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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FitzTheRuke" data-source="post: 9796817" data-attributes="member: 59816">There are many factors in play when it comes to that. In no particular order:1) Both our orders (the number I "guess" we will need), and our allocations (the number they choose to actually provide us) doesn't ever really line up consistently. On top of THAT, we can't assume that I ever "guess" correctly for how many we should have.2) Sometimes the Exclusive covers are AWESOME compared to the "regular" one, and sometimes they are not - and this is a matter of opinion (though one that builds to something like a consensus.3) Some of the exclusive covers, not only did we get 100% of what we ordered, but they were available for reorders, sometimes for many months.4) Amazon's deep discounts on early 2014 books was "worse" than Beyond for stealing sales. Amazon often priced core books at cheaper than MY COST - making it cheaper for US to get them on Amazon, rather than from WotC through our distributor.5) This is probably most important - the Exclusives are, as I've shown, only usually available for a brief spell, and often not even in full quantities to what I "expect" (read: guess) we will sell. So, once we're out of them, we only have Regular Covers to sell. It's not a choice for customers who wait. So, initially, the vast majority of our sales (this goes all the way back to the earliest releases that had them) are for Exclusives, and then the ongoing (later) sales are all Regulars. There's always a couple of people who like the Regular better, or people who just don't care and literally grab the first one they lay their hands on.You're absolutely right that there's also a ton of people, even some who frequent my shop, that will buy theirs from Amazon (early on) and Beyond (now). But we always have to remember, that they move a copy here and a copy there. So we should never underestimate the effect that TIME has on the sales of the Regular cover when compared to the Exclusive. Generally, all the Exclusive covers sell in the first couple of weeks to the hard-core customer, and the "tail" is made entirely of Regulars.So, in the cases where the book has been out for a long time, the Regular cover will naturally (eventually) beat out the Exclusive, but keep in mind all of the above.For our Extreme Example, I'll give you: The 2024 Monster Manual vs Ghost of Saltmarsh. MM24 was so heavily allocated (something that I didn't think would happen - I had hoped that they would have learned from how the PHB24 did by Feb25, but I think that maybe they were too busy starting the reprint of the PHB24 to give full attention to MM24) that we didn't receive enough copies of the MM24 to COVER PREORDERS. They allocated our Exclusive covers down to about 2/3 of what I'd ordered. That would have been less disastrous had they told us that it would happen (we got 100% of our order for DMG24, for example) and we'd have upped our order for the MM Regular. But they didn't. AND then they didn't have MM24 Regular covers available for about a month, either. So we sold out within days of release. In fact, because we get them two weeks early, we didn't have any at all by release date.On the flipside, Ghosts of Saltmarsh (a decent book) had a, let's say "somewhat ugly" Exclusive cover (in particular if we compare it to the earlier Hydro covers) which was available, not only at 100% of our order, but available at our distributor (in the warehouse) for, I think, at least a year. I would say that "it didn't sell well" but our chart up there doesn't agree. That's because it sold very slowly over time, with no one being particularly excited by it, but the numbers add up.I would say that a LOT of the Exclusive covers would have done much better had they been available. But enforced scarcity is part of their "charm", right? Ultimately, our orders, and WotC's print run (and presumably our individual distributor ordering correctly as well) makes as much or more difference when it comes to Exclusives as our customers' buying desires does. There is a "sweet spot" where they all line up - and there's the two examples above (others were similar) where they do not.</blockquote>

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