Well at @greggy you know where I stand with all of this stuff. I shrug at the hyping my own books thing so I can cash out later. The variants thing is laughable to me. Sure, someone will hit it big with that ultra rare variant that they are hyping or books that may see only a few hundred copies of that cover in print... I get that.
But it's not for me. The endless arguing over the next hot thing is laughable when the combatants are mostly hyping what they have in a box somewhere waiting to sell. Artist variants ? shrug.
Side note... no one ever asked me why I stocked up on Miles Morales first appearance instead of Spider-Gwen. Well I kind of did with both... See... I picked up Ultimate 4 or whatever it is and have numerous copies in a box somewhere. I did pick up Spider-Gwen's first appearance. I picked up multiple copies of Amazing Spider-man 31. After cashing in on a few copies this last year, I am left with my 9.0, 8.5, 6.0. 2 Raw copies and I think I might have a 6.5 somewhere. See I did get the first appearance of Spider-Gwen...
Edited Side Note... I once bought a Gen 13 Boxed set simply so I could trade it to a dealer for single digit spider-man issues... I got an issue 5 and I think it was issue 8 out of the deal as well.
See modern variants ARE good for something.