Off Panel #314: Sushi Grade Comics with Nick Coglianese

By David Harper

August 2, 2021

In this week’s episode of Off Panel, the creator of the Key Collector Comics app, Nick Coglianese, joins to chat about the app, the exploding back issue market, and the app’s position in that. Coglianese discusses what the app really is, the different aspects of it, the inspiration for it, the tension between readers and collectors/flippers, what’s driving the insane collectors market, its sustainability, graded vs. ungraded, the app as an arbiter of what sells, the idea it’s a speculator app, quirky things of the collector world, what’s next for the app, and more.

You can find Coglianese and his work at Key Collector Comics.

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Thanks to the sponsor of this week’s podcast: Bad Idea! I think they’re done now? I have no idea what’s going on. They’re still advertising, I guess!

Also, thanks to the other sponsor of this week’s podcast: Macroverse. Macroverse is an exciting digital comics platform featuring top creators from all parts of the comics, Webtoon and storytelling universe, with everything curated for quality – think of it like HBO for comics. There’s over 35 series and more than 400 episodes so far, with work from creators like Brian Stelfreeze, Juan Doe, Paul Scheer and more, with each using Macroverse’s unique TapStory format, which tells comic stories at the power of a tap in a way that’s only possible in a digital format. Check out Macroverse today by downloading the app on iOS or Google Play, or my clicking this link. The first episode of every series is free, with unlimited access to this growing library being just $4.99 a month.

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Header art is a photo of back issues. Kind of obvious! Off Panel’s theme music is an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!

Notable Replies

Rolacka says:

August 2, 2021

I’m about 60% of the way through at the moment, and this is one of the most interesting Sktchd interviews. I have no interest in comics as collectibles, so this is really insightful listening to Nick - somebody so passionate about comics.
SKTCHD says:

August 2, 2021

Glad to hear it! I wasn’t sure how people would react to this one, as he’s kind of a polarizing figure, but I thought it was an interesting conversation. Glad to hear you agreed!
chrisburton says:

August 3, 2021

Nick sounds legitimately passionate about comics and collecting, but I have to say after listening , I maybe feel like he danced around the idea that his product has significantly changed the comics buying experience, and not necessarily for the better. Guys going around to every comic store in their area every Wednesday buying up all copies of certain issues because of what an app says doesn’t seem like a good thing, and it’s naive, or even disingenuous, to suggest that the majority of those guys aren’t turning around and immediately flipping them online at a big markup. Nick’s initial idea and intentions might have been good and born out of fandom, but I feel like the app has morphed into something else for how it’s used by the majority of its users. He could have maybe acknowledged that he’s leaned into that, because of course he is making money off the app and I don’t begrudge him for maximizing how he can make money from it. I don’t know, it’s just kind of gross in the same way it was gross with grown men going crazy over Pokémon and sports cards at Walmart and Target, and also completely cleaning out the toy aisles of Star Wars Black Series, Marvel Legends, and GI Joe Classified the day a new wave is being released. I’d wager that at least half of that, and probably more, is being done by flippers.

That being said, I may be pulling a Joe Field/Brian Hibbs here and just being frustrated about something because it is different from how things were in the past, which are memories often tell us were the “glory days” even if in reality there were sources of frustration in those days too. Who knows.
SKTCHD says:

August 3, 2021

chrisburton:

it’s naive

I tend to think it’s more this than craven greed, because I don’t think he necessarily makes more money off of the speculator parts of the app than the non-speculator. And as someone who does use the app for non-speculator reasons, I both would say that A LOT of the app isn’t really speculator stuff, nor would I so surely suggest that the majority of these people are doing what you suggest. My wager is a lot of people use the app for a lot of different reasons, and it isn’t necessarily as clear cut as all speculation or all not.

That said, I do agree with the idea that he may not be fully aware of the impact it has, as I brought up to him when I talked about going to my shop on Wednesday or my comic book garage sale. It’s used by people to get an edge and take advantage of situations, at least some of the time, regardless of his intent, which can put retailers and readers in a tough spot. That’s the tension of the flippers.

So, I continue to be mixed on it from an impact standpoint while readily admitting that I do use it personally for things that do not remotely resemble speculation. I certainly think there’s a place for it, and I don’t think it’s as crazy as the Pokemon/sports cards stuff at Walmart/Target, if only because comic shops are at least to a degree used to this sort of behavior and manage it better.
PerfectDru says:

August 19, 2021

A little late to the party, but I finally listened to the entire episode. First of all, for the Bad Idea advertisement, was that what they paid you to say, David? Or were you just having some fun at their expense? Either way, I thought it was pretty funny.

In regards to the actual interview with Nick Coglianese, I thought you were pretty diplomatic, David. It was a great interview. I’m with Chris Burton here - he definitely danced around the question that his app has made the comics-buying experience worse. Essentially, Nick said that he’s not responsible for how people choose to use his app. He seems to think he’s created a resource to curate “key” (which he admits has a relative definition for various people) issues, and it’s not on him how people use it. He also said he doesn’t see the app as a speculator app because there’s only one section of the app explicitly devoted to speculation. That’s a pretty disingenuous way of disregarding his own entire concept of keys and describing what’s hot. He’s also ignoring the massive majority of people who use his app as something that enables them to play the speculator game.

Also, the entire idea of how he said he thought he was doing his part to help keep print periodicals alive was pretty absurd, even though you mentioned that just about every retailer you’ve talked to has shared about how well their stores are doing. He seems like the kind of person who equates comics as a medium with physical single issue periodicals. I definitely disagreed with what he was saying when he brought up the three tentpoles of “comics enthusiasts” - readers, collectors, and speculators/flippers - that keep comic book stores alive. He makes a distinction between collectors and speculators, but I guess the only difference is that collectors don’t usually buy stuff to sell it? I don’t know about that. I don’t see that. All the collectors I come across at stores and at sales just hoard and hoard comics, so the end result is that someone who wants to read them won’t have access to them. I’ve seen grownass men grab Spider-Man comics before a little kid could buy them, just because the kid was too small to reach the comic first. It’s selfish behavior. If that’s the kind of attitude that keeps comic book stores alive, maybe we deserve to die, then.

I had no respect for this guy before listening to him bloviate. To be honest, I didn’t even know the name of the guy who made the Key Collector app. He was a non-entity to me that I never had any reason to think about, other than when I was pissing on the idea of key collectors and speculators. But now that I’ve heard his perspective, I have DIS-respect for him. He a straight chump.