The [irrational & annoying] price of comics.

Re: The All About Comics Thread 5: Comic Books Ate My Paycheck

Victor Von Doom said:
In my day....comics only used to cost $2.50 and rap didn't always have some RnB autotune singer on the hook!!!!



Man.....and it's only gonna get worse.

Not that a lot of this matters to those of you who torrent comics, but for those of us who still enjoy the Wednesday ritual of doing up a pull list and making that trip to your LCS it's just another ribshot to worsen the beating on our wallet. I mean basically we're paying for tradition and the experience.

But the article above does bring up some valid questions. The most basic one:

Has the rising price point affecting the way you buy comics?
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yeah, i'm more willing to drop crappy comics now. I used to be a completionist but the rising price, combined with the declining quality has lead to me only picking up a few books a month.
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

I thought this was interesting: Marvel leads the $3.99 charge with 70 titles this July

DC
Number of $3.99 issues: 22
Percentage of DC's periodicals: 24.2%

Marvel
Number of $3.99 issues: 70
Percentage of Marvel's periodicals: 68%

Dark Horse
Number of $3.99 issues: 0
Percentage of Dark Horse's periodicals: 0%

IDW
Number of $3.99 issues: 32
Percentage of IDW's periodicals: 91.4%

Image
Number of $3.99 issues: 7
Percentage of Image's periodicals: 27%

Original article here.
 
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Re: The rising price of comics.

Ultimate Houde said:
What the hell does IDW publish for them to be that expensive?
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Their production, output, and sales are lower than everyone else, which means their production costs are lower per issue, which means they have to charge more.
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

Even though the actual numerical figure of the comic may be dropping, comics are still more expensive than they should be.

oreillyopiniofact.jpg
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

I think we should buy comics with our snot.
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

The price per page is rising with the books losing their back-up material.

20 pages of stories for 2.99 is more expensive than 30 pages of stories for 3.99

And losing two pages of story across the board isn't too fun either... But I hope this works, and helps smaller books survive.
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

Bass said:
Even though the actual numerical figure of the comic may be dropping, comics are still more expensive than they should be.
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Absolutely true. They have risen in price far greater than the rate of inflation. This goes back to the 90s when Ronald Perelman bought the company and raped the profits, then dumped it. It never recovered from that, which is too bad because, logically, if readership died off because you INCREASED the price too far it would follow that DECREASING the price would bring people back in.
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

Ultimate Houde said:
I'm actually wondering what they put out.
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They did 30 Days of Night and have been milking that ever since. I think most of their books come from licensed properties. Transformers and GI Joe and stuff like that. I think they may do Hack/Slash too? Not sure on that, though.
 
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Re: The rising price of comics.

IDW *might* have higher licensing costs too. They put out the Metal Gear comics and they also publish Transformers comics. I would think that the cost of publishing something you have to buy the rights to, as opposed to your own characters, would be higher. And they might need to spread that out over all of their books. Add that too the smaller print runs (higher per issue costs) and the higher prices make sense.
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

E said:
Absolutely true. They have risen in price far greater than the rate of inflation. This goes back to the 90s when Ronald Perelman bought the company and raped the profits, then dumped it. It never recovered from that, which is too bad because, logically, if readership died off because you INCREASED the price too far it would follow that DECREASING the price would bring people back in.
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You just agreed with Bill Lol'Reilly.

You know what you have to do with your site, comics, and fire, E.
 
Re: The rising price of comics.

Bass said:
You just agreed with Bill Lol'Reilly.

You know what you have to do with your site, comics, and fire, E.
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Or maybe Dull O'Runny is smarter than we think.
 
Re: The [apparently decreasing] price of comics.

If I could buy 2 comics for 1 Abe Lincoln, I would definitely start buying single issues again.
 
Re: The [apparently decreasing] price of comics.

Ice said:
Quesada: "There's an argument. When you look at the amount of work that goes into a comic book. We tend to ghettoize ourselves. We do everything we can to keep our prices down. But we live under this crucible that comics used to be ten cents. But when you look at the amount of effort and manpower and artistic talent that it goes into it, it really is a miracle that we can produce them for $2.99 and $3.99. There are lots of other places to go for artists and writings to make more money. But the truth of the matter is I remember handing a comic book to an executive who was dumbfounded that we could produce it for $2.99. I think we suffer from that. I'm not saying we should be charging twenty bucks an issue, but we do work really really hard to keep it at $2.99 and $3.99."
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When I first read this I couldn't decide if it was Joe Q being naive or arrogant. I'm sure now that it's arrogance. And a heavy dose of BS.

Nobody "lives under a crucible that comics used to be ten cents" - at least not in a way that causes people to believe that's what they should cost now. Lots of things used to cost ten cents that don't any more. The people that don't actually remember that understand that things get more expensive over time.

But think about this - when comics DID cost ten cents they were selling millions of issues. Today the price has been jacked up far above the rate of inflation and is no longer something that the average kid can go buy at the drugstore with their allowance and the best selling issues sell 150,000. Do the math.

E said:
Awesome news from Bleeding Cool:
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That was an article on Bleeding Cool about discussions to drop cover prices down to $1.99 per issue.

Think about what a remarkable position Disney is in with owning Marvel. They have a seemingly unending supply of movie fodder in the Marvel characters (especially considering the ridiculous reboots being planned) and actually GET PEOPLE TO PAY for exposure to the characters before the movies are released. It's promotional material that people are willing to pay for - what a huge advantage. Why WOULDN'T you drop prices and get MORE people exposed to the characters so you can turn around and sell them movie tickets and merchandise?
 
Re: The [apparently decreasing] price of comics.

E said:
Think about what a remarkable position Disney is in with owning Marvel. They have a seemingly unending supply of movie fodder in the Marvel characters (especially considering the ridiculous reboots being planned) and actually GET PEOPLE TO PAY for exposure to the characters before the movies are released. It's promotional material that people are willing to pay for - what a huge advantage. Why WOULDN'T you drop prices and get MORE people exposed to the characters so you can turn around and sell them movie tickets and merchandise?
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This makes a lot of sense (no pun intended).
 
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