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

Started by 1Cool,

65 posts in this topic

THE_BEYONDER

THE_BEYONDER

Posted
Posted
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.

 

The significant difference is how much further the current market has to fall.

 

 

 

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SquareChaos

SquareChaos

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

 

http://blog.comichron.com/2016/07/comics-and-graphic-novel-sales-top-1.html

 

That trend just isn't happening though. Across the board, electronic sales are down for books, magazines, and comics.

 

This is true, but it's also being artificially depressed to a very large degree.

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rjrjr

rjrjr

Posted
Posted
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.

 

I think this is largely true. There are a lot of comics that are being sold today that are not even read. There are a lot of people who only buy new comics to speculate on. And there are a lot of people, like me, who buy the variant covers for their collection, but only read one copy of the comic. I bought upwards of 100 variant covers for Star Wars #1 (I don't know the exact number, but it was high) which went into my collection, but only one copy was read. If the average consumer bought 2 copies of Star Wars #1, then that 1 million copies sold number doesn't look as impressive. And if it was more than 2, like 5 or 10, the numbers drop even further.

 

It is true that it does not look like comics are being bought by the cases for speculation, but they are being bought by the cases for the retailer incentive variant covers. And you can see on eBay the price of standard comics are depressed while the variant covers do well, initially. Locally, I can see many LCS' blow out the standard comics at reduced prices. And you can go to any comic convention in the country and find the same situation.

 

I would not be surprised if 25% or more of new comics never get opened and read. The publishers know this, so they pump out more variant covers catering to the people buying them. When you see people spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars for one brand new comic with a variant cover, I can't blame publishers for producing more variant covers.

 

As an aside, I was relatively new to the variant cover game when Marvel took over publishing the Star Wars comics. Dark Horse had variant covers, but nowhere near how many Marvel has produced. In the beginning, once I made the decision to buy the new Star Wars comics, I was eagerly snatching up as many of the different covers as I could afford as they came out. Even when others were telling me they would be cheaper 3 months out. Now I see what others meant and hold off on buying the variants right away, because, with very few exceptions, they are cheaper over time.

 

It is funny, I can look at most of the Dark Horse comics and remember what the content is by the cover image. For many of Marvel's Star Wars covers, they look the same, and I have to look at the number to remember what the story inside is about. And since many of these covers do look the same, I wonder who is even going to care about many of them down the line.

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rjrjr

rjrjr

Posted
Posted

Forgot to add, I hope publishers wake up to the fact they can sell a ton of comics, if they stopped using incentives to sell them. I would happily buy 5 covers, at standard price, for any Marvel Star Wars issue. But, I'm finding it harder and harder to justify buying 5 covers, with one or two at standard price, and the others at higher prices. Hell, I would read more comics if this were the case as I do want a complete collection, but don't want to shell out tons of money for brand new comics to have a complete collection. I know I am probably in the minority with regards to wanting a complete collection of all the variants for titles I read.

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Jaydogrules

Jaydogrules

Posted
Posted
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 :gossip:

 

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...

 

Worth bumping this post since it went entirely ignored....

 

-J.

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Logan510

Logan510

Posted
Posted
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 :gossip:

 

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...

 

Worth bumping this post since it went entirely ignored....

 

-J.

 

Probably because it had nothing to do with what I said (shrug)

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SquareChaos

SquareChaos

Posted
Posted
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 :gossip:

 

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...

 

Worth bumping this post since it went entirely ignored....

 

-J.

 

Not to be that guy, but these numbers don't exactly mean there are more people reading comic books either. So... yes, there's more money flowing, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's healthier.

 

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Marchosias

Marchosias

Posted
Posted
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 :gossip:

 

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...

 

Worth bumping this post since it went entirely ignored....

 

-J.

 

Probably because it had nothing to do with what I said (shrug)

 

 

 

"Gimmicks keeping their DWINDLING fan base around"........Uh, it has everything to do with what you said.....Some people just HATE being wrong lol........

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Marchosias

Marchosias

Posted
Posted
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 :gossip:

 

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...

 

Worth bumping this post since it went entirely ignored....

 

-J.

 

Not to be that guy, but these numbers don't exactly mean there are more people reading comic books either. So... yes, there's more money flowing, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's healthier.

 

 

o.O

 

Amazing.....Just stunningly amazing..............

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TSwift25

TSwift25

Posted
Posted

Estimated sales really don't mean all that much.

 

Estimated sales showing moderate year over year increases (while cover prices are increasing) doesn't mean much at all related to readership.

 

In those 4 years, my pull list (which hasn't changed at all, really) went from about $18 / week to about $30 / week. Seems right in line with those numbers. Doesn't really suggest a huge increase in readership, just charging more to those that stick around.

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fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
Posted
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 :gossip:

 

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...

 

Worth bumping this post since it went entirely ignored....

 

-J.

 

Not to be that guy, but these numbers don't exactly mean there are more people reading comic books either. So... yes, there's more money flowing, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's healthier.

 

There is really no way to prove that, but I would agree speculation is increasing sales overall, but LCS's say their sales are up from readers as well.

 

 

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Captain Canuck

Captain Canuck

Posted
Posted
Estimated sales really don't mean all that much.

 

Estimated sales showing moderate year over year increases (while cover prices are increasing) doesn't mean much at all related to readership.

 

In those 4 years, my pull list (which hasn't changed at all, really) went from about $18 / week to about $30 / week. Seems right in line with those numbers. Doesn't really suggest a huge increase in readership, just charging more to those that stick around.

^^

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Logan510

Logan510

Posted
Posted
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 :gossip:

 

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...

 

Worth bumping this post since it went entirely ignored....

 

-J.

 

Probably because it had nothing to do with what I said (shrug)

 

 

 

"Gimmicks keeping their DWINDLING fan base around"........Uh, it has everything to do with what you said.....Some people just HATE being wrong lol........

 

You're right, for each copy sold I'm sure that represents 1 reader.

 

 

:eyeroll:

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