The
Comic-Book industry should learn from the Trading Card industry. If
you flood the market with too much product, then the product will be
worthless to collectors in the end.
Baseball cards in particular
used to have one (Topps) company for years. Granted, there was no
variety or competition but those cards from those years are extremely
rare and valuable.
Fast forward to the 90's and there were more
companies producing cards. To make profit (and to "One-Up each other"),
they inundated the market with gimmicks. Holograms, Foil-cards, Signed
cards, Cards with game-worn jerseys on them (supposedly). Those
gimmicky cards started out collectible but once they all started doing
it the market dried up. The trading-card industry is now virtually
non-existent to collectors from that era.
Comic-Books in the
90's did the same. Too many titles, Variant covers, Foil covers,
Holograms, Polybags (HELLO...Superman #75) etc. And the print-runs on
all of those comics were incredible. Most (I would say 85-90%) of
comics from that era are virtually worthless now! Comics of the 90's
have not retained their value in the current market. Print-runs of
hundreds of thousands (or, in several prominent cases, over ten
MILLION!!!) copies produced of certain issues. The value of these
comics has all but disappeared. "Hot" comics like X-Men #1 (5 different
covers for the same book) and Youngblood #1 (huge print-run) can now be
found selling for under $1. The cover-price of those books were $2.50
for Youngblood and $1.50 for X-Men. You do the math!
How much
money did collectors and the average person looking to read a quality
comic-book lose throughout the years on gimmicky comic-books?
I
recently found New Mutants #87 and #98 in my collection. Sure, I was
excited, but then I realized why those issues were valuable. New
Mutants was not a huge title. It was the forgotten X-Men title. Marvel
didn't produce a huge number of those issues. And they didn't fall
into the gimmicks on those. Hence, their current value.
Comic-books
should be collected, read and enjoyed! Don't put them in a polybag
where if they are opened they become worthless (but if you leave them in
the bag it destroys the comic because it's not acid-free). Don't
produce 15 versions of the same exact comic with different covers.
Concentrate on the story and the artwork and enjoy doing it again.
We
now have some of the most creative minds in the history of comics!
Creators who should be given the chance to concentrate on their work.
Creators who can put out quality over quantity.
Let's make comic-books great again!
http://www.newsarama.com/28069-image-publishr-talks-at-comics-pro.html
free price guide and tracking database
I was at my LCS the other day and found a bargain bin full of multiple copies of alternate cover (dealer incentive) comics. One guy there was acting like he hit the jackpot. It's going to continue to happen. Some folks just like collecting the different covers. Different strokes, bro. I'm with you on the "make comics great" pitch, but the $$$ make the most noise. Vote with your dollar. Make comics great by only buying great comics. Period.
By the way, New Mutants was off the radar at the time because the title sucked. Liefeld was brought in to save the title from cancelation because he was getting some buzz and his art looked like mega-popular Todd Mcfarlane's. Marvel was oft to do with their hired help. See Moon Knight when they roped in Stephen Platt for a few issues or remember Heroes Reborn? Image was born from creators getting sick of making their publishers rich off their talents. Anyone who was following comics at the time was eating all that up too. The multiple-cover scam became common after the X-men #1 gimmick because it made Marvel so goddamn rich. If you were allowed to print money, would you not fire up the presses?
Some of those NM Liefeld issues were on sale for $100 right hot off the shelves back in the day. Rob was "hot" and the comic shops were just as much to blame for hiking up the prices as any multi-cover holo-foil embossing publisher. I applaud your passion on this topic and stand in arms with you on it but decades of comic business is not going to change overnight until fanboys wise up...I mean never. Sorry. See you at the next con. I will be the one dressed like Deadpool.
In the meanwhile, I'm having a good time picking up back issues that I missed at great prices. However, the newer stuff are turn offs. DC Rebirth? Wow, some of those books carry the same tone (or are worse...looking at you, Green Arrow #2) than what they were before? Why? Because DC blames continuity for their issues, reboot, then add another reason they blame continuity a couple of years from now. Guess what? It's not contintuity, it's the constant run of non-sensical gimmicks by writers you've elevated to a status of false reverence. I'm talking about Geoff Johns on that last point.