When a Variant Hurts

[Tnerb]

Will they or won't they??? The Mile High SDCC drama unfolds.

 

I can not say I have never bought a variant. In the nineties I was guilty of wanting the gold variants from Valiant. However, when it came to the first variant I can remember buying, it was the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. I picked my favorite between the two covers available. This is something I still do, with a few exceptions. If a variant is priced higher than the cover price, case in point 1:200, I tend to pick the cover price, after all I want to read it.

 

 

 

I am reminded of the saying you can not judge a book by its cover. And some of these comics have amazing covers. With all the variants that are flooding the market, it makes the nineties look like a drop in the bucket. Most recently I purchased a 3-D Sandman, and Hacktivist which both were graded by CGC as a 9.9. One was purchased off the internet, the other off of a dealer at a convention in New York.

 

 

 

At these conventions I love to purchase the harder to find commodity, but I have been able to get deals on these variants, which is the only reason I have bought them. However, if push came to shove and I had a choice between getting a 1:200 book with an asking price of $200; even with an awesome cover by the artist of the week, I think I would rather choose a marvel premiere #1, Action Comics #411, and/or a Ghost Stories #32. I need conventions to find these older books since my choice of LCS's do not have a quick turn around time on back issues.

 

 

 

Over the years Wizard World has changed from a Comic Book convention to a Pop Culture Media Event. What does this mean? It means that I have become disappointed at my home convention in Philadelphia which had the Major Comic Book Companies along with retailers that sold their books promote themselves elsewhere. As WW added more actors and actresses along with other pop culture personalities the convention changed. The change that bothered me the most was the convention hosted a lot less dealers.

 

 

 

If CGC wasn't at Philadelphia Wizard World for on-site grading I wouldn't have attended. The other conventions I have travelled to over the past few years are ECCC, MegaCon, Baltimore Comic Con, NYCC, NYSE, and the small local Philadelphia Comic Con. I have made it my mission to visit a few different conventions outside my home state, and of course the SDCC is one of those that I hope one day to attend.

 

 

 

Mile High Comics, meaning Chuck Rozanski has recently claimed, this will be the last year he attends. At a $10,000 loss I couldn't imagine him wanting to be back and quietly wonder, would Philadelphia Wizard World be better if he set up booths there? The claim that Chuck has made is that the variants take a big part of the convention goers extra pocket money. Many of these variants are sold exclusively through the company never giving the retailers the chance to sell their own product.

 

 

 

The Alex Ross sketch variant of ASM #1 was selling for over $250. I even heard one dealer say to a prospective buyer "it was the book to buy". The customer asked if it would retain the value, he was told most assuredly. I shuddered. I walked away after hearing this, I couldn't stomach the speculation of a book voiced as fact.

 

 

 

I remember thinking my W.I.L.D. Cats gold embossed cover would never drop in value. I purchased it for two reasons, one it would be worth thousands when I'm older and it was a really cool cover. One out if two is still true. We the fans make the market, even if speculators try to lead the way. As an example, prices recently on Strange Tales #110 are beginning to spike. So if I buy a variant it is because I enjoy the cover. But, the various variants have changed not only by cover but by the stores that offering them. Now comic books shops like Comics To Astonish, Midtown Comics, or Mile High Comics have their own "must buy here copies". How did the variant market get so hot that even LCS's needed their own covers?

 

 

 

So why is Chuck upset that variants are taking a chunk of his profits when his company has his own variant? Is this just a case of sour grapes or will the comic market implode once again as it did twenty years ago? And how will comic book conventions survive if the dealers decided to stop selling at them?

 

 

 

Thanks for Reading

 

 

 

 

 

Ps. Update: Mile High Comics has decided to go to SDCC 2015 after all. There is still hope.

 

See more journals by Tnerb

[bagofleas]

Whew! A $10,000 loss is nothing to sneeze at! I only hope that they can offset the cost enough elsewhere to warrant being at the next SDCC for the exposure if for nothing else.

 

But they nearly didn't decide to come back! It IS a little interesting how their sales are being hurt by something that they are also guilty of doing.... to try and garner more sales. Sheesh!

 

Unfortunately, I think the third-party grading market has been at least partially responsible for this exclusives trend. Having a much rarer copy of a book and maybe even getting it signed and with a high grade, makes us able to flip it for a nice profit most of the time.

 

This causes people to go after these exclusive books as a general rule. But then again, we the consumer also have a hand in the cookie jar as it were. If we didn't bother paying the exorbitant amounts for these exclusive books, then the publishers wouldn't be producing them.

 

In my opinion, it's only a matter of time before the current variant bubble bursts, just like the nineties. Then what will any given 1:200 variant cover be worth? Or should I say, what would you conceivably be able to get for it?

[n2wdw]

I think it's more of a case that SDCC is less of a comic con that before, yet Chuck still has the massive booth where he's selling a good sampling of his entire stock. The people there don't so to SDCC for that, not enough to justify his large booth.

 

I like MH and Chuck, I'm glad he decided to attend again next year. He's always been able to adjust, so it'll be interesting to see what he comes up with for next year.

[Triskelion]

Felt bad for MH when I first read Chuck's bulletin so glad to hear he'll be back.

 

Been buying comics from MH since the 80's myself, one thing I did notice is that their website isn't as intuitive/ user friendly as say Metropolis' or other online stores (limited CGC's for example, and a pain to navigate), and their Ebay site I believe carries only a fraction of their massive inventory, this is an area I hope they improve on.

 

There must be a practical way by which traditional comic book and slab dealers can survive longer term in an event like SDCC where I suppose space comes at a huge premium especially with networks, producers etc willing to pay a premium for leased space. Isn't there available space outside for example where dealers can 'park' trailers full of their inventories for example which can easily be accessed by interested event goers/ buyers (and which would mean really less selling space needed in the halls)? Been to SDCC only twice so far ('09 and '11) and even back then I did notice the huge space occupied by MH. Pretty sure there are smart ways to better optimize.

[surfer99]

You make a lot of great points tnerb. Good journal. I'm with you that I would much prefer an older key book than a rare modern variant, but I know a lot of collectors are drawn to the variants. I don't think there are many modern variants that retain their value...I remeber when you couldn't touch a Civil War 1 sketch variant for under $200. Maybe that's the key...wait for the hype to cool off, then buy your variants.

[Garlanda]

This reminds me, I'm still looking for a nice X-Men 11 Kitty Pryde Evolutions variant.

 

I picked up the Uncanny 522 and A+X 2 variants. I generally dislike the incentive variants, but... Kitty Pryde