Stop calling every variant cover a 'rare find'

I was at my local shop in Portland last Saturday and overheard this guy bragging about scoring a 'super rare' variant of a Marvel book from 2022. Dude, that print run was like 40,000 copies. It's not rare just because you saw it on eBay for $50. I've been collecting for 15 years and I swear people just repeat whatever they hear on YouTube without checking numbers. Has anyone else noticed new fans inflating rarity on stuff that's still in dollar bins?

2 comments

2 Comments

karent751mo ago

I read somewhere that some of those "rare" variants actually had bigger print runs than standard covers...

sagea881mo ago

karent75 you're actually totally right about that. ive seen some variants labeled "limited" that ended up being way more common than the main cover. its just a marketing trick half the time. publishers know collectors will pay more for anything stamped "rare" so they print a bunch and call it a day. honestly its getting harder to tell what's actually scarce anymore.