|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by morriscroy
(Post 13999921)
In practice, the only thing I found ebay useful for was figuring out what the true market prices might be for something which attracts the hardcore crowd. For common items, it is less effective.
For example back in the 1980s and 1990s, I suspected something like Rolex watches were considerably "overpriced". They were easily available that even middle or middle-upper class folks (ie. yuppies, etc ...) were able to buy one. Some relatives in my family social circles were buying rolexes, just to show off as some type of "status symbol" (however fleeting). By the time ebay was around in the late 1990s, I noticed the prices of used Rolex watches were considerably lower. Back in the day before the internet was ubiquitous, I always suspected some niche specialized dealers (comics, sports cards, rare books, musical instruments, etc ...) were greatly overpricing their inventory. This is independent of whether it was overtly (ie. overstreet types guides, MSRP, etc ...) or semi-covertly in a market with considerable "price opacity" (ie. rare books, etc ...). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_(market) Some cases which I suspected the MSRP was greatly overpriced (whether official or implicit), was stuff like: Rolex watches, brand name guitars (ie. esp, jackson, etc ...), Dungeons & Dragons books/modules, etc ... (In the mid-late 1980s, D&D modules were typically around $10 a pop for a softcover 64 pages or less stapled together). This was another big reason why I never really got into buying a lot of back issues from comic book shops back in the day. Even knowing some overstreet guide prices, I had no idea whether prices were reliable or not for older non-dumpbin stuff. Something else to consider is that ebay and e-commerce in general wasn't really accepted until the mid 2000's. While sites like ebay and Amazon had their start in the 90's, many didn't understand or trust doing business on the Internet, where the views on credit card security were considered risky by most people. That's why the early adopters of e-commerce and by this I mean the customers, were able to get incredible deals on sites like ebay as there wasn't nowhere near as much activity as there is today. Back then, I used to get key back issues for cents on the dollar. I own four NM copies of Caliber Presents #1 (first appearance of the Crow) which I bought on ebay for $1 a piece. That's how ridiculous it was back then. |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by Red Hood
(Post 13999784)
Like I mentioned before, I know a lot of the contributors that work in the book and they are the biggest pedantic gatekeeping assholes imaginable.
.... They look down on the younger crowd, always dismissing them. I already had my run in with one of these pedantic assholes as I was looking for an specific book ... Back in the day, my experiences with hardcore pedantic types was mostly in pen-and-paper gaming type niches and some highly technical specialties. I left the comics niche early enough that I never got around to encountering any extreme pedantic comic book "gatekeeper" types at conventions. Decades ago when I briefly attended some local/regional gaming type conventions, the extreme pedantic types were almost always the hardcore chits-and-hex wargamers playing stuff made by Avalon Hill and SPI back in the mid/late-1960s and 1970s. Most of these guys were 15-20 years older than me, who were extremely vocal about their contempt towards tabletop role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. They didn't have much to talk about, other than how much they really really hated D&D and how it was "destroying" the market for old style chits-and-hex wargames. They generally hated kids/teenagers, seeing them as spoiled brats who don't know what a "real game" is. In hindsight after reading about the history of wargames, I now realize that the extreme pedantic chits-n-hex wargamer types never got over the fact that TSR completely destroyed SPI by a very unfair "predatory loan" completely backed by SPI's assets without any of its liabilities (ie. lifetime subscriptions, etc ...). The few now-AARP age chits-n-hex wargamers I have encountered over the past decade or so, are still extremely angry about the abrupt demise of SPI almost 40 years ago, and later the Hasbro buyout of Avalon Hill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simula...ications,_Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_%26_Tactics |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
(Going even further on a huge tangent on "gatekeeping").
The other big niche I encountered where hardcore pedantic types were standard fare, was in the field of cryptography in the civilian world. (Excluding classified and/or military cryptography). Though in this case, the "gatekeeping" wasn't done actively by the hardcore pedantic types. It didn't have to be done actively anyways, due to the nature of the niche having an extremely high technical "barrier to entry". Basically anybody who is recognized in cryptography, has to show that they can come up with new cracking methods which nobody could do previously (whether partial or in full). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis To become "anointed" into the niche's "pantheon", one has to impress the hardcore pendantic peers who were the previously "anointed". (Being a mathematics or engineering professor doing research in cryptography at an elite university like Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, etc .... is simply not good enough). |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by morriscroy
(Post 14001434)
(On a huge tangent).
Back in the day, my experiences with hardcore pedantic types was mostly in pen-and-paper gaming type niches and some highly technical specialties. I left the comics niche early enough that I never got around to encountering any extreme pedantic comic book "gatekeeper" types at conventions. Back in the day, I only really went to local gaming type conventions when they were usually held over a long weekend. There was usually a vendor room, but I rarely ever purchased anything. Typically vendors would be selling miniatures, old inventories of Avalon Hill + SPI wargames, used D&D modules/books and other less popular non-D&D rpg games, etc .... In those days, less popular non-D&D rpg game books were harder to come across if you didn't know about dedicated gaming shops which carried many such non-D&D titles. Over these long weekend conventions, we were usually playing D&D and/or other tabletop pen-and-paper rpg (or chits-n-hex wargames to a lesser extent) campaigns which lasted two or three days long. Frequently this was best time to try out and play non-D&D rpg gaming campaigns which hardly anybody ever played in their regular groups. The only reason I ever knew about such local/regional gaming conventions, was that I played regular D&D games with folks who were more tuned in to the local scenes than I was. In contrast, I didn't know about any local comic conventions during the whole time I was collecting comics regularly in those days. It turns out the first comic convention I went to, was shortly AFTER I had already stopped collecting comics. At one gaming convention I attended, it turned out by coincidence there was a local/regional comic convention booked at the same convention center during one day in a different larger room in the same building. So during lunch I dropped by the comic convention room where I noticed almost half of the giant room space was taken up by a single vendor from out of town which I didn't recognize. (This giant room space was likely larger than the size of a basketball court or hockey rink, but not as large as a football field). Apparently this single vendor had tons of longboxes of inventory of titles from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s, which they were selling issues for cover price as a convention special. They all appeared to be direct market copies which were not in plastic bags, and no Uncanny X-Men titles before issue #150. However tempting it was to buy a lot of these near-mint condition back issues at cover prices, I had to say no at the time. I didn't know it at the time, but in hindsight it was obvious this particular vendor was likely using conventions as an easy way to unload tons of inventory which was not appreciating much in the back issue market. |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by morriscroy
(Post 14001870)
So during lunch I dropped by the comic convention room where I noticed almost half of the giant room space was taken up by a single vendor from out of town which I didn't recognize. (This giant room space was likely larger than the size of a basketball court or hockey rink, but not as large as a football field). Apparently this single vendor had tons of longboxes of inventory of titles from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s, which they were selling issues for cover price as a convention special. They all appeared to be direct market copies which were not in plastic bags, and no Uncanny X-Men titles before issue #150.
However tempting it was to buy a lot of these near-mint condition back issues at cover prices, I had to say no at the time. I didn't know it at the time, but in hindsight it was obvious this particular vendor was likely using conventions as an easy way to unload tons of inventory which was not appreciating much in the back issue market. If I had to guess, this particular large vendor which took up a large space covering almost half of the room (the room slightly larger than the area of a basketball court or hockey rink), was either a giant chain comic retailer from another town or was a regional distributor. In a more general sense, how common was it for a distributor (whether Diamond or its predecessors) to be unloading tons of old inventory at comic conventions back in the day? |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by Red Hood
(Post 14000319)
Something else to consider is that ebay and e-commerce in general wasn't really accepted until the mid 2000's. While sites like ebay and Amazon had their start in the 90's, many didn't understand or trust doing business on the Internet, where the views on credit card security were considered risky by most people. That's why the early adopters of e-commerce and by this I mean the customers, were able to get incredible deals on sites like ebay as there wasn't nowhere near as much activity as there is today. Back then, I used to get key back issues for cents on the dollar. I own four NM copies of Caliber Presents #1 (first appearance of the Crow) which I bought on ebay for $1 a piece. That's how ridiculous it was back then.
|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by morriscroy
(Post 14002484)
How many of these ebay prices back in the mid/late-1990s -> early-2000s, was reflective of the fallout of the comics bubble bursting dragging a lot prices down? (ie. Not necessarily the result of less eyes/bidders).
|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
eBay really disrupted the comic book collecting/dealing.
I can remember, back in the early days, that you would have people trying to dump certain books that might have a guide value of $50, and all of these auctions for those titles just sitting there with few takers. If the auctions started low, then they might sell for ten dollars. It was really eye-opening. And then there were books that the guides undervalued, like Miracleman #15. That book had a guide value of, at the time, maybe ten or fifteen dollars, but I would see them sell at auction for anywhere from $50-$75. I remember that I could never find a copy of Miracleman #15, and when eBay came out, I could find them, but couldn't afford them. Ended up buying a full run of Miracleman #1-24 and the four TPBs in mint condition for barely over cover price off of usenet. Another odd one is Hellblazer #27 (the Gaiman/McKean issue) that was a hole in my collection for the longest time. That book typically sold for about thirty dollars on eBay. For some reason, Mile High Comics had it as a two dollar sale book on their website. I bought ten copies of it, then eBayed the other nine for between $25 and $35 a pop. I called that move the "Reverse Rozanski." I'm actually kind of baffled how Hellblazer #27 became a two dollar sale book at MHC. Chuck must have bought several cases of them in a warehouse sale, and the system automatically put them on sale because of overstock. Another weird thing about Hellblazer #27 was that the same guy bought most of my copies of the book I put up for sale. He seemed to be buying up nearly every copy of Hellblazer #27 that showed up on eBay. Both of these anecdotes are from, I think, the 1998/1999 range. Interesting times. |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by Josh-da-man
(Post 14002877)
Another weird thing about Hellblazer #27 was that the same guy bought most of my copies of the book I put up for sale. He seemed to be buying up nearly every copy of Hellblazer #27 that showed up on eBay.
(On a tangent). The weirdest case of "hording" hobby items I've heard of, were some folks who would buy up dozens (or hundreds) of copies of the same D&D modules from second handed bookstores, garage sales, ebay, craigslist, goodwill, etc .... Some of these modules are almost completely worthless, such as B2 "Keep On The Borderlands" which came in the basic D&D box sets that were widely available on the mass market in the early 1980s. |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Some people collect things which they know have little collectible value. I go after every Leonard Cohen CD manufactured across the world despite most of them being rather cheap, including foreign duplicates. They will never be worth much and I'm fine with it.
|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by morriscroy
(Post 14003401)
Sounds like a horder type guy.
(On a tangent). The weirdest case of "hording" hobby items I've heard of, were some folks who would buy up dozens (or hundreds) of copies of the same D&D modules from second handed bookstores, garage sales, ebay, craigslist, goodwill, etc .... Some of these modules are almost completely worthless, such as B2 "Keep On The Borderlands" which came in the basic D&D box sets that were widely available on the mass market in the early 1980s. |
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Diamond got attacked this past weekend by ransomware and the repercussions of this is that most stores either received their shipments late or have not received them at all. The LCS in my area have not received their books from Diamond but received everything from Lunar and PRH last week. This makes me wonder how much longer is Diamond going to keep up with the bullshit of sending their books so that they arrive to stores on the Tuesday before release day instead of doing like Lunar and PRH, which sends the book the week before so if there are any shortages or damages, they can be fixed by release day.
|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Originally Posted by Red Hood
(Post 14010162)
Diamond got attacked this past weekend by ransomware and the repercussions of this is that most stores either received their shipments late or have not received them at all. The LCS in my area have not received their books from Diamond but received everything from Lunar and PRH last week. This makes me wonder how much longer is Diamond going to keep up with the bullshit of sending their books so that they arrive to stores on the Tuesday before release day instead of doing like Lunar and PRH, which sends the book the week before so if there are any shortages or damages, they can be fixed by release day.
|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Diamond suing Gamestop is no surprise at all, since Gamestop has been trying to reduce their Diamond orders dating back to 2019
|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Dark Horse is going on o Penguin for single issues. The previously had an agreement for trades and HCs
|
Re: DC Comics Cuts Ties with Diamond
Image will distribute exclusively through Lunar starting in September, leaving Diamond as just a wholesaler for their product
|
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:23 AM. |
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.