Why TPd this series and not that?

OK with so much talk about TPD's on these board, I thought I'd bring up a point that isn't discussed a lot. There's a faction out there that think's TPD's are the future and wants Marvel and every other company to just go to doing trades and not monthlies.I don't agree with this, but to each their own. However there are many series that have little to no TPD's out there. There was only one or two Thunderbolts, almost no current Iron Man, and FF and Thor have only recently started getting TPD's. So why is it that every X-title has a TPD solicated before the current arc's even finished, but other books aren't?

I think the sales numbers are the sole determining factor. It's unfortunately, because I mostly buy in trades, and would love to have Gail Simone's 'Agent X' run, 'Spider-Girl,' and 'Thunderbolts' easily available from the beginning. I haven't tried any of those titles yet.

You mean TPB - 'Trade Paperback.'

Whether Marvel decide to collect something in TPB form seems to depend mainly on whether they think there's an audience for it in bookstores. Most of the books you mention are the ones that Marvel seem to regard as their 'traditional' titles for the direct market audience, which probably won't do all that well in the bookstores.

Marvel may not necessarily be in a position to do trades for all of their series, depending on budgetary considerations; and even if they were, there would still be an argument against flooding the bookstore market. (Many would argue that they already are.)

Really?!? Guess I'll have to try and track them down. Thanks Sean!

Don't forget Spider-girl is currently at a stand-alone story (#60) and starts a new, exciting six-part story in next week's issue. Get in on the ground-floor of that one. Spider-girl is the most consistently good book Marvel publishes right now.

I would.

Me too. I used to like the 'epic' stories that covered the summer and multiple titles, Like Zero Tolerance, Fatal Attractions, etc. I would prefer they went back to that way of doing things and also releasing more of the Essential titles. Now I find that since I just managed to get a good dealer in the UK to ship to Guernsey, I don't really need to buy TPB's much now. I collected the ones before the issues I started to get to catch up with storylines, but now I am getting regular comics I don't need to bother re-buying the last 6 issues I paid for in comic format. Although I would consider buying reprints of old TPB's that are now out of print. Don't blame just Marvel though DC seem to do something similar with the Batman stories. Knightfall/End was over 3 TPBs, Bruce Wayne Murderer/Fugitive was over 3 as well and Hush is over at least 2.