Clover Press is bringing Marvel Masterworks back from the dead, and the first four announced volumes go straight at the exact runs Marvel left hanging when it pulled the plug.
Collected editions are the only thing of value Marvel has produced in ten years. For pickier sorts, you can say twenty years, maybe even longer.
The huge problem is that it's nearly impossible to "start" collecting any line or format because their publishing "strategy" is non-existent. Books come out randomly, hang around for a time, and then disappear, going years or decades between reprints, if they get reprinted at all.
Older books go for insane secondhand prices. Important books that SHOULD be evergreen, that SHOULD be sold at a bargain rate to encourage starting a collection, sell out fast and then skyrocket on places like eBay.
You want the Epic Collection begining with Giant Sized X-Men 1 and the start of the Claremont run? Too bad. Buy it on eBay for $125-$150, chump.
A befuddling aspect is Marvel's refusal to warehouse any product. Diamond had 10s of millions of books, Marvel wouldn't need anywhere near that much capacity to keep hundreds of titles available when fans wanted them.
Instead, they do a big print run of whatever's in queue and dump it entirely into the retail channel. If it's not X-Men or Spiderman, there's more product (temporarily) in the supply chain than can be sold through in a reasonable time. Third parties aren't going to warehouse Marvel's product for them, so copies get clearanced for $10 at places like Ollie's and Disney uses that as an indicator to never reprint it because it didn't sell "well enough." Meanwhile, a year or two later, copies of that book are going for $75 secondhand.
I've personally purchased 5 or 6 Epic Collection books secondhand that still had an Ollie's 9.99 sticker. There are 20-25 more in my collection with remainder marks on the spine. Most of those books I could now sell for 75-100 easy.
People have been BEGGING for books like "I Magneto" and "Proteus" and will continue to beg because Marvel has outright STOPPED reprinting Epic Collections at all. (Only 2 or 3 a year, and none at all in the next 12 months I believe. Reprints don't sell "well enough.")
If that's how a flagship title like X-Men is treated, I can only imagine the difficulty trying to collect a B or C tier title.
The sooner Marvel liscences out all collected editions, the better. Then, they won't be producing anything at all of value.
It's amazing how much Marvel hates its old school fans.
Collected editions are the only thing of value Marvel has produced in ten years. For pickier sorts, you can say twenty years, maybe even longer.
The huge problem is that it's nearly impossible to "start" collecting any line or format because their publishing "strategy" is non-existent. Books come out randomly, hang around for a time, and then disappear, going years or decades between reprints, if they get reprinted at all.
Older books go for insane secondhand prices. Important books that SHOULD be evergreen, that SHOULD be sold at a bargain rate to encourage starting a collection, sell out fast and then skyrocket on places like eBay.
You want the Epic Collection begining with Giant Sized X-Men 1 and the start of the Claremont run? Too bad. Buy it on eBay for $125-$150, chump.
A befuddling aspect is Marvel's refusal to warehouse any product. Diamond had 10s of millions of books, Marvel wouldn't need anywhere near that much capacity to keep hundreds of titles available when fans wanted them.
Instead, they do a big print run of whatever's in queue and dump it entirely into the retail channel. If it's not X-Men or Spiderman, there's more product (temporarily) in the supply chain than can be sold through in a reasonable time. Third parties aren't going to warehouse Marvel's product for them, so copies get clearanced for $10 at places like Ollie's and Disney uses that as an indicator to never reprint it because it didn't sell "well enough." Meanwhile, a year or two later, copies of that book are going for $75 secondhand.
I've personally purchased 5 or 6 Epic Collection books secondhand that still had an Ollie's 9.99 sticker. There are 20-25 more in my collection with remainder marks on the spine. Most of those books I could now sell for 75-100 easy.
People have been BEGGING for books like "I Magneto" and "Proteus" and will continue to beg because Marvel has outright STOPPED reprinting Epic Collections at all. (Only 2 or 3 a year, and none at all in the next 12 months I believe. Reprints don't sell "well enough.")
If that's how a flagship title like X-Men is treated, I can only imagine the difficulty trying to collect a B or C tier title.
The sooner Marvel liscences out all collected editions, the better. Then, they won't be producing anything at all of value.
Those Ollie's stickers are so hard to remove without damaging the cover.
Goo Gone.
Let it soak for five minutes. Gently scrape with a plastic edge like a putty knife. It'll come right off.
For my Epic Collection books my desire to have them off hasn't overcome my laziness, but when it does, that'll be the trick.