I didn’t say they were forced. Just said that was part of the reason for their bad rap with some collectors.
Yikes. If you hate store exclusives, you’re going to hate Punchline 1. 3 “team” variants. 10k print runs for each cover. Stores need to buy at least 500 each. So, it’s a way now for stores to share the burden of a store exclusive. But, the covers are pretty good looking. Expect prices all over the damn place on these.
I do not think anyone hates store variants. They are simply not some people’s cup of tea. And history tells us that they are not a good investment 99.9% of the time.
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And there are sects that love the store variants too.
The difference being that Cover A, with some having 100,000+ print runs, depends on everyone viewing it in the manner in which we do in order to maintain its value.
When there are only 3000 copies of a given book, you only need 3000 people out there to like it.
Now imagine if the perception changes over time on Key books. And more people who feel the way you do, shift their desires.
That’s why I say I think store variants for Key books are long-term sleepers.
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When you say ‘value’, are you referencing overall value? Or a ROI (return on investment) value? If it is the latter, is that a hard return or a %? Value has a lot of different meanings when you are talking about markets. And value can also be subjective in certain circumstances. So, what do you mean when you say ‘value’?
Overall worth…
Like a Venom 26 Store Variant is averaging around $40 and Cover A is around $15.
Yes. But one group is a larger market than the other. 
. Economics 101. Supply and demand. Larger group = larger demand.
you cant go by value for a book only a few weeks old, 2-3 years from now venom 26 store exclusives will be bought off ebay for basement prices.
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I use to make a lot of money on store variants it stopped at Metal #4 because that’s when they rereleased Metal #3 fishhook as a foil, and rereleased ASM #678 Mary Jane venom and X23 Dell Otto as store Virgin variants. Starting with Peach Momoko variants store variants started moving crazy again anything Knull or Peach Momoko is at least getting me free books and some moderate profit on top it also moves fast which is just as important. Not like selling Dell Otto Pink Harley for $900 the day it went on sell and sold out but profit none the less.
So, on the store variant (assuming a $20 buy in + shipping) you are seeing a 100% return, and on cover A ($4 buy in at your LCS) you are seeing a 375% return. So, cover A has 3.75x more value for your dollar than the store variant.
i dumped all my momoko books, that market is gonna crash hard
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My venom #26 gauntlets trade dressed I sold between $30-$45 they were $15 each From the shop and I didn’t buy the multiples until I saw how fast I could sell them when I sold the two trade dressed from my sets.
You are basing way too much of your opinion on store variants about the last 5 months. This is an aberration, not a shifting of the market.
It’s the same people buying and flipping the virgin variants creating their own market. Eventually the bubble will burst as it’s too small of a segment of the community involved.
A perfect example for you, I will stick to Venom for you. Skan #5 first Knull cover. First cover of a hot character. Sat in inventory with Frankies Comics for almost 2 years. They share variants as well so they probably had 500-750 copies. It sat. They had to discount it. Wasn’t until Jim Comics mentioned it in a video and the Knull cover debate started, that anyone cared at all despite it being the first Knull cover.
The Skan #6 Knull cover was still available for $10 last time I checked their site, 2 years after release.
Things have gotten a little whacky during Covid. The market will correct itself. Don’t get caught holding the bag.
As has been pointed out, a vast majority of the market cares nothing about store variants.
I still buy the ones I like, but I do it for what I like only. Not expecting huge returns in the long run.
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You can pick and choose certain ‘winners’ here and there, but you certainly can’t use a quick flip to justify assumptions about long term gains.
You missed the point, you don’t need a large group with a significantly lower print run. And my argument for the potential that Key store variants possess, is imagine if the size of that market grows?
If you visit Frankies Facebook Momoko is not going no where they are super fans in the hundreds just in their group. Like the worst kinda of collectible whiny snob you can find die hard fans that cry when they don’t get the new exclusive Momoko book and threaten lawsuits against the stores offering them.
That is the best reason to ever buy any comic book. 
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That’s very possible. I acknowledged it is very early in the game with this example.
Store variants do not have significantly lower print runs than ratio variants or later printings. Quite the opposite in fact.
And you don’t know what the print run is on any given store variant. That store can order 1,000,000 copies if they wanted. The 3000 number you keep referencing is a minimum order to do 1 cover for a Marvel store variant. 3000 is by no means a hard print run number for store variants. You’re drinking their kool-aid, my friend. You’ve bought hard into that sales tactic.
Like half of Kevin the owner of Frankies time has to be accommodating these super fans by adding bot blockers, and purchase limits, password protection, Facebook early purchases, and reserve buttons just to keep people from bitching. Every Peach book that comes out someone always post hey Kevin when will this be available or when will this Peach cover ship it’s got to be rough.
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