1Cool

If anime and manga are the wave of the future in terms of what teens are reading then is it just because of the price point? Why is anime and manga so cheap if that is the case?

Opinions can definitely be wrong and I love a good debate where people express their opinions and try to sway the other person but when I devolves into just arguing and name calling then I usually just tune out the bickering and move on to less argumentative threads. Roy is very polarizing so I do see why he can make it easy to "fight" with him but just realize it gets very tiring to read the arguing when it goes too far. Roy hates to not get in the last word in a discussion and genuinely like him when I see him in person so I thought it was worth a nudge to not have him get into trouble again. In terms of you - I really don't see your post very often so I don't have an opinion about your posts but hopefully we can get into some good, productive debates in the future.

I really have no idea about your back and forth with Roy but I can say that it appeared you were picking at what he saying and twisting some of the stuff he wrote to prove him wrong which is really tough when most of what Roy writes is his own personal opinions which can't really be wrong. I don't agree with what Roy believes quite a few times but I don't feel the need to keep picking on the guy to try to get him angry. He said he was done with the discussion so it really wouldn't have been hard to just let it drop (especially since you guys had both expressed your points). In this one case I thought you were on the attack and appeared to be goading him into a fight (which never ends well for him) so I gave him a gentle reminder. I have no interest in defending what Roy writes but I do defend his ability to voice his opinion without getting attacked at every turn.

Part of saying you will not debate someone is to just not respond when they type things about you. Even if it's an attack or false - just don't respond since you have made your points enough time that it's not like people are confused by your stance on the stuff he is "attacking" you on. Report him if you think it's way over the top but just stay strong since he is obviously trying to pull you into a debate that wlll probably get you a strike.

That Giant Sized X-Men 1 is such a cool book in 9.8 but that drop is crazy.

Oh I agree he is trying to reduce the collector into a box (and an ugly box at that) which shows his bias. Maybe he got beat up by a comic book nerd in high school and has never been able to get past it. But I do think there is some truth to the thought they collectors prefer to be surrounded by the past and some people take it too far and neglect the now.

I think you are kind of making his point for him. He is saying the collector “hides” in the old (even stuff older then us) and complains about the new. I don’t agree that the collector is wrong in thinking the new is bad because to most of us the new stuff is bad to our taste. If new was good to us the print runs of modern books would be 5x what it is today.

But you are writing your opinions on a CGC message boards where the average person is probably in their mid 40s so it’s perfectly ok to have the discussion slanted toward that group. im down in Puerto Rico this week and we went on a snorkeling trip yesterday with about 40 people of all ages. The way out to the reef they played a lot of older songs which had everyone (even the youngest) singing and having some drinks. The way back the youngest were very drunk on rum punch and the music got louder and newer. The older people were basically covering our ears by the end while the young were stumbling around and quoting songs we didn’t know. I find comics are the same way - the young can at least appreciate the older ways (or at least grin and bare it) but the older crowd just can’t handle the pace and the headaches of the stuff the young like. if the future of comics is manga and anime then most of us will just be content to live in the past and talk on a message board where younger people would be driven crazy with the slow pace.

I never really understood why most magazines have zero collectability but comics became such a major collectible. Time magazines to old Playboys to National Geographics to Home and Garden - all but a handful of issues are basically worthless even when they are 50 - 60 years old.

By the way - Roy only has 352 post until he hits 100,000 posts! Will he hit this milestone this week??

Fair point but I can't have it both ways. I lean heavily into the emotional attachment of buyers in terms of getting them to buy my books (heck my booth motto is Buy Back Your Childhood) so I can't expect the same people to not have an attachment when it comes time to sell their books. That is why I love buying books from dealers (or at least people selling at cons) since my experience buying from collectors has been terrible. They typically want top dollar for everything and they get insulted when I give them a fair offer for their books. I don't expect dealers to pay more than they want but it seems strange to say books should be seen as a commodity when an emotional attachment gives them most of their value.

But don't comics have no value other than an emotional attachment (especially if you take away reading the book)? I hope people continue to have an emotional attachment to their funny books because things get tricky very fast if people start asking why a small book is worth thousands of dollars just because it includes the 1st time an artist drew a character.

I don't know of anyone who is jazzed about a possible negative outcome but saying everything is hunky dory when things don't look good is just lying to others and possibly yourself. I've had no luck getting a booth at local cons over the last 5 - 6 years and now I get offers to set up all over the place. Take that for what it is. Nobody gripes when people talk about how great the comic market is but when things don't look that rosy then some people don't like the discussions. I'd rather we keep it real in an often fake world.

I give away comic books at Halloween and it’s definitely an eye opening experiences. Most kids are excited to get the book but I hear so many 10 - 15 years olds say that I just gave them their 1st comic ever. I’m not sure if very many will actually read them when they get home but I’m hoping at least a couple to make it worth my time. The million dollar question is will these teens get to a certain age and get an appetite for old comic books? Will they like the characters because of the movies and desire a long box of books to read and collect? My gut tells me not a chance in heck but who knows. We still have a bunch of years left before we get to the point where the teens of today will need to keep the hobby afloat so not really an immediate concern of mine.

Marvel and DC seem to be on a collision course for stopping printing new comic books (print runs can’t go much lower). I think the elimination of new books will be the first step in the collapse of comic book as a collectible (as we know it). If they stopped play hockey do we believe people wouldn’t eventually stop collecting hockey cards? There will always be people that want Gretzky cards but the hobby must have new blood and new exposure to not become model train collectors. Who could have predicted 2020 - 2021 craziness so there is no certainty but life typically runs in cycles and the predictors don’t look great once the Boomers are gone and Gen-X retires.

3 points! Started out with a 13 and steadily got use to grading Golden Age books. Some tricky book - thanks for putting on the contest.

If a book tripled in value from let’s say 2017 - 2021 then I’d not be shocked if a lot of books revert to the 2017 prices. I don’t think the correction (especially for Silver and newer) is close to being done.

Only if you bought prior to 2020. Prices only spiked because actual people were buying at the inflated (3x) prices and now they have lost their shirt. I think the writing was on the wall that prices were not sustainable but I can still pity those that got caught buying something and then quickly took a huge loss.

Looks like pretty much every grade has halved in value since the beginning of 2022. That is a lot of money considering that is only one particular book.

I 100% agree. A simple, but enjoyable movie with a $20 Million price tag sure seems to make sense in today's climate. I can't imagine running a movie theater is a success is a $152 million flick but thankfully that is not where I've invested.

Unless that was their only book then I'm sure they have received plenty of low ball offers. A lot of people switched over to selling books basically as a full time job during the hype days so a 50% haircut on a big book means they have to go back to flipping burgers. We had plenty of great years to be selling books but I don't see the gravy days coming back anytime soon.

If ASM books are going up or doing well then there is really no telling what the rest of the market is doing since they sell no matter what. Now if ASM books are dropping then the rest of the market is probably complete trash since even spidey fans are selling.