Why are variant covers more expensive

Most of the time these variant covers are offered to larger stores who order large amounts of comics on a monthly basis. Although, there has been a new trend that appeared out of nowhere late last year know as the Ghost or Phantom Variants. You can find out more information about these variants here. You will more likely be more successful with the larger stores because they generally order in more stock.

If you are not near a large store you could try their website. Speaking of online, another place to look for variant covers would be eBay. Keep in mind that prices might fluctuate depending on demand and that first one you see might not always be the cheapest. Finally, conventions are always a great place to track down variant covers. Not only are many retailers present but artists and publisher may be as well. Depending on the event there might also be variants covers that can only be bought at the convention.

The price of variant covers will depend on where you purchase them from, the rarity of the cover as well as demand. The best thing to do is get in contact with your local retailer and see what is the best price they can do. Have you found this helpful? Have you got any great tips that should be shared?

Let me know in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter. Your email address will not be published. I think I have a healthy attitude towards variant covers. If the variant cover is the same price as the A cover, if I like the art better, than I get the variant cover.

The reason, the only reason I buy a comic is because I want to read the story. I give zero consideration whether the comic will increase in value in the future. We live in a new golden age of comics. Comics have grown up giving up us more sophisticated stories, higher quality art printed on better paper stock instead of cheap newsprint. With breath taking colors.

We also get the joy of seeing them come alive on the big screen. What a wonderful time to be alive. Thank you for this article. I started to collect comics ,my personal criteria is the cover ,the artist involved like Frazetta, Boris,Mcfarlane ec ec Though i wont discount story but if you have a great story like for example a major hero dies or a milestone issue reaching issue and have a rare variants illustrated by Greg Land ,Jeehyung Lee, Mike Mayhew and ARTGERM with a high ratio and NM grade.

Chances are these comics will have eceptional rewards at the end and having the comics signed by that artist and make sure you have a witness or your comic will be worth nothing ,i recommend CGC witness to authenticate.

Too hard to tell without seeing it and knowing more details about who did the art. It would probably be best to take it to an expert who can appraise it in person. Hello, been working with variant comics for a few years.

The print run of those compared to Direct Variants and Newstand Variants are staggering like an average of 1 to and possibly 1 to from and even before for ND. If your new to variants Id stick with these two. They will hold their worth. Happy Hunting. I use reference sites that contains census on them. I actually have some that I believe are or more cause ive only seen one ever on all sites i use to check for them having over a thousand. Also you have to understand that most of these Mark Jeweler Variants are in rough condition.

CGC site, all the ebay sites and mycomicshop are the sites I tend to use for census info. Hope this information helps. Deliberate variant covers have flooded the markets. They are losing alot of financial value.

Ali: Do they expect or want people to track down and buy all the covers? To make all the money? Brian: Well, the companies would certainly like people to. Variant covers are basically just another of the promotional tools that comics companies rely on.

And, even if they believe their customers are too savvy to buy more than one version of an issue, the enticement of a favorite artist creating a variant cover can often be enough to get someone to buy a chase variant. This might mean a retailer will order more copies to get more chase variants to meet customer demand. But I usually only buy the variant cover or the standard, never both. Are they made for collectors only?

But variants were designed more for the collector crowd. But… comic companies know that collectors are still around and are very likely to try and buy many — if not all — of the variants. Variant covers originate from the Direct Market days of comics distribution, the time when sales of comics through newsstands were on the decline and buying directly through a specialty store was on the rise.

From there, the application of the variant as a sales gimmick increased and was especially prevalent during the s, when collecting and speculating on comics was at its peak and fans would snap up each and every cover.

Brian: Yeah, you would think that if a book was going to have multiple covers, all the covers would still be relevant to the book in some way. And this is probably true for the most part. The main character s of the book usually feature on variants. The Inception of sales gimmicks. I find a great comic book cover irresistible. To this day, I still make the occasional impulse buy based solely on cover art that grabs my attention, provided they followed Stan Lee's instructions on how to create a compelling cover.

Having said all that, I will state loudly and proudly that I can't stand variant covers. Not because I don't like the actual artwork depicted on said covers, mind you.

The Jen Bartel variant for the upcoming Thor 1 is a thing of beauty. And I certainly don't begrudge artists like J. Scott Campbell who have built a lucrative career on stellar exclusive covers. My problem is that variant covers have become a crutch to support the financially limping comics industry. They also bring out the worst in retailers, publishers, and collectors. It's not a new phenomenon by any means.

It's been going on for several years, as the comics industry seems bound and determined to repeat the same mistakes that nearly destroyed it in the s. It's disheartening, as sometimes seems as if the comics business is trying to bury itself.

Retailer variants, store-exclusive variants, and convention exclusives are just some of the variants offered these days.

Nearly all of them are meant to squeeze the consumer out of an extra buck while creating an artificial 'collector's item. In fact, Marvel's brand new , Deadpool and Annihilation Scourge titles, dropping in stores November 20, all have multiple covers available.

It never ends. I'll focus my little diatribe on what I consider to be the worst offenders: Cover variants and Incentive variants. Cover variants are standard comics with unique covers drawn by various artists that publishers allow stores to order, depending on how many copies of the standard version A they order. The ratio could be anywhere from to Incentive Variants are actually designed to help comics shops.