Batman “Blind As A Bat” Blind Bags are already being sold on eBay and WhatNot

The new Batman #1 by Matt Fraction & Jorge Jimenez is another title that is jumping on the blind bag bandwagon with their “Blind As A Bat” Blind Bags set to be released to the public on September 3. However, it appears that sellers on sites like eBay and others have already been selling copies of the blind bag as of yesterday.

The copies were shipped by Lunar, DC’s main distributor, and most DC shipments arrive a week early. Retailers observe street dates, and these will not be shipped until after street date, but these increasingly popular “blind bags” seem to have slipped between the cracks of what is permissable, and with Diamond no longer around to enforce street dates, a Wild West situation has emerged.

Comic book industry veteran and retailer Shawn Kirkham(@BigClutch) posted on Instagram about the presale of Batman #1 blind bags:

Here we go again. The new @official.dccomics Batman #1 blind bags shipped early and stores/streamers are selling/breaking them before street date on @whatnot (in these pics and probably@ebay Live.

Just like how the @skyboundent Battle Beast #1 blind bags were sold on live stream early and showed off all the cool secrets that were added to the bags.

It also impacts other stores/sellers. Especially stores/ sellers on the West Coast who typically get their books just a few days before release, let alone a WHOLE WEEK in advance.

These products are so new to our industry that the publishers and distributors don’t know how to police them.

As these items take hold over our industry, I think the people in charge need to look to industry leaders in the card space and take some cues on how to patrol and enforce street date.

We’re days away from FOC on potentially the largest blind bag event ever with The Monster and the Wolf #1 from@markspearsart and @keenspot. Will anyone try to correct this before launch?

Or does no one care?

Would love to hear from you. What are your thoughts??

We are unable to confirm if any of the packs had been opened, but it seems that they were being presold on livestreams and eBay posts. Kirkham mentioned this in the comments:

Pre selling at retail and not opening is fine in my view.

I think the larger discussion is around people auctioning and opening the packs before steer date and how that vibes with the general idea of “street date”. Also, if a store is getting them before other stores, then there’s a level of it being uncompetitive and unfair.

On FB there was a discussion about how Diamond would make sure that stores didn’t get books too early in order to stop this type of behavior.

We are in a brand new world when it comes to comic book distribution. Kirkham and others mentioned that these were issues that Diamond would fix to ensure no stores broke “street date” and sold books before release, but Diamond is gone.

One of the online retailers replied to Krikham and explained that neither the publisher nor the distributor had made it clear when the retailer could put the blind bags up for sale, laying the responsibility at the distributor’s feet for shipping to the East Coast earlier than to the western part of the country.    

I was the seller auctioning them. If the publisher/ distributor had anything saying not to open live early I wouldn’t. I totally agree with clutch though and this is more about a conversation of what needs to be done. No one is going to try to not break a rule that doesn’t exist yet. As per the east coast getting them earlier that is again on the distributor. If I was running it I would fulfill the furthest first. Apparently they don’t.

 

It appears that the rules need clarification, as it’s being reported that some of the blind bags are already on display at comic stores. Troll Comics went on to explain his side by commenting that he had not broken any rules by doing a pre sale auction.

street dates only apply to customers having the item in hand before the street date. There is nothing about blind bags, yet. If they did then I wouldn’t sell them early. I’m not gonna not sell something early for a law that doesn’t exist though. This is essentially a pre order. No one gets these until Wednesday. Put it in writing not to open and we won’t have a problem. With the east coast getting them early over west coast. I agree it sucks. Again that is on the publisher/ distributor. I would be upset but not with the other sellers.

check lunar before I even run a show. Still nothing on their site about opening early. Street dates are for physical sales and customers having them in hand. I know blind bags are new but if they want it to not be opened early then why still nothing saying so? They had months to write something since battle beast. @markspearsart you need to make it known asap. People think DC cares about opening early but in reality they want this hype.

Lunar has a dashboard with dumb updates all the time. This could easily be on the top. Makes you wonder. If it was my book and I felt strongly about it I would raise hell till they post it on Lunar Site.

There has been no comment from either DC or Lunar about the presale of the “Blind As A Bat” Blind Bags but there has been a announcement for a blind bag program with the release of DC K.O. #1 LIGHTS OUT Blind Bag on October 8 so there is plenty of time to plan ahead and avoid this problem again.