Has there been a substantial increase in the number of serious comic book collectors? 1 1

[PKJ]

7 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

Forget X-Men 1.

The next big book? Brave and Bold 28, yo  - first appearance of Starro. Gonna' make Iron Man 55 look like Tales of Suspense 97.

LOL. Man how many times in the past 10 years have I heard BB28 is a bargain, Most can still be bought within 15% of the sales prices of 2017.  You can't even buy half the Marvel keys within 15% of 10 days ago...

[the blob]

21 hours ago, IronMan_Cave said:

Interesting points. Again because of pandemic, people stuck at home, nothing to do. So people are ordering comics online or digital version. And probably the same story with Marvel and DC comics. And these new readers become the new batch of collectors.

Who would've thought pandemic actually brings in new interest to comic books

I find it surprising. I would have assumed less traffic in shops and fewer sales. If things are popping why is DC taking these desperate measures?

[kav]

Strange adv 35 will simply explode when people realize it's the first app of Despero!!

Edited April 1, 2021 by kav

[the blob]

1 hour ago, the blob said:

I find it surprising. I would have assumed less traffic in shops and fewer sales. If things are popping why is DC taking these desperate measures?

Some of the covers look cool. That's all that matters, right?

[InfantTerrible]

2 hours ago, the blob said:

I find it surprising. I would have assumed less traffic in shops and fewer sales. If things are popping why is DC taking these desperate measures?

What desperate measures?

[the blob]

25 minutes ago, IronMan_Cave said:

What desperate measures?

cutting way back on the # of titles and jacking them all up in price

[InfantTerrible]

5 minutes ago, the blob said:

cutting way back on the # of titles and jacking them all up in price

I didn't know that....

[NewWorldOrder]

On 3/26/2021 at 1:04 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

A person with deep pockets could also buy up every copy available and burn them. 

I would for sure do that with Action Comics 1.  Get that piece of trash off this planet! 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

1 hour ago, NewWorldOrder said:

I would for sure do that with Action Comics 1.  Get that piece of trash off this planet! 

[oldmilwaukee6er]

20 hours ago, the blob said:

I find it surprising. I would have assumed less traffic in shops and fewer sales. If things are popping why is DC taking these desperate measures?

@the blob - I think it has more to do with the failed / faltered launch of HBO Max more than anything. Mile High Chuck wrote about it a little in his email newsletter. After that they combined their steaming assets under one roof and took steps to save money, including restructuring DC Comics (two rounds), severing ties with Diamond, retooling their distribution agreements, and rebooting their product line. The price increase is the latest measure. Still... I bet DC is a rounding error for Time Warner so it does feel like 'flailing.' 

Edited March 31, 2021 by oldmilwaukee6er

[Gatsby77]

1 hour ago, oldmilwaukee6er said:

@the blob - I think it has more to do with the failed / faltered launch of HBO Max more than anything. Mile High Chuck wrote about it a little in his email newsletter. After that they combined their steaming assets under one roof and took steps to save money, including restructuring DC Comics (two rounds), severing ties with Diamond, retooling their distribution agreements, and rebooting their product line. The price increase is the latest measure. Still... I bet DC is a rounding error for Time Warner so it does feel like 'flailing.' 

Or...that movies do very little to boost the sales of new books.

We saw this (consistently) with the Spider-Man films - At least since the release of the original Spider-Man 3 (aka, the last five solo Spidey films) have had nearly zero effect on new issues.

Movie / TV show speculation drives Silver Age - Copper Age first appearances. Full stop.

They're totally different markets.

Edited March 31, 2021 by Gatsby77

[the blob]

4 hours ago, oldmilwaukee6er said:

@the blob - I think it has more to do with the failed / faltered launch of HBO Max more than anything. Mile High Chuck wrote about it a little in his email newsletter. After that they combined their steaming assets under one roof and took steps to save money, including restructuring DC Comics (two rounds), severing ties with Diamond, retooling their distribution agreements, and rebooting their product line. The price increase is the latest measure. Still... I bet DC is a rounding error for Time Warner so it does feel like 'flailing.' 

Hbo max is attracting subscribers well ahead of their projections. Of course, if they don't come out with something like Snyder cut or ww84 every two months that might dry up. Of course, it cannibalized regular hbo, which we dropped when we decided we no longer needed direct tv

[BlackTerror98]

On 3/29/2021 at 7:58 AM, Gatsby77 said:

I'm not sure of that. Specifically *because* comic book money is competing with so many other collectible classes.

• Collectible sneakers made the cover of BusinessWeek last week
• Key basketball cards have outperformed key Baseball cards over the last 12 months, and key baseball cards have gone *crazy*
• NFTs made Saturday Night Live this weekend

And I've only dipped my toe in vintage graded video games, but I can say without hesitation that, given $10k in cash to invest, I'd put it in graded video games over comic books. 

Every single one of these categories has out-performed even key Marvel comic books over the last 12 months.

I mean I also collect Vintage video games with my older brother and I live 30~ mins outside of NYC. Besides the online access to video games. There are a few stores that sell them but they sell them for prices on the internet (eBay and other selling prices) but I can go in tomorrow and see the same exact video games for $100-$150 still sitting on the shelf and the grades games have sat there for over a 4 months now and they are collecting dust. The guy said that he rarely ever sells the big ticket games and on his eBay store no one really wants or buys anything. I go to a routine 7 stores and all 7 stores have those issues.

 

I love video games but I would safely put that $10k into Ultimate fallout 4 or a book that's big for this generation (my generation) because it has went up over 800% and the 1:25 is keep breaking records. Due to what I physically see for the last few months and years and comic book store are always packed while flight club, and video game stores while cool don't get the same amount of traffic as you would expect from living so close to the city and being a heavily populated area.

 

Sneakers are always a popular but small small hobby community even here in NYC. My best friend I knew for 16 years collects Sneakers and it's easy to buy but insanely hard to sell due to the amount of fakes, different locations have different build quality, different times of the production show signs of lack of quality control. And the over saturation for the initial sell. I only know 1 sneaker collector while in my high school and college experience....

I can not talk about basketball cards due to me having no first hand knowledge or idea where I could even look to understand. I think those hobbies are safe but when compared to the prices we will see and that we are going to see through phase 4 and phase 5 that is rumored and Disney is quotes of saying that they are keep making marvel games, movies and tv shows untill it's no longer interesting to it's viewers which as someone sees it first hand the love for this has no end in sight. For crying out loud my Grandma now loves the marvel movies and tv shows when before she couldn't care less and she has a monthly subscription to some books like Stray Dogs, HaHa, and the new Marvel books. My best friends who made fun of me now love and look at my collection and some of them even go into collecting. I think it's all about perception. Those hobbies may seem like they are out performing comic books but sadly there is no studies or evidence to show of that at all or prove one of us right or wrong with data trends but personally as someone who can go off of physical experience and the amount of people I know and see and the amount of new people shows me comic books are not going to stop just like vintage cars, motorcycles, clothing and watches that they are here to stay.

 

[BlackTerror98]

On 3/30/2021 at 7:34 PM, the blob said:

I find it surprising. I would have assumed less traffic in shops and fewer sales. If things are popping why is DC taking these desperate measures?

I work at my local LCS and am in contact with 9 stores (30 mins out side of NYC), first off the distributor keeps up the orders and over charging the prices of the books. Also the number of titles is insanity with the amount of varients that are and You have to PERSONALLY call them to get copies of those books but firstly no one answers the phone or when they do it takes 20-30 mins to be told they are sold out to people like Midtown comics or bigger store names. Plus they charge for EVERYTHING, they charge you through the distributor a special 5% fee for just even USING them when they are the only ones (at the moment) that are taking care of DC comics. Becasue if that my shop is stopping DC comics untill they get their mess together. There's 3 main distributor and they are all playing war against eachother. They suck.

[BlackTerror98]

9 hours ago, oldmilwaukee6er said:

@the blob - I think it has more to do with the failed / faltered launch of HBO Max more than anything. Mile High Chuck wrote about it a little in his email newsletter. After that they combined their steaming assets under one roof and took steps to save money, including restructuring DC Comics (two rounds), severing ties with Diamond, retooling their distribution agreements, and rebooting their product line. The price increase is the latest measure. Still... I bet DC is a rounding error for Time Warner so it does feel like 'flailing.' 

I work at my local LCS and am in contact with 9 stores (30 mins out side of NYC), first off the distributor keeps messing up the orders and over charging the prices of the books. Also the number of titles is insanity with the amount of varients that are and You have to PERSONALLY call them to get copies of those books but firstly no one answers the phone and when they do it takes 20-30 mins to be told they are sold out to people like Midtown comics or bigger store names. Plus they charge for EVERYTHING, they charge you through the distributor a special 5% fee for just even USING them when they are the only ones (at the moment) that are taking care of DC comics. Becasue if that my shop is stopping DC comics untill they get their mess together. There's 3 main distributor and they are all playing war against eachother. They suck.

Edited April 1, 2021 by Matthew Kyle Brasile

[BlackTerror98]

On 3/30/2021 at 10:28 PM, IronMan_Cave said:

What desperate measures?

I work at my local LCS and am in contact with 9 stores (30 mins out side of NYC), first off the distributor keeps messing up the orders and over charging the prices of the books. Also the number of titles is insanity with the amount of varients that are and You have to PERSONALLY call them to get copies of those books but firstly no one answers the phone and when they do it takes 20-30 mins to be told they are sold out to people like Midtown comics or bigger store names. Plus they charge for EVERYTHING, they charge you through the distributor a special 5% fee for just even USING them when they are the only ones (at the moment) that are taking care of DC comics. Becasue if that my shop is stopping DC comics untill they get their mess together. There's 3 main distributor and they are all playing war against eachother. They suck.

Edited April 1, 2021 by Matthew Kyle Brasile

[the blob]

So nice you said it thrice!

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

[kav]

2 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

This guy is wanted in 6 galaxies!

[WolverineX]

On 3/30/2021 at 8:40 PM, kav said:

Strange adv 35 will simply explode when people realize it's the first app of Despero!!

Isn't that a JLA 1 not SA35