Comics books are being turned into gambling products?

[fabiani12333]

I came across a recent video from comic book YouTuber Thinking Critical that discussed the recent trend of Marvel and DC comics being packaged similarly to trading cards -- referred to as "blind bags", the buyer can't see which comic they are getting. It instantly reminded me of trading cards and how they are packaged -- wrapped in opaque shrink-wrap.

Wes -- the name of the person in the video -- right off the bat described the new packaging format as a "lottery ticket", as there are more limited variant covers randomly distributed throughout the print run. He said that Marvel and DC -- known in the industry as the Big 2 publishers -- have turned what has traditionally been a form of reading/visual entertainment into a gambling product. They no longer are marketing to readers and fans, but gamblers and speculators. It has been a steady progression over the years:

"Marvel and DC turned comics into lottery tickets, readers into gamblers, and mass-entertainment into fake scarcity."

"The blind bags, the variant obsession, the cover-driven crossover -- it's all the same shell game. They stopped investing in storytelling that captured millions."

The limited variant covers are being used as chase hits -- not unlike chase hits in trading cards like parallels or inserts:

"They told fans the only value in comics was chasing whatever hot cover you could flip the next week. Now, they're creating comics only for speculators and collectors, instead of -- I don't know -- readers."

The cynicism and pessimism from Wes is very palpable and perhaps very warranted:

"They drove away the casual reader and went all in on collectors and speculators, and now even they are realizing they've been had. But scams only work until people see the trick. Once they've been burned, you can't unsee that."

The "crossover" that was referred to by Wes is the upcoming Marvel-DC crossover -- a Batman and Deadpool match-up, etc. It has been 30 years since Marvel and DC have had a comic book crossover event. This time, they are choosing to maximize sales with the use of variant covers and gambling.

Is this how all consumer products will end up? Will everything eventually be turned into a gambling product? Sad if true.

[Rictor]

I mean, trading cards have been a gambling product since the introduction of chase cards in the 90s. There are definitely some people on this board with serious gambling addictions that probably never go to a casino.

Bagged comic book variants are fairly rare, but they basically work the same as trading card packs. You get 1 of several different variants of varying rarity and often get the chance at an autographed comic or a 1/1 sketch as well.

There are a couple hundred different comics that come out each month and maybe one of those comes bagged like this each month out of those 200 titles. The concept of bagged random variants has been around for years, and I don't really see it taking over the industry. It's more of a gimimick for special events like the DC/Marvel crossover or a big #1 issue.

For most comic book variant covers, they are dealer incentives. If you buy 100 copies of the latest Batman comic, you get maybe five 1:20 variants and one 1:100 variant. The idea is that stores will over-order to get these variants, which some do. They then sell these variants at a markup to collectors to make up the loss of over ordering.

There are two groups of collectors for comics, the people that buy comic books to read and the people that buy them as an investment. Readers definitely still drive the market, as good art and storylines ultimately determine which comic books end up being in demand. There are plenty of rare comic books that don't hold any value. The only thing besides story/art that creates demand is when a comic series gets optioned for a TV series, video game, or film. Of course, bad comics don't usually get optioned, so they're probably already in demand before this happens.

The main problem the comic book industry has right now is the same issue magazine publishers have. Less people are interested in reading physical media now than at any time in history and the numbers are dropping as the fan base dies off. Comic book circulations have dropped from millions to hundreds of thousands to now tens of thousands per issue. Even with new digital print on demand capabilities, there are minimum circulation numbers needed to break even on a comic book, and we might see a day in the upcoming decade where publishers can no longer hit that number.

Comic books will always exist as an art form, but they may not be around much longer as an industry that can support dedicated retail stores. Publishers are grasping at straws trying anything that will keep circulation numbers up.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by Rictor

I mean, trading cards have been a gambling product since the introduction of chase cards in the 90s. There are definitely some people on this board with serious gambling addictions that probably never go to a casino.

Bagged comic book variants are fairly rare, but they basically work the same as trading card packs. You get 1 of several different variants of varying rarity and often get the chance at an autographed comic or a 1/1 sketch as well.

There are a couple hundred different comics that come out each month and maybe one of those comes bagged like this each month out of those 200 titles. The concept of bagged random variants has been around for years, and I don't really see it taking over the industry. It's more of a gimimick for special events like the DC/Marvel crossover or a big #1 issue.

For most comic book variant covers, they are dealer incentives. If you buy 100 copies of the latest Batman comic, you get maybe five 1:20 variants and one 1:100 variant. The idea is that stores will over-order to get these variants, which some do. They then sell these variants at a markup to collectors to make up the loss of over ordering.

There are two groups of collectors for comics, the people that buy comic books to read and the people that buy them as an investment. Readers definitely still drive the market, as good art and storylines ultimately determine which comic books end up being in demand. There are plenty of rare comic books that don't hold any value. The only thing besides story/art that creates demand is when a comic series gets optioned for a TV series, video game, or film. Of course, bad comics don't usually get optioned, so they're probably already in demand before this happens.

The main problem the comic book industry has right now is the same issue magazine publishers have. Less people are interested in reading physical media now than at any time in history and the numbers are dropping as the fan base dies off. Comic book circulations have dropped from millions to hundreds of thousands to now tens of thousands per issue. Even with new digital print on demand capabilities, there are minimum circulation numbers needed to break even on a comic book, and we might see a day in the upcoming decade where publishers can no longer hit that number.

Comic books will always exist as an art form, but they may not be around much longer as an industry that can support dedicated retail stores. Publishers are grasping at straws trying anything that will keep circulation numbers up.

Thanks for the insights. So you're saying that it's only a small percentage of comics that are being given the blind bag treatment? That it's not a growing trend with Marvel and DC, but just a gimmick being utilized for select releases? Good to know.

[Grid]

Anyone who is against turning comics into gambling devices is just gatekeeping.

Yes, the "readers" matter. The story lines should matter. That is all romantic to say. But no longer reality. If you are only selling physical to a handful of readers based on those merits. You will continue to die out.

Yes, blind bags and chases are not new. And were typically a novelty. I remember buying a few copies of Wizard Magazine back in the 90's, hoping to chase a variant card in a bagged copy. So I bought something I didn't need (dupe copies of a price guide) in order to gamble on something worth more.

But even then, it was spending $4.99 on a magazine hoping for a $10 card. Now, the dynamic has changed. As they could load up these bags with a $1,000 or $10,000 chase item. And drive sales to the moon.

They need to do exactly that to stay alive. Right now a lot of these comic makers are staying alive due to licensing and not book sales. The same nerds that will pay $999 for a limited edition statue, would surely chance a lotto ticket on a comic sale.

When I was collecting in High School in the 90's. A comic cost $2.75. Now, they are like $3.99. That doesnt even keep up with inflation, let alone the higher cost of shipping.

They need to do something like this. And suck in the casual collectors as well as the flippers. 90% of those that are buying Pokemon dont care about Pokemon. They care that they can flip. 90% of those opening Star Wars cards arent doing it to collect. They are doing it to flip or gamble on what could be inside.

I 100% see how all of that annoys true collectors who want cheap stuff for their own at retail. But that simply isnt how collectables work in 2025.

Sorry if some of you didnt get the memo.

[oldgoldy97]

As soon as they 10X Batman #1 to $50 and my blind bag is a variant cover by JRJR, I’m out.

[Grid]

Give me blind bags that may have a signed copy by the comic artist. Give me a chance to get original art in that bag. A refactor cover hand numbered to 100. Something, anything, that will peak interest and have people buy multiple copies for a chase.

Give people a reason to go to a comic shop again. Make those that have zero interest in comics care. So they can build up the market again.

I remember people standing in line to get a bagged Death of Superman. That made national news. People that hadn't bought a comic in their life wanted one. And there was no chase. But it got people talking.

If the price to play for a big hit is a $50 pack of trading cards. Asking $9.99 (double the old cover price) for something like this is an easy gamble to take.

They are fools to not be doing this. Even my 10 year old daughter gets suckered into blind bags for toys, with the hope to hit a golden unicorn. Or a flocked something or another. That is where we are now. Do what works.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by Grid

Anyone who is against turning comics into gambling devices is just gatekeeping.

Yes, the "readers" matter. The story lines should matter. That is all romantic to say. But no longer reality. If you are only selling physical to a handful of readers based on those merits. You will continue to die out.

Yes, blind bags and chases are not new. And were typically a novelty. I remember buying a few copies of Wizard Magazine back in the 90's, hoping to chase a variant card in a bagged copy. So I bought something I didn't need (dupe copies of a price guide) in order to gamble on something worth more.

But even then, it was spending $4.99 on a magazine hoping for a $10 card. Now, the dynamic has changed. As they could load up these bags with a $1,000 or $10,000 chase item. And drive sales to the moon.

They need to do exactly that to stay alive. Right now a lot of these comic makers are staying alive due to licensing and not book sales. The same nerds that will pay $999 for a limited edition statue, would surely chance a lotto ticket on a comic sale.

When I was collecting in High School in the 90's. A comic cost $2.75. Now, they are like $3.99. That doesnt even keep up with inflation, let alone the higher cost of shipping.

They need to do something like this. And suck in the casual collectors as well as the flippers. 90% of those that are buying Pokemon dont care about Pokemon. They care that they can flip. 90% of those opening Star Wars cards arent doing it to collect. They are doing it to flip or gamble on what could be inside.

I 100% see how all of that annoys true collectors who want cheap stuff for their own at retail. But that simply isnt how collectables work in 2025.

Sorry if some of you didnt get the memo.

Originally Posted by Grid

Give me blind bags that may have a signed copy by the comic artist. Give me a chance to get original art in that bag. A refactor cover hand numbered to 100. Something, anything, that will peak interest and have people buy multiple copies for a chase.

Give people a reason to go to a comic shop again. Make those that have zero interest in comics care. So they can build up the market again.

I remember people standing in line to get a bagged Death of Superman. That made national news. People that hadn't bought a comic in their life wanted one. And there was no chase. But it got people talking.

If the price to play for a big hit is a $50 pack of trading cards. Asking $9.99 (double the old cover price) for something like this is an easy gamble to take.

They are fools to not be doing this. Even my 10 year old daughter gets suckered into blind bags for toys, with the hope to hit a golden unicorn. Or a flocked something or another. That is where we are now. Do what works.

You make a persuasive argument for why blind bags and chase covers should exist. But shouldn't comic books be primarily about what's inside the cover? The whole point of why comics exist in the first place is to entertain people by telling stories using printed words and images. Variant covers are a nice addition that help sell comic books and give them more value. But at the end of the day, comic books are only going to survive if they attract readers.

Even though printed media has been in steady decline for decades, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that comic books could have a renaissance of some kind. Just look at the vinyl record market. Somehow, it became popular again with younger people. Young people like old things, too. You've just got to give them a good reason to like something. Shallow gimmicks and gambling is probably not the right way to do it, though.

[finfangfan]

My gut says comic book blind bags are becoming popular because comics companies want to cash in on breaker video action and it’s a good fit.

Incidentally, there are like 3-4 separate comic book blind bag posts in the comic book forum… including a breaker video!

[dd316]

Originally Posted by Grid

Give people a reason to go to a comic shop again.

I'm all for that, but I can't imagine walking into a comic shop and inevitably seeing nothing but these blind bagged books, not knowing what's inside, at 2x their current cover prices. As it is, I have to navigate walls of Funko Pops just to find comics at my local shops.

I like this idea if the blind bags include nothing but variants. At least that's going to be worth the risk, and that still leaves the standard edition available for all to see. Let the gamblers pay jacked up prices for their shot at gold.

[JBrooks Breaks]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

My gut says comic book blind bags are becoming popular because comics companies want to cash in on breaker video action and it’s a good fit.

Incidentally, there are like 3-4 separate comic book blind bag posts in the comic book forum… including a breaker video!

Invincible Universe: Battle Beast #1 was the 1st to do it recently but blind bags are not new to comics. They have been around for a long time.

The Big Rig blind box was a disaster. It was limited to 1000 and then they bumped it to 4000 only to make a mess of it.

The Batman #1 and DC KO #1 bags are not very exciting because there are only two chases with gold covers. The $9.99 price tag is not very smart either.

Hopefully the Mark Spears blind bags will be better. It is already a better deal at $5.99 and there are 75 different covers with a bunch of rare versions. He is also adding Golden Tickets which is smart.

Eventually it will wear out though because they will ruin it.

[finfangfan]

I got the Battle Beast ones through Upper Deck’s Collect Forever site. That was a fun one! I also did both Mark Brooks ones and the Batman one. The Batman one at $10 was kinda iffy but I thought it was worth a try. There is also a TMNT one up on ePack that I will likely do.

I think it would be fun if they did TWO levels of blind bag. Go full 1990’s and insert a random trading card too… with various rarities. So you can open a comic bag and maybe get a random comic cover but also random common or /99, /50, /25, /10, or /1 trading card. I think inserting trading cards into comic book slabs is the secret sauce UD needs to make its Collect Forever concept take off.

[JBrooks Breaks]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

I got the Battle Beast ones through Upper Deck’s Collect Forever site. That was a fun one! I also did both Mark Brooks ones and the Batman one. The Batman one at $10 was kinda iffy but I thought it was worth a try. There is also a TMNT one up on ePack that I will likely do.

I think it would be fun if they did TWO levels of blind bag. Go full 1990’s and insert a random trading card too… with various rarities. So you can open a comic bag and maybe get a random comic cover but also random common or /99, /50, /25, /10, or /1 trading card. I think inserting trading cards into comic book slabs is the secret sauce UD needs to make its Collect Forever concept take off.

There is an Exquisite Corpses TCG coming out soon and they have been seeding exclusive cards into a polybag version of the Exquisite Corpses comic each issue. It's not a blind bag though.

The comic is very good too which helps. Also they have a "secret" variant cover that they don't announce until the last minute and the art on those has been great.

[finfangfan]

Cool… I just buy through Collect Forever and the only trading card insert I have found through there (limited companies on CF) was Craniacs by a GPK artist. I would think with trading cards exploding and comics kinda/sorta not doing as well that comics would embrace including trading cards more often.

For example, UD just got the DC trading card license this year and also runs Collect Forever. You’d think they’d work out a deal with DC to include exclusive DC cards in with their DC Comics they sell on CF to increase the number of DC Comics sold through CF.

[Comix Guy]

2014 DC did a whole roll out. Color and sketch covers (parallels). Some contained a real artist sketch.

[Grid]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

You make a persuasive argument for why blind bags and chase covers should exist. But shouldn't comic books be primarily about what's inside the cover? The whole point of why comics exist in the first place is to entertain people by telling stories using printed words and images. Variant covers are a nice addition that help sell comic books and give them more value. But at the end of the day, comic books are only going to survive if they attract readers.

Even though printed media has been in steady decline for decades, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that comic books could have a renaissance of some kind. Just look at the vinyl record market. Somehow, it became popular again with younger people. Young people like old things, too. You've just got to give them a good reason to like something. Shallow gimmicks and gambling is probably not the right way to do it, though.

Originally Posted by dd316

I'm all for that, but I can't imagine walking into a comic shop and inevitably seeing nothing but these blind bagged books, not knowing what's inside, at 2x their current cover prices. As it is, I have to navigate walls of Funko Pops just to find comics at my local shops.

I like this idea if the blind bags include nothing but variants. At least that's going to be worth the risk, and that still leaves the standard edition available for all to see. Let the gamblers pay jacked up prices for their shot at gold.

I dont think anyone is suggesting that they only make blind bags going forward. Just that they should do some, or something like that, to entice new buyers. And bring some old ones back.

And just likes cards, you have $0.99 packs up to $9,999 packs. With plenty in between. You can still have $3.99 comics, as well as $39.99 ones. Or even $399 versions to chase. They need that element.

I get why comics exist in the first place. But just like trading cards, they were made as novelties for kids. With no plans of future value or being a collectable.

But this is no longer 1950 or even 1980. Comics went through the same downward sludge as trading cards due to overproduction in the late 80's early 90's.

Comics did innovate to stay alive, just likes cards in the mid 90s. Holographic covers. Alt covers. Free trading cards and early bagged editions.

But then cards one upped themselves. Inserts were cool, but no longer a driver. By the mid-90s they chopped up pieces of jerseys, added signatures, released cards pregraded in packs, made 1/1's and threw everything they could to add value and interest.

Comics, not so much. Which is why the are dying and cards are thriving. Comics cant keep relying on just those that actually want to read a good book. Not if they want to stay relevant and actually grow sales.

[finfangfan]

I do like the idea of autos, remarks, or full blown sketches being added to the mix. It looks like the blind bag concept could quickly get saturated though…. If it hasn’t already.

[Grid]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

I do like the idea of autos, remarks, or full blown sketches being added to the mix. It looks like the blind bag concept could quickly get saturated though…. If it hasn’t already.

Thats what they said about signed cards in the 90's. It got so bad in sports back then, they started putting 1 auto per pack in a lot of brands. And yet, 30 years later, thats still a driving force.

Ditto memorabilia cards. 1/1's ETC

I remember when sketch cards were 1 in every few cases. Then 1 per case. Then 1 per box. And they have reigned that in to add value back, while making them harder to pull. And increasing values.

Its just finding the right mix. Load em up to gain traction. Then take them way down to add value. Back and forth for decades. Do what is a proven selling point in collectables now.

Look at those ding dongs chasing 1/1 lunar black cracked refactor Mickey Mouse cards. That was unheard of 10 years ago. The hobby has changed. Do what works.

[finfangfan]

For people following bulk blind bag breaks, are the pulls pretty much running true to the odds or are the covers clustered together. I guess that is one potential issue with the whole concept… how likely is it for Joe Shmo to pull a big hit? Do certain cover variations stand out enough that some blind bags could easily be “pack searched”? If that’s the case then secondary values on sealed product might not ever get too strong.

[IndySportsCards]

How soon before the American Association for the Blind comes after them?

[JBrooks Breaks]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

It looks like the blind bag concept could quickly get saturated though…. If it hasn’t already.

100%

Originally Posted by finfangfan

For people following bulk blind bag breaks, are the pulls pretty much running true to the odds or are the covers clustered together. I guess that is one potential issue with the whole concept… how likely is it for Joe Shmo to pull a big hit? Do certain cover variations stand out enough that some blind bags could easily be “pack searched”? If that’s the case then secondary values on sealed product might not ever get too strong.

The Battle Beast were searchable and shops were doing it. Batman & DC KO are all foils and the rare versions are just a different color so should not be searchable.

Mark Spears is adding a golden ticket but it will be so rare I doubt its a problem.

Whatnot sellers are getting $30 per blind bag. I sold my Batman for $79.99 per 10 and that included shipping and fees. Cover price was $9.99.

Originally Posted by IndySportsCards

How soon before the American Association for the Blind comes after them?

bro

[finfangfan]

Interesting… so yeah… if a blind bag is searchable it’s like buying a loose pack of a hot trading card set. Assume the hit was gobbled up and you are buying the leftovers. That’s a bummer.

BUT going back to idea of inserting rare card variations. If each comic is the same but the trading card insert is the blind chase… then maybe that would be another way to move some blind bags and not worry about people bringing in drugs scales.