What is the difference between 1st print and 2ed print and so on in comic books? Graphic quality?

Question

I know that there is a pretty significant price difference between each, and the original copy is the creators original drawings, and then the first print is the what they photocopied, so then is the second and third print copies of copies? And what dose it matter then, are the graphics less sharp or something?

Help me my beloved comic book nerds! :D

Answer 1

If the comic book is from a real comic company and not something that some random person made, then there's no photocopying involved. The comics get printed on a printing press, usually in a print run of like 10,000 copies or some large number. After that, the comics get shipped off to stores all over the country. The 1st printing refers to that first print run, when the comic is initially published and sent out to stores. Most issues only ever have one printing. But some issues become classics and get printed all over again at a later date so that new readers can read it. This is the 2nd printing. 2nd printings aren't worth anything usually because they aren't "special" like the first printing, or as rare. For example, X-Men #1 was first printed in 1963. The X-Men eventually became very popular so their first issue was considered valuable. So many years later, 2nd and 3rd and maybe 4th printings of the first issue were released so that fans could read the X-Men's origin. But those later printings have no collectors value because it's the 1st printing from 1963 that is rare and old and special. Get it? Each printing has the same print quality. Sometimes the quality even gets better, as later printings get printed on better quality paper and with better quality inks. But it's the collectors value that makes the difference. A first printing of X-Men #1 from 1963 is worth thousands of dollars today if it is in good condition. But a later printing of it from 1995, for example, is worth nothing more than the cover price of like two dollars. It's only good for the pure value of reading the story. It's not a collector's item.  

Answer 2

Most comics print a certain number for the print run. If demand exceeds the supply, they generate another run.

This isn't like the days of underground comics, when each new print run did have changes from edition to edition.

Publishers not only keep the original art (Mad Magazine did this forever) they also make incredibly sharp photographs of the artwork to reproduce from as well

Answer 3

Its not an issue of quality when asking why 2nd printings are worth less than 1st its really just about it not being an original.