Should the mods create an "Comic Book Marketplace Issues" forum?

[fantastic_four]

A few months ago, someone recommended that a new forum be created devoted to threads about comic books as market investments. I believe a poll was even created, but somehow the poll thread ended up being about joe_collector, which prompted several people--or was it just me? -- to ruin the thread with bickering.

 

Creating a forum like this is still a good idea. Investment-related threads can be extremely valuable in helping to guide our purchasing decisions. To separate buying-and-selling-advice-related posts from the "general" forum would preserve them better by making them easier to search for, decrease the HUGE number of threads in the "general" forum, and just generally be of great value to most people who frequently read these forums. Plus, since the topic of investments is something that many collectors (like me, most of the time!) and readers prefer not to hear about, a new forum would be a way to filter that type of talk out of their view. Perhaps we could even get the moderators to make using the word "crash" in any other forum but this proposed new one a bannable offense.

 

My proposed name for the forum is "Comic Book Marketplace Issues," but I'm including a poll option to allow you to choose an alternative title if you can think of a better one. I chose that title as the broadest one I could think of to direct as many posts from the General forum related to buying and selling comics as I possibly could. The title is very similar to the current "The Comics Marketplace" forum, but I would argue that it's not really a problem in being too similar. This new forum would be related to the current "marketplace" forum, but I think you can see that the focus is ENTIRELY different since it's not the actual buying and selling of comics like the existing forum is. I originally was thinking of the title "Comic Book Investment Issues," but since several people believe that calling a comic book an "investment" is inaccurate, I decided against it. Also, the word "marketplace" is more general than "investment" and might draw more posts away from the "General" forum.

 

To make it clear that the forum is not a reflection of CGC's corporate stance on comic book investing, the moderator might want to put a disclaimer in the forum description saying something like "this thread does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CGC"; the exact phrasing can probably be taken from somewhere else because I see this disclaimer a lot when a corporation allows an individual or organization to make comments on their platform.

 

 

 

[murph0]

Pretty soon there's gonna be 15 different forums for ever niche genre topic that people dwell on or is the "hot" button topic of the month. I fail to see why those threads can't remain under a General Comics discussion head.

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

Pretty soon there's gonna be 15 different forums for ever niche genre topic that people dwell on or is the "hot" button topic of the month. I fail to see why those threads can't remain under a General Comics discussion head.

 

Overly simplistic...using your viewpoint, we should just have a single large forum to post to. The reason it's a better idea because the General forum is overly full and unsearchable. In one of the recent posts, we tried to find a post from a coinee where he shared his experience in the coin market and compared it to the comic book market...I think the only reason we found it was because Joanna remembered the name of the guy who posted it. However she ended up finding it, it wasn't easy!

 

I do believe that market advice is a major, major topic in comics--which is why two of the major market/hobby-related trades out there are called "Comic Book Marketplace" and "Comics Buyer's Guide". And it's why certain regular posters among us just can't seem to stop talking about it.

[murph0]

So you can't find the market advice threads on the main forum? Because they're fairly obvious to me. Using that logic there should be separate forums for discussion of.. statues, movies, every genre of comic book, etc etc etc. There comes a point where enough is enough. General Comic Forum is enough to lump all the small scale stuff into a conglomerate.

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

statues, movies

 

Those aren't comic books.

 

 

every genre of comic book

 

Or maybe even every age of comic book? Should they get rid of those forums too?

 

 

General Comic Forum is enough to lump all the small scale stuff into a conglomerate.

 

For small-scale stuff, I agree. The comic book back issue market isn't "small scale" to a lot of people--Lighthouse, Borock, and thousands of other people make their living from it. And whether or not you're going to lose the $40K or so you've got tied up in your Spidey collection isn't "small" scale either, unless your parents are even richer than you've led us to believe.

[murph0]

What will happen, happens. I don't feel it's necessary to create a entirely new forum so that all the topics can be even MORE spread out. By no means do I have any trouble keeping up with the reading on the main forum, and I only check in once or twice a day on some days. At least with every age of comic books it's not so pigeonholed that once you talk the topic to death and it's no longer the flavor of the month, that then that forum is dead.

And it'll be a cold day in hell before I follow investment/comic market advice from this board. What I do with my money is what I do with my money. And I tell you what, if my ASM books DID become valueless over night. The loss would not be that great because they'd still have value to me. Just like electronics, cars, and everything else that diminishes in value after it's purchased.

What do you think should be in the General Comic forum? Nothing? We continue to pull topics out of it and that's what there will be.

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

And it'll be a cold day in hell before I follow investment/comic market advice from this board. What I do with my money is what I do with my money.

 

That's my personal motivation for wanting the separate forum, but it would also make it easier to find that advice when I want to look at it--maybe once a week or once a month or something.

 

 

What do you think should be in the General Comic forum? Nothing? We continue to pull topics out of it and that's what there will be.

 

Somehow, I don't think we've come anywhere close to classifying all of the topics within the comic book industry into a neat forum hierarchy. The fluff goes up there...not to say I don't like fluff, I do, I do, it's entertaining. Market talk isn't entertaining at all, but it's necessary, and it would be nice to be able to reference it when I need it. I can't reference it in General because it's mixed in with the fluff.

[Illiterati-migration]

Maybe we should start a Hulk 181 forum as well, or would that not work as it is not a focus of your particular attentions? It's a slippery slope.

[fantastic_four]

Maybe we should start a Hulk 181 forum as well, or would that not work as it is not a focus of your particular attentions? It's a slippery slope.

 

Let me see if I can make it less slippery for you:

 

• Number of trades or online services focusing on market analysis which have been able to draw enough readers willing to shell out money every week/month to stay in business = at least 7 (Overstreet, Overstreet Market Update newsletter or whatever it's called, CBM, CBG, Wizard, GPAnalysis, ComicSheet)
• Number of trades or online services focusing on Hulk 181 which have been able to draw enough readers willing to shell out ANY amount of money to even get started = 0
• Number of regular forum members who would never post again if a new forum rule was put into place banning all discussion of market-related issues because other people are tired of listening to the both of them = 2 (they shall remain nameless )
• Number of regular forum members who would never post again if they couldn't talk about Hulk 181 anymore = 0

I invite you to draw your own conclusions or come up with your own alternative analysis. I also think the proposed new forum would be the ideal place for all future Hulk 181 market analyses to go into--or any other thread discussing how much or how little a book sold for in the marketplace.

[Illiterati-migration]

Maybe we should start a Hulk 181 forum as well, or would that not work as it is not a focus of your particular attentions? It's a slippery slope.

 

Let me see if I can make it less slippery for you:

 

• Number of trades or online services focusing on market analysis which have been able to draw enough readers willing to shell out money every week/month to stay in business = at least 7 (Overstreet, Overstreet Market Update newsletter or whatever it's called, CBM, CBG, Wizard, GPAnalysis, ComicSheet)
• Number of trades or online services focusing on Hulk 181 which have been able to draw enough readers willing to shell out ANY amount of money to even get started = 0
• Number of regular forum members who would never post again if a new forum rule was put into place banning all discussion of market-related issues because other people are tired of listening to the both of them = 2 (they shall remain nameless )
• Number of regular forum members who would never post again if they couldn't talk about Hulk 181 anymore = 0

I invite you to draw your own conclusions or come up with your own alternative analysis. I also think the proposed new forum would be the ideal place for all future Hulk 181 market analyses to go into--or any other thread discussing how much or how little a book sold for in the marketplace.

 

Actually, you were leading into my original point by the end of your rant... we've GOT a Marketplace section... I don't see the need to FURTHER break down existing areas in the forum. Maybe you could get a little red push pin next to your little thread idea in the Marketplace section? Would that be permanent enough? We could call it the "Highly Esteemed And Much Ballyhooed Fantastic Four Honorary Memorial Market Analysis Thread". How about it?

 

Come on, you know you just want it so you can move your neverending [!@#%^&^] match with JC into a more formal environment.

[fantastic_four]

We could call it the "Highly Esteemed And Much Ballyhooed Fantastic Four Honorary Memorial Market Analysis Thread". How about it?

 

Come on, you know you just want it so you can move your neverending [!@#%^&^] match with JC into a more formal environment.

 

Good lord, no, I'm just trying to create an area he can go to and rant to the people who like to hear him rant in an effort to DECREASE the [!@#%^&^] matches with JC, because I really don't like them. I also want an area to reference when I see hard-to-find comics for sale at nice prices and I'm in a flipping sort of a mood. And it isn't for my own greater glory...I infrequently participate in market discussions anyway, at least the type he and Gene participate in. I'd just prefer to benefit from it without having to be around the smugness while reading the other fluff in the general forum...it really ruins my mood when I'm trying to enjoy truly useless posts, such as yours.

 

Also, this wasn't even my idea...somebody else had a poll a few months ago that I took a whiz on during an aforementioned [!@#%^&^] match with joe. I was just wondering why it hadn't already been created when so many people voted for it and felt guilty that myself and a few others might have contributed to killing the idea, so I thought I'd re-present it. I'm not even sure Arch ever saw the other poll--so when I posted this one I sent he and Steve Borock e-mail asking them to look here and seriously consider creating a new forum.

 

Why is it that people don't already post this type of stuff down in marketplace? I figure it's because they don't want their esoteric discussions mixed in with all the fluffy advertisements which get posted down there.

[joe_collector]

Actually, you were leading into my original point by the end of your rant... we've GOT a Marketplace section...

 

Umm, you do realize that old Marketplace threads get deleted automatically?

 

I think we need a new Forum, preferably using the word Valuation somewhere in it. Investment is to hot to touch as a name, and inserting Marketplace into the deal would get confusing.

 

The reasons are pretty obvious:

 

There ARE a lot of Market-related topics in General, these have valuable info in them and are started by many forum members. These threads are also extremely popular, have huge hit/post counts and tend to drive some of the other General threads to Page 2 & 3 pretty quickly.

 

Marketplace is for buying & selling and old threads get deleted, which would defeat the purpose of pointing newbies to existing info.

 

It would make certain that forum members who read General and have no interest in Market Valuation and Pricing would be free to stay away and let those with an interest in the subject have some fun conversations.

 

It would also free up the Marketplace from the "WTF! Look at that Crazee Price" threads that are all over the place, making it a better place to sell. Those comments aren't really General or any other category, so they end up in Marketplace, forcing gman to bump his threads multiple times.

[JohnBull]

Couldn't we just prefix appropriate threads with some kind of esoteric, masonic codeword, such that the initiated would understand what was going on and the others would probably just ignore ? How about "Marketplace Issue - " ?

[joe_collector]

Couldn't we just prefix appropriate threads with some kind of esoteric, masonic codeword, such that the initiated would understand what was going on and the others would probably just ignore ? How about "Marketplace Issue - " ?

 

I've got a better idea: How about anything that doesn't revolve around valuation, pricing or the markeplace use a "Non-Marketplace Issue" prefix?

[Illiterati-migration]

it really ruins my mood when I'm trying to enjoy truly useless posts, such as yours.

 

................. ........

 

 

But on a serious note,

 

I was just wondering why it hadn't already been created when so many people voted for it and felt guilty that myself and a few others might have contributed to killing the idea, so I thought I'd re-present it. I'm not even sure Arch ever saw the other poll--so when I posted this one I sent he and Steve Borock e-mail asking them to look here and seriously consider creating a new forum.

 

Thank you SO much, Godfather, for doing this for us. Thank you for taking your Grand Voice to the ear of The Borock and Don Arch. Surely, with your urging, the new forum will come into being in short order. Truly, the world would stop spinning were it not for your mighty hand gently urging it 'round... and I've been thinking about it and you're right. We need a special place where we can all go to get away from the insult-tossing trolls, the 181 discussions, the single-emoticon posts (Greggy), and the general cacophony that is the main board. Yes, we all need a place to just sit and be civil with one another. Why, we could discuss global comic issues while we sit in our finest fineries, sip hot tea and eat scrumptious, warm crumpets! A delightful idea. Certainly no arguments will develop in the new Sacred Land! Splendid!

 

 

 

[fantastic_four]

Thank you SO much, Godfather, for doing this for us. Thank you for taking your Grand Voice to the ear of The Borock and Don Arch. Surely, with your urging, the new forum will come into being in short order. Truly, the world would stop spinning were it not for your mighty hand gently urging it 'round... and I've been thinking about it and you're right. We need a special place where we can all go to get away from the insult-tossing trolls, the 181 discussions, the single-emoticon posts (Greggy), and the general cacophony that is the main board. Yes, we all need a place to just sit and be civil with one another. Why, we could discuss global comic issues while we sit in our finest fineries, sip hot tea and eat scrumptious, warm crumpets! A delightful idea. Certainly no arguments will develop in the new Sacred Land! Splendid!

 

 

Oh, I'm sorry, had someone already tried that? If so, darn...could you apologize to them for having me ask them again? I've got no more pull than anybody else, but as far as I could tell, nobody else had directed the attention of the people who actually get forums created to the previous thread. There are a few too many posts around here these days to read them all...hence the usefulness of segmenting large forums into smaller ones, so you can focus on topics which interest you.

[Illiterati-migration]

Thank you SO much, Godfather, for doing this for us. Thank you for taking your Grand Voice to the ear of The Borock and Don Arch. Surely, with your urging, the new forum will come into being in short order. Truly, the world would stop spinning were it not for your mighty hand gently urging it 'round... and I've been thinking about it and you're right. We need a special place where we can all go to get away from the insult-tossing trolls, the 181 discussions, the single-emoticon posts (Greggy), and the general cacophony that is the main board. Yes, we all need a place to just sit and be civil with one another. Why, we could discuss global comic issues while we sit in our finest fineries, sip hot tea and eat scrumptious, warm crumpets! A delightful idea. Certainly no arguments will develop in the new Sacred Land! Splendid!

 

 

Oh, I'm sorry, had someone already tried that? If so, darn...could you apologize to them for having me ask them again? I've got no more pull than anybody else, but as far as I could tell, nobody else had directed the attention of the people who actually get forums created to the previous thread. There are a few too many posts around here these days to read them all...hence the usefulness of segmenting large forums into smaller ones, so you can focus on topics which interest you.

 

Which is why I suggested a Hulk 181 forum.

 

Regardless, I think the poll numbers have spoken. And what the hell is that guy supposed to mean, anyway?

[joe_collector]

Regardless, I think the poll numbers have spoken.

 

I personally find these numbers quite amusing, as why would you vote no?

 

Everytime there is a Market Crash thread going, there are tons of people screaming and yelling for it to stop, move to a place where they didn't have to read it, and otherwise yammering on.

 

If there was a Comic Book Valuation forum, this would be easily accomplished... unless you nay-sayers actually get off on yammering in the Market Crash threads? Hmmmmm?

[Illiterati-migration]

Regardless, I think the poll numbers have spoken.

 

I personally find these numbers quite amusing, as why would you vote no?

 

Everytime there is a Market Crash thread going, there are tons of people screaming and yelling for it to stop, move to a place where they didn't have to read it, and otherwise yammering on.

 

If there was a Comic Book Valuation forum, this would be easily accomplished... unless you nay-sayers actually get off on yammering in the Market Crash threads? Hmmmmm?

 

"You" nay-sayers?? That's laughably ignorant.

 

Show me a market crash thread where there are "tons of people screaming and yelling for it to stop." Then we can look at all the OTHER hundreds of crash threads that go swerving wildly off-topic just like EVERY OTHER THREAD on this message board. Don't flatter yourself. Hell, most of the crash threads only come about because you come into an unsuspecting thread, grouse about how much the world sucks, FF jumps your case, and it just expands from there. It comes as no surprise to anyone that the two resident egomaniacs are now siding together to get this little forum going.

 

Here's a thought, JC:

 

Why would CGC want to OFFICIALLY dedicate a segment of the board to you and your ridiculous biddy-style bickering about your comic market doomsday scenarios?

 

 

[fantastic_four]

Regardless, I think the poll numbers have spoken.

 

I wonder where the shiller in this poll was during the previous one Joe posted where people were overwhelmingly in favor of a "valuation" forum? Probably too busy wading through the 200 messages a day in General, I guess.