RockMyAmadeus

Everyone involved...yes, including me....was responsible. From top to bottom, from the CEOs of Marvel, DC, on down to the speculator who bought two copies of the book off the rack, one to read, the other to "invest." Publishers never bothered to find out who was buying their books and why and ran the printers day and not. Distributors radically overextended credit and refused to hold publishers accountable for massive overprinting and late product. Retailers did nothing to discourage the speculation. And idiot speculators bought cases and cases of garbage, hoping to "send their kids to college" with their Superman #75s. No one....NO ONE....exercised any prudence. Buy buy buy, print print print, it's a neverending flood of money! And the house of cards collapsed, taking nearly the entire industry with it.

That's the stained glass variant. Very rare.

Eff you, guy Why....I....NEVER!!

What is being described here is not capitalism. In capitalism, scarcity of goods is addressed by increased production. By their nature, "increased production" (aka "reprints" in comics) doesn't fly in collectibles.

And how many of people collect now a days because they grew up in the 90's and were caught up in it all? I bet the number is a hell of a lot more than you think. In fact, without the 90's, i bet comics would be long gone by now. There was some great content in the 90's and it sparked the love of comic books for so many people. It's so irritating to hear people trash that era... You are very confused about what has been said.

Bring your mask!

I bet it does.......

We've already seen what happens in the long run: we live in it. The artform was gutted. The top selling books barely sell 1-10% the numbers that sold in the early 90s. These people aren't coming in to buy something else. And while, sure, a good salesman will try to get them to buy something else, speculeeches don't bite. That's why they're speculeeches.

And let's be real, here. People who run to the stores to scoop up everything because it's selling online for $40 ARE NOT "speculators." They're profiteers. Speculation, by definition, means taking a risk. A proper speculator is ordering books in advance. It's not "speculation" to see something selling for $40 and running to go see if you can cash in. It's speculation when you take a risk on something not panning out BEFORE it's selling for a premium in the market. Order your comics 3+ weeks before it comes out, and then you'll be a real speculator.

Sure. Comb through Previews, and pick out everything you think will be hot, and place your order with your local store (or your own Diamond account!) before the Final Order Cutoff (FOC.) That way, the publisher prints more copies just for you, and no one is denied a copy that wants one. The only new comics series I read was Walking Dead. I bought my copies casually from the same retailer at Frank & Son's (SoCal weekly collectibles warehouse) every 2-3 months or so. I did this for several years. Not a pull list...but I bought every issue, because I was reading them. When #192 came out, all the fools ran and scooped them up to make their short-term gains to other idiots online. I didn't get one, because they were sold out. When #193 came out...the Wednesday it came out...I went to Fantasy Books & Games in Livermore, CA to buy a single copy. I was out of town, and figured a retailer who had been in business for nearly 40 years would have ordered them properly. Nope. "They're selling for $30 online!" I was told...like it mattered. It was the same story at the couple of other stores I visited. The next week, I was back at F&Ss, and the retailer I had been buying from for years had the book priced at $30. Because Kirkman is a jagoff and decided to play games. Because I had been buying them for years, I was offered (and bought) a single 1st print copy for cover price...which I still have. So, a casual reader...me...had to jump through multiple hoops just to buy a copy for its cover price within a week of publication. Now repeat that tens of thousands of times, all over the world, and guess what? If I go to the effort of going to a store to buy something and it's not there to be bought...I'm eventually going to give up entirely (which is what I did.) It's why books in the top 300 sell 1,500 total copies: readers shouldn't have to...and won't....fight with speculeeches to get a new book.

He's 10,000% correct. Hate? I don't see any hate. I see a retailer who has been in the business 35 years pleading with people to stop destroying the artform. Speculation on brand new books has resulted in a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of readers left. The artform is being destroyed by jags who run into a store to scoop up all available issues to sell to other idiots online. It wasn't so bad when there are available copies for readers to buy. But it's been virtually impossible for over 20 years now, because of the tight ordering required to stay afloat. If you're buying something brand new to flip online, denying a reader the chance to obtain it, you're contributing to the problem. Not sorry if that offends people. People in the 90s lost everything...sometimes due to their own mistakes and stupidity, sometimes not...because the buying public treated all new comics like potential goldmines, like the latest hot piece of kitsch from the Franklin Mint. It hasn't changed. You want to speculate on new books? Put your damn order in with Diamond. The FOC is now a mere three weeks before publication. Stop ruining the ability of retailers to get comics to readers. It's hard enough as it is.

There has never been an easier time to buy, if you have the money, than right now. Virtually nothing is unobtainable, with the possible exception of specific copies.

Fill it out with company names and continue... That's hilarious. When you've been immersed with CGC for a decade+, you don't think of "graders" as "companies", but as PEOPLE. I put Litch, Caffrey, Nelson, Gemma, and Mike Balent. I thought it a very, very odd question.

Is this a war comic...?

Hulk #340....?