Variants make me puke! 0

[divad]

1 hour ago, jason4 said:

Some of it is sickening but like others said many collect for cover art and variants seem to almost always have the best artists attached. I have 90 percent silver and bronze stuff but 10 percent is modern variants and sometimes not variants if the art was great. Examples of some I have and some I'm waiting on below. In 20 years who knows how these  will be valued compared to old stuff? To not collect variants would be to miss out on some amazing comics.

 

 

 

Of these, however, I'd bet on the fanboy porn to keep their value . . . you can always bet on testosterone.

 

[Joosh]

I don’t feel strongly either way. Personally I do not typically care about cover variants; more specifically any limited incentive marketing ploys that create variations of the same product. Engineered collectibles are no fun to me. Reminds me of beanie babies. I simply move on.

The whole comic book collecting thing is too much fun to get worked up over certain books. If there is an Uber limited variant cover that I really want for the art I can probably get a print of the art cheaper than buying the book, so no hard feelings ?

 

 

[valiantman]

19 hours ago, starlord86 said:

So where do you see this craziness going? will it eventually crash?

Here's the reason it won't crash...  variants don't cost extra for retailers.

So, if you're a retailer buying 25 copies of a book for your store/customers, and you get a 1:25 variant, you can definitely get full cover price for it.  That copy won't sit unsold while the regular cover sells out if they're the same price.  So, you can probably (and do) charge more than cover price for the variant... and it's now the most profitable book from the order for that issue.

Retailers aren't giving up guaranteed sales, and they're certainly not giving up the most profitable book from their order.  Publishers sell more copies.  Retailers make more money.  Collectors sometimes buy the same book twice (or five times).

The only downside is when collectors overpay for the variants and watch the price drop in the secondary market.  That doesn't matter to the publisher or the retailer, so why would the craziness stop?

[starlord86]

14 hours ago, jason4 said:

Some of it is sickening but like others said many collect for cover art and variants seem to almost always have the best artists attached. I have 90 percent silver and bronze stuff but 10 percent is modern variants and sometimes not variants if the art was great. Examples of some I have and some I'm waiting on below. In 20 years who knows how these  will be valued compared to old stuff? To not collect variants would be to miss out on some amazing comics.

 

Those are definitely nice books. Its not the artwork that I have an issue with. It is the blatant lazy cash grab. Ex: Cover A, Cover B VIRGIN, Cover C Negative, Cover D Different colors digitally filled in, etc. and don't even get me going on the ridiculousness about print runs. I would say that the examples you gave are some 'good' variants though.

[Stephen H]

 

17 hours ago, IntoAnother said:

Hey Stephen H, I have always gravitated towards the stories inside the books so I have not purchased any keys for just the cover, and if the story isn’t any good I’m not going to be buying the book.

I do appreciate the additional art and virgin covers can be very stunning as you pointed out, I just don’t support the price tags and shady business tactics used to sell them. 

I can respect that. The shady business tactics some do does get to me. For example I refused to buy the Adi Granov Infinity Countdown #1 variant by Unknown Comics because it states only "800" released online (other held for damages and cons), and after different attempts to confirm actual print number, and them never responding, I passed on buying. Sure then printed 1000-3000 of them, but they are not obligated to state the amount.

[the blob]

It is a bit of a flood on the market. By making variants of nearly every issue, sometimes multiple, it really waters down the specialness of them. Publishers should be able to understand this. With that said, it has been a while since I saw my LCS dump a bunh of former $10-$15 variants into the dollar box. maybe he is just seeding file customer files with them now, or trying to get his $10 on ebay, rather than selling them to me, I dunno. On the other hand, it keeps people emplyed. How much does a 2d tier artist get paid to do a variant cover?  I assume the JSC's, etc. get paid a nice bit.

Edited February 22, 2018 by the blob

[Aweandlorder]

You know that everyone loves variants, when in a thread named "Variants make me puke", people post variants!

[valiantman]

1 hour ago, Aweandlorder said:

You know that everyone loves variants, when in a thread named "Variants make me puke", people post variants!

Unless they're just playing the ipecac game from Family Guy.

[Mercury Man]

5 hours ago, valiantman said:

Unless they're just playing the ipecac game from Family Guy.

 

[speedcake]

This thread needs a variant thread.

Don't buy variants if you don't want them, but I see what you are saying.  The vast, vast majority of them, no matter how hot they are on release, seem to become available after a few years for far less than the premium they might demand fresh off the shelf. So just pick up any covers you like for a heavy discount down the road!  There are some really nice covers out there, some even for very reasonable prices now that they are a little older, and a whole lot of drek for sure.

 

 

[jreezy]

17 hours ago, speedcake said:

This thread needs a variant thread.

Don't buy variants if you don't want them, but I see what you are saying.  The vast, vast majority of them, no matter how hot they are on release, seem to become available after a few years for far less than the premium they might demand fresh off the shelf. So just pick up any covers you like for a heavy discount down the road!  There are some really nice covers out there, some even for very reasonable prices now that they are a little older, and a whole lot of drek for sure.

 

 

Pretty much. Totally agree with this post.  

People should just collect what they like. That's all that matters. 

[Aweandlorder]

And if you dont know, now you know

[divad]

Of course, we ALL know that a "true" variant is discovered only after it has been printed . . . sometimes years (or decades) later. Publishing a "variant" is an oxymoron, nothing more than a "manufactured collectible" which in time becomes an antithesis of itself.

 

Edited February 25, 2018 by divad