There are more online sources of information about comic collecting and speculation than ever, and that is particularly true of vloggers, most of whom publish regularly on YouTube, as well as social media such as Facebook and Instagram.
I personally prefer to refer to them as vloggers rather than "influencers" as I think it's more accurate. They certainly do wield an amount of influence, but to me they are commentators on a subject, publishing regularly on that subject, rather than being celebrities providing endorsement to a product to influence their followers.
Vlog posts can be a great source of information, particularly for collectors starting out, as they provide a regular supply of new content. Here is a selection of some of the more prominent shows that can be found on YouTube:
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It's Drunken Chat Son!: possibly the best general show, presented by the Mighty Mel V. I never get to watch this live, as it goes out while I'm asleep in the UK, but it's my weekly watch over Saturday breakfast; the show is long, but there's usually a lot of information in there, from Ultra's Spec Matrix to a run down of books on Final Order Cutoff that weekend; and there's usually a heated and frank discussion of the week's topics in collecting!
- Nerd/Bird FOC Top Ten: This is my new favourite show - a really concise run-down on the upcoming FOC books, hosted by two friendly and watchable guys, lots of information and refreshingly free of stores plugging their exclusive variants. Helpfully comes out mid-week, so there's plenty of time to catch it before FOC. I always watch this before Grumpy Wolf places our weekly FOC orders, to see what collectors are interested in.
- Cover Picks: 9th Wonder presents this weekly show presenting the top new spec books as if it was a sports draft. I find this to be a very useful summary of what speculators are looking at, and why - and it definitely influences what books Grumpy Wolf orders... EDIT: As of October 2022 it seems like this is no longer running.
- Economics in Comics: this channel is worth keeping an eye on because it's put out by a US comic store that receives their books early than the day of release, and are happy to show pages that might drive speculative interest (first appearances, etc)...
- Jim Comics: Jim seems like a nice guy who's genuinely into his comics; he presents a weekly video of his top tips, and because he reads everything he talks about, sometimes notices things that others haven't spotted...
- Swagglehaus: has some very interesting content, particularly a market proxy he's constructed using market data to look at overall trends in the marketplace. He used to run roundtable discussions that were super-informative, although it's been a while since I've seen one of those.
- Comic Tom: to be honest, I'm only including this because if I didn't, people would ask where it was... Comic Tom has a massive following, and puts out weekly Top 10 shows that do really have an impact on the market. I personally find the carnival-barker style a bit grating (everything is always turned up to 11), and he's not without his detractors; but there's no denying the work he puts in and the audience that he's built.
- Tales from the Flipside: presented by a knowledgeable bunch of guys, who are open with their advice and opinions; listening to them talking about key books can be quite the educational experience, and the Market Report segment can be quite illuminating.
- Bronze and Modern Gods: these quietly-spoken guys are quite relaxing to listen to after the slightly more shouty style of some of the other shows!
There are many others (Automatic Comics, Rennavision, Regie Collects, Pressable Defects, Simpleton's Comics...) but I can only list so many here! It's worth sampling a few, and working out which match with your collecting style, and what information can be usefully gleaned from which.
Do just bear in mind that some of these channels are supported by particular comics stores, the owners of which often appear as guests, in order to promote their store exclusives. There's absolutely nothing wrong in that, of course, but some channels might blur the line a little too much between clearly presenting a promotional piece as being such, and giving their recommendation to buy a particular book as an investment. (We'll explore store exclusives in detail in a future post.)
I'm not aware of any comic shows from here in the UK, but if you know of some, let me know! (Not that I really need any more shows to try and watch...)