Ethan Van Sciver and #Comicsgate
Ethan Van Sciver is a comic book publisher and YouTuber. Comicsgate was orginially a decentralized reactionary movement of comic book fans. Simplisticly the reaction was to the percieved imposition of contemporary poltical sentiment into corporate (Marvel, DC) comic books. Comicsgate in its current form is Van Sciver's trademark and banner for promoting his own and his affiliates crowdfunded comic books. Crowdfunding diverges from traditional commerce, and allows entities to offer a speculative future project to backers (differentiated from customers) for a monetary donation that does not directly correspond to a purchase. Policies vary from platform with KickStarter , IndieGoGo , and the more recent FundMyComic being the most commonly used for funding the production of comic books and graphic novels.
Comicsgate Crowdfunding Appears to be in Decline
Analyzing the available data at Comicsgate Tracker a website that tracks #Comicsgate crowfunding statistics, there appears to be a noticeable decline in the number of backers from 2023 compared with 2024. To see that analysis and context reference this post - @alohaed/indie-gone-gone-comicsgate-backer. While researching for context I read this Tweet by Ethan Van Sciver where he asserted that his crowdfunding revenue paid for the production of new projects and merchandise, but that sales on EBAY were his primary source of profits. Van Sciver claims that his EBAY store "makes about $1M per year." This seems like an impressive number, $1,000,000 a year, would equal just a bit under $20,000 in sales per week averaged across a year.
Van Sciver's EBAY store "cyberfrog9"
I am not an EBAY user, but after some searching was able to find Van Sciver's EBAY store at https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?&LH_Sold=1&_ssn=cyberfrog9. From the EBAY store page, the sales data for the past 90 days is publicly visible. The available information includes the item description, the price, the quantity and the date of sale. It occured to me that EBAY sales patterns might have some relationship to sentiment about Van Sciver and the Comicsgate brand. EBAY sales could be a lagging or leading indicator. I do not have have information about macro trends for EBAY, or specifically if sales peak or decline at specific times in the year.
Sales Data and Analysis
In the table below I have entered the sales from February 1-7, 2025. The first seven (7) days of February saw 13 observable sells, for a total of $597.50 not including shipping. This is substantially below the pace needed to generate $1,000,000 in annual sales. I will capture the January sales data and present it and current sales data with subsequent reports. Using current data sourced from Indiegogo.com and CG Tracker (for the major Comicsgate publishers) after some periods of analysis it should be possible to determine if Van Sciver's EBAY sales have a relationship to Comicsgate crowdfunding, or value as a proxy for measuring Comisgate sentiment.
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