Crypto and the 90s Comic Crash

In 1991, the New York Times published an article entitled “Holy Record Breaker!” which told of the sale of Detective Comics #27 and Action Comics #1 at auction for $US55,000 and $US82,500 respectively.

Amongst all of this, speculators started to take note. With the hope that they will, at some point in the future, see a huge return in their investment as the value of that item rises.

Seeing the values fetched by Detective Comics #27 and Action Comics #1 these speculators saw comic books as the next gold mine.

The problem was, the sale of those two comics was all they based their assessments on.

However, not every comic is going to reach those lofty heights. This was a seemingly obvious point that was lost on speculators.

Instead, speculators began to buy up multiple copies of new issues that they felt would have some great value in the future.

Number #1’s, first appearances of characters, issues by popular artists or writers; there were many reasons why speculators might think an issue could be valuable.

New publishers such as Valiant and Image Comics entered the market with a host of new characters and, thus, new #1s.

Speculators believed that all of these new #1 issues would someday fetch the same price as Action Comics #1 and bought them in bulk.

The market was oversaturated.

Publishers, both old and new that had started up to take advantage of the boom, had produced so much content that no one could possibly purchase it all, let alone read it.

Buyers were burnt out, collectors felt overwhelmed and the speculators looked at their piles of worthless comics and despaired.

While, as we all know, the comics industry survived this blow but it was a very close call.

If it was not for ToyBiz’s acquisition of Marvel, and DC having the clout of owner Warner Brothers behind them to pull them through, the comic landscape could have been incredibly different.

Current comic book sales have never quite reached the levels of the boom era.

*Replace comics with the word crypto.

**Replace Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27 with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

***Replace publishers with developers.

I always felt the crazy sales at the auctions of these comics and other crazy items were just people laundering money through the auction houses. /tinfoil

a reply to: CloneFarm1000

While the sentiment may be the same, the actual products/utility is apples to bowling balls.

Countries would never adopt comic books as it's currency. BTC and ETH are just getting started...we shall see.

a reply to: CloneFarm1000

understanding what crypto is, and how it works (and conversely, how some coins don't work at all) helps to grasp why some invest in it. But to equate it to a comic book is disingenuous.

a reply to: SuicideKing33

Countries adopting crypto will be comparable to Toybiz and Warner Brothers propping them up.

With governments getting involved, the crypto markets will be regulated.

Cryptos price will go up to adjust for inflation, much like the price tag of comics was $1.50 in 1991 to $3.99 today.

May as well put this theory to the test and create an NFT digital comic book.

Ok, here's some questions:

What percentage of crypto is speculation?

While some online retailers might accept bitcoin as payment for goods priced in dollars, few could manage the potential accounting chaos of sticker pricing in bitcoin if its value can routinely shift by a fifth in just hours.

If you think bitcoin's price keeps rising over time, much like the latest quadrupling over the past 12 months, then why would you surrender those gains by paying for anything with bitcoin today?

originally posted by: CloneFarm1000
If you think bitcoin's price keeps rising over time, much like the latest quadrupling over the past 12 months...

It hasn't quadrupled over the past year, it's down 40%.

About an apt of comparison as beanie babies to gold. Did you lose on Bitcoin? Shiba?

a reply to: CloneFarm1000

originally posted by: CloneFarm1000
Ok, here's some questions:

What percentage of crypto is speculation?

While some online retailers might accept bitcoin as payment for goods priced in dollars, few could manage the potential accounting chaos of sticker pricing in bitcoin if its value can routinely shift by a fifth in just hours.

If you think bitcoin's price keeps rising over time, much like the latest quadrupling over the past 12 months, then why would you surrender those gains by paying for anything with bitcoin today?

Look at derivatives and you'll be getting closer to the true problem with our financial system. Options, futures, shorts, leverage, are all things that play into it across the whole industry. Fiat, crypto, stocks, commodities, all manipulated by using a combination of these complicated instruments most people were never taught. If they taught this in high school everybody would realize it for the scam it is.

If a pork belly contract is worth X amount of pigs, is it not a scam that 100 times the value of X is being traded on paper for the same contract and collateralized with equally sketchy investments? That contract is leveraged against others, then bundled and leveraged against others, until it's a convoluted mess. I'm simply using pork as an example. I'm not sure what specific products they offer, but this is a general picture of how things work. They're doing the same in crypto.

Legacy financial providers very much want crypto to look somehow functionally different from their traditional investments, mainly because they're scared and lack the full suite of advantages that they and the SEC have built in to the system when dealing with crypto. They aren't the only players on the field and that worries them, transparency worries them, and an increasingly large pool of educated investors worries them. They would much prefer their closed system where they make the decisions and you just send them money.

There are plenty of crypto currencies that are being used in industry. Payments are a tiny part and BTC is not, nor will ever be, a widespread payment mechanism on it's own. Speculation will always be a part of the market, but will likely be radically changed as regulations and Fedcoins roll out across the globe. Payments will be in Fedcoin mostly, but it's likely there will be a bridge asset for converting whichever tokens do survive. Those, along with forex currencies, should be getting converted to digital fiat almost instantly to prevent slippage to vendors. The whole point of digital dollars is to grease the rails and allow faster transactions, settlement, and processing.

If you only want to get a superficial understanding of crypto then it is 100% not a place to put money. Unlike comics some crypto performs critical business functions and facilitates commerce. Unlike comics crypto projects can be viewed and analyzed, supply and distribution verified, genesis accounts closed to prevent further minting of coins (already beats fiat there), audits performed, and many other things that can help you make wise decisions. Some are heavily backed with collateral. All with a much higher degree of transparency than fiat or Wall Street, assuming you stick to the coins that have the appropriate data available to perform due diligence.

Almost all crypto tokens will go away, but the ecosystems and tokens that were designed properly will persist. Knowing that is the easy part. The hard part is knowing exactly where to have your money as it happens. If you fail to put some time where you put your money, then you're likely to get eaten alive by somebody that did.

a reply to: CloneFarm1000

NFT comics actually came out last year. Check out the Veve app. They partnered with Marvel.