Predatory Practice(s)?
Does anyone else feel like the Heavy Mental mishandling of the release of Absolute Batman 19 has been used by retailers to increase the cost of their books overnight? Trinity comics starting some books way outside the norm on some recent releases, Arris Quinones books were all about 40 or 50 unless they were the trade. This hasn't been across the board, thank you Davis Rider and some other retailers out there for keeping exclusives closer to that $15-25 release mark that I think is about the norm for most exclusives.
Do you think we are going to see $25 trades and $40-50 exclusives become the new normal because of how easy HM was still able to sell their covers by giving the finger to the fans, do you think the number of exclusives retailers get stuck with when people stop buying 1k-3k print run books for $50+, or do you think those who are preying on the hype are going to fail and fade out while artists stop working with them and people purchase from retailers with a more fair approach to pricing and fan service?
I've only been collecting for a few years but with artist signatures going up, prices rising on exclusives faster than gas prices, and some titles having almost 20% of all new covers on release day will be the new norm moving forward?