The Price of Collectability
Posted by rudyhernandezI’m going to take a break from commenting on a specific comic or movie or TV show this post and instead address something a bit more abstract. The concept of variant covers.
If you’re a comic buyer you should be very familiar with the variant cover. The come in all sorts of varieties such as a sketch, a black and white, or even simply one drawn by a different artist. And if you have been buying comics since the 90s then you’re probably even familiar with the shiny, chromium covers, glossy covers, etc. They also come in various ratios like 50/50, 1 in 10, 1 in 75, and so on. Now what’s the harm in this? Well one could say inherently nothing. And in the case of a 50/50 ratio that answer is probably right. The problem I have when you get to the other ratios is that the publisher is basically creating a collectible. And not just a collectible in the sense that all comics are inherently collectible. The publisher is trying to tell you that this 1 in 10 or 1 in 75 variant is special. Really special to the point where you the customer should probably be charged differently.
This is where I have a problem. Because this is the kind of thing that became common practice in the 90s when we had our last collapse. This wasn’t the only factor in the collapse, there were many, but this was definitely one of the contributors. It makes our industry look bad when there’s a comic shop that charges 100 dollars for a comic that’s brand new and it ends up being worth no where near that a month or 2 months later. Now I know it’s buyer beware, but I still think it’s a bad message the publisher who puts out these covers and the comic shop that charges these prices sends to it customer base.
Instead I think publishers should be concerned more with putting out good stories with good art that their readers will get excited about. One good cover with one great story inside each month should be that goal. Not a comic where the cover’s rarity becomes the focus over the content inside.
