Reprints do not diminish the price of an original.
Like any other collectable hobby, speculators always pee in the pool. The comic market is flooded right now, nothing more. Condition IS everything. Key issues will always demand more $$$$. I sold 3 Superman comics, vintage 1956, 7 yrs ago to buy my 200K home. (Should have kept the books, they have gone up, unlike the house.) I own 2 copies of Hulk 181, Wolverines 1st appearance, one is slabbed @ 9.8 & the other raw @ 9.4. A price of 8K for the later would be like selling me your NIB BBB for a C-note. FYI a graded CGC (slabbed) Hulk 181 in 9.9 sold for 100K, 6 months ago.
The sky is not falling.

I agree that the market has changed considerably. Not only the buyers & sellers but the genre as a whole. I know many shop owners, artists, & authors. I have been working the Con trail for a game mfg for more than 10 yrs. Speculators have done a lot of damage & kids don't read anymore. Pressing a book to attempt to increase it's value is taboo. Not that it isn't done daily. Can you do that with a Pin? Dealers have become much more cut-throat as more crap gets pumped out that they are forced to buy. But I don't see pin dealers getting a one per store variant, cover price $2.99 and selling it on Ebay for $140+ to collectors at a 10000% markup. As far as serious comic collectors showing up at shows. Who in their right mind wants to deal with the pushy, rude, plague bearing, unwashed hoards who have no idea what a splash page is, that invade these shows. I would burn my clothes then shower every day after the Con closed so I wouldn't smell like ass & taco meat. I haven't been to a Pin Con yet, so am I to expect the same type of crowd?