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

[1Cool]

JC - I understand your point but I can not believe that the cost of Spawn #1 wouldn't jump up if 9 out of every 10 issues disappeared. Lets assume that the owners of 6 out of the 9 "missing" issues wanted that comic to complete a set or just love that issue. Wouldn't most of them re-buy it and the supply would be much lower - so the cost would shoot up. I guess shoot up would be up to debate since it may go from a $4 book to a $10 book but I can't believe that 90% reduction of most drek issues wouldn't go up with a 90% reduction in supply.

[mikeyboy9000]

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.

 

I personally do this myself. My many beater moderns have been given away. About 800 - 1000 comics to my local goodwill. Feels good to lose the space taken by junk and potentially supply a kid with a neat run of comics to read on the cheap.

[brasseye]

Lets assume that the owners of 6 out of the 9 "missing" issues wanted that comic to complete a set or just love that issue.

 

 

Bit of an oxymoron there, but still...

 

In reality, if 90% of Sapwn #1's were wiped out, most guys would still be left with multiple copies in their collections

[joe_collector]

The point I'm trying to make is that many people erroneously state that scarcity is the reason why GA books are so expensive and why no MA book will ever show a dramatic increase in price.

 

The reality is that there are probably thousands of hobby, media, character popularity, economic, demographic, societal, political, etc factors behind why someone pays $X for one book, and $Y for another, and to paint it as purely a "scarcity issue" is incredibly simplistic.

[joe_collector]

In reality, if 90% of Sapwn #1's were wiped out, most guys would still be left with multiple copies in their collections

 

[mikeyboy9000]

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.)

 

What age 'kids' are we talking here? I would be perfectly fine with pretty much any child 12 and up reading this book. Heck, if you find this to be un suitable for kids what about modern books like identity crisis?

 

and also

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.

 

HA! - you have hit the nail on the head, only it's oh so much worse here in OZ that i can only imagine in other non-US countries the same thing happens. I have completely given up on buying moderns, here they are anywhere from $5-$9 each.... now imagine a 'civil war' esque crossover, infact that was what broke the camels back for me....

[mikeyboy9000]

The point I'm trying to make is that many people erroneously state that scarcity is the reason why GA books are so expensive and why no MA book will ever show a dramatic increase in price.

 

The reality is that there are probably thousands of hobby, media, character popularity, economic, demographic, societal, political, etc factors behind why someone pays $X for one book, and $Y for another, and to paint it as purely a "scarcity issue" is incredibly simplistic.

 

Not to fill an entire page with my own posts but:

 

This is something i have thought about quite often when considering comics as an 'investment' item. GA books are scarce, they will only become scarcer/older, etc. But so will the Moderns, however look at modern prices now and they are already showing a 'dramatic' increase in price. Admittedly, not to the extent of 10c in 1940 to 1 million in 2000, but things like $2.50US? to $2500 US in 10 years? That's pretty dramatic to me....

 

and as joe_c said, i doubt it's a scarcity thing alone.

 

EDIT: Joe said: Seriously, take some Economics classes and examine the history of pop culture collectibles.

 

Scarcity has almost nothing to do with GA values, but ATTRITION, AGE and DEMOGRAPHICS do, with a dash of ANCILLARY MARKETS tossed in for good measure.

 

So based on this, destroying 90% of the Spawn #1 copies out there would do virtually nothing to their resale values.

**************************************************

Studying economics and commerce myself i like a man who uses crazy terms in debating comic worth.

 

also --> DREK? clearly this stands for plain trash comics, but where did this come from?

[Senormac]

I never (rarely) buy new books. Theres just nothing there for me.....INCLUDING THE COVER PRICE !!

[brasseye]

The point I'm trying to make is that many people erroneously state that scarcity is the reason why GA books are so expensive and why no MA book will ever show a dramatic increase in price.

 

The reality is that there are probably thousands of hobby, media, character popularity, economic, demographic, societal, political, etc factors behind why someone pays $X for one book, and $Y for another, and to paint it as purely a "scarcity issue" is incredibly simplistic.

 

Yup, JC has the right of it again.

 

Scarcity if anything is a secondary factor in valuation. Primary is desirability, first and foremost. And even that isn't a gurantee, so scarcity is pushed down to possibly no.3 or 4 on valuation factors when concerning funny books.

 

Example...

GA Kiby books... high desirability.

GA Kirby books...mostly pretty scarce in top grades.

.....

Hey that GA Kirby book is 'boys ranch' or some other Western title,

You can't give that lemon away

 

[PokerKid]

The point I'm trying to make is that many people erroneously state that scarcity is the reason why GA books are so expensive and why no MA book will ever show a dramatic increase in price.

 

The reality is that there are probably thousands of hobby, media, character popularity, economic, demographic, societal, political, etc factors behind why someone pays $X for one book, and $Y for another, and to paint it as purely a "scarcity issue" is incredibly simplistic.

 

Yup, JC has the right of it again.

 

Scarcity if anything is a secondary factor in valuation. Primary is desirability, first and foremost. And even that isn't a gurantee, so scarcity is pushed down to possibly no.3 or 4 on valuation factors when concerning funny books.

 

Example...

GA Kiby books... high desirability.

GA Kirby books...mostly pretty scarce in top grades.

.....

Hey that GA Kirby book is 'boys ranch' or some other Western title,

You can't give that lemon away

 

If you find NM "Boys Ranch" or Western titles, you will indeed find buyers. Sure beater copies don't move, but most moderns won't move in high grade. Scarcity is indeed one of the primary factors. Heroes Inc. and Space Ace won't sell at today's cover prices despite being 40+ years old because there are too many and in high grade. If there were as many Action #1s around as Spawn #1s, there wouldn't be much of a market for them either. Yeah, once there is some level of scarcity, the other qualities have a major influence.

 

Baseball cards have much the same issues. Once the collectors market was getting flooded - pretty much getting drowned from 1988 on - the values of the cards seems to have died. You can still buy 20-year-old packs for less than stores were selling them 20 years ago, despite all the Hall of Fame players in there. But to keep interest, they now have packs that start off with massive scarcity ($100+ a pack), not because people want to get a particular player, but because there aren't very many of them and if they get the one of a particular player, they might really have something special.

 

 

[mikeyboy9000]

Example...

GA Kiby books... high desirability.

GA Kirby books...mostly pretty scarce in top grades.

.....

Hey that GA Kirby book is 'boys ranch' or some other Western title,

You can't give that lemon away

 

For the right price i might take it off your hands, i could always do with some more comics i don't feel the need to bag and board and look after

[the blob]

Yes, because they helped create the market, and drive it through the formative 70's and 80's. Without those readers growing up and trying to buy back their childhood during their prime wage-earning years, we aren't having this conversation.

 

Or do you believe that the GA market just sprung up after CGC?

**************

 

oh sure, no doubt some of the early collectors 30-40 years ago are in their mid/late 70s now and may have been around to buy Action 1 off the rack and they had an influence on prices, but this hobby was created by baby boomers who did not buy Action 1 off the rack. sure though, i'm not saying they couldn't have had nostalgia for this old stuff even if it wasn't being printed when they were born. I grew up in the 70's reading beat up 60's Marvels of my brother's that were bought 8th hand. I suppose this older stuff was around via garage sales, junk shops, etc. in the 50's when those boomers were growing up.

 

of course, when you have a continuous series like superman/batman, do you really need to have been around for #1 to have nostalgia for it if you started reading at #100? that explains DCs and Timelys at least.

 

 

[seank]

 

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.)

 

What age 'kids' are we talking here? I would be perfectly fine with pretty much any child 12 and up reading this book. Heck, if you find this to be un suitable for kids what about modern books like identity crisis?

 

 

A smart, mature 12 year old will go to the stacks upstairs to find Watchmen if he or she wants to read it. My concern about the book in the kids' section was the morally uptight parent who finds the book in the kids' section and opens at random to see Dr. Manhattan's junk hanging out.

[the blob]

if spawn had a 2 million copy print run i think more than 90% need to disappear.

 

in today's smaller hobby i think you can't have much more than 50-75K copies floating around before it's too much for the market to sustain. so that's why you see the occasional marvel or DC pop, the valiants popped, etc.

 

so, really, 97.5% of Spawn 1s need to disappear before it's a solid $10-$20 book outside of a slab and all memories of 2 million spawn 1s floating around must be wiped from our brains. that's assuming the interest is about on par with Valiants, which I think is probably about right. people here poo poo mcfarlaine, but he definitely still has a fan base out there. for example, when i get them, those mcfarlaine hulks sell pretty well as does his ASM stuff. anything after that is just too overprinted.

[mikeyboy9000]

Heh, he has junk? I haven't read it in too long to remember if he had the parts or was hung like a ken doll. Wish i hadn't lost that tpb... Personally i think it's a kids book, not for 6 year olds by any means though i don't think they would grasp much of it anyway. I know in MY school library we had essentially a little kids and big kids section then non fiction and normal people fiction....

 

**I have deleted my big parents are censoring too much rant and replaced it with this: I disagree that the book is not children appropriate and that I would only keep this book out of a honest to god children's section (20 page books, bambi and friends, etc) and believe it to be fine alongside the faraway tree, harry potter and such. Ultimately i struggle to see how a child could not 'handle' a book like this. ::

 

edit: I suppose also that a large reason why it would end up in a kids section regardless of content is the general 'childrens book' association attached to comics.