Beastfeast

 

So, the comic companies are indeed raping the industry with short term greedy decisions instead of building a stable fan base and earning loyalty. There's less single collectors of books and more speculators who never read the books, buy multiples to resell and encase 'em in plastic. Comics are a commodity not to be manhandled and enjoyed by children of all ages, and it's mainly grown middle aged men who are the day traders.

Also, this is hilariously hyperbolic and pretty ridiculous. Again, shop owners...chime in here. Wednesday, I see all ages buying from their pulls to read. Only time the spec people come out are for hyped to flip that same day. Otherwise, people are buying to read and CGC still represents a tiny fraction of the people buying, reading and collecting comics.

I'm skeptical. Seems to be a lot of "errors" popping up lately. The new ultra rare variant controlled entirely by publisher/distributors .. on purpose? I wouldn't pay a cent for that. Green Lanterns sucks.

 

K

 

Card Companies in the 1990's seemed to create errors on purpose to build up false hype

 

Comic companies don't get any aftermarket money.

 

...but they do get people, the "speculators" buying. It's simple marketing.

 

Many opt to do "short yet unstated print runs" only to in later releases, once the collectors drive up the prices of previous releases, then crank the presses full steam ahead and flood the market, so capture the greedy money from folks who horde.

 

Comics saw that with Jim Lee's X-Men #1 and the whole 1990's speculation, sports cards saw that in 1987 through the 80's, 90's and Y2K, and later turned to the "elite" marketing of scarcity where single packs of cards can sell at retail for $500+ and there's a "chase" insert of potential cardboard gold, so to speak. It came to a point where with the "chase" cards, collectors bust open cases, boxes and packs, sort through the cards, pick out the one hot card they're looking for and dump he rest in the trash.

 

Comics did that with the whole bagged sketch cover thing DC did this year or last year, and with these variants with 1:10; 1:50; 1:100; 1:1,000 etc odds that a retailer has to order tons to get the one rare book. So, a lot of time the common books go straight into the dollar bins.

 

So, the comic companies are indeed raping the industry with short term greedy decisions instead of building a stable fan base and earning loyalty. There's less single collectors of books and more speculators who never read the books, buy multiples to resell and encase 'em in plastic. Comics are a commodity not to be manhandled and enjoyed by children of all ages, and it's mainly grown middle aged men who are the day traders.

You're realllllly stretching.

Like I said, they DO NOT get aftermarket money. They may get shops ordering more than they normally would for a variant but those (Shop owners, can you chime in here) situations are either purely personal in what they think will sell (speculative) or because a pull customer made an order for the variant.

Comic publishers are in the market to sell comics and make money. Them putting out a weird variant does nothing to make the average person HAVE to buy a book. Most people don't (this place is not even remotely representative of comic buyers as a whole). If it makes people buy more, well...that was their decision.

But, back to the specific example that started this (The Green Lanterns error), how would they be putting out fake errors and how would that benefit them AT ALL on a scale that would make even a dent in their bottom line? It's a silly conspiracy and that's why my response was dismissive. When the Justice League 51 error happened, I found 10 of them and bought em all. Did I make DC/Diamond/Books a Million some money? Sure. A tiny fraction of the money I personally made from flipping those, though. So again...NO...comic companies do not get to enjoy the benefits of the secondary market in any meaningful way.

I'm skeptical. Seems to be a lot of "errors" popping up lately. The new ultra rare variant controlled entirely by publisher/distributors .. on purpose? I wouldn't pay a cent for that. Green Lanterns sucks.

 

K

 

Card Companies in the 1990's seemed to create errors on purpose to build up false hype

Comic companies don't get any aftermarket money.

I'm skeptical. Seems to be a lot of "errors" popping up lately. The new ultra rare variant controlled entirely by publisher/distributors .. on purpose? I wouldn't pay a cent for that. Green Lanterns sucks.

K

I sold my stash last year sometime and was stoked to get $10-$20 per. Kudos to you guys/gals with more patience than me.

I've never seen a Newsstand Shadowhawk 1. Pretty cool.

Card collector vs comic collector thoughts. Will be interesting to see which wins.

what does this mean?

I think it's about the argument over what constitutes a 1st appearance and what should the hobby value more in the variations that people have come up with.

Thor 411 is the more important New Warriors book to some and 412 to others.

Nice!

I gave up on that one a while ago which means I've passed 30 of them by now, I'm sure.

Deathstroke just teased by Affleck on Facebook

I wouldn't worry too much about what's on the outside of the packs as an indicator of when you'll find a book. I found one with a Secret Avengers 37 variant/Thor 8 and one with Spiderverse 2/Uncanny Avengers 3. Gotta check em all.

I'd chuck it. There may be some weird completionist who'd want it but it'll eventually damage the book because of that stupid flap thing in the back.

Found two UF 4 variants today. Market flood incoming and I helped!

I haven't either but I'm gonna do the rounds tomorrow, just in case.

I haven't updated in a while but here's my site.

I missed it!

Finally! The Space Phantom!

 

That's wayyyyy earlier .

I figured. I was kidding.

Finally! The Space Phantom!

Now a $500 book raw if you can find one in the wild...

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JOURNEY-INTO-MYSTERY-633-1-50-VENOM-VARIANT-MARVEL-COMIC-BOOK-SCARCE-THOR-1-/291833906888?hash=item43f2a806c8:g:S5QAAOSwARZXnpW3

 

-J.

 

Now a $100 bill if u can find one in the wild!

 

I found one of those for $1 once from a dealer in FL.

I had something similar happen recently, FD.

I ended up refunding the person who had to wait the longest (and the other person got free shipping) and then gave them a pick of any listing I had going for $10 or under for free. They eventually got all their books and the freebie and seemed pretty happy. Saved myself a neg, for sure.

Toy dealer friend called and these found a new home. Love some Cole!

 

Learn so much from everyone's posts, thanks to all for sharing the finds in the wild.

 

 

Damn, homie!

I've never found any of that series.

Ha! I always wonder how stuff like that makes it through so many eyes and still gets put out.

Is the Spanish edition worth that much?

orange is the new blue?

• X-Factor #92: http://ebay.com/itm/152174940159
  
• X-Force #25: http://ebay.com/itm/142060373446
  
• Excalibur #71: http://ebay.com/itm/142060339408
  

Jerry's Bookshop! That place would be the best if it wasn't for horrrrrrrrrible pricing. Jerry is an interesting cat, though. Great place to visit when in Jacksonville.