I was volunteering in a comic shop when the bubble burst. At the time we blamed it completely on the sudden availability of reprints. Marvel realized they were

I was volunteering in a comic shop when the bubble burst. At the time we blamed it completely on the sudden availability of reprints. Marvel realized they were sitting on a wealth of intellectual property and started pumping out graphic novels compiling the most valuable story arcs (this plus the movies made their stock prices shoot to the Moon). Then they started producing DVDs with entire collections of comics in PDF format. I bought a DVD from Marvel with the entire history of Uncanny X-men comics for $40 (DVD's now worth $200). A week later, I donated my entire X-men print collection to the shop owner. http://www.amazon.com/40-Years-X-Men-Complete-Collection/dp/B000E28UT2/ http://www.amazon.com/40-Years-X-Men-Complete-Collection/dp/... There are a lot of hard feelings about this in the comic-collector community. I did lose years of what I expected to be an investment. At the same time, I get to read the entire history of Hulk comics at a fraction of the cost.