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The death of the run collector? I'm not so sure...
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56 posts in this topic

There's someone posting a Harley Quinn #1 retailer variant on a Facebook group, and I'm trying to figure out why people are so crazy about that book.  I get that it's a 1:25, but if it was a Justice League, no one would care.  I can't picture anyone buying that without having all the other issues.  Gotta be Harley completists, right?

So far, I can picture a lot of people chasing every appearance of Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage, and Venom.  Who are they, what makes them so ravenous for those characters, and how do we hook them on something with more history to it?

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Harley's the youngest in your list, at 25 years. Probably a lot easier and cheaper to collect every HQ, DP or Venom appearance than it is to collect every Spider-man, Batman or even Wolverine appearance. The older the character, the more expensive and expansive the full collection would be.

 

 

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8 hours ago, FineCollector said:

There's someone posting a Harley Quinn #1 retailer variant on a Facebook group, and I'm trying to figure out why people are so crazy about that book.  I get that it's a 1:25, but if it was a Justice League, no one would care.  I can't picture anyone buying that without having all the other issues.  Gotta be Harley completists, right?

So far, I can picture a lot of people chasing every appearance of Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage, and Venom.  Who are they, what makes them so ravenous for those characters, and how do we hook them on something with more history to it?

They might not bite with something with more history. Why?

It's about nostalgia. They grew up with those characters. Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage and Venom are the must haves for the 1990s generation.  Lots of popculture stuff from the 1990s is hot now. Jurassic Park, Pokemon, Harry Potter,X-Files, Street Fighter,Mortal Kombat and Power Rangers so it is well into reason why Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage and Venom are real popular right now. 

An example to try to explain it's kind of like me as I am 1980s kid. Someone can show me how great shows from the 1960s were like Man from Uncle, Wild Wild West and Mission Impossible , but since I never grew up with them they will never have the same nostalgic appeal that Knight Rider, The A-Team, TMNT,GI JOE, Masters of the Universe and Transformers have for me.

That's how 1990s generation feels about their popculture characters. We can show them the history of the older characters(which is good), but really they want thier characters they grew up with like Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage and Venom because of nostalgic appeal.

 So with that it makes me think Spawn makes a comeback with the 1990s crowd.

 

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Edited by ComicConnoisseur
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I think there are definitely "run" collectors still out there in decent numbers -- I'm one and I'm definitely competing with many others. Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men often get thrown out there as the slam-dunk titles that have a very solid fanbase assembling full runs. Justice League is another long-running title I see where non-key issues get snapped up pretty quickly. While it's a niche, I'd say you also get quite a few people who collect runs of lesser titles with the intention of custom-binding them where published versions are not available. Then you can apply the "gotta catch 'em all" mentality to character appearances which is most fruitful with characters that made lots of guest appearances in other titles before locking down a self-titled series (Wolverine, Punisher, Surfer, Harley, Deadpool). Now you can add Venom, Carnage and Black Panther to that. 

The thing is, if you're one of those that just has collecting "in your blood" (I don't know whether it's a genetic defect or just not hugged enough as a child), your collecting gets refined and evolves (or devolves). If you stay just within this hobby, you will find enough new goals, new interests, new ways of looking at and appreciating old stuff, new ways of organizing things in your head as to what would make your collection "complete", to last a lifetime. The depth of the comic hobby is virtually bottomless, yet malleable enough for us to decide individually what will suit our tastes and budget as they change. 

As far as how to hook collectors into other stuff with more history... I think it's a natural progression, again, provided you stay in the hobby long enough. I've been a Batman fan since '88, but it took decades before I finally came around to SA and GA stuff. Several factors came into play: Exposure, budget, accessibility, familiarity. Look at how voracious the appetite for GA is around here (non-super hero stuff, especially). After you get inundated with these books, you finally start to give them a second look whereas before you would've just blown them off. Again, I think it's just exposure over an extended period of time in the cases where something doesn't instantly grab you. 

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9 hours ago, FineCollector said:

Who are they, what makes them so ravenous for those characters, and how do we hook them on something with more history to it?

(shrug)  Perhaps they need to be sent in for regrooving?  action-smiley-073.gif

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14 hours ago, FineCollector said:

There's someone posting a Harley Quinn #1 retailer variant on a Facebook group, and I'm trying to figure out why people are so crazy about that book.  I get that it's a 1:25, but if it was a Justice League, no one would care.  I can't picture anyone buying that without having all the other issues.  Gotta be Harley completists, right?

It's a #1. insufficiently_thoughtful_persons love #1 issues because they're very special and very rare. Wait, every series has a #1 issue and any #1 from the last 45+ years is nearly guaranteed to exist in higher numbers than any other issue in the series (yes, there are exceptions to both)? Oh... um... I'll get back to you.

But seriously, why do you think Marvel relaunches all their titles with new #1 issues five times a year?

14 hours ago, FineCollector said:

So far, I can picture a lot of people chasing every appearance of Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage, and Venom.  Who are they, what makes them so ravenous for those characters, and how do we hook them on something with more history to it?

A lot of people? Every appearance? Carnage maybe, since he has fewer appearances than the others by a significant margin. Otherwise, have you seen how much :censored: has been produced with those characters (especially Deadpool) in the last 5 years? I doubt there are many people buying all of them that aren't also buying lots of other comics.

 

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15 hours ago, FineCollector said:

There's someone posting a Harley Quinn #1 retailer variant on a Facebook group, and I'm trying to figure out why people are so crazy about that book.  I get that it's a 1:25, but if it was a Justice League, no one would care.  I can't picture anyone buying that without having all the other issues.  Gotta be Harley completists, right?

You just outed yourself :baiting:  You can't picture someone buying that book as a standalone purchase but most of the key-focused flipperheads on here can't comprehend why you'd even bother to buy anything but the moneybook.  I'm a run collector but slabbing is for keys.  (shrug)

Then I buy another raw copy for the run  :D 

Edited by bababooey
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22 hours ago, FineCollector said:

So far, I can picture a lot of people chasing every appearance of Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage, and Venom.  Who are they, what makes them so ravenous for those characters, and how do we hook them on something with more history to it?

If today's kids are into Eminem, Drake, or Taylor Swift, how of you convince them to start buying Elvis Presley or Bo Diddley records?

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4 minutes ago, letsgrumble said:

If today's kids are into Eminem, Drake, or Taylor Swift, how of you convince them to start buying Elvis Presley or Bo Diddley records?

Apple to Oranges.  Elvis and Bo Diddley had talent. 

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9 minutes ago, letsgrumble said:

If today's kids are into Eminem, Drake, or Taylor Swift, how of you convince them to start buying Elvis Presley or Bo Diddley records?

Um... I don't know if I am seeing this analogy. 

I was raised on good old 92.7 WDRE / WLIR.  

Billy Joel and things like that.... The Smiths, U2, The Police, The Cure,... then I discovered this Sinatra guy... then Johnny Cash and the Beatles... from there I branched out and discovered all sorts of music... 

Now flash forward a couple of decades and I already have tickets to see the following this year:  Billy Joel, Dead and Company, Paul Simon, Jimmy Buffett, Zac Brown Band and I know I will catch a Phish show somewhere before 2018 is through. 

Point is that people will discover new things on their own. I went from GI Joe and Transformers to Amazing Spider-man to Batman and then on to Golden Age books. 

8 minutes ago, Mercury Man said:

Apple to Oranges.  Elvis and Bo Diddley had talent. 

Eminem is actually quite talented if you pay attention to the way he rhymes... it's actually a complicated flow of where he rhymes his words and and syllables. Marshall Mathers LP is still required listening as far as I am concerned.  Quite good in it's genre. 

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1 hour ago, letsgrumble said:

If today's kids are into Eminem, Drake, or Taylor Swift, how of you convince them to start buying Elvis Presley or Bo Diddley records?

I don't think today's kids are into Eminem as he is 45 years old now. Thinking about that he is older than when Elvis died at 42 years years of age. :whatthe:

I agree though today's kids are into Taylor Swift and Drake.

Drake is really huge with the modern crowd.

Edited by ComicConnoisseur
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1 hour ago, Buzzetta said:

Eminem is actually quite talented if you pay attention to the way he rhymes... it's actually a complicated flow of where he rhymes his words and and syllables. Marshall Mathers LP is still required listening as far as I am concerned.  Quite good in it's genre. 

I agree his first albums were really good. It was perfect for that generation and time.

He has been mediocre of late though. Seems time has passed him by. 

Edited by ComicConnoisseur
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9 minutes ago, ComicConnoisseur said:

I agree his first albums were really good. It was perfect for that generation and time.

He has been mediocre of late though. Seems time has passed him by. 

I really did like this... it definitely has that Rick Rubin sound to it and Eminem sounded like the long lost Beastie Boy (yes, I realize it was intended to seem that way but I liked it nonetheless)

 

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I was tempted last night to give up on my amazing Spider-Man run 1-200. I have everything 39-200 and 30 of the first 20 but not 1 2 or 4.

i would sell the non-keys from 102 to 200 and use the money to get an avengers 4 or something. Then I woke up today and thought I was crazy. My interests change daily lol. 

But you know collecting runs like this is so time consuming and uses up so much of the budget and what happens at the end? I don't think selling in bulk would ever be a good idea even though I'm not going to sell them. But I could probably have a more valuable collection if I went the keys only route. Going in circles here. I know collect what you like but I like pretty much everything marvel so it's hard to decide...

complete the run or go for marvel keys of a variety of great characters?

Edited by jason4
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1 hour ago, jason4 said:

I was tempted last night to give up on my amazing Spider-Man run 1-200. I have everything 39-200 and 30 of the first 20 but not 1 2 or 4.

i would sell the non-keys from 102 to 200 and use the money to get an avengers 4 or something. Then I woke up today and thought I was crazy. My interests change daily lol. 

But you know collecting runs like this is so time consuming and uses up so much of the budget and what happens at the end? I don't think selling in bulk would ever be a good idea even though I'm not going to sell them. But I could probably have a more valuable collection if I went the keys only route. Going in circles here. I know collect what you like but I like pretty much everything marvel so it's hard to decide...

complete the run or go for marvel keys of a variety of great characters?

You should definitely keep them if you have 30 of the first 20 Jason! :D

Seriously, I was in this position with ASM too. You either keep them all, sell them all or keep just a few of your favourites.  I did the latter and survived. Sometimes when you sell you come to regret it, especially when you've finished a run and the thrill of the hunt is over. As soon as they're gone though, you can suddenly remember why you loved them and want them back!

As long as the sale proceeds are put to good use, you can do it. Swapping one cherished item for another is a good way of overcoming the unfortunate obstacle of not being rich - which it helps to be in the hobby nowadays. :headbang:

 

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I was trying to find a different point of reference by comparing Harley collectors with people who collected every Joker and Green Goblin appearance, but it doesn't feel the same.  In the early 2000's, I met a guy at the LCS who liked baseball cards, but bought Joker and Goblin comics as a commodity, not because he gave a fig about comics.  The flippers have their fingers in these issues too, but there have to be enough interested buyers to keep prices afloat.

Could this just be the next wave of 90's type die-hard collectors who wanted every appearance of Punisher, Ghost Rider, or Jim Lee art?  The ones who went hard for a few years, but fizzled out and abandoned the hobby when the value of their books dropped?

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2 hours ago, jason4 said:

I was tempted last night to give up on my amazing Spider-Man run 1-200. I have everything 39-200 and 30 of the first 20 but not 1 2 or 4.

i would sell the non-keys from 102 to 200 and use the money to get an avengers 4 or something. Then I woke up today and thought I was crazy. My interests change daily lol. 

But you know collecting runs like this is so time consuming and uses up so much of the budget and what happens at the end? I don't think selling in bulk would ever be a good idea even though I'm not going to sell them. But I could probably have a more valuable collection if I went the keys only route. Going in circles here. I know collect what you like but I like pretty much everything marvel so it's hard to decide...

complete the run or go for marvel keys of a variety of great characters?

If you want to keep 121-122, 129, and 194, I'd be happy to take them off your hands at a bulk rate!  They're worth lots more, but no one will pay you for them when they see you offloading everything but the obvious issues.  Lots of good numbers in there... 103-115, 119-120, 123-125, 130-131, 134-137, 144-150, 157-162, 174-180.  Are you sure you don't want to keep them?

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