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44 posts in this topic

3 minutes ago, rebelpk said:

You never wanted to own all of those great key issues?

I do. I have goals for collecting which I know I'll likely never achieve due to the insane cost and inflation some books have gone through.

 

Your original question stated: " ..and you had mega rare key issues (Tec27, AC1, AF15, etc), would you let your books be cloned "

If I already have them, then I probably paid $$$$$ for them.... so it would be insane for me to "let my books be cloned" to flood the market and destroy the $$$$ that I spent to acquire them.

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2 minutes ago, jcjames said:

 

Your original question stated: " ..and you had mega rare key issues (Tec27, AC1, AF15, etc), would you let your books be cloned "

If I already have them, then I probably paid $$$$$ for them.... so it would be insane for me to "let my books be cloned" to flood the market and destroy the $$$$ that I spent to acquire them.

So you have all of the books you've ever wanted? You've finished collecting?

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2 minutes ago, Gaard said:

Of course nobody would do that. Let's put a little twist to the question - the book is 'worth' $50,000, but the collector only spent 10 cents on it.

 

If I bought a book for 10 cents and 50 years later it was worth $50,000 - again, I would not destroy the value of the book (and everyone else's) by cloning it. Why in the world would anyone do that to their own books when there are reprints for people who want to own a copy of it for cheap???

I don't get it.

 

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4 minutes ago, nepatkm said:

 If every book was that easily obtained. No use for the hobby. 

The best comics to 'clone' would be the scarcest ones no one has seen in person vs a pic online, HA.com or eBay. e.g. ashcans. Double Action #1, or scarce Canadian Whites. The below modern reprint of Wow Comics #1 (not Eisner) 64 color pages retailed for about $10 US funds in 2017:

TQmiRkC.jpg

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8 minutes ago, rebelpk said:

So you have all of the books you've ever wanted? You've finished collecting?

What are you talking about?

If I ALREADY have an AF15 (that I probably paid $$$$ for), why would I clone it?

If I DON'T already have an AF15, then your original question is irrelevant to me because I don't already have it.

 

I'm just addressing the question you posed - no, I wouldn't clone a mega-rare grail that I already own because it would devalue it as an investment AND as a "rare" collectible.

 

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1 minute ago, aardvark88 said:

The best comics to 'clone' would be the scarcest ones no one has seen in person vs a pic online, HA.com or eBay. e.g. ashcans. Double Action #1, or scarce Canadian Whites. The below modern reprint of Wow Comics #1 (not Eisner) 64 color pages retailed for about $10 US funds in 2017:

TQmiRkC.jpg

Then they wouldn’t be considered scarce anymore. Right? 

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10 minutes ago, jcjames said:

 

10 minutes ago, jcjames said:

What are you talking about?

If I ALREADY have an AF15 (that I probably paid $$$$ for), why would I clone it?

If I DON'T already have an AF15, then your original question is irrelevant to me because I don't already have it.

 

I'm just addressing the question you posed - no, I wouldn't clone a mega-rare grail that I already own because it would devalue it as an investment AND as a "rare" collectible.

 

The point is, if you can clone, so can others.

The original question was specifically directed as yourself as a owner.

I would.

My grails involve a Hulk 181 9.0 and X-men 6.0 signed by Stan Lee.

I'd have no issues with the book being copied. For me the value us is in what the books represent and not their monetary value.

It's asking the question of would you be happy to have your books cloned to own whichever book you wanted?

Read more into the implications of it.

The cloning is open to everyone's books.

Edited by rebelpk
cloned the quote?
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12 minutes ago, jcjames said:

My answer is still no.

If the value of the book is the story and art, there are reprints. 

If the value of the book is that it is a collectible, then obviously still no. 

But it's not authentic. That's shy reprints would be excluded from this.

You can still have collectibles that aren't valuable.

Is it merely because of the monetary value you'd lose?

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2 hours ago, rebelpk said:

You never wanted to own all of those great key issues?

I do. I have goals for collecting which I know I'll likely never achieve due to the insane cost and inflation some books have gone through.

I'm happy reading digital comics, and so if I could own one of every book I'm interested in, from GA onwards, I would also be happy with a cloned physical copy, especially from an ultra high grade source.  As said, the only way it's feasible for those of us with extremely-limited budgets.  I look forward to the development and perfection of replicator technology, and no longer being one bit in thrall to an inflated, monopolistic back issue market.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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There is a double edge sword to your question. On one hand I certainly would still love and collect my personal collection,  but the bottom would drop out of the collector  market and crash like any glut in supply.

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13 minutes ago, oakman29 said:

There is a double edge sword to your question. On one hand I certainly would still love and collect my personal collection,  but the bottom would drop out of the collector  market and crash like any glut in supply.

Absolutely it would crash, but the question is would you or anyone else still be interested in their comics if they were only worth 10 USD?

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7 hours ago, rebelpk said:

But it's not authentic. That's shy reprints would be excluded from this.

You can still have collectibles that aren't valuable.

Is it merely because of the monetary value you'd lose?

 

A clone is not authentic either - it's not 60 years old. It has no history, the physical clone-book itself has no story of its ownership and passage through over half a century of time. The unique, one-of-a-kind creases tell no tale of a kid who bought that exact physical book from a dime-store and carried it in his pocket riding his bike home to read it with friends. There's no "love" of that physical book itself, no care of the pristine-found and stored copies by a collector who stored it for decades, maybe to share with his kid or grandkid. There's no pride in ownership of any replica of which there are hundreds of thousands of copies.

I'm still going with, no.

 

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9 hours ago, nepatkm said:

Then they wouldn’t be considered scarce anymore. Right? 

My point was I am OK with scarce or rare comics being cloned or copied so we can have reading copies. Common books like Batman 1, Detect #27, Action 1, Superman #1, ASM 1, AF #15, Marvel Comics 1, Capt America #1 GA, DD #1 SilverAge and Uncle Scrooge #1 have already been reprinted in various formats multiple times.

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I'm with @jcjames on this one. If I own it already, no sense in cloning it. Also-- it seems very dishonest and it misses the point of vintage items completely. They have lived. They will also die at some point (fire, water, time-- something will break them into dust at some point).

I like reprints for things out of my price range. I appreciate the genuine article. Making clones of comics and selling them is no different than cloning money-- which is illegal. Even if you get away with it-- you would know that you are cheating and with comics-- who cares if you are lying about your collection other than yourself?

Did you invent a cloning machine? Did you invent a time machine? Same difference-- interesting ideas but pretty unlikely. Interesting topic but I think the answer comes down to your own moral code. If I had to choose-- I would want the time machine. The interesting part of that is whether you choose to go to the future or the past. Not sure I would use that device to buy comic books or to even change history (never know what might trigger your own butterfly-effect demise). I think I would probably start by going to the future to figure out how I died so I could maybe avoid that or extend my time. Also pick up some easy money via a lottery win and live the easy life. That would be enough for starters. Huge fan of time travel movies and TV.

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8 hours ago, jcjames said:

 

A clone is not authentic either - it's not 60 years old. It has no history, the physical clone-book itself has no story of its ownership and passage through over half a century of time.

Agreed.  Since the term 'clone' has a specific meaning in biology and there alone, a more appropriate term for what's being proposed in the first post is 'counterfeit'.  With that in mind, I doubt there are many collectors who'd be happy counterfeiting comics.

Perhaps this thought exercise should instead involve a time machine, and the ability to go back in time and bring comics to the present.  :wink:

 

Edited by namisgr
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2 hours ago, namisgr said:

Agreed.  Since the term 'clone' has a specific meaning in biology and there alone, a more appropriate term for what's being proposed in the first post is 'counterfeit'.  With that in mind, I doubt there are many collectors who'd be happy counterfeiting comics.

Perhaps this thought exercise should instead involve a time machine, and the ability to go back in time and bring comics to the present.  :wink:

 

Well sign me up for that and call me "Biff"! :bigsmile:

 

Edited by jcjames
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5 hours ago, namisgr said:

Agreed.  Since the term 'clone' has a specific meaning in biology and there alone, a more appropriate term for what's being proposed in the first post is 'counterfeit'.  With that in mind, I doubt there are many collectors who'd be happy counterfeiting comics.

Perhaps this thought exercise should instead involve a time machine, and the ability to go back in time and bring comics to the present.  :wink:

 

The specific reason I said clone was to avoid the whole time machine conundrum and also to step away from the counterfeits. This is just purely a philosophical discussion. There is no conspiracy theory to copy your books.

Would it be better if I painted a scenario?

The year is 2020. Humans have the ability to perfectly replicate any physical object, down to the last atom. Any DNA on the item is retained as is. Items are copied like for like. Looking at them under a microscope, scientists can't discern the original from the copy.

It is so cheap that each copy costs only 10.00 USD.

The only problem is it only seems to work with comic books and even the cases for those slabbed comics that them nerds talk so much about.

These are not counterfeits and unfortunately it's only 2020, so no time machine yet (except for going into 2020 for the purpose of this philosophical discussion)

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