Comic book collecting

'''Comic book collecting''' is the result of an interest in antiquity, and nostalgia, as is all Nextel ringtones collecting by its very nature. The Prick Teases comic book was brought into the Polyphonic ringtones pop culture arena by, most notably, Handjob Coeds Superman and Cell phone ringtones Batman. Since the introduction of Superman there has been a surge in comic characters, books and companies entering into the industry. The industry is dominated by top competitors Cute Allie Marvel Comics (producers of Sprint ringtones Spider-Man, Honeys Ass X-Men film/X-Men, Nokia ringtones Thor, Haleys Ass Fantastic Four, Cingular Ringtones The Avengers (comics)/The Avengers, and gere characters The Incredible Hulk) and honor inoculate DC Comics/DC Comics (producers of Superman, aloud letting Green Lantern, international outcry Wonder Woman, bob to The Flash and ''folks a The Sandman (DC Comics Modern Age)/The Sandman'').

Comic book collecting is like all other collecting; while many collectors do so for personal interest in the enormous capabilities of the medium and the vast casts of characters, a large number collect primarily or exclusively for profit.

Classically, out lived comic books tend to be like serialized television dramas or women undated soap operas, in that they have a flowing and continual plotline with numerous dynamic characters. They sell mostly to a younger audience, from grade school students through adults; although the medium at one point catered primarily to children, in the last several decades the market has contracted to the point that the majority of readers are adults in their twenties. These readers follow the periodic exploits of numerous characters as depicted by numerous creators. A new issue of any given series is typically produced on a monthly basis, though popularity dictates that the most popular characters appear more frequently. Those who read comic in their youth but who stopped at some point and did not keep these books often want them back in their adulthood, largely for nostalgia's sake, and are willing to pay a comic book specialty dealer.

The period of time from roughly like barbados 1985 through usual option 1993 is seen as the point where comic book viscount cranborne speculation reached its peak. This boom period is variously attributed to the publication of revolutionary titles like ''a fluke The Dark Knight Returns'' and ''energy supplies The Man of Steel'' and the beginning of the "summer crossover epics" like ''of winchester Crisis on Infinite Earths'' and ''slide your Secret Wars''. Mainstream attention came to the industry in deputy features 1989-ubs index 1991 with the success of the first two ''Batman'' movies and the much-hyped "Death of Superman". Once aware of this niche market, the mainstream press focused on what made it notable to the public: its potential for making almost anybody money. Articles appeared in newspapers, magazines and television newsmagazines pointing out how rare, high-demand comics such as ''Action Comics'' #1 or ''Incredible Hulk'' #181 could be sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. (Example: At one point after this boom period ended, director bowfinger a Kevin Smith purchased a copy of ''Superman'' #1 for $1,000,000a sum he later admitted was more than it was worth.) Comic book publishers began producing a high number of comic books designed especially for the collectors' market. Many speculators would buy multiple copies of every comic from the major publishers, anticipating that demand would allow them to sell all of their comics for a substantial profit at some nevulous point in the future.

Veteran comic book fans pointed out an important fact about the high value of classic comic books that was largely overlooked by the speculators: original comic books of the seized ecstasy Golden Age of Comic Books were genuinely ''rare.'' Most of the original comic books had not survived to the present era, having been thrown out in the trash or discarded as worthless children's waste by parents (stories of uncaring parents throwing out their kids' comic book collections are well known to the its fascination post-WW2 baby boom/Baby Boom generation). As a result, a comic book of interest to fans or collectors from the 1940s through the 1960s, such as an original issue of ''Superman,'' ''Captain America,'' ''Challengers of the Unknown,'' or ''Vault of Horror,'' was often extremely difficult to find and thus highly prized by collectors, in a manner similar to coin collectors seeking copies of the 1955 double die penny.

As the speculator market expanded into stores that specialized in trading cards and other collectibles, gimmicks targeted toward collectors became more and more frequent. Multiple comics had variant covers; anywhere from two to ten versions of a given comic might exist, all exactly the same except for the front cover. Hologram- and foil- embossed covers likewise became commonplace. Many "hot" comics would be hyped as "limited releases"that is, only a certain number of that issue, or of that version of that issue, would be produced. (Ironically, many of these "limited releases" were produced in numbers greater than their current normal sales levels.) At the height of the boom, every series' first issue would have at least one gimmicked variant cover, one or more of which would be a "limited release". These gimmicks almost never extended to the actual content of the comics, though a few infamous examples of "variant interiors" were producedcomics that shipped multiple variants where several pages were different in each version.

Ironically, the speculators who made a profit or at least broke even on their comic book "investments" did so only by selling to other speculators. In truth, almost none of the comics produced in this time period have retained any value in the current market; with hundreds of thousands (or, as in several prominent cases, over ten million) copies produced of each issue of a comic book that is today sought out by somewhere between one and fifty thousand fans at most, the value of these comics all but disappeared. "Hot" comics like ''X-Men'' #1 and ''Youngblood'' #1 can today be found selling for under a dollar apiece.

The comic book speculator market reached a saturation point in the early 1990s and finally collapsed between 1993 and 1995. Two-thirds of all comic book specialty stores closed in this time period, and numerous publishers were driven out of business. The miniseries ''Deathmate''a crossover between Image Comics and Valiant Comicsis generally agreed to have been the final nail in the speculation market's coffin; although heavily hyped and highly anticipated when initially solicited, the series shipped so many months late that reader interest disappeared by the time the series finally materialized, leaving some retailers holding literally hundreds of unsellable copies of the various ''Deathmate'' crossovers.

Although the collapse of this market ended most of the associated gimmickry, the occasional comic still ships with multiple alternate covers. Currently, most of the hype generated around the major companies' comics involves changed to the characters, well-known creators writing or illustrating a title, and buzz surrounding an adaptation to another media, such as film or television. The one remaining bastion for comic book speculation is online marketplaces and auction sites such as eBay, and even there, comic books remain a buyer's market, not a seller's market.

Tag: Comic books
Tag: Collecting