A whole lot less than, say, 15 years ago:
"Bust
The comic book speculator market reached a saturation point in the early 1990s and finally collapsed between 1993 and 1997. Two-thirds of all comic book specialty stores closed in this time period, and numerous publishers were driven out of business. Even industry giant Marvel Comics was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1997, although they were able to continue publishing. It is surmised that one of the main factors in Marvel's downfall was the decision to switch to self distribution. Up until then, many publishers went through secondary distributors (such as the current and only mass distributor, Diamond Comics) and Marvel felt it could preserve some of its cash flow if it made the move to becoming one of the few publishers to also distribute directly to the comic market. This backfired terribly when the bottom fell out of the market, as they were stocked with multiple printings of variant and "collectible" issues that were no longer in high demand and they could not cover the costs of their distribution service.
The bust can also be linked back to some of the series that caused the boom, a few years earlier. DC's decision to publish two blockbuster stories depicting the loss of their two major Superheroes (Knightfall - the breaking of the Batman - and The Death of Superman), and their subsequent flooding of the press as to its supposed "Finality", is considered by some collectors to have started a slow decay within the non-regular buyer comic community which then led to drops in sales. Many comic retailers believe that numerous comic speculators took the death and crippling of two major characters to signify the end of the Batman and Superman series. As many comic readers and retailers knew full well, very little in comics actually changes with any finality. Many aspects of the status quo returned after the story arcs were over (i.e. Superman died, but was resurrected. Batman was crippled, but eventually recovered).
Many comic speculators who were only in the market to see important comics mature, then sell them for a tidy profit, didn't quite understand how quick the turn around would be on the story recant, and many rushed out to scoop up as many copies of whatever issues were to be deemed significant. Comic shops received not only staggering sales during the week that Superman died, but also had to try and meet the demand. This led to the saturation of the market and the devaluing of what was thought to be the end of an American icon. Some comic book retailers and theorists deem DC's practices in the press forum and their relationship with the non-specialized consumer to be grossly negligent of the status of the market, and that their marketing campaign, whereas most likely not malicious in intent, spelled doom for the speculator market and comic sales in general. Others place the blame for the comic market crash on Marvel (whose product line had bloated to hundreds of separate titles by late 1993, including the poorly received "Marvel UK" and "2099" lines) or creator-owned upstart Image Comics (who fed the speculator feeding frenzy more than any other comics publisher).
Other publishing houses had different problems. Valiant Comics--at one point the 3rd largest comic book publisher--was sold to the video game giant Acclaim Entertainment for $65 million in June 1994. Acclaim renamed the line Acclaim Comics in 1996. Their primary motivation was to make the properties more suitable for use in video game development. Eventually, Acclaim filed for bankruptcy following the collapse of its video game business. The miniseries Deathmate—a crossover between Image Comics and Valiant Comics—is often considered to have been the final nail in the speculation market's coffin; although heavily hyped and highly anticipated when initially solicited, the books from the Image Comics side 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. Other companies, such as Defiant Comics, Triumphant Comics, and Malibu Comics also ceased publication in the period between 1993 and 1997.
Post-bubble speculation
Since 1997, comic book sales have fallen to a fraction of early-90's levels, with print runs of many popular titles down as much as 90% from their peaks. Currently, most of the hype generated around the major companies' comics involves changes 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 speculation remains in online auction sites such as eBay; but even there, comic books remain a buyer's market.
2006-09-02 05:42:33
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answer #1
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answered by johnslat 7
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2014-09-27 04:20:47
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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