RockMyAmadeus

It is massively different from 1989-1993. In 1989, the top selling book (X-Men) was selling around 400,000 copies a month. Each and every month. In 1991, X-Men #1 sold 8.2 million copies, and continued to sell over 1,000,000 copies a month for the rest of that year. In 1992, Superman 75 sold 4 million copies in a couple of days, and could have sold twice that. In 1993, Turok #1 (this is Valiantman's favorite stat) sold 1.75 million copies...and was the SIXTH highest selling book of the year (the other five being Adventures of Supes #500, 501, Supes #78, MOS #22, and Action #687.) Now, the top selling books struggle every month to break 100K (which was for decades the "cancel this garbage" threshold), and the average amount of copies sold for everything is about 25,000. I wish it was 1993 all over again...I'd quite literally be a millionaire with my inventory. But it's not, and the market is still pulling the same old stupid speculator tricks that tanked everything the first time, having never learned its lesson. The one consolation is this: there's not much of a height to fall from this time. But comic books have become little more than a niche, trendy collectible, hopped up because of massive cross-media exposure, but the artform itself is secondary, if not tertiary, to the making of money. It would be nice if people didn't go spend their money stupidly, and the market grew as the result of organic supply and demand, but no one will listen, everyone HAS to have that Batman Adventures NOW NOW NOW NOW for $1,000 (even though they could have bought it two years ago for 1/10th that, and probably will again in a few years, and you can buy it for a whopping 30-40% less ALREADY), so if you can't beat 'em...join 'em. Ca-ching, ca-ching, let that cash register ring!

Spiderman #1 is not the end of the Copper age. It is building up to the apex of the Copper Age, which was the death of Superman.

Once Liefeld Mania really took off, New Mutants was the best-selling book on the rack. People tend to forget that, and it's why I always liked NM 87 compared to 90-100, as this issue was before the rush, and had a much lower print run due to NM selling badly, Liefeld being an unknown and Cable really catching everyone by surprise. This is essentially not true. New Mutants #87 did not have a substantially lower print run than #86-94. #95-97 had about a 50% higher print run because of X-Tinction, and then the print run went down a few percent for #98 and #99. #100 was the one and only issue that had a print run substantially higher than the rest, perhaps 500,000 copies totally. Cable didn't really "catch everyone by surprise"...it was a slow simmer from #87-#100. The entire run was completed before NM #87 was a $20 book. And at no time was New Mutants, in its entire run, ever "the best-selling title on the rack." There was a title called "Spiderman" that was selling 10 times what New Mutants did...and then there was a title called "X-Men"...just to name two. But yes, Liefeld was an unknown. This has all been explained multiple times on this board already.

There have been several people who got out of the probation list on technicalities...where they acted so poorly, the seller no longer wanted to complete the transaction (ie, not paying for a month+, and then getting excessively lippy)...and they got off. So, yes. Also...jop defended Rupp, so this doesn't come as a surprise.

While that is a part of it, over the past couple of years I have seen way more early 20s collectors enter the market and for them the Copper Age keys are the big books tied to their youth. They have jobs now with decent disposable incomes to chase the funny books that are key to them, and it is not BA or SA. If they follow the trend, they will eventually migrate to BA, SA and GA books, but right now CA is what they are most familiar with and that is what they are chasing. It happened with SA back in the day, then BA, so it only makes sense that demographics are impacting the CA market now as well. Perhaps there's a Rule that shows what happens to things that came out 25 years previously? Every. Single. Time. 2 more years, and I can cash out on my Pre-Unity Valiant hoard

Only one that I have seen with a bar-code is the Wizard World exclusive, unless they are on the back cover. I don't think this would be suitable for the newsstand markets anyway with Liz baring her arse Newsstand is probably well below 5% total comic sales now (around 1978 the figure was about 95% and this has been in a steady decline ever since). It is certainly another factor in print run though: as well as excluding sales outside the US and Canada, comichron does not include newsstand in their figures either hence print runs would be 22-25% larger than their stated figures in the mid-1990's as an example (if the comic in question was available to newsstand). You might be surprised about those newsstand numbers..... Here is an interesting article that discusses newsstand distribution. Granted, it discusses the publisher with the most newsstand sell-through (Archie. Yes, Archie), but it might not be "well below 5%" for the other publishers, even with Marvel's newsstand presence being "severely diminished in 2012." http://comicsworthreading.com/2012/03/09/archie-sales-figures-for-2011/ Archie's best selling titles have a whopping 43% sell through, resulting in the vast majority of their sales being on the newsstand (as opposed to a random Archie, #650, which had a direct order of 4,829 copies for December of 2013.) Archie is still selling 15,000 copies on the newsstand. That's three TIMES the amount they sell on the direct market. And their double digests are still killing the market...nearly 100k issues sold in some instances, beating pretty much everything....all on the newsstand. The argument is moot if there's no newsstand presence for MM, but Liz' naked behind is no big deal anymore. #9 would have to be edited, and probably #15, but other than that, there's really not anything much objectionable. Lots of people throw around the dm numbers, and I suspect most people never even give a thought to newsstand numbers...that's a mistake. That is the big flaw with JJM's (comichron) numbers: they ONLY include the direct market numbers under the monopoly that is Diamond. There is a (sometimes quite substantial) newsstand presence for many books around the English speaking world.

Is this being distributed on newsstands (ie, bookstores).......?

"Neville Chamberlain." Yes, that about describes a few around here.

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Just as an interesting and purely philosophical aside, Rupp's "points" are straight out of Saul Alinksy's "Rules for Radicals." And a personal note to Rupp: please do not ever again include me in any of your rantings. You know nothing about the relationship I have with Slym, and therefore are not qualified to comment on our interaction in any way. I have known Slym for nearly a decade, longer than anyone I have met through this board, and we have seen and done a lot in that time...again, which you know nothing about. If you ever see me "going after slym", it's because you don't know what you're talking about. So, I'll thank you to leave me out of your commentary. You need to be removed from this board, both for your safety and security, and the safety and security of these boards. Please...seek the help that you need.

The memes I saw are extremely graphic, and extremely disturbing. The one making such a meme is, at the very least, excessively disturbed. The ones enjoying such memes are, in tandem, equally disturbed. Regardless of where they were made, or why they were made, or where they were found...the fact is, they exist. Someone went to the effort of funneling their psychosis into these incredibly disturbing images. For the safety and sake of the board, that person, and those who took part in passing them around for enjoyment, really need to be removed from the community, permanently. I really do hope the moderation team gets this one right. It's far, far too much past the line to be considered "a joke." Rupp - you have, unfortunately, gone past a line that is not tolerable. In fact, these memes can quite easily be construed as threats, and you might very well face prosecution for them. As for Bosco....while trying to stick up for him would normally be admirable, the fact is, he is quite capable of answering for himself, and, indeed, has done precisely that. You don't need to be telling others to "leave Bosco alone" when Bosco himself won't let it alone. Bosco - How many people have to accuse you of being intellectually dishonest before you realize that the common denominator is you? You accuse people of the very things you do, as if no one can see that. Do you, yourself, not see it? I really believe you don't. If not, at least recognize that most people don't say these things because they are "out to get you"...but perhaps because it is just the truth.

This was too good to pass up. Welcome to 21st Century morality and reasoning. Anything goes, provided it benefits me. It sounds perfectly reasonable to Meeklo, so much so that he publicly confesses it, not having any idea how bad it makes him look. He literally considers them to be two separate transactions in his mind.

God, I hope so.

Who's the mother humper? The same guy who hoped I would learn a lesson. (thumbs u Inconsistent moderation reigns supreme. They need to be replaced, from the top on down. They have little but contempt and scorn for those they moderate. At least your strike was for something public. Mine was because I sternly told Mod0 she was out of line...which she very much was, and remains....in a PRIVATE MESSAGE. They didn't bother to mention that in the "Hostile and aggressive tone" reason given. I imagine just about anyone being told they are out of line would consider it "hostile and aggressive in tone."

This is the heart of the poison around here. Cowards who don't have the guts to make their accusations/defamations/complaints about people to their virtual faces, but who behave wonderfully (or at least tolerably well) in public. The heart and soul of hypocrisy. The worst part isn't that they do this...it's that other people believe them, without even thinking about whether it's legitimate.

Thanks RMA, this was a great laugh to end the day! :thumbsup: (I wonder how many people don't get it....)

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