Coppers to buy before they explode

[vaillant]

joe_collector is a lot more than a troll. He’s… a trolling machine.

[Hulksdaddy1]

They survey whoever walks into the LCS door, and trust me, not many kids can afford today's insane cover prices, so I don't see how the numbers can be wrong.

 

I agree and disagree. I agree that not many kids walk through comic shop doors, but disagree it has anything to do with cover price. Video games aren't cheap, and kids(parents) are dropping big $$ on them.

 

Fact is, there are many, many more options today for kids to spend their time on, and comics are very low on it, if not absent.

[ygogolak]

They survey whoever walks into the LCS door, and trust me, not many kids can afford today's insane cover prices, so I don't see how the numbers can be wrong.

 

LCS door? Ha, it's cute that you think kids go to their local store to buy comics.

Let me guess, it's right next to the record store?

[Crimebuster]

They survey whoever walks into the LCS door, and trust me, not many kids can afford today's insane cover prices, so I don't see how the numbers can be wrong.

 

LCS door? Ha, it's cute that you think kids go to their local store to buy comics.

Let me guess, it's right next to the record store?

 

Funny thing is, my LCS is actually next to a record store. There are a lot more kids in the LCS than in the record store, though.

 

Most kids who read comics probably do so on their mobile devices. But pretty much every time I am at my LCS, there are kids there as well. I don't think the LCS experience is quite dead yet.

[Pete Marino]

They survey whoever walks into the LCS door, and trust me, not many kids can afford today's insane cover prices, so I don't see how the numbers can be wrong.

 

LCS door? Ha, it's cute that you think kids go to their local store to buy comics.

Let me guess, it's right next to the record store?

 

Funny thing is, my LCS is actually next to a record store. There are a lot more kids in the LCS than in the record store, though.

 

Most kids who read comics probably do so on their mobile devices. But pretty much every time I am at my LCS, there are kids there as well. I don't think the LCS experience is quite dead yet.

 

My LCS is named "the record store" has comics and records / CD's. Mostly it's DJ's and hard core music fans mixing the comic fans... makes for an interesting group of patrons for sure.

[KRS_SD]

My LCS in San Diego is filled with young adults (late teens-20's) buying and talking about the latest independent books. Gone are the kids and tweens looking to read the latest superhero book, on paper at least.

 

 

[MrWeen]

My two cents...I get why people don't want Marvel Age or similar books to become collectibles. There's that DC Spotlight book with previews of both Watchmen and Dark Knight. The Preacher preview, of course.

 

It feels like, I dunno, giving out Oscars for Best Trailer.

 

BUT...

 

...when a comic becomes hot enough--and especially when it becomes unattainable enough--the rabid collectors are going to want to feel they own that comic's ESSENCE as much as possible. Collect Doomsday? Already got MOS 17, but you wish you could still recapture that feeling of the chase AND feel like you have MOS 17 in a way that's even more MOS 17ier than just that one issue itself? Get all the subsequent printings, too. Pick up the standee or poster (making these up!), too.

 

And if you're doing all that...why WOULDN'T you want the DC Direct Currents that advertised MOS 17, too?

 

When comics and characters go big, their collecting spheres are going to expand...yes, even into paraphernalia that we don't consider to be comics proper.

 

And one reason we don't like that, is because then it starts to itch at our OWN sense of completionism. If everyone else out there has the Darkhawk preview in Marvel Age whatever...are our Darkhawk #1s REALLY enough... and pretty soon, damn it, these silly people who don't know what comics collecting is really supposed to be have redefined things enough that now WE feel compelled to pick up a comic we "know" we shouldn't care about.

 

Happened to me on Preacher Preview years ago.

 

Glad it did today!

 

Those DC Direct Currents are full of wonderful things many collectors should care about-early Preacher article and cover, pin ups by many incredible artists plus they aren't that easy to find.

 

I understand what you are saying about Darkhawk and it's a good example. Whether or not market sales will ever reflect the true first appearances of characters like Darkhawk in Marvel Age 97 or The Walking Dead in Agents 6/Capes 1 or Wolverine in Foom 2 Daredevil 115 doesn't really matter. It just feels like many on these boards refuse to see what's right in front of their face. I understand that many bank of these books to pay off down the road and if you have stocked up on Darkhawk 1s then you will be motivated to sway the market in your favor. This is why there a distinction between collecting comics for joy and collecting for profit must be made. If comics were free to all they what is the argument against a comic like Marvel Age 97 as Darkhawk's first appearance. He's on the cover after all. Even if there was no narrative within and he was only on the cover IT IS STILL A FIRST APPEARANCE.

[joe_collector]

My LCS in San Diego is filled with young adults (late teens-20's) buying and talking about the latest independent books. Gone are the kids and tweens looking to read the latest superhero book, on paper at least.

 

Yep, and when I am making these statements, they are directed at the Big 2 - Marvel and DC - as since 1990, they have cultivated an aging readership that just keeps getting older. That's also where most of the demographic data is centered on as well.

 

Some Indies are popular with the 20-somethings, but that is more a recent trend, not something that was taking place in the 1990's.

[slym2none]

There were no 20-somethings in the 1990s that liked indies?

 

All those college kids that came into the LCS I used to work at were over 30??

 

 

 

 

-slym

[joe_collector]

There were no 20-somethings in the 1990s that liked indies?

 

Not in any great numbers compared to Marvel and DC readers, which is what we're talking about.

 

Now, with sales depressed to unheard-of levels, even an Indie selling 10K a month is a player. Back in the 90's Diamond wouldn't even carry a book like that.

 

In order for the "Rule of 25" to have any traction it needs a) young kids/tweens/teens and b) a of a lot of them buying and reading/trashing these books.

[slym2none]

Hate to tell you - in the 90's, Image was an indie. VALIANT was an Indie. They weren't small potatoes, either.

 

I have my own anecdotal evidence that proves you wrong. But, since it is anecdotal, it only matters to me, I know.

 

 

 

 

-slym

[kimik]

b) a of a lot of them buying and reading/trashing these books.

 

This will likely never happen again due to kids knowing to bag and board books right away.

 

That being said, the lower print runs are our friend in this case.

[vaillant]

My LCS in San Diego is filled with young adults (late teens-20's) buying and talking about the latest independent books. Gone are the kids and tweens looking to read the latest superhero book, on paper at least.

 

 

If late teens are not "kids" what are "kids"? 12, 13 years old?

Or younger children?

 

In that case, it‘s pretty easy: the american publishing industry has pretty much destroyed the market of comic books which are ALSO suitable to children. And attractive to them, not to disaffectioned adults.

 

And whether a kid has a "mobile device" is up to his parents.

[MR SigS]

Over here, babies are born texting and tweeting.

[vaillant]

Over here, babies are born texting and tweeting.

 

…but without knowing the language in which they type in?

 

I know, I know, but it doesn’t make sense. So called "communication" does not happen if you aren’t able to communicate, and the more sophisticate the means, the bigger the problem.

[500Club]

Rule of 25.

 

That rule only applies to kid hobbies, and kids stopped buying comics around 1989-90 and were pretty well gone by the time Supes kicked the bucket in 1992.

 

So for comics 1991-on, the Rule of 25 is no more.

 

That's cute. And wrong.

I'm not so sure. I don't think it's 100% correct, but there is truth to the idea that our strongest nostalgic feelings stem from the things we liked in our formative years. By the mid 90s, we were seeing the average collector age shift upward.

 

I'll be very interested to see how it works out going forward. It's likely to not be an all or none outcome, but rather a matter of degree.

 

What encyclopedia are you getting this info. from?

Encyclopedia?

 

Are you deliberately playing dumb? Do you think that information would be found in an encyclopedia? And do you think there wasn't a shift in average readership age?

[ygogolak]

Rule of 25.

 

That rule only applies to kid hobbies, and kids stopped buying comics around 1989-90 and were pretty well gone by the time Supes kicked the bucket in 1992.

 

So for comics 1991-on, the Rule of 25 is no more.

 

That's cute. And wrong.

I'm not so sure. I don't think it's 100% correct, but there is truth to the idea that our strongest nostalgic feelings stem from the things we liked in our formative years. By the mid 90s, we were seeing the average collector age shift upward.

 

I'll be very interested to see how it works out going forward. It's likely to not be an all or none outcome, but rather a matter of degree.

 

What encyclopedia are you getting this info. from?

Encyclopedia?

 

Are you deliberately playing dumb? Do you think that information would be found in an encyclopedia? And do you think there wasn't a shift in average readership age?

 

[500Club]

Brilliant. No intelligent addition to the discussion.

[ygogolak]

Brilliant. No intelligent addition to the discussion.

 

[joe_collector]

Hate to tell you - in the 90's, Image was an indie. VALIANT was an Indie. They weren't small potatoes, either.

 

, I guess by that bizarre connotation, any company can be an Indie, right?

 

Valiant was heavily founded by venture capital and was certainly not a traditional "Indie" any more than Marvel or DC are Indies. And while the individual creator-owned Image studios might qualify, they did not publish the books, Malibu did, just as these *same* studios supplied product for Marvel later on.

 

The most important distinction to American Indie comics is that they provide an alternative to the standard superhero action comics of the major publishers. If you make superhero books and sell in huge numbers, even if you do publish some alternative/indie titles, you are NOT by definition an independent comic book publisher.