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Prepare for the next comic market crash

Started by shortstack comics,

70 posts in this topic

Mr.Diggler

Mr.Diggler

Posted
Posted
Marvel is sure putting out a lot of titles these days. Wolverine has a new limited series starting up almost every month it seems as of late. Every comic has multiple variants

Personally even if I like a character such as Wolverine, Spidey I'm not going out and buying all these spinoffs. Seems like a total cash grab most of the time.

History repeating itself.

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piper

piper

Posted
Posted
The difference here is investors/speculators are not lining up to buy 10 copies of these books like they did in the 90’s. I am not happy with foil covers either, but I really wouldn’t worry about till it runs rampant as it once did before.

 

Actually, for the last 2-3 years we have seen the variant cover BS run wild which still proved that people were not speculating on those either.

 

(The only true variant is Batman #608 RRP).

 

I think a random foil cover every now and then is fine, no big deal.

Investors or non-comic speculators have more than likely learned their lesson and are now sticking to the old vintage CGC stuff, which honestly makes sense. I am unsure if that is good for the hobby or not, but it sure as hell beats the absurd 90’s debacle.

 

Vintage comics should be thought of as blue chip investments that you need to hold over time, and not for a quick flip. Of course not talking about pressing or buying raw books and flipping them after being graded, etc..talking about established maximized CGC books. (My viewpoint to an investor, not speaking for comic collectors who love/collect the book just because).

 

+1

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Silver

Silver

Posted
Posted
The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing...and expecting a different result. doh!

 

I thought that was the definition of insanity? :hi:

 

anyways, the comic market has already crashed, just nobody wants to talk about it lol

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slym2none

slym2none

Posted
Posted
What's the old adage? "Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it?"

 

:eek:

 

 

 

-slym

(thumbs u These new covers are "a tribute to the fans". :banana:

 

Then they should be free...

 

Y'know, I like the way you are thinking...

 

:D

 

 

 

-slym

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jordanscott

jordanscott

Posted
Posted
What's the old adage? "Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it?"

 

:eek:

 

 

 

-slym

 

If a man is in the forest and there is no woman around, is he still wrong?

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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted

As it did in the 90s, there's no reason to suppose that if a crash in moderns came again, it wouldn't filter across the whole industry.

---------------------------------------------

 

if there's a 90's-like crash this time, with 50K print-runs vs. 200-500K print-runs, that would probably be the end of the whole industry other than individuals putting out indie small press/print-run comics for fun.

 

on the other end, dealers/shops are a lot less reliant on the recent (past 10-15 years) back issue business than 10-15 years ago, as most of the newer stuff just gets chucked in the discount box anyway rather than bagged and boarded and rounded up to the nearest dollar or 50 cents over cover price. maybe there's a bigger disconnect between people buying stuff off the rack and collectors buying more vintage stuff. as can be seen here, many people do not buy new comics who buy tons of old ones or only buy a few new comics.

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ChasingKingKirby

ChasingKingKirby

Posted
Posted

On second thought, marvel said exactly what they meant. See Webster's definition below...

 

1 a : a payment by one ruler or nation to another in acknowledgment of submission or as the price of protection; also : the tax levied for such a payment b (1) : an excessive tax, rental, or tariff imposed by a government, sovereign, lord, or landlord (2) : an exorbitant charge levied by a person or group having the power of coercion c : the liability to pay tribute

 

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nwpassage

nwpassage

Posted
Posted

When I was a kid I got 2.00 bucks a week allowance. If I spent the whole wad on comics, which I never did, I could get 18 books. A kid today would have to get an allowance of 72.00 dollars a week to keep pace. I highly doubt any new collectors are being created at that level anymore, and the hobby is dependent upon middle-aged men who I would assume are slowly matriculating out of the hobby at the "new" comic avenue. I don't see it crashing as much as I see it dying a slow death to a hundred other venues. SDCC is a classic example to me of how little influence comics have on the medium of comics anymore. A successful comic will be a movie first, not the other way around.

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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted

When I was a kid I got 2.00 bucks a week allowance. If I spent the whole wad on comics, which I never did, I could get 18 books. A kid today would have to get an allowance of 72.00 dollars a week to keep pace.

-----------------------------------------------

 

When I was a kid, I bought one or two new comics at 50 or 60 cents (usually X-Men and what John Byrne was doing) and spent the rest of my money in the 3/$1 and 4/$1 box.

 

Now my LCS has a 3 for $2 box. So, your 18 books would be $12. Another LCS I go to near my house has a 50 cent and $1 box (more dollar books though). hen we pass by there I buy a buck or two worth of cheapies for my kid to trash.

 

Honestly, if a kid is not overly concerned about not missing an issue and potentially not getting what they want, it is still not such an expensive hobby.

 

Just like this isn't an expensive hobby for vintage collectors if you're not overly concerned about high grades and key books.

 

Personally, I do not know how prevalent OCD completionism is among 10 year olds, but if you're a kid looking for a stack of comics to read, and you happen to live near a comic shop that has a discount box (a 50/50 proposition?), you can do o.k. Of course, what % of the population of 10 year olds does this actually describe? Anyone in my hood has a bit of a schlep to the nearest shop, though certainly doable by bike, but I live in the biggest city in the country. When I lived in Manhattan, there wasn't a single shop on the entire west side or harlem (my guess, population 150K +/-?) other than a place that was also an opera shop that is open only 2 hours a day (1-3 p.m.!)...nothing in biking distance! In the 90's there were easily 4 or 5.

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shortstack comics

shortstack comics

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  • Author
Posted
When I was a kid I got 2.00 bucks a week allowance. If I spent the whole wad on comics, which I never did, I could get 18 books. A kid today would have to get an allowance of 72.00 dollars a week to keep pace.

-----------------------------------------------

 

When I was a kid, I bought one or two new comics at 50 or 60 cents (usually X-Men and what John Byrne was doing) and spent the rest of my money in the 3/$1 and 4/$1 box.

 

Now my LCS has a 3 for $2 box. So, your 18 books would be $12. Another LCS I go to near my house has a 50 cent and $1 box (more dollar books though). hen we pass by there I buy a buck or two worth of cheapies for my kid to trash.

 

Honestly, if a kid is not overly concerned about not missing an issue and potentially not getting what they want, it is still not such an expensive hobby.

 

Just like this isn't an expensive hobby for vintage collectors if you're not overly concerned about high grades and key books.

 

Personally, I do not know how prevalent OCD completionism is among 10 year olds, but if you're a kid looking for a stack of comics to read, and you happen to live near a comic shop that has a discount box (a 50/50 proposition?), you can do o.k. Of course, what % of the population of 10 year olds does this actually describe? Anyone in my hood has a bit of a schlep to the nearest shop, though certainly doable by bike, but I live in the biggest city in the country. When I lived in Manhattan, there wasn't a single shop on the entire west side or harlem (my guess, population 150K +/-?) other than a place that was also an opera shop that is open only 2 hours a day (1-3 p.m.!)...nothing in biking distance! In the 90's there were easily 4 or 5.

 

The counter arguement I have to that is the decompression in story telling that dominant in this age of comics. It's hard to miss an issue and get the full story when it takes six issues to tell a stroy. Not many one and done books anymore.

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the blob

the blob

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Posted

The counter arguement I have to that is the decompression in story telling that dominant in this age of comics. It's hard to miss an issue and get the full story when it takes six issues to tell a stroy. Not many one and done books anymore.

---------------

 

that's true. when i was buying those comics out of 4/$1 and 3/$1 box they were often stand alone stories. heck, it seemed that back then only x-men routinely had long multi-issue story arcs...maybe some of the Byrne FFs did too.

 

and yes, my method of picking up moderns does leave gaps. but then again, i grew up with a father who would take us to the movies and routinely have us come in at the middle of the movie, watch it to the end, stay during the intermission and watch the first half of the movie and then we'd leave in the middle and sneak into another movie in the middle and do the same thing, so my brain operates in weird ways.

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MR.COMICBOOK

MR.COMICBOOK

Posted
Posted
As it did in the 90s, there's no reason to suppose that if a crash in moderns came again, it wouldn't filter across the whole industry.

---------------------------------------------

 

if there's a 90's-like crash this time, with 50K print-runs vs. 200-500K print-runs, that would probably be the end of the whole industry other than individuals putting out indie small press/print-run comics for fun.

 

on the other end, dealers/shops are a lot less reliant on the recent (past 10-15 years) back issue business than 10-15 years ago, as most of the newer stuff just gets chucked in the discount box anyway rather than bagged and boarded and rounded up to the nearest dollar or 50 cents over cover price. maybe there's a bigger disconnect between people buying stuff off the rack and collectors buying more vintage stuff. as can be seen here, many people do not buy new comics who buy tons of old ones or only buy a few new comics.

 

^^

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