Dear God - did I just buy a modern foil cover book?? 1990s lessons not learned!

[1Cool]

I just bought a foil cover variant of a Justice League book put out at San Diego Con. Like the cover but man do those covers remind me of the books being pumped out right before the crash in the 90s. Anyone willing to go on record of why today is like or not like the 90s market? My bad if this topic has been talked to death.

[aardvark88]

Unfortunately, 2016 actually seems worse than 1992 before the death knell of 1993. We now have WEEKLY delivery of multi-variant covers (e.g. Scottie Young, Turner Aspen Exclusives of DC comics, retailer exclusive variants, prorated incentive variants 1:25, 2nd or 3rd printing variants, and more). Let me know when my all gold foil 1993 cover comics are worth more than $1 please.

[ygogolak]

Unfortunately, 2016 actually seems worse than 1992 before the death knell of 1993. We now have WEEKLY delivery of multi-variant covers (e.g. Scottie Young, Turner Aspen Exclusives of DC comics, retailer exclusive variants, prorated incentive variants 1:25, 2nd or 3rd printing variants, and more). Let me know when my all gold foil 1993 cover comics are worth more than $1 please.

 

There weren't variants like this in the 90's, just larger single issue print runs.

[Broke as a Joke]

Seems the foil in the 90's was better quality. These new foil covers are delicate.

[Deltanimal]

I agree with aardvark88. There are just too many variants being put out for every issue, not including reprints. This makes collecting very frustrating. IDW now puts out upwards of 7+ covers for some TMNT issues. What happened to just having one great cover, and spending the rest of the time on great interior art work?

 

The SDCC Batman Rebirth Foil does look good IMO. But I don't know that it's value is going anywhere.

[SquareChaos]

The multiple covers practice is absolutely not going away. They're always going to sell more issues with multiple covers because of collectors. It just isn't going to go away completely, the publishers won't do it.

 

The best that can realistically be hoped for is that the publishers begin to do this in a more sustainable way.

[ygogolak]

The multiple covers practice is absolutely not going away. They're always going to sell more issues with multiple covers because of collectors. It just isn't going to go away completely, the publishers won't do it.

 

The best that can realistically be hoped for is that the publishers begin to do this in a more sustainable way.

[Captain Canuck]

Don't forget some books that come out with 20+ covers one for each retailer. I don't remember books in the 90s going for $200 - $300 straight off the shelf because it was a more limited variant. That or just didn't notice because I didn't have the money to pay those types of prices for a cover rack issue.

[Captain Canuck]

I agree with aardvark88. There are just too many variants being put out for every issue, not including reprints. This makes collecting very frustrating. IDW now puts out upwards of 7+ covers for some TMNT issues. What happened to just having one great cover, and spending the rest of the time on great interior art work?

 

The SDCC Batman Rebirth Foil does look good IMO. But I don't know that it's value is going anywhere.

The only people recouping their money on those are the people selling them directly from SDCC. They retail for $5 and are being sold on the boards anywhere from $18-$25 and they can't even keep them in stock. I don't see anyone paying $30 for them in a years time allowing the collectors to get their money back.

[chrisco37]

The Harley Rebirth #1 thread in Modern says there are currently 73 different variants for the book.

[thehumantorch]

We saw a similar situation in the 90s. The big difference is the trend away from print yowards electronic devices

[Logan510]

They drove away a lot of the readership in the 90's with the gimmicks.

 

I was under the impression it was the gimmicks that was keeping their dwindling fanbase around these days.

[thehumantorch]

More of an attempt to get more sales from the existing readership

 

Publish multiple covers so that a collector has to buy them all to maintain a complete collection and publish more foil and hologram covers because they have a higher cover price

[Ken Aldred]

The Harley Rebirth #1 thread in Modern says there are currently 73 different variants for the book.

 

Marvel's Star Wars 1 was about the same.

[com1cbook]

Beware variant fatigue.

[Beastfeast]

The secret is to not buy them.

[Mercury Man]

The secret is to not buy them.

 

Yessir!

 

One of my local LCS owners said he is done! He is no longer going to pump up his orders to qualify for variant incentives.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

They drove away a lot of the readership in the 90's with the gimmicks.

 

I was under the impression it was the gimmicks that was keeping their dwindling fanbase around these days.

 

Comic sales are trending up... not dwindling

 

Estimated OVERALL North American Market size, including both print and digital estimates by Comichron and ICV2.com:

 

2011 $715 million

2012 $805 million

2013 $870 million

2014 $935 million

2015 $1.03 billion

 

http://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales.html

 

Facts and all...

[THE_BEYONDER]

With a few exceptions, it seems like new comics take a bigger hit once plucked from the stands...than new cars once they leave the lot.

 

Comic companies seem to be churning out the bin fodder by the boatload.

[1Cool]

All of this sounds very familiar. Print runs shooting up - gimmicks being used to make people think a book is worth a ton more then it is. I don't think we are are the levels of the 90s where the mailman and the teachers were buying up long boxes of books in hopes of making a mint down the road. But I will say the multiple articles saying comics are worth big bucks has to be driving people to invest in books that probably will be worth pennies in the future.