Ebooks will change something’s, but they will not change everything in the ebook market. While the DVD market on Amazon has hit rock bottom in terms of pricing, where you can pick up 130 dollar DVD’s for pennies, the book market has not been as disrupted yet. The avalanche of new ebook readers expected to hit the market this year will change that picture.
Of course, I am particularly interested in the comic book market, after all that is what I sell on Amazon and on Ebay. Already it is difficult to shift many comics from the over print days of the 1990’s where a fortune could be won if you only bought the right comic book. Like most bubbles, the comic book bubble of the 1990’s is still working its way through the system right now. You can pick up almost any 1990 title for pennies, and it is because they are worth pennies on the market because there are so many regardless of what the Overstreet Guide happens to tell you. The honest value of a comic book is what you can pick it up for on Ebay or Amazon.
Ebook readers though are a different process, there is no way that a small seller or any seller is going to be able to get their hands on the distribution rights on Amazon for a Spider-Man ebook. That is the reality, but there is still and will continue to be a burgeoning collectors market. Collectors are always going to want the hard physical copy because that is going to be worth something later on, and is easily bought and sold on the secondary market. This is something you cannot do with an ebook. You really cannot resell your ebook, once you bought it, it is yours, and yours alone. That alone will suffice the casual comic book reader, but not the collector.
Collectors are a very fussy lot; they need to be able to hold their product. I see the comic book market, and probably many books along the way devolving to limited print, maybe at most 2500, and a normal run of 500 at a shot. These are the books that people are going to want because there is a known limited run, and that is where the secondary market, Amazon and Ebay resellers are going to make out. The market is still awash in garbage comics from the overprint days, those will take more decades to work their way out of the buying and selling cycle. However, if you have the right suppliers, those limited run signed editions are going to end up being very valuable in the longer run. People will buy them, they can be easily bought and sold amongst different collectors, and the price per item will trend upwards, if you know only 500 were printed, that is a good thing for buyers and sellers.
That is where I see the comic book market splitting off, general ebooks for casual consumption on ebook readers, and limited printing certificate of authenticity runs that collectors will want to physically own. There is no limited run of an ebook, they are meant for mass consumption where format does not matter. The future for at least the comic book market as I see it are going to be those limited run editions that collectors will want to purchase.
