What percent of modern drek would need to be burned to make the rest valuable?

[1Cool]

Lets assume that someone invents a way to fuel cars on comics from 1987 - 1998. People buy up 80% of these books for fuel and the remaining 20% is left in collections. If 80% of all Cable #1 were burned would you want one in your collection. Would it need to be 90% or 95% or would you never want a X-Force #1 in your collection?

 

Side question - how many "modern drek" comics do you think are out there. Billion? Two Billion? Ten years worth of comics with a few in the million print run for a single book. Number would be very high.

[Ares]

99.9999%

[heinlein99]

Good question. This might be the ONLY way to get that stuff to have any value.

[1Cool]

I guess the big question would be if DC or Marvel would burn better. The debate would be intense!

[Ares]

Modern Marvel makes good Toilet paper While modern Dc makes good tissue paper for sneezing

[seank]

Modern Marvel makes good Toilet paper While modern Dc makes good tissue paper for sneezing

 

Ouch.

[Count]

99.9999%

[seank]

I'll pay $10 to the first person who posts a video of themselves either:

 

1. Composting a long box of moderns and returning them to the earth; or

 

2. Submitting a long box of moderns to a paper recycling center.

 

Either video must involve destruction and/or non-return of the books.

[MightyBeanComics]

Donate them to charity. There is still a lot of mileage in them I'm sure.

 

They would be better served sending them to the local childrens hospital than burning them.

[jordanscott]

A better question would be, if this actually happened, how much of a bump would OSPG already give their silly prices?

[1Cool]

99.9999%

 

Is that even possible? The print run would need to be at least a million to have 1 left over. The drek era was bad but some of the stories are ok (better than some of the 1960's stories). I would have to imagine if 95% of most issues were destroyed they would be worth big bucks.

[gorgoguy]

I'll pay $10 to the first person who posts a video of themselves either:

 

1. Composting a long box of moderns and returning them to the earth; or

 

2. Submitting a long box of moderns to a paper recycling center.

 

Either video must involve destruction and/or non-return of the books.

 

I did option 2 to 5 longboxes in 2005. They were easier to recylce then deal with when I had to move.

 

I guess we have now reached .0001% of the 99.9999% needed to make them valuable.

[1Cool]

I donated about 6 long boxes a few years ago. I did ok on the tax break and it took 10 minutes of my time.

[gorgoguy]

I donated about 6 long boxes a few years ago. I did ok on the tax break and it took 10 minutes of my time.

 

Better then the route I went. Had I thought Goodwill would have taken them, I would have tried that.

[Jeffro.]

Isn't there a big difference in print runs between comics produced in 2008 as opposed to 1995?

 

I would think the lower prints runs of today would potentially make for some reasonable values in the future.

[1Cool]

Much . . much . . lower. I would say by a factor of ten on most books. I don't have the figures but I would think Cable #1 had 10 times more books than a current X-Men book.

[1Cool]

I actually used the local library but I hear boy's clubs and schools are a good route to get the tax write-off.

[seank]

I actually used the local library but I hear boy's clubs and schools are a good route to get the tax write-off.

 

Just make sure the books are age appropriate. Sometimes things get by librarians and other gatekeepers. I found a Watchmen TPB in the kid's section of my library and I definitely think it should be in the adult section upstairs. (I left a message for the children's librarian. Better a nice note from a comic collector than a nasty note from an upset parent.)

 

[johnnycoolxx]

Donate them to charity. There is still a lot of mileage in them I'm sure.

 

They would be better served sending them to the local childrens hospital than burning them.

 

 

Completely agree with this. To some collectors, those moderns aren't worth anything in the OSPG and they're worthless. But to a kid, those books are invaluable if they make him happy and spark his imagination.

[the blob]

I think 1998 is a bit late, by then print runs had dropped by a ton. I think we're at around 1998 levels now, give or take.

 

Marvel and DC should have incentivized [sp] stores/dealer by taking this stuff back in bulk in the 90s and giving out various limited edition variants in exchange. Marvel and DC could have then figured out a way to get 2/3 cover copies around the country (so they wouldn't be resold) in libraries/schools/hospitals, etc. eventually when a kid is done reading all the freebies they might actually buy a comic. because of the graphic content of most Image books, I don't think they could have done that.

 

the problem is that unless they're making money off of it right now (like dealer incentive variants and such), marvel and DC give a big F-U to the collector/back issue market. I actually had a DC executive (who was a customer at my LCS) tell me "we don't give a rat's arse about the collectors and the aftermarket" (or something along those lines) when I asked him (in the late 90's) whether DC was considering lowering prices because the prices clearly had a "collectible" premium built into them given that moderns were no longer collectible? what they don't seem to realize is that bloated back issue market depreciates the value of the stuff on the rack. it's hard for me to justify spending $2.99 on something unless I REALLy REALLy want it when I can get quality back issues often for $1 or 3 for $2 or even 50 cents sometimes.