Saga hardcover woes

[Warren]

Hey all. A sob story:

I was pleased to see the second printing of Usagi Yojimbi Saga #1 in hardcover. I'd missed it the first time around, and resellers were tipping the price a fair bit over what I was comfortable with. This time I made sure to pre-order with my online bookstore of choice, back in April. I left it like that, and forgot about it during a minor bit of turmoil in the last three months. Now it's over, I realised, "hey, shouldn't I have another big chunk of a book on that shelf?"

The retailer's giving me a lot of apologies, citing 'supplier issues' and an 'eighteen month upheaval in publishing'. The pandemic is a handy reason, and hard to argue against, but at the same time I can't find new copies anywhere, and resellers are already sending prices of the second printing upwards, trying to catch up the first. I have a feeling that for whatever reason, this isn't a simple delay and all copies have been doled out already.

I'm not sure who would know for certain, or how to find out something like that - whether wholesalers or distributors are still sitting on a stack of Usagi books. I guess I'm here to ask: Has anyone else experienced a delay in Saga HC orders lately? Anyone else still waiting? I'm wondering whether to sit tight, or go for store credit.

In either case, I can pick up my collection again with the proposed Saga #4 reprint next year. Is there any more direct method of getting my hands on that, rather than rely on UK retailers...?

[jabba359]

Are you looking to get hardcovers for all of them (you mention picking up with the upcoming Saga 4 reprint)? The reprints are all going to be softcover only, other than the 600 copies of the Saga 1 HC reprinting (which brought the total hardcover run between both printings to 1500 copies, the same as all the other Saga hardcovers has on their first printings).

If it's taken this long and they are citing availability issues, I'd guess there aren't any remaining to be allotted. 600 is a pretty small run and I suspect they've all gone out at this point.

[david20009]

You likely are not getting one. Book Depository kept giving me that excuse too and then last week they refunded my advance order purchase. I was lucky to get one a few weeks ago when the Stan's store had remarked copies available for a short time before they sold out.

[Warren]

Are you looking to get hardcovers for all of them (you mention picking up with the upcoming Saga 4 reprint)? The reprints are all going to be softcover only,

Haha! Another reason to be browned off that I didn't get #1 at the original price. Oh well. It's like how the saying goes: if life gives you lemons, you'd better scrimp and save to buy the sugar to make lemonade.

Thanks all! Store credit it is, then.

[Mayhem]

Supply issues is sort of right, Diamond stiffed a whole bunch of places that ordered, not just on the Saga #1 reprint. Basically prioritising the biggest places that order. Interesting to see what happens now Marvel and DC have left them...