Sports card collecting now is all about the insert/ratio cards…
90’s all over again
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There has been some good storytelling from Marvel and DC. I thought Zdarsky’s Darevevil from 2020 on was great! The problem is how Marvel markets their comics. They use all their resources to push first character gimmicks and ratio variants as if that’s what the entire industry is about. Then they relaunch Daredevil to a brand new volume with the exact same creative team to sell more variants.
I truly believe that if Marvel trims down their line to just some core titles like 1 xmen book, 1 avengers title, maybe 2 or 3 spiderman titles like we used to have with A list talent, the sales would slowly
go up again like they were in the past. Saga does it with the same creative team with none of the gimmicks Marvel or dc users and their sales actually go up with subsequent issues.
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So here is the crazy thing, I was a completist on titles like Uncanny X-Men and Amazing Spider-man. Problem became too much crossover and bad story telling. I have issues going back to the early days in the 1960’s, but rarely pick up the books any more. Just do not care. I spend my money on indy books that have good story telling.
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I wish comics were cheap. $5-$10 a floppy has us buying less books. If marvel can make true believer copies $1, why are all the monthly books $5? I don’t care if paper quality is lower or even news print.
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It’s sports cards of the 90s now with comics… instead of chasing inserts, we’re chasing first appearances and chasing ratio covers…
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100%. Marvel isn’t the only one who has done this DC has too. IDW and Image have also had lines of $1 books. I supported Mark Millar’s Night Club because it was $1.99
The days of marvel $1 true believers are over. They’re making a killing selling facsimiles at $3.99 to even $9.99. Why they need to feel that charging $9.99 for a reprint is beyond me. These facsimiles are outselling their regular titles.
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I’ll keep buying the facsimiles and pay the $4-$10 + discount. I’m happy they went that route vs letting stores do exclusive foils and charging much more for them.
At that price you’d be better off sacrificing on quality and getting one of the Marvel Essential books. Black and white on shit paper, but you get 25 or so comics in one book. Most are pretty cheap and if you’re buying the reprint to read, it’s worth it in my mind.
I have some of the Marvel Essentials. Man-Thing and Godzilla. The cool thing was I got them at a discount book seller for $5
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Facsimiles have better stories.
No gimmicks in most of the facsimiles. Just classic stories.
And classic ads…
I have the Man-Thing vol 1 as well. I have the Howard The Duck, Killraven, Nova, Tales of the Zombie, Marvel Horror, Werewolf By Night and all 4 Tomb of Dracula essential books. With the exception of Tomb of Dracula, none of these editions were more than $10 each. Get a lot of classic comics in a collected edition for next to nothing
Ok Gang…wish me luck. I saw an add for an estate sale in my area. Looks to be a bit of a hoarder situation perhaps, but my eye caught some glimpses of nice comics and quite a few. I’m rolling the dice and am currently camping out on the street. Definitely first in line but folks starting to show up already and on the list behind me. Going to be a long night lol.
Opens at 9am…been here since 6 yesterday and it’s 1am. 
I’ll report out when I recover!
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Sounds like fun. Never been to one. Good luck…
If you see any Super Nintendo games like Megaman, let me know. Ill buy them lol…
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Wow, that’s hardcore. There are very few possibilities that would make me camp out overnight. I hope you do land some great stuff.
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Let us know how you make out!
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I admire your dedication. Please do keep us informed and best of luck finding some good stuff.
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