What would happen to collectible comic values if DC stopped making comics? 1 1

[miraclemet]

Using this article as a jumping off point (DC Comics Leaves Its Legacy Behind - Publishers Weekly) 

Extrapolating from some of the moves by AT&T upper management following their acquisition of DC Comics what would happen to DC comics as a collectible market if they decided to stop publishing monthly titles? I assume they would retain ownership of the IP for the sake of trademarking and selling license images and continue to make movies, but what if they just stopped making comics...

What would happen with all those Silver age keys? Or even more modern keys? 

Plenty of collectibles have retained (some or all of their) value even when their subject matter is not actively being published, but what do you think would happen? 

I guess the question is how much of a comics collectibles market value is propped up by the ongoing publication of modern books about the same material? 

[miraclemet]

(and sorry if this has been discussed before, tried searching the boards and found nothing, but if it's a repeat topic, feel free to hit me with a fish)

[shadroch]

AMC no longer makes cars, but the value of an AMX is still pretty high.

Picasso no longer makes new paintings, but his old ones still sell. 

 

[miraclemet]

10 minutes ago, shadroch said:

AMC no longer makes cars, but the value of an AMX is still pretty high.

Picasso no longer makes new paintings, but his old ones still sell. 

 

right, as I said plenty of comics have retained value with no modern publication reinforcement, but are you saying you'd expect to see no impact? 
Obviously with iconic collectibles like Action 1, they're above such influences, but what about Batman Adventures 13, or Green Arrow/Green Lantern 76, or the latest modern speculation? 

[THE_BEYONDER]

5 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

right, as I said plenty of comics have retained value with no modern publication reinforcement, but are you saying you'd expect to see no impact? 
Obviously with iconic collectibles like Action 1, they're above such influences, but what about Batman Adventures 13, or Green Arrow/Green Lantern 76, or the latest modern speculation? 

Doesn’t current speculation depend solely on movies/tv shows?

I don’t see the discontinuation of monthlies impacting current prices at all.  Do values of older books increase when something new happens in a modern book?

[miraclemet]

18 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

Doesn’t current speculation depend solely on movies/tv shows?

 

The recent reveal on the relevance of Mr E in the Knull Universe (and thus the spike in Marvel Spotlight 9) wasnt tied to movie/tv but rather events in current comics...  or the bump that the current volume of ASM55 is enjoying (again not movie related), but yeah most do tie to tv/movies.

[THE_BEYONDER]

1 hour ago, miraclemet said:

right, as I said plenty of comics have retained value with no modern publication reinforcement, but are you saying you'd expect to see no impact? 
Obviously with iconic collectibles like Action 1, they're above such influences, but what about Batman Adventures 13, or Green Arrow/Green Lantern 76, or the latest modern speculation? 

Doesn’t current speculation depend solely on movies/tv shows?

I don’t see the discontinuation of monthlies impacting current prices at all.  Do values of older books increase when something new happens in a modern book?

[piper]

I think it's reasonable to say that a small percentage of collectors wouldn't enter the hobby if Modern DC comics are no longer published.  What I'm not sure about is the correlation between those that buy new material and those that collect Gold, Silver, and Bronze.  Are they one and the same?  How do people get into buying vintage material these days?

My guess is that we wouldn't see an impact immediately even if the other publishers stopped making new floppies.  The longer term impact would take decades to play out.

Personally, I would like to see further movement away from single issues and migrate towards digital and collected editions.

 

 

 

 

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

Although I will not address the possible impact on vintage DC comic books if AT&T ceases publication of most/all current DC comic book titles, as I commented in a previous thread concerning this possibility, if nothing else, I'll monthly spend less money on comic books not purchasing such of DC titles.

[BoogieWoogie]

I think that the damage would be long term. Young readers already favor trades due to the cost savings versus floppies, but those trades are collections of floppies so when they eventually have the capital to pick up those floppies they can go back and do so. This will still happen on the DC side when old stories are re-released. But for, say, a Batman reader that starts reading in 2022 and is reading however many collected editions DC puts out in a quarter or whatever the time period is why would they go back? Especially if this move to trades and one-shot type stories means decoupling from the traditional comic format/story length. If DC is putting out 36-page Batman stories and 43-page Batman stories and 61-page Batman stories, will newer readers find the floppy format jarring or unpleasant?

I think, long term, it will hurt the number of people looking for DC back issues. And the vacuum DC would create at comic shops on NCBD and throughout the week would reduce their foot traffic and potentially hurt them too since a lot of the appeal of trades for comics publishers is the ability to sell them in many more places than they can sell floppies. So now DC readers may not even go to comic shops which would hurt that industry even more impacting how ALL back issues are sold.

Needless to say I really hope this doesn't happen. I'm more of a Marvel guy, lil DC curious, but it wouldn't be healthy for half of the world's major superheroes to no longer be published in monthly comics.

[WoWitHurts]

DC stopped making comics some time ago IMO.

[WoWitHurts]

1 hour ago, miraclemet said:

The recent reveal on the relevance of Mr E in the Knull Universe (and thus the spike in Marvel Spotlight 9) wasnt tied to movie/tv but rather events in current comics...  or the bump that the current volume of ASM55 is enjoying (again not movie related), but yeah most do tie to tv/movies.

From what I gather on Facebook, demand in ASM #55 is at least partially driven by people buying 10-20 copies to flip and FOMO on the part of buyers. I think this type of behavior is a totally different animal. Some folks just like the cover but it seems very much like a pyramid scheme lol.

[thehumantorch]

2 hours ago, miraclemet said:

Using this article as a jumping off point (DC Comics Leaves Its Legacy Behind - Publishers Weekly) 

Extrapolating from some of the moves by AT&T upper management following their acquisition of DC Comics what would happen to DC comics as a collectible market if they decided to stop publishing monthly titles? I assume they would retain ownership of the IP for the sake of trademarking and selling license images and continue to make movies, but what if they just stopped making comics...

What would happen with all those Silver age keys? Or even more modern keys? 

Plenty of collectibles have retained (some or all of their) value even when their subject matter is not actively being published, but what do you think would happen? 

I guess the question is how much of a comics collectibles market value is propped up by the ongoing publication of modern books about the same material? 

Interesting question.  

I had expected that the value of collectible comics would drop as sales of new comics shrunk but the opposite has happened.  In fact values have gone up so much it doesn't make sense to me and that pretty well runs the gambit from GA to MA.

[BoogieWoogie]

Just now, thehumantorch said:

Interesting question.  

I had expected that the value of collectible comics would drop as sales of new comics shrunk but the opposite has happened.  In fact values have gone up so much it doesn't make sense to me and that pretty well runs the gambit from GA to MA.

Are you just looking at sales of singles? I think when you lump in trades the industry is in really good shape. I bet there are a lot of young readers that only buy trades for new stuff but will occasionally buy back issues featuring their favorite heroes and villains. I think monthlies are too expensive for a lot of kids that are interested in following multiple heroes.

[thehumantorch]

1 minute ago, BoogieWoogie said:

Are you just looking at sales of singles? I think when you lump in trades the industry is in really good shape. I bet there are a lot of young readers that only buy trades for new stuff but will occasionally buy back issues featuring their favorite heroes and villains. I think monthlies are too expensive for a lot of kids that are interested in following multiple heroes.

Yes, singles.  I really don't have any information of trade sales or digital sales.  I guess I'd have to consider how many digital sales there are and how that might translate to back issue buying.

[Mmehdy]

It would result in a decrease in the ability to get new collectors into our future market, it would also mean less quality material would be published, I hope it does not happen

[jsilverjanet]

1 hour ago, miraclemet said:

The recent reveal on the relevance of Mr E in the Knull Universe (and thus the spike in Marvel Spotlight 9) wasnt tied to movie/tv but rather events in current comics...  or the bump that the current volume of ASM55 is enjoying (again not movie related), but yeah most do tie to tv/movies.

@fastballspecial I guess it's a success

[Ken Aldred]

11 minutes ago, Mmehdy said:

it would also mean less quality material would be published, I hope it does not happen

Not necessarily.  Big name writers and artists associated with Marvel and DC already do some more interesting work at Image Comics, so they could create elsewhere if DC stopped publishing.  Also, trimming down the number of titles published means that the talent isn't spread as thinly, and quality could improve, the exact opposite to the effect of, for example, the 90s speculation era glut.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Ken Aldred

[Mmehdy]

1 minute ago, Ken Aldred said:

Not necessarily.  Big name writers from Marvel and DC already do some more interesting work at Image Comics, so they could create elsewhere if DC stopped publishing.  Also, trimming down the number of titles published means that the talent isn't spread as thinly, and quality could improve, the exact opposite to the effect of, for example, the 90s speculation era glut.

Eliminating the #1 or #2 comic book publisher of all time...I mean its a negative all the way...they would go exclusively graphic novel at first......

[Ken Aldred]

20 minutes ago, Mmehdy said:

...  it would also mean less quality material would be published...

 

6 minutes ago, Mmehdy said:

Eliminating the #1 or #2 comic book publisher of all time...I mean its a negative all the way...they would go exclusively graphic novel at first......

The possibility of more freedom, more originality, when no longer constrained by a corporate, in-house style.  Hardly a negative with regards to quality.  Not really about DC's characters, intellectual property here.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Ken Aldred