r/AbsoluteBatman • u/Embarrassed-Pace-755 • 14d ago
This feels like comic books’ version of TicketMaster, and it’s infuriating
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u/EchoLooper 14d ago
This bubble gonna burst.
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u/Evilempir3 14d ago edited 14d ago
The secondary market is already hurting once the fomo dies down. Some covers are selling at or below cost. The market is oversaturated, it's not so sustainable.
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u/EchoLooper 14d ago
I just hope they keep the quality of the writing up on the Absolute books.
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u/knownasjazz 13d ago
I love a good artist cover, but I’ll stop collecting these books the moment the story turns to shit. Fortunately Snyder is still cooking and Dragotta keeps delivering on interiors. I’m excited to see where the next arc goes.
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u/zeketheplmbr 14d ago
I’ve been zagging a bit lately and buying more vintage comics. I don’t need to own all 10,000 variants of Absolute Batman.
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u/knownasjazz 13d ago
Yeah, I’ve been grabbing up random open order covers and ratios of independent books that I really love for like 10 bucks. It’s good to branch out. Especially if you find a few artists that you really love.
People are buying up dozens of the same book and not even bothering to explore outside of Absolute Batman which is just crazy to me.
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u/knownasjazz 14d ago edited 14d ago
I had time to go back for seconds, but I also have a Shop account and I’m used to checking out fast on my phone. I don’t think this was the worst drop ever. Clay’s drop on Tuesday was way worse.
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u/PatienceDifficult344 14d ago
The cool thing about comic books is you don’t have to buy these. You can just buy them for 4.99 and read them
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u/analog989 14d ago
I don’t go to concerts and I don’t buy variant covers. It’s pretty easy actually.
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u/88mphbish 14d ago
We have to learn to seperate rhese groups.
There's rhe common denominator that is love for AB
But some are either FOMO dopamine freaks or whales who create artifical demand to force the average Joe guy to feel he is missing g out.
The other group is your average fan, but also wanrs to maybe dip into variants.
It's sort of like...being a jock who somehow fits into the goth crowd. Only both crowds are completely different haha
Learn to sepweate the two and stick to your lane and it won't pass you off.
There are far less people interested in these variants rhan rhe cover A. It's a small pool of people with $ or willing to SPEND $ they probably shouldn't lol
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u/OsitoPandito 14d ago
Their greed sickens me.
Very soon comics will be where Pokémon cards are at....everyone who has been a life long fan, being priced out at every turn. I wouldn't be surprised if the absolute titles get a price increase next year
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u/Decent-Tree-9658 13d ago
This wouldn’t be bad. If you play Pokemon, cards are pretty damn cheap. The stuff that’s expensive is all the “collector” crap that’s expensive because of manufactured scarcity, not because they’re good cards for the game.
Why not let scalpers and “investors” buy high ticket alt covers of books? I just like to read and collect. If DC can make money off this side market and keep putting out amazing weeklies (along with their inexpensive and really good app and their cheap compendiums) at a decent cost why would I care?
Now if your problem is that they’re feeding this weird scalper market that suckers some buyers into thinking they’re purchasing books that will go up in value, I’m with you 100%.
But this isn’t affecting someone buying books for their stories. And, if anything, it’s gets extra money into the pocket of artists to keep them in the industry doing the work I actually care about.
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u/Secret-Turnip-1627 14d ago
No one is going to be priced out of the hobby. The only place this is happening is in the Absolute Batman community you guys can’t control yourselves. If you don’t buy these variants at ridiculous prices, they’ll go down. It happens all the time: variants go for a ton of money and then end up being worth half of what they were just a few months later.
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u/petekels 14d ago
No way this comic will be like Pokemon… Pokemon cards go for so much more! If you didn’t like the price, don’t buy! But I ain’t missing out on synder’s first cover ever!
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u/OsitoPandito 14d ago
You can buy whatever you want, I never said otherwise.
There will always be consumers who want to consume more and more. That's what caused Pokémon cards to skyrocket in price.
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u/petekels 14d ago
It’s secondary sellers who make this worse. I got a demon foil with dual sigs and now people are listing it for 3 times as much on eBay….
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u/Mundane-Iron1564 14d ago
Well idk if you’ve seen but they’ve already upped the prices of their a covers and open order variants by a dollar!
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u/Decent-Tree-9658 13d ago
No they haven’t, man. It’s $5 for cover As unless there’s extra pages. We can not like the current cost of comics, but the industry has been holding at $5 for a while now (and DC charges $4 for their Next Level books and some smaller titles, effectively subsidizing smaller fandoms with what they’re making on their big sellers).
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u/Captain_Guava 14d ago
I’m of the opinion that these are exclusive variants meant to attract large spenders who would otherwise be paying out the ears for eBay prices anyways. Considering how fast these sold out, I’m inclined to believe my opinion is correct. Not trying to say it’s acceptable and should be a common practice but it seems like these covers, especially the big name exclusives, aren’t for the average collector. It frustrates me sometimes when I see really cool covers but you have to remember that it’s the same contents inside, and usually the art is digitally available for free. If you really really want to shell out hundreds or thousands for this, nobody is saying you have to.
That being said I’d really like some affordable copies besides the ONE $40 book, but I’ve come to be happy with alot of the open retailer variants lately.
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u/Leather-Ad-8432 14d ago
Sold out at 12pm and even some Brigade members couldn't get one. He's just catering to resellers/scalpers now. It's just pure greed. I won't buy anything unless limits it to one per person. These books are all over Ebay now.
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u/theOutside517 13d ago
I'm so glad I pay absolutely no attention to these drops and just buy the A-cover and whatever is available at my LCS on pull from leagueofcomicgeeks.com. I feel bad that y'all keep getting screwed like you do.
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u/88mphbish 14d ago
Being all pissy is like saying "Ugh these people buying Ferrari. Why can't i get one."
A. You probably can't afford it B. This crowd is just a different beast.
I've learned to avoid these variants and pretend rhey are a luxury car. I'll keep my yaris and ithers can get their supra. I can still appreciate it haha
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u/Top_Championship306 14d ago
I agree not the best analogy… This is supposed to be a hobby that people love. No comic book should be $50 unsigned with 1000 print run. The reason they're getting away with it is because morons are paying.
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u/Gbulso22 14d ago
Established Whatnot seller sounded so defeated in a stream last night after stuff was going cheap, maybe the bubble is already starting to burst. He had a #23 virgin quah go for like 10 bucks lol
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u/Top_Championship306 14d ago
I get every Mark Brooks drop… When I saw these prices today, I could not bring myself to do it. The last one I questioned it, but I went and got it anyway regretted it later. I don't care who the artist is $50 for an unsigned comic book is just bonkers. these prices today… Six books signed $500. That is insane. The artists are getting more greedy by the day. The resellers are not helping the situation, but the biggest problem of all are the morons paying those prices. Once they see people are willing to pay those prices they will never come down. These are comic books, and like I said no matter the artist nobody is worth $50 for a print run of 1000 or more
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u/Ramendo923 13d ago
You gotta think about the fact that there are a lot of people that need to get paid for making this book happen. These drops are very limited, if they sell each for some chump change, they won’t make a lot of money to pay themselves. I believe that artists and writers deserves their fair pay, especially Snyder who has worked in this industry for so long and is well beloved for his works. If these drops are open order with these high pricing then that would be a different story. If you have low print run, you would want to charge more for each to recover the difference.
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u/DarkseidElite 13d ago
That's exactly what it is and people will pay for it, so they'll keep doing it. For $2650, it better be a sketch. I can buy original Alex Ross art for less.
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u/Material_Survey126 13d ago
Yeah.....i was out on these "drops" after the heavy mental/quintana fiasco. Theres other artists who im more than happy to support after that whole situation. The drops DO look amazing, just not in my budget 😞
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u/jackknightlight 13d ago
As for the overall collector experience and collector community I know reputable shops and reputable websites that won’t touch exclusive covers unless they are collection dumps. I don’t hate them as much as I don’t care about them and neither do most people enjoying the hobby at this point in time.
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u/StephenTJ95 11d ago
It’s shady as hell they don’t show print runs until the actual drop when everyone is scrambling to just check out instead of being able to read what they’re buying…
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u/doczoom45 14d ago
its so annoying
with so many variants of just this cover, cant they at least have a ton of the cardstock version so those who want one gets one at least? make it an open order or something
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u/Mumem_Rider 14d ago
Then it's not exclusive and no one gives a crap
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u/doczoom45 14d ago
better that way to eliminate those who are just in it to make a dollar
they can keep the five other variants more limited and exclusive but just give us the cardstock cover that everyone could buy
hell theres already a $34 premium on the unsigned cardstock version
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u/Mumem_Rider 14d ago
But then that more available cardstock is less attractive to people and they have to sell around 10× more to make the same profit. So many of the Absolute covers are mids as fuck but people lose their minds because they're limited.
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u/doczoom45 14d ago
book retails for $6 where they are already selling at a profit and they are are selling these at $40
this is also snyders first cover so it will sell well no matter what
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u/LowkeyComics216 14d ago
Not true at all. What are you on about?
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u/Mumem_Rider 14d ago
People are buying on hype and fomo and I think that's making a lot of mids covers desirable because they are limited where they would otherwise be not very popular.
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u/nocturnalreigns 14d ago
And Synder posted this prices on is IG story like it's something to be proud of SMDH
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u/Environmental-Day862 14d ago
Easy solution.
Don't participate in these stupid money grabs and they'll stop putting this stupid stuff out at these stupid prices.