there have been at least 2 editions AFTER this one that I am personally aware of!) But since when does damage matter to HPB if it’s out of print?!?

I mean, honestly…I am really, truly curious: why is this one priced so cheaply for being vintage and long out of print (and I’m pretty sure even any newer edition is now also OUT OF PRINT) while other out of print stuff is marked up?

Where’s the consistency?!?

I actually bought the All*Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder volume. It was at a different HPB, but was half off the cover price. Yet even this one is confounding–this is an out of print edition, I don’t even think the collection has an in-print edition right now.

9 issues’ content for $10 and it includes the infamous Batcave fold-out? For something that–if only for the notion that Miller considers it as canonical with Dark Knight Returns–I do want to read.

And where I’ve mentioned their having a full-priced Age of Apocalypse Omnibus listed as "out of print," I did finally ask about it–whether it was "the 2012 edition or the 2016 edition." It is the 2012 (original) edition, that at one point DID go out of print. But as there’s a new 2016 edition, and omnibii are expensive enough as it is, with an in-print newer printing, I can’t imagine many would care that much about an older printing if they just want the book itself. I’m not aware of any visually-distinctive differences.

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: All Star Batman, books, comics, D&D, Half-Price Books, HPB, HPBHaul, Huntress, OOP, Out of Print, Players Guide II |