I’m afraid.
I’m afraid because I believe the hobby that I love
(reading and collecting comic books) is about to die a swift and painful death.
A little melodramatic, but appropriate.
Here are my reasons why.
Over the past several years I have not bought any new
comic books. I won’t go into elaborate
detail. It mainly comes down to two
factors: they cost too much and their inconsistency.
By inconsistency I mean that for some odd reason comic
book publishers (mainly the big two-you know who you are) keep restarting,
altering and generally mucking around with their characters and books.
Honestly, I hardly recognize the characters I grew up
with.
As to the other reasons, there are several.
Although I don’t buy comic books anymore, I do like to
keep up with industry and collecting news.
I’ve noticed some disturbing trends.
As I mentioned before-new comic books are too expensive
and this is due to a few factors such as the rise in the expense of printing,
talent and marketing and dwindling distribution outlets. Comic book stores are closing at a disturbing
rate.
This year comic book sales have shrunken a full seven-percent. That’s got to hurt both the publishers and
the retailers.
Comic book publishers are deploying a number of
strategies to counteract this. They
include exclusive and variant covers, price hikes and limited editions.
I hate to burst collectors’ bubbles but variant covers (with
a few exceptions) will not make a comic book more valuable in the long
run. The same goes for autographed
books-again with a few exceptions.
Grading has gotten out of hand. Too many collectors are looking for ‘hot’
books that are securely sealed and certified.
So called ‘experts’ guarantee condition, thus hiking up
the value of a book, sometimes by a factor of ten, as compared to its un-slabbed
counterpart.
Ask yourself, “Why does a comic book plunge in value if it
is taken out of its protective, certified container?”
Is it the book that is expensive or the packaging it
comes in?
Face it, condition experts can’t even agree amongst
themselves. I know people who have sent
a book in for grading and turned around and sent it in again and gotten a
completely different grade.
Past issue prices have skyrocketed: especially key Bronze
and Silver Age books (Golden Age comic books have always been expensive because
of their rarity). Coincidentaly their rarity
is mainly due to the paper runs during World War II. That’s the key word ‘rarity’.
So many so called ‘key’ books are plentiful. Books from the 1980s especially are
everywhere-even the hot key books-the first appearance of Deadpool and Venom come
to mind.
Prices are ridiculously high-so high that average
collectors, such as myself, can no longer afford to buy older back issues.
Recently I watched a YouTube video where a comic book
collector went around to the various booths at SDCC checking out the prices of
old comic books.
Here’s an example: most key Silver Age #1 Marvel Comic
books with a grade of 6 and above cost six figures! Who can afford that-certainly not an average collector?
So who buys them?
Speculators and wealthy collectors.
The main reason-to make more money.
Be careful, the same thing happened in the mid-1990s and
as a result the whole comic book industry almost went bust and disappeared.
Don’t misunderstand.
I have no problem with keeping comic books in good condition, nor am I against
them going up in value. But, at this
stage of the game a simple hobby has become an industry cash cow and pretty
soon that cow is going to go out to pasture or worse yet, get slaughtered.
The signs are all there.
I advise caution.
I don’t fault the comic book publishers-they are there to
make money-they are a business. But, by producing
too many ‘variant’ comic books and consistently printing big ‘epic’ crossovers,
they are killing their own market because most collectors cannot afford to dish
out all of that cash.
It is a hobby-just like collecting toys, trading cards
and the like.
Unfortunately the inundation of comic book related
merchandise has also escalated and it too is taking a serious financial blow-just
ask the major toy companies.
My advice is to buy the comic books you are going to
read. Look for interesting stories and
good art. The rest will take care of
itself.