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Anyone else annoyed how comics now have dozens of covers?
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44 posts in this topic

Man, let me tell you how killer this is for me. I’m a completionist, and a FF stan, so it’s ridiculous that for Fantastic four 1 there were over 20 variant covers. They don’t need that many covers for one book. And let’s not mention the variant covers on every other title signaling their return. Unnecessary, bloating, and not worth it.

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23 minutes ago, fastballspecial said:

Eventually the market will implode on itself again as people realize these multiple covers are just as Martin said a cash grab.
...  the real travesty of this new market.

 

My LCS and gaming store went nutz and ordered at least 1,000 copies of Marvel's relaunched Star Wars #1 and got the 'hot' variant covers to sell. He just kept about 250 copies of #1 for back stock, and downsized so auctioned off the rest for about 2c 10c each less 30% (3c each) to the auction for their services, taxes and cr card fees.

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It has been really bad for a while now, but personally I’m getting extremely tired of it now. I think Black Cat really sent me over the edge. Regular run issues with no key events could have like a 1:5 or 1:10 (I think that’s reasonable, but suggesting an or of 25-50 copies of a title that maybe sells 5 copies a month in LCS is unhealthy, I think). For sure fire big sellers, sure go crazy. It’s just, I’ve been back into the comics scene for around 7 years now and seeing tons of variants from those years back just sitting in shops isn’t a good sign... A - D covers, action figure variants, etc. just collecting dust. Then the store exclusives... I think back in the day Another Univers and Dynamic Forces did it right, and there were a handful competitors in that field. But now there are just entirely too many, and I think many people are finally catching on.

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I absolutely hate it.  A few variant covers for a milestone issue, I can understand.  But even that goes too far.  How many covers for Batman 50 were there?  Or Action Comics 1000?  It feels like almost a 100 at times.  For regular books where there are cover A's and B's, I'll basically pick one and stick with it.  For example, given the choice of either Joelle Jones or Artgerm covers for Catwoman, I go with Artgerm.  Having multiple covers for a book just sort of waters it down for me.  It used to be that there was one cover and you would recognize it.  IH181, ASM 300, etc.  Now if there's a key, I can honestly say the cover won't jump out at me.  Like Teen Titans 12, does one cover hold more value than the other?

That said, I'm not exactly helping the cause.  Black Cat #1 with a cover by JSC and another by Artgerm?  Yeah, I picked that up.  Scott Williams exclusive Silver Surfer Black #1?  Yeah, I got those too.  But 90% of these variants, i'm definitely passing on.

 

On 7/15/2019 at 5:20 PM, Mercury Man said:

I hate it.  I especially hate it when I get to my LCS, and he has a cover pulled for me, but I realize I would have wanted the other cover, but then see that he is all out of the one I wanted.   I can't keep up.

This is one of the reasons why I switched to an online pre-order service.  Save 40% on books AND I get the cover I want.

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20 minutes ago, valiantman said:

80%

The percent of submissions to CGC for 2019 comic books that are a variant.

variants_by_year1.png

 

How is there a jump in 1990?  What book had variant covers which would make the number jump to 25%? 

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19 minutes ago, valiantman said:

That's a lot of Spider-Man #1 variants, but they aren't from 1990.

:p

Edited by Get Marwood & I
That's the last time I post a picture of a recent book with loads of variants in a thread called "Anyone else annoyed how comics now have dozens of covers?"
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From a buyers perspective i can see why variants are a great thing since you can have get the cover you like instead of being forced to accept the lone cover you use to get.  But from a collector, store owners or producer standpoint I don't see how doing so many covers is beneficial.  They are basically saying the interior story is meaningless - lets just concentrate on producing a ton of great covers and our numbers will be thru the roof.  Never mind the cost to produce and develop so many covers.

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