Worst Comic Book Gimmicks

[read_em-migration]

I guess I must be the uber geek then in your eyes, seeing as I have a complete set of 30 cent variants, a bunch of 35s, a near complete set of Whitman variants and I paid $250 for Identity Crisis 4 with the poster. And how did I pay for them? Selling Silver Age Marvels and DCs, which I think, for the most part, are awful. Its a good thing that didn't have to tap into my weekly paycheck for it, since it is soooooooooooooo small.

 

Oh, I missed some posts while I was responding. Yes FD, in the variant sense, you are Uber. In fact, that Identity Crisis #4 was what prompted me to post the Variant Madness thread on Ebay (posted by Darth above). $250 for a book because it has a poster in it?

So, I posted to a Board that likes my take on variants, and one that doesn't - fair and balanced!

 

But has this stopped me from buying books from you, FD? Nope. Granted, you haven't had anything I'm looking for lately, but I have bought from you in the past. Hypocrisy? Nope. Not cutting off my nose to spite my face? Yep.

 

What do you collect? Seriously. Let me know so I can blast you for your idiotic choices.

 

Check my previous post. I'm sure you can find at least one thing to make fun of, but that's fine. I'm not a puhssy, I can take it - exactly because I don't have the price variant mentality. It's easier to defend my collecting practices than yours.

[Darthdiesel]

I pick up Whitmans as well - people like the different logo or the missing price or the "WHITMAN" inverted print block on the top edge of their books...it's different and more well versed collectors would know which ones are truly rare and sought after. I just pick up ones that I don't have when I see them.

[Darthdiesel]

But he has shared his knowledge, all the time - how do you think he got some of the scans? A while back he would post on the Ebay Board with his "website", asking for scans of books, and sharing his info with everyone who read the Board. It's not like you even have to be an Ebay member to read the Board. In fact, Darth, I've seen you post a link to Giffle's Star Wars variants, haven't I? You missed it because either you don't like Ebay's chat format, the people there, or . Is he supposed to have a huge website just for you guys? As far as I can see, he doesn't like CGC or price variant speculators much, so why should he go out of his way to discover a new variant, just so you guys can make it a $100 book? Are you saying that because he doesn't post his vast knowledge HERE that he's holding out?

 

No clue the bipcomics site was his...I'm ust remember to thank him. Thought it was metarog's all this time. You are wrong about why I don't post on the ebay boards. It's just a matter of time available to me. I like reading stuff on there. I just missed Gifflefunk's posts. I think I've only notice him bidding on Star Wars 1 variants so I just mental noted him as someone to compete with when I'm looking for that book. When I was first starting to collect these, silverandbronze apporached me with information to help me find and locate these on and off ebay. He never sold me a book and actually helped my when I had 6 left and gave me one of his copies of a relatively HTF book (HTF cover, from your perspective) - I'm not saying Gif is holding out, just not as outgoing or open to contact as others have been; thus not bringing him into my spectrum of price variant collector/enthusiasts. He is not obligated to share his knowledge and you must think pretty low of everyone here if you think ALL we want to do is make a $100 variant out of a new one. Maybe you just hate capitalism and the effects of supply and demand

 

That's right. And if my posts break up the price variant lovefests and convince just one person that collecting price variants isn't worth it, I've done my job. You see this as a negative, I see it as a positive - it's all relative and subjective, right?

 

And at every turn guys like me will post against your inaccurate biased portrayals. You see this as a negative, I see it as a positive - it's all relative and subjective, right?

 

Yeah, that was a bit vague. Of course, I meant the slabbed IF # 14s and their ilk.

 

Man, that's your issue to deal with. I can't help you there.

 

I'll let you and shieldagent hash out your definitions of well rounded. So now if ewe don't think of well rounded as the read_em stupidman way, we are "narrow-minded" - way to welcome folks to your dying hobby and insure there will be future interest .

 

I see Marvel Zombies bash DC on here and vice versa, so price variant bashing should come as no surprise.

 

I think the above bashing is a bit light hearted and in jest most of the time like Yankee fans vs REd sox fans, etc. Your price variant/speculating bashing takes it down to another level...

 

Ok, next question: have you read (or plan to read) every price variant book you have bought? Is my assumption that the answer is "no" correct?

 

Read them all - not really great reads in my opinion but may be thrilling for others. i'm not going to rain on their parade. and if you say why do I buy five copies and do I read them all - well if I don't find the story that good, why would I read it 5 times - waste of time, wouldn't cha think? Why buy 5 copies? I just accumulate because I'm looking for the best copy. Eventually I'll sell them off or trade them and when I do, I'll use every tool at my disposal to get market value for them, unless capitalism is illegal all of a sudden.

 

 

Do you pay more for these variants than you would for the regular issue? Would you even buy that regular issue if it wasn't a price variant? If you answered "no" and then "yes", then congrats! If it's the other way around, then

 

This post right here proves to me that you can not and will not ever understand what is behind price variant collecting.

 

! Yeah, my 681 posts in 2 1/2 years is just sad. Come back and talk to me when I put up 10,000 in less than 2 years.

 

Cute, read_em...take a few more ad hominem shots...love it...

[Tango 'n Cash]

Is this read_em whacko for real, or is this a joke?

[read_em-migration]

It's always fun butting heads with The Speculator Supreme!

[read_em-migration]

Is this read_em whacko for real, or is this a joke?

 

Do a user name search, this is nothing new from me...

[Tango 'n Cash]

So what's the big deal?

 

I could understand it if you were against the current variant hype. That has the potential of bringing comic shops down with it just like the 90's. But these price variants guys are small potatoes and their entire economic contribution was smaller than what was spent on Limited Variants of Astonishing X-Men.

 

Live and let live.

[Darthdiesel]

It's always fun butting heads with The Speculator Supreme!

 

 

Right back at ya, Stu - thanks for entertaining me this Sunday afternoon while my wife and kid are napping... off to Church and then I'll be back on eBay for some more pillaging of newbies' pockets

[Darthdiesel]

But these price variants guys are small potatoes and their entire economic contribution was smaller than what was spent on Limited Variants of Astonishing X-Men.

 

 

There may be more truth to this than you know The recent flood of price variants really has affected sales negatively as of late, so if anyone wanted to jump on board, now would be the time. I just sold off 12 copies last night that actually cost me more to acquire. You may think "well that was certainly a dumb move" but since I don't hoard these and have no use for them now, why not make another collector happy and at the same time get some of the money Ipaid to own it in the first place back?

 

Also the comment above made me think of the price variant guys as a bunch of Gollums cringing with their backs to everyone as they gently stroked the "preciousssess" ... err...yeah that didn't come out right

[comicwiz]

Good list. Here's my rant which might be a little controversial:

 

The worst gimmick is the complete trashing of the comics code and making the medium very unfriendly to kids.

 

In some ways the 70s was the best of all worlds. Lots of comics on the racks for kids in every drugstore, but still there were comic shops in college towns where there was a corner for 18 and up. Now many stores just throw all the new books onto a common counter. The comics industry is simply pillaging and strip-mining what the pioneers have created. Gay Northstar? Gay Kid Colt? Waspy Vag*na Voyages with Yellowjacket? Wertham was an overreaction, but so is that dreck in books that should by rights appeal to both kids and adults. Every year the average age of comic book readers goes up but the total number of readers is declining. That means less kids are getting into the medium and the hobby.

 

Yeah, yeah, part of the reason is that kids, especially teen boys, have other diversions like gaming and on-line porn. Society as a whole is less kid-friendly and comics reflect that to an extent, but the bottom line is that this industry and this hobby is in many ways cutting its own throat.

 

The initiative to abandom the code, albeit one movtivated by business priniciples rather than satisfying a younger audience, is one that was wholeheartedly adopted by mainstream giants Marvel and DC. To compete with independent/alternatives titles which were now eating away at profit share which the mainstream had enjoyed for so long, the codes stringent standards were shunned in pursuit of serving the versatile interests of modern readership.

 

One might argue that direct market distribution played a more significant role than, as you put it, the "trashing" of the code, in displacing comics from young readership. This was in part due to the constraints placed on local comic shops to keep any/all unsold comic backstock. To survive, comic shops had to find ways to retail unsalable comic books. One of the most common strategies; selling new comics already bagged/boarded would soon follow, and provided the comic stock wasn't too badly damaged in shipping, or there were'nt any significant problems with the comic production (i.e. production defects), comic shops could turn new comics over in a quicker timeframe.

 

Born from this marketing strategy, the phenomenon of collectors bent on obtaining the best possible copy of a comic, caring less about reading the particular issue than collecting the copy in the best possible condition. Therefore, any factors where lower production runs, or defects came in the way of satisfying the "condition freak" collector base, and it immediately gave comic shop owners a free pass to retail comics fresh off the newstand at multiples of cover price. These were all strategies which had less to do with acquiescing the interests of young 'readers', and more to do with economics and surviving in a hobby driven market. Gimmicks such as these would help to insure unsold backstock would not someday end up in the quarter bins, and serve as a painful reminder to the store owner of its loss on that particular issue. It is remotely worth mentioning that this is a gimmick/theme which has been offered up by forumites such as del and jc on many an occassion, and unfortunately, one that quickly degenerates into another conspiracy/crash thread.

[gifflefunk]

I'm ust remember to thank him

 

No problem. I don't normally post here due to time constraints so I limit my posts to eBay and the Yahoo Timely/Atlas group (and sometimes the Charlton and Atlas/Seaboard groups).

 

I would like to clear up a couple things... it is true that I do not feel compelled to collect every specimen of the early Direct Sale Marvel issues put out in the late 1970s. For those I'm happy to find a cover scan and incorporate it into the Direct Sale grid.

 

Now the Star Wars comics... those I do collect and I'm trying to hunt down and document all the English language books I can find (including different editions, variants, reprints, error issues, etc.). And for some reason (obsession?) I do like to hunt for the Star Wars price variants (I have no idea why).

 

By my way of thinking, an "edition" is a specific large scale output of issues (i.e. Direct Sale vs. Newsstand or Cents vs. Pence), a "variant" is an intentional change to a specific edition (i.e. 30¢ Newsstand regular price vs. 35¢ Newsstand test market price) and an "error" issue is an accident that occurs during the publishing process (i.e. color inversions, etc.) that is corrected during the run thereby creating two different versions of a book.

[cosmic-spider-man]

Hi; gifflefunk

Very nice web sites you have up thier I find them very interesting

just wandering have you seen this yet? and what do you think of it? Also have you ever seen a 30 cent direct market Star Wars #1?

 

[gifflefunk]

Yes, I've seen that book. In fact I mentioned it as part the following eBay thread.

 

I emailed the winner of the first 35cent Direct Sale #1 w/ barcode lines that had turned up on eBay back in 2003 and he wrote back stating that the book turned out to be a reprint (I assume it says reprint in the indicia). I do not own a copy of this variant yet so I cannot confirm his statement. But I would find it very interesting to learn that Direct Sale issues had price variants so I'm leaning towards reprint at this time (and I'm working on updating my Star Wars pages). The first one I saw looked like it may have been a doctored copy designed to trick people so I didn't include it on my Star Wars pages, but with the appearance of this second copy I'm inclined to believe they exist (similar to the Direct Sale #11 with and without barcode lines).

 

And no, I have not found a Star Wars 30cent #1 Direct Sale (with or without barcode lines)... but the hunt continues... heck, I didn't know 30cent Direct Sale issues of 2 through 4 existed until two years.

[*paull*]

I have an unopened pack of three Star Wars issues, #1-3, in a 3/99cents polybag. The three issues are .35 each in a diamond, with no UPC code and do not say "REPRINT" next to the Luke Skywalker icon below the price. Are these reprints? I'm used to seeing "REPRINT" on the cover like I have on an issue of #3.

[read_em-migration]

I would like to clear up a couple things... it is true that I do not feel compelled to collect every specimen of the early Direct Sale Marvel issues put out in the late 1970s. For those I'm happy to find a cover scan and incorporate it into the Direct Sale grid.

 

Ah, that's right, it's the Direct Sale Marvels, not the 30/35 cent covers. Oh well, that doesn't really change my basic intent of that example - needing only scans, doing it for the sake of knowledge, etc - that's really why I posted that example. Marvel price variants are Marvel price variants - they're all the same to me. Just means the 30/35 cent variant prices collectors got all excited for nothing. So sorry!

[Darthdiesel]

They may indicate they are reprints in the indicia.

[Darthdiesel]

Good going, Stu - you even got me to post on the eBay boards...

[*paull*]

I'm peeking through the polybag, but I see nothing that indicates it's a reprint. Any ideas?

[read_em-migration]

Good going, Stu - you even got me to post on the eBay boards...

 

Don't worry, you won't have to any more. I've said enough on this subject here and there... nothing more to gain by arguing with you

[Darthdiesel]

sorry Paul - the indicia is the small print on the bottom usually of the first page inside the cover. It would say REPRINT somewhere in the small print or 2nd printing. 3 printing etc