Oh yeah.
About 8 years ago I explained on the old WordPress CBO about the problems following accepting pdf as review items. The books either did not appear in print, people paid for copies and their money vanished or the end printed product looked so bad that it was unreadable.
I got the blame for reviewing the books and giving out order details. And, yes, I accepted the blame because I had not seen REAL copies and I then published guidelines for reviewing that excluded online links, emails with a few images or pdf. If I did not see that it was real and printed -no review.
Also, as some of my former blogging colleagues discovered to their cost despite my warning them, pdf downloads and downloading from "Share" sites online was the perfect way of someone launching a virus or malware on your computer.
The same applied to CDs arriving in the post from people who had never been in contact before. Rather than containing the book to be reviewed the discs contained all sorts of nastiness. In 2014 I had a stack of ten CDs allegedly containing pdf/files of new comics that were in a box in the corner of the room...and then in the bin. No letters, no emails from the people that sent them.
And so I explained again that for review purposes I would only accept hard copies. That way I knew they were real, available and what the print quality was like. A link came through "No name site DEMANDS comics"...apparently, CBO was the "no name site" (at that time it had around 3 million views) and so I explained to the blogger involved (he was American and a lot of American comic bloggers at the time were not known for being bright ) the situation. Apparently this was me demanding books again and attacking him.
I realised what was going on. Pre "SJW" these people were known as trolls and flamers -flamers because they were trying to get an internet war of words going to get more views -rather like those on You Tube who add "SJW" to any video because they know it attracts attention. So I ignored him. He published my private email to him with chunks cut out. I mentioned this on CBO but not his name nor blog name. No idea what happened to him or his blog but they vanished while the "no name site" continued and later moved to Blogger to get over 3 million new views.
SJW and Ant-SJW
Initially, I watched the anti SJW videos on You Tube because I was interested in seeing what was going on. It did not take long to realise that 99% of these people were flamers who accused the SJWs (a splinter group of trolling flamers) of being left wing (always left wing) liberals trying to force their "multicultural diversity agenda" on to people in comics. In gaming, crafting even, these "SJW" trolls were given short shrift -ignored they went away.
Last year I was accused of being racist against "black" people because I published a post using a heading from the item I was criticising. I published the comment and pointed out that all comments were subject to approval but the commenter was free to waste their time as no one would see what they had written. Heard nothing more.
The SJWs are accused of misinterpreting what anti-SJWs have written -even of paraphrasing or taking lines out of context to suit their "agenda". And, of course, accusing anyone who disagreed with them of being "misogynistic" (a word that has now been used so many times that it no longer has real meaning), "racist" or "right wing fascist".
As noted, the anti-SJWs make accusations of "left wing agendas" and "feminist fascists" and so much more but they really get riled up if they think anything is aimed at the current U.S. President. There appears to be a problem with the anti-SJWs in that they make statements such as "These two women just will not learn to shut up" or "their left wing feminist lesbian agenda" and there are more and more insults which, naturally, fuels the "SJWs". So what do we think when the anti-SJWs do not like a character -say American Chavez from Marvel (not read it just seen bits of it on the net) who is gay and shows affection to another female character and the remark made is: "Okay, okay we get it -she's a f***** bull-dyke!" ?
There are problems in that a company like Marvel should be creating new characters reflecting America's multi-cultural society by having Marvel's existing roster integrate them -Marvel Comics after all introduced "black" and "Asian" people to comic readers in the 1960s! (quite seriously, DC took a while to catch on to this). Changing a white male character into a black woman or whatever only looks silly. Marvel thought it was jumping on a new band wagon that would make it look cool but sales and reader reaction showed it was a bad idea.
Marvel staff and creators -and editors!- attacking and blaming fans for their own mistakes and bad work (and very bad editing) would have been unthinkable under Lee, Thomas or even Shooter. Marvel staff have simply no idea how to behave or produce a good comic line any more (look at the mess made of The Avengers). The professional takes the modern internet attitude of being nasty, name-calling and blaming everyone else. It is not a family friendly company (but note DC keeps out of this!).
If you pull all of this together -"SJWs" -"Anti-SJWs" and what they say and tweet and look at it all you will realise one thing:
It is all FAKE
These are people who want attention for various reasons -some because they can be "someone" through this 'cause'. Some because the more views they get the more their videos can earn them. Some have political views -really, these people seem to have no idea of politics or exactly what "Right Wing" and "Left Wing" mean; rather like many Americans do not understand that Socialism is not Communism.
They voted Trump. They didn't vote Trump. Both sides are divided but this has nothing to do with comics. Story-lines to reflect your angry liberal views because Trump won and your candidate didn't -bad idea. Scream at these story-lines and claim all kinds of political brain-washing -bad idea. Making all sorts of criticism of stories and characterisation and stating "I haven't read the first two issues so it may be explained in those" shows the truth.
Comics are meant to be a form of entertainment and escapism -I seriously think that my generation was the last to see comics as this. To actually sit in a chair and quietly read and enjoy a comic. Comics should not be intended to push politics. It should be a neutral ground -though some may remember the Captain America "Secret Empire" story-line (I mean the original story-line that had meaning and impact because of the changing times).
Investing or Not Investing In Comics
I see one video or blog post after another about "The comics to invest in this year" -it means nothing. How much money have those who purchased the original appearance of the real (not that movie bunch) Guardians of the Galaxy made? Those who purchased the first appearance of Groot? Of Star Lord or any other Marvel Comics character that has appeared in a movie -how much have they made? They may fool themselves about "investment potential" (a few of us thought that joke died after the 1980s but P. T. Barnum was right) but these comics were printed in the hundreds of thousands -Golden Age comics are worth money because the vast majority were recycled during WW II and then burnt in huge bonfires in the early 1950s thanks to Wertham. Buy a #1 today and you have to hope for something drastic to happen that leaves only a few hundred copies surviving to be worth money in 30-40 years.
The dealers say "Shh! Do not tell anyone but this is going to be the comic to invest in!" The bloggers and vloggers then tell the gullible the same thing because they (and every other sap) have "inside info". Only the dealers have made money because fools and their money are soon parted. Comic shops struggle but I've gone into all that before.
I wanted a copy of Avengers (volume 1) #97. Ebay prices ranged from £35-110 -why? "It's the end of the Kree-Skrull War!" So? There is no Kree-Skrull War movie being planned or made. That story-line has been reprinted...well so many times in a mini series, trade paperback, black and white it is not rare. I made an offer on one copy that was in good condition (the others were highly priced with water damage -very bad water damage- tears and defects over the covers) -£35 (excl. P&P which itself was excessive and the book was from a UK seller -making money from postage) so I offered £15. The counter offer was £25. No. I had just purchased, in good condition, vol. 1 #s 40 and 41 for £15.50 including postage so why pay more for a newer book? I got a better copy for £15 incl p&p the very next day.
Invest In Low Print Run Books
If you want books that may be worth something go for lower print run books from Small Pressers -Browner Knowle and publications like that. Even print on demand (POD) books are worth considering. These are books only printed when ordered so are never high print runs. Let me give you a personal example.
My online store has ten pages and over 90 books. I think ten books sold last year and as most were to US buyers the US taxes left me only about $1-2 from each sale. Now, something happens to me the online store is shut down via pre-arrangement. Those books will no longer be available...other than via the people who now have rare copies. Or my family who will have my copies.
So, the lowest number of views for Black Tower Comics books postings was 3,987 (I'll go with the lowest figure); Ten sales from 3,987 is poor and just shows how little support Independent publishers get, however, even had those 3,987 readers purchased copies of my books they would still be rare because of various factors such as being POD, not all of those people are going to buy the same books so just 10 might buy Krakos, 20 might buy The Bat Triumphant, 5 might buy Return of the Gods so they are all low numbers. Though I might fantasize about 3,987 people buying Return of the Gods I know that will never happen but even if it did that is still only 3,987 copies of real books in existence and you can estimate logically that in 10-20 years probably only 2,000 of those copies may still exist in good condition because of damage by kids or pets or during arguments, tears while moving home blah blah blah....notice I avoided mentioning people letting their kids use these b&w books as colouring books!
You need to look at investment sensibly. You may not like the books. You may hate the story. You may hate the artwork. But you have something rare that someone may want to get a hold of because of character or whatever. Comic Bits no. 1 from 2002 (I think) was A5, 52pp and &w with a colour cover. All illustrated text interviews, etc. and cost £5.00 which included p&p. A copy sold on Ebay 5 years ago for £25.00 and another went for £35.00 in early 2017. Nobody asked whether I had copies left to sell! But Comic Bits had the limited print run and rarity value.
If you are thinking of Marvel, DC, Image or Dark Horse then you have a very, very long time to wait and pray that the copies you have become rare. Fake hyping of a book makes dealers and a company money but not the comic buyer.
I was asked if I wanted to buy an Alan Class b&w reprint comic last week and the person told me that it was rare and 1960s. No. Look, the quality of Class Comics reprints varied from copy to copy and there is never a date on the books for reasons Class explained to me -see The Hooper Interviews book or the World of Alan Class mag I published. You can only roughly date them by cover price so 9d or 1/- (one shilling) are pre-February, 1971 UK decimalisation. Money was badly devalued so 1/- (12 old pennies) became 5p -in case you are interested and the fact that I am so old I know: the old currency consisted of pounds, shillings and pence. The pound was made up of 240 pence (which were denoted by the letter d for Latin denarius (no kidding -look it up) and there were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings (which was denoted by s for Latin solidus not for shilling as some state) in a pound. A Guinea, by-the-by, was £1 and 1/- so 20 Guineas was £20 and 20/-.
ahem...get back on track...anyway, this potential seller was telling me how rare this comic was. He thought a fair price would be £25. I pointed out that the cover price was £1 which made it one of the later books published just before Class shut-down and was very very definitely post decimalisation and and very much not a 1960s book (I buy 1960s books depending on quality for up to £4.00 and that is for top notch quality). He was..."annoyed"? His response was that he had purchased this from Ebay and had paid £15.00 excluding the p&p and so I repeated the facts. He sent a follow-up email and I told him that I took no responsibility for his gullibility and stupidity nor for his greed and thinking he could make money fast out of someone. Not heard back from him.
Conclusions
Buying modern age comics as investments is a con. It is false. It is designed by dealers and companies to make money out of those who have no idea. A con.
Avoid the SJW/anti-SJW fakery because it is there to build up viewers or readers and self publicity -and to monetize accounts. Bad comics are bad comics.
Avoid the con of modern comics as investments. Look to the much smaller publishers with low print runs or who use POD. Those are where the future investment potential lies.
Or do what I do. Read comics for fun and, as Hippycollectibles says: "Buy what you like and like what you buy". This is about fun and enjoyment because you will never become rich through comics unless you are crooked!
Amen, brother.
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