jfree580 Posted September 16, 2018 Author Share Posted September 16, 2018 1 hour ago, newshane said: That's the very first thing that came to my mind. I was kind of thinking this, or for the super collectors. Either way, you have all been very helpful! Thank you very much for all the replies! I guess I will have to see what category I fall in over the next years, whether is be super collector or I start enjoying a certain niche. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvelmaniac Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 (edited) They did the same thing back in the 90's before the industry imploded on itself. When X-Men (1991) came out there were 4 different covers for issue #1. The 90's were the decade of variants and gimmick covers. "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it". DECEMBER 28, 1996 Edited September 17, 2018 by marvelmaniac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NP_Gresham Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 (edited) On 9/12/2018 at 12:27 PM, keithl said: some variant comic sites with more info. cheers https://www.sellmycomicbooks.com/variant-comics.html https://rarecomics.wordpress.com/ http://www.recalledcomics.com/index.php Pretty much true, but there are detractors to these posts. Marvel started direct editions to comic book shops in 1979, anything with the diamond prior to 1979 was Whitman 3 pack only. Edited September 17, 2018 by NP_Gresham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBRobin Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Variants sell comic books and make Marvel and LCS' money. A lot of people describe them in pejorative terms like "gimmick" or "money grab," but they have been a consistent part of this industry for 20 years. They are completely optional and do nothing to devalue the non-variant editions. They get people excited about comics, allow artists to showcase different work, and generate significant activity in comic book collecting. The only people that have a legitimate complaint about variants are those trying to collect entire runs, and are prevented from doing so by super rare variants that are difficult to obtain. Publishers create variants because it allows them to increase their profits by selling more books with limited overhead. And people keep buying them and snatching them up, so as a business that wants to make a profit, it makes sense that publishers would use variants to try to increase sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revat Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 1 hour ago, SBRobin said: Variants sell comic books and make Marvel and LCS' money. A lot of people describe them in pejorative terms like "gimmick" or "money grab," but they have been a consistent part of this industry for 20 years. They are completely optional and do nothing to devalue the non-variant editions. They get people excited about comics, allow artists to showcase different work, and generate significant activity in comic book collecting. The only people that have a legitimate complaint about variants are those trying to collect entire runs, and are prevented from doing so by super rare variants that are difficult to obtain. Publishers create variants because it allows them to increase their profits by selling more books with limited overhead. And people keep buying them and snatching them up, so as a business that wants to make a profit, it makes sense that publishers would use variants to try to increase sales. I agree, gotta get it while there's gettin' to be got. But yah, sucks for completionists. And while some people speculate about a potential 'crash', similar to what occurred in the 90's, it simply won't be the same thing. It can't be. Even when prices drop you can sell for INCREMENTALLY less on the internet to cushion your blow, instead of DRAMATICALLY less locally (or not at all). You also have better information (and business tracking software) making it easier to adjust order size and make better decisions in real-time, and not be left holding four months worth of 5,000 x-men and spiderman comics. If someone can't sell their $500 variants relatively quickly, they can always post them for $400 which might be a loss, but not a huge one. And even if one variant drops, another one will take its place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NP_Gresham Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 (edited) 7 hours ago, revat said: I agree, gotta get it while there's gettin' to be got. But yah, sucks for completionists. And while some people speculate about a potential 'crash', similar to what occurred in the 90's, it simply won't be the same thing. It can't be. Even when prices drop you can sell for INCREMENTALLY less on the internet to cushion your blow, instead of DRAMATICALLY less locally (or not at all). You also have better information (and business tracking software) making it easier to adjust order size and make better decisions in real-time, and not be left holding four months worth of 5,000 x-men and spiderman comics. If someone can't sell their $500 variants relatively quickly, they can always post them for $400 which might be a loss, but not a huge one. And even if one variant drops, another one will take its place. It is always ‘different this time’ or there would not be cycles of boom and bust if it were truly ‘different this time’ the cycling would have ended with the tulip bubble The music will stop eventually When ever it ends, we will soon forget our troubles and be blessed with a new age that is ‘different this time’ Edited September 18, 2018 by NP_Gresham Lazyboy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theCapraAegagrus Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 16 hours ago, SBRobin said: Variants sell comic books and make Marvel and LCS' money. A lot of people describe them in pejorative terms like "gimmick" or "money grab," but they have been a consistent part of this industry for 20 years. They are completely optional and do nothing to devalue the non-variant editions. They get people excited about comics, allow artists to showcase different work, and generate significant activity in comic book collecting. The only people that have a legitimate complaint about variants are those trying to collect entire runs, and are prevented from doing so by super rare variants that are difficult to obtain. Publishers create variants because it allows them to increase their profits by selling more books with limited overhead. And people keep buying them and snatching them up, so as a business that wants to make a profit, it makes sense that publishers would use variants to try to increase sales. I am not one of these people, and I don't like them, so this just isn't true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBRobin Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 40 minutes ago, TwoPiece said: I am not one of these people, and I don't like them, so this just isn't true. What is your reason for not liking variants? How do they affect you as a collector? Maybe there is something I have overlooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theCapraAegagrus Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 2 minutes ago, SBRobin said: What is your reason for not liking variants? How do they affect you as a collector? Maybe there is something I have overlooked. I think that having more than maybe, a couple, of different covers is obnoxious and ridiculous. It was frustrating for me as a beginner, because I didn't know how to identify what was a variant, and what wasn't. We already get different covers for every issue, we don't need 50 variants (and even more with virgin variants) for a single story. The decade variants for Action Comics 1000 are cool. IMO blank/sketch variants are cool, but outside of those, the publishers should just stop. They're annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBRobin Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 I stand by my original comment, as thinking variants are obnoxious/ridiculous/annoying and thinking we don't need more than one cover are not legitimate complaints as they have no affect on you as a collector. You're not required to buy them. They do not prevent you from collecting comics. It's like the people that complain that publishers adding a new movie tie-in cover on a classic book somehow affects the story or their enjoyment of it. Variants help keep the publishers in business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theCapraAegagrus Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 5 minutes ago, SBRobin said: I stand by my original comment, as thinking variants are obnoxious/ridiculous/annoying and thinking we don't need more than one cover are not legitimate complaints as they have no affect on you as a collector. You're not required to buy them. They do not prevent you from collecting comics. It's like the people that complain that publishers adding a new movie tie-in cover on a classic book somehow affects the story or their enjoyment of it. Variants help keep the publishers in business. Oh, I didn't realize that I was having a conversation with the Szar of Comic Collecting. The last time that I checked, variants being annoying, obnoxious, and ridiculous are all legitimate reasons that affect my collecting. You can't just claim that everyone else's opinions are invalid. There is no objective reasoning to be presented here. They have prevented me from collecting in the past, and they've annoyed me from collecting in the present. It's a PITA to sort through dozens of variants to find the comic I'm looking for. It's a problem when my LCS has only variants of an issue and not the direct cover. It's a problem, and a valid concern. I stand by my comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBRobin Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 6 hours ago, TwoPiece said: You can't just claim that everyone else's opinions are invalid. Sure I can. It is my opinion that your concerns are not valid. If I was in charge of a publishing group and I had the decision to stop variants, something that is very profitable to my business, because a few people are annoyed by them, it would be an easy call to make. Especially when the majority of those people have not changed their habits and are still purchasing my books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not A Clone Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 On 9/16/2018 at 10:56 AM, NP_Gresham said: The best thing to happen to comics will not happen for many years yet. These characters need to fall into the public domain. The best thing to happen to comics would be downsizing of copyright protections. So at some point do you think you deserve the right to "own" Spider-Man or Batman? I have to disagree with this. You didn't do anything to make these icons what they are. I didn't either. Just an opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theCapraAegagrus Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 14 hours ago, SBRobin said: Sure I can. It is my opinion that your concerns are not valid. If I was in charge of a publishing group and I had the decision to stop variants, something that is very profitable to my business, because a few people are annoyed by them, it would be an easy call to make. Especially when the majority of those people have not changed their habits and are still purchasing my books. It's my opinion that your invalidating opinion is invalid. It's frankly mind-boggling how stubbornly dickish you are about your own opinion concerning nothing other than invalidating others. You're obviously a valuable contributor to this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NP_Gresham Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 6 hours ago, Not A Clone said: So at some point do you think you deserve the right to "own" Spider-Man or Batman? I have to disagree with this. You didn't do anything to make these icons what they are. I didn't either. Just an opinion. Dracula falling into the public domain has not hurt that character Why wouldn’t someone other than Disney not help Spider-man? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NP_Gresham Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 Ending Ma Bell’s hold on the telephone sparked countless innovations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBRobin Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 10 hours ago, TwoPiece said: It's my opinion that your invalidating opinion is invalid. Okay, and I don't mean to keep dragging this out so this will be my last reply about it, but I think I need to at least tell you that your opinion is wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theCapraAegagrus Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 14 hours ago, SBRobin said: Okay, and I don't mean to keep dragging this out so this will be my last reply about it, but I think I need to at least tell you that your opinion is wrong. Here, you're factually incorrect. Opinions are not objective, therefor they cannot be "right" or "wrong". You are 100% incorrect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wurstisart Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 Found this old post. Trying to find out how many variant books DC or Marvel publishes a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
