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Totally Shameless (but true) Suck-up Post

Started by HooDeeDoo,

113 posts in this topic

PovertyRow

PovertyRow

Posted
Posted
Personally, I think EBay has had a much greater impact on comic collecting than CGC.

 

I agree 100%. The real impact CGC has had is on the high end market, which comprises a very small percent of the "hobby". When one focusses a great deal on a small area, that area suddenly starts becoming more of "the world" to them. This sometimes happens when people think of CGC. Because they are very CGC-centric the real impact of CGC on the hobby is rather exagerrated.

 

Ebay has to be the single largest impact no the comic market in the last decade.

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HooDeeDoo

HooDeeDoo

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eBay impacted the market - it didn't impact the hobby itself.

There's probably a thin line there... I'd say it's an impact on the hobby

to be able to complete collections (and start new ones) much more easily

due to the variety and quantities available on eBay... regardless of the market price.

 

In principal, this has always been possible with mail order and catalogues,

but in practice... eBay has definitely impacted the hobby for "comic availability",

if nothing else.

 

That was my point. Without question eBay had a huge impact on buying and selling, however, CGC caused a seismic shift in the hobby. There was no shift in the hobby because of eBay and the internet - the market was merely expanded.

 

(I'm being redundant.)

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

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I have to agree with JC... if there's a question of which is the bigger impact to comics... CGC or ebay, Ebay has a much stronger impact. If you look at it, ebay in some ways spawned the growth and success for CGC because when buying over the internet, it made the product inherently more reliable. the bulk of books bought and sold on ebay remain unslabbed. Ebay opened a whole new world to both sellers and buyers, where some sellers were only able to find books at local stores or local conventions, now they could have access instantly to a constant convention filled with low to mid to high grade books! It increased revenues for sales because so many more buyers were now available to everyone. And I believe it really reenergized the whole hobby, especially after it was slowly dying from the crash of the mid 90s. Ebay was incredibly important to the comic book hobby. CGC has also been very important, but there is no comparison in my mind between the significance of CGC v. Ebay. Ebay is one of the biggest changes to the hobby since the direct market.

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

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Ebay did more than just expand the market... I would say it revived it. CGC has caused a great shift in prices on the high end books, but not as much on the rest of the hobby... the availability of books with ebay has done more to inspire interest in our hobby than CGC has done from that standpoint. CGC has given the high end market (where a bulk of the money is) confidence and reliability. I'm not minimizing CGC's importance, but I think ebay has done even more for the hobby.

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HooDeeDoo

HooDeeDoo

Posted
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Personally, I think EBay has had a much greater impact on comic collecting than CGC.

 

I agree 100%. The real impact CGC has had is on the high end market, which comprises a very small percent of the "hobby". When one focusses a great deal on a small area, that area suddenly starts becoming more of "the world" to them. This sometimes happens when people think of CGC. Because they are very CGC-centric the real impact of CGC on the hobby is rather exagerrated.

 

Ebay has to be the single largest impact no the comic market in the last decade.

 

Some people are not paying attention.

 

My observation has NOTHING to do with the MARKET. I'm speaking of the HOBBY. The two things are not the same.

 

If I collect Batman (and I don't), that's my HOBBY. Where I buy them and how much I pay is the MARKET. eBay broadened the market, it did not change the hobby.

 

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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That was my point. Without question eBay had a huge impact on buying and selling, however, CGC caused a seismic shift in the hobby. There was no shift in the hobby because of eBay and the internet - the market was merely expanded.

 

EBay = Far More People Coming Back To/In the Hobby = Radical Shift in Hobby from 90's Crash

 

I can see a piece of what you're getting at, but I don't believe CGC would even have got off the ground without a large, international market like EBay.

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musicmeta

musicmeta

Posted
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Ebay has to be the single largest impact no the comic market in the last decade.

 

Not to mention that CGC would be a blip on the roadmap without an online marketplace like EBay.

 

I agree 100% with JC on the impact of Ebay on comics.

I think CGC would be just a little bit larger than a blip(not much larger) on the roadmap because of catalogs and online services would promote it more.

Still Ebay's impact on the comic market is just freaking HUGE!!!

 

 

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
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If I collect Batman (and I don't), that's my HOBBY. Where I buy them and how much I pay is the MARKET. eBay broadened the market, it did not change the hobby.

 

Says you. Before EBay, I couldn't even find NM back issues to buy. It changed my view of the hobby 100%.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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My observation has NOTHING to do with the MARKET. I'm speaking of the HOBBY. The two things are not the same.

 

I believe I spoke of the HOBBY twice and the MARKET once. Then I will expand that to this: EBAY has had the single largest impact on the HOBBY as well as the market. Why? Because suddenly books and genres not readily available ARE available. Sure, there was mail-order before but a catalogue goes out of date very quickly. How long can you stay on the phone with a dealer asking them to browse their stock for you? How many times can you drive 100 or miles to a comic store? Ebay has made the HOBBY much more acessible. With ebay people can more easily complete runs, find the genres they want, find upgrades to books in there collections, see images of books they have never seen, begin to collect new genres, gather a great deal of information about comics (it is like a huge online Gerber Guide at times) etc etc etc. Ebay has had and continues to have a tremendous impact on the hobby and don't think otherwise.

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valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted
If I collect Batman (and I don't), that's my HOBBY. Where I buy them and how much I pay is the MARKET. eBay broadened the market, it did not change the hobby.

You've got Edgar Church at number two on your list...

What did the Edgar Church collection do for this Batman collector?

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FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

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My observation has NOTHING to do with the MARKET. I'm speaking of the HOBBY. The two things are not the same.

 

I believe I spoke of the HOBBY twice and the MARKET once. Then I will expand that to this: EBAY has had the single largest impact on the HOBBY as well as the market. Why? Because suddenly books and genres not readily available ARE available. Sure, there was mail-order before but a catalogue goes out of date very quickly. How long can you stay on the phone with a dealer asking them to browse their stock for you? How many times can you drive 100 or miles to a comic store? Ebay has made the HOBBY much more acessible. With ebay people can more easily complete runs, find the genres they want, find upgrades to books in there collections, see images of books they have never seen, begin to collect new genres, gather a great deal of information about comics (it is like a huge online Gerber Guide at times) etc etc etc. Ebay has had and continues to have a tremendous impact on the hobby and don't think otherwise.

 

I'll go farther. eBay (and, to a lesser extent, the entire internet), has had more impact on both the hobby AND the market than anything in the entire history of the hobby, with the two major exceptions of the advent of the direct market and the codification of prices by Bob Overstreet.

 

For anyone to say otherwise is a fallacy.

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valiantman

valiantman

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Simply stated... it's not really possible to have a hobby without buying something.

If you've already bought all the books you'll ever need, it's not an active hobby anymore.

The hobby and the market go hand in hand... you don't get one without the other.

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500Club

500Club

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eBay impacted the market - it didn't impact the hobby itself.

 

Speak for yourself. Comic shows and stores had pretty well dried up around here after the Big Crash of the 90's, and since the few stores I frequented had the same stock week after week, I was pretty well out for back issue buying.

 

Then when EBay came online and comic books really started appearing in real numbers, I felt like a kid in a candy shop. If not for EBay, I wouldn't be buying comics right now, and I know there are many others just like me.

 

If you don't think the HOBBY would be much, much smaller without EBay, then you're the only one. That's a huge IMPACT in my book.

 

This about sums up the euphoric feeling I had when I first saw the vast comic offerings on eBay. Like JC, the stores fresh supply/backstock had dried up in my area as well.

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