Krydel4

Then you get to today's artists who get a 6-8 week head start before publication that need a fill in by Issue 3 cause they've fallen behind. And it's the only book they work on. 🤦‍♂️

I feel there needs to be some sort of COA that comes with this detailing the story behid it. Kind of like how there should be before and after pics accompanying Extensively Restored books.

I have a question. Never having held an Action 1 in my hands or examined one. How would one be able to tell that this was legitimate from 1938 and not from one of the first reprints? Does it overlap with something on the back cover?

Some Ditko and Kirby. I actually prefer the Cap cover over Avengers 4.

This would make me feel sad everyday.

This is the newest one out. Is it worth it to purchase? I have the previous edition and have heard the content is the same for the 6th Edition but they just changed the pictures.

Obviously, the Golden Agers are much too smart to be taken in by my Faustian proposition. Back to the 5th Dimension I go.🤪

Wow. No takers. Thought for sure someone would take the bargain for a Tec 27 10.0 or an AC 1 10.0 or an AA16, Whiz 1(2), CA 1 ...🤔

And offers you this deal. You can have any 1 book you desire, in any grade you desire with 3 provisions... 1. All books you have in your collection now become the property of the Genie. 2. You cannot sell or trade your desired book in your lifetime. Till Death do you Part. 3. Upon your death the book must be donated to a non-profit or Charity for them to sell and reap the proceeds from it. Do you take the deal?

Having worked for a couple of Fortune 500 companies it is very easy to see this happening. Divisions of companies that were seen as underperforming (in this context meaning making money but not making the expected amount of money) were asset liquidated, folded into another Division or folded completely. And dont get me started on legacy Divisions and what happens to them when a new CEO or CFO comes in.

It's just the business model evolving. It's like the Cons today. They are not Comic centric anymore, they are Pop culture centric, with TV celebrity signings, video games, clothing dealers, etc. All the comic stores in my area and the proprietors have been around at least 30+ years in the business running their stores. They started out as comic first. And then over the years to supplement their business they bring in t-shirts, then toys and then...and so forth. The other stuff is to supplement the comics so they can keep bringing in the comics cause that's their first love.

Marvel isn't a comic book only company anymore. Hasn't been for the past 20 years and moreover since the Disney purchase. All the LCS in my area 80% of their business is Ancillary Merchandise, Toys, Funkos, statues, TPB etc. Pop Culture stores with comics. Marvel and DC have already downsized their publication offices and staff. In terms of quality most of the Hot books in terms of fans and quality are coming out of the smaller publishers like IDW, Boom, Image etc.

I actually agree with the last part as it relates to the Big 2. I have said for years that the line needs to be cut down. 2 Titles for Bats and Supes, 1 title for WW, Aquaman and everyone on that level. A couple of team books (excluding GL who gets 1 title for GL and 1 title for Corps). One anthology series to introduce and try new characters ala B&B or Showcase style title. The big earth changing multi-title + its own miniseries crossovers that come out ever 3 months need to stop and have just one Mega event every 3-4 years that is contained within that miniseries. For Marvel rinse and repeat. But I would probably go with 1 book each for the A listers and the B listers would be put together on team books ala Defenders or Invaders. Max 3 X-Men books with a Solo Wolverine title. All in all it would probably come out to about 15-20 books from each company. The best talent would be on these books. Quality over quantity.

One for the Flash Collection (Upgrade) and one for the Silver Age Superman Villians.

For me, it's all about if you prefer an X amount of little 🙂 or 1 big 😁.

Well, there is also Marvel Unlimited that has subscription fee using that model. Comixology also had that service until it was bought by Amazon. https://www.marvel.com/unlimited?cid=SEM_Google_20200302_unlimited_Brand&gclid=CjwKCAiAg6yRBhBNEiwAeVyL0EIwaBy0D5axyb8TqJI4A2pG-6AXDdQcBKrVmsoMzIJXwVThE5gRXBoCnQ0QAvD_BwE

They did. With Comixology. Then it was bought by Amazon and well it's Amazon. And the prices were the same as cover price for a hard copy and as the Amazon purchase showed the long time users, you don't really own the comics on there as a bunch of people's purchased books disappeared when Amazon joined the Comixology app with its Kindle API.

Too true. However, I think making digital comics easier to obtain and at a good price point of 99 cents (cost of an app) would enable the younger generation to be more open to them. Manga is everywhere in Asia. When I lived in Japan it was on the tables at the doctors offices, waiting rooms at city hall, in bookshelves at restaurants and cafes for you to read while waiting for food. Most families have a Manga section on their bookshelves at home. It is a different mentality as they consider it art as well as being commercial. Same with Animated films, they are just as legitimate works as any live action films, not the cartoons are for kids mentality that permeates here.

And price really. New Digital issues should be 99 cents. The fact they are the same price as a hard copy in most cases is ridiculous.

Let's call it the ♾️ Case Grading Company. We'll encase your case until you're completely satisfied with your encasement.

Time to start a professional case grading company that can assign a grade to the case, then encapsulate in another case with the grade of the case on the case. Then the buyers will know the condition of the case of the comic they are buying and it is protected from any further degradation. Use a 10 point scale. Or... Just have a disclaimer that says you guarantee the grade of the COMIC BOOK they are buying, not the condition of the piece of plastic it currently resides in. If they don't like it the can crack it and resubmit to CGC on their own dime.

Not really. $1 in 1982 is worth $2.91 today. Plus they usually were 30+ pages when most books today are 22-25 pages. An individual comic at today's price point is the reason that trades are out performing single issues in aggregate sales. You can get a hardcover trade of 10 issues of a book at about 60% of the cost of buying them individually. But still paying $80 for 20 issues or $50 bucks for the hardcover collection for a book like Something is Killing the Children is still expensive for the average consumer.

I don't think it's all doom and gloom. However, it is starting to be all about money at every level. A fresh faced 9 year old walking into a shop is looking at paying $15 to $20 if they want to purchase 4 books. Books were $1.00 to $1.25 when I started collecting. I remember some Old Guy in the shop one day complaining that he remembered when they went from 10 cents to 12 cents as his allowance was 50 cents a week. And if you want to begin collecting the comics you read as a kid then you better bring cash. For example, if you wanted to start collecting Silver Age GL, like I did, which is not really an in demand series your still going to be paying a pretty penny. If you want say the first 3 Showcase appearances + the first 25 issues of the main series in 5.0 grade that's $8000. A Marvel series like Spider-Man easily $40000 in 5.0 grade for ASM 1-25. That's why the majority of new buyers are speculators/investors cause it is simply commodity brokering.

The majority of them are more about the investing/speculation side of the hobby than current storylines, character studies, upcoming comics etc. The channels I've found that do talk about those aspects are hosted by older collectors. The pics are just 4 examples of the videos that came up when I typed "Comic Books" into YouTube search.