While I agree some of the posters are still great, the feel of this part of the hobby is changing. I believe that a good portion of that "craziness" that surrounded Mondo at SDCC was profiteers. Ive seen some unknown seller that had at least 4-5 Creature prints and sold them on ebay but damaged half of them because they were rolled incorrectly. not to mention the stories of collectors that have been in the scene for a bit, line jumping and then instantly looking to sell or trade and its sad to say that these kind of profiteers out number those of us who are actually collecting these things. Its not fun to collect these anymore especially when I know that I have no chance to get some of these with out finding the guy who was sneaky enough to snag 5-10 copies and is willing to sell to me at triple instead of 5x the original cost. It just sucks and if what Bruce said is true then I believe that the end is near. Not to say that if I see a print that I really "must have", that I wont try to get one but I am losing/have lost the passion for these prints and I'd guess that if I am feeling this way there some others are as well. Hence Dales comment about the down slide of print sales, more people selling than are buying anymore and I feel that that will effect this part of the hobby. Most likely in a negative way.
The end is near, apparently. Time to get to Costco or Sam's Club and stock the Y2K bunkers.
David, I hear your concern, but not sure what your surround your opinion with what makes much sense. Where to begin...
I had a buddy at CC pick up the Moss Mononoke print for me, who isn't a collector in the slightest, and he told me that the line and excitement surrounding the Mondo booth was great, and he could tell the genuine enthusiasm throughout collectors was like 7yr olds at Christmas. Sure there are flippers and such, but they have always been there, who cares. When tens of thousands of people are going for 250 prints, there will always be people who score, who miss out, who flip, etc.
People get caught up in the hype, get a print, then decide they aren't too keen on it and trade up. So what? You have done that several times, indirectly or directly.
Bruce forgot to mention that Mondo still sells out of prints each drop. Whether someone hates a given design, it still moves, so they are doing something right. I didn't like any of the prints today, but they still sold.
Biggest point is this:
Folks complain about Mondo not increasing the print runs/number of releases then when Mondo increases both (especially # of releases) people jump on the forum and bitch about it. So which is it?
