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What's your breaking point on the price of Moderns

Started by WEBHEAD,

112 posts in this topic

Dale Roberts

Dale Roberts

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Posted
I dont know if the price has increased as much as content has decreased. A modern takes me literally 8-10 minutes tops to read, as opposed to a bronze copper even early modern which takes me doubl or more that time. So I READ VERY LITTLE MODERN THESE DAYS as i feel like Im being ripped off. 2c

 

No kidding, you get 5 bad splash pages, and about 10 words in most books. People complain about Bendis, but when I buy one of his comics, you do at least get to read.

 

Modern comics still are enjoyable to some extent, but alot of times they me off.

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EastCoastExchange-migratio

EastCoastExchange-migratio

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I dont know if the price has increased as much as content has decreased. A modern takes me literally 8-10 minutes tops to read, as opposed to a bronze copper even early modern which takes me doubl or more that time. So I READ VERY LITTLE MODERN THESE DAYS as i feel like Im being ripped off. 2c

 

No kidding, you get 5 bad splash pages, and about 10 words in most books. People complain about Bendis, but when I buy one of his comics, you do at least get to read.

 

Modern comics still are enjoyable to some extent, but alot of times they me off.

 

I agree. There are more ads than comic. I complained to Dan Didio about this at the 07 Hero's Con Panel and he thought I was crazy. What a wipe!

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Dale Roberts

Dale Roberts

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Here is what I think would be a tremendous solution to all of this. They could go back to the cheaper paper of the 80s, except for the covers, go back to printing letters pages in comics, quit paying Michael Turner and Jim Lee 15K for covers, and drop the price back to 1.50 or 2.00 per issue. I love the feel of the older books and they looked fine to me.

 

Yes, I know that will never happen. DC & Marvel want every dime spent in a local comic store to be spent on new comics or on trade paperbacks. That way they get a cut of all of it. They are intentionally trying to price out the typical reader from having left over money for back issues, which they get nothing from.

 

I think that pretty much stinks, but probably is pretty good business. However here is what I see happening. 10 years ago, your average serious collector was spending probably $50 - $100 a month and getting a bunch of comics(25 - 50). Now for that same money, that guy gets 8 new comics, 1 trade paperback, and 1 variant cover, if he is lucky. Yet, Marvel and DC are producing more titles than ever and loads and loads of junk comics. Don't get me wrong, there are good comics being produced as well, but some of the shlock being made is just horrible.

How do they expect to be able to sell all of those titles? What they should do is go back to producing only better comics, putting decent talent on them, and putting the junk stuff out in Graphic Novel form, instead of the hundreds of 4 issue mini series being made now.

 

They should also realize that collectors do care if a title comes out on time. I would rather read Batman put out every month with Chuck Dixon writing it, than read 4 issues in 2 years of All Star Batman, or 4 issues in 8 months of Grant Morrison. And personally I could care less if Kevin Smith ever does another comic.

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sterlingcomics

sterlingcomics

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Here is what I think would be a tremendous solution to all of this. They could go back to the cheaper paper of the 80s, except for the covers...I love the feel of the older books and they looked fine to me.

 

No arguments from me.

 

 

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sterlingcomics

sterlingcomics

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I don't personally enjoy the Walking Dead. I have tried it, but just not interested. I don't generally pick up comics with lots of adult language or content. Just not what I am in to.

 

It's been getting worse in the last 15 issues or so...but the series didn't necessarily start out that way. Although I love the series, it's getting a bit terse with the sleeping arrangements, cursing, etc. I don't mind it every now and again but panels of explicitives is a bit too much for me. I can look over that right now though because it does add to the realism...and this is one of the first moderns in a lloooonnggg time that I've actually spent the time to read #1 up to now and actually want to read each month.

 

I understand your preference and all, but it's a nicely done series.

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piper

piper

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Start reading The Walking Dead. No complaints.

 

I have completely bagged the idea of buying moderns. I have instead bought a 4 year subscription to Playboy Magazine, and now just collect Gold and Silver Age.

 

for the articles... :baiting:

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sterlingcomics

sterlingcomics

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I dont know if the price has increased as much as content has decreased. A modern takes me literally 8-10 minutes tops to read, as opposed to a bronze copper even early modern which takes me doubl or more that time. So I READ VERY LITTLE MODERN THESE DAYS as i feel like Im being ripped off. 2c

 

I'm finding the TPBs a more economical way to read the titles you are interested in...especially if you order it online and get a discount on top of the discount of getting each issue individually.

 

I understsand a page (or two) full page splash for effect every now and again, but it seems to get overused a lot these days...another thing is two or three panels of exactly the same art just to show some subtle gestures. Kinda cheesy imho.

 

There was an article about words per page in a comic book across genres...and as you would guess...it started very high in golden age and has dwindled ever since.

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tallmancomics-migration

tallmancomics-migration

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My breaking point is $1.00. The reason for this is that I know that I can pick up about 99% of all moderns in the dollar bins at comic shows, often a month after their release. Of course there are some exceptions (like that USM #1 I had in my grubby mits, and put back on the shelf after thinking: great, another spidey title, and it's even Ultimate , ooh).

 

I live in Kansas City and there is a comic show about once a month. I have picked up a complete run of Ultimate FF for less than a buck an issue, even the zombie issues.

 

Let me make a radical suggestion. If Marvel and DC would lower their cover prices to $1.00 their profits might actually increase. People like me, who currently spend $0 on new comics would suddenly be spending as much as a couple of hundred dollars a month. Based on the responses to this topic I don't believe I am in the minority.

 

I know it defies conventional wisdom to lower prices in order to increase profits, but drastic times call for drastic measures. At the rate of decreasing readership new comics could dissapear altogether within a couple of decades, in favor of direct trade paperback releases. Right before the Great Depression comics were 25 cents apiece, larger, and with stiff cardboard covers. When the depression struck there was less money available for nonessentials. Comic book companies lowered production value and cost to 10 cents per book. What we got was essentially the comicbook of today. Aggressive changes are needed in order to fully restore the health of the comic market.

 

Kind of off topic but I think Marvel and DC also need to get comics back in the spinner racks at grocery stores, gas stations, and convenience stores. Parents are not, for the most part, willing to take their kids to comic shops. Imagine the impact that the combination of a $1.00 cover price and marketing at the local grocery stores would have on comic circulation. I would imagine a book like ASM would go from selling 100,000 isssues a month to 500,000 issues. I know that there is some profit lost in newstand vs. direct market, however, a profit is still a profit. and I would rather make $500,000 a month than $300,000.

 

Whew, rant over.

 

 

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Let me make a radical suggestion. If Marvel and DC would lower their cover prices to $1.00 their profits might actually increase. People like me, who currently spend $0 on new comics would suddenly be spending as much as a couple of hundred dollars a month. Based on the responses to this topic I don't believe I am in the minority.

 

In theory, it sounds great and could work. Putting aside the fact that you inadvertently equated revenues with profits further down your exposition, the risk involved for DC and Marvel if they were to follow this strategy is that: as the price is dropped, the volume sold does not alleviate the loss in revenue, there is no way they could come out of that fiasco. It would entail rising prices again and then they would lose all customers, old ones and the very few new ones. The idea of raising Return on Assets by lowering price to increase sales is fraught with disaster. Look no further than what the car makers in Detroit did. They lowered prices to boost sales. While sales increased a little, they still ended up destroying their profitability and the market will not give up the culture of buying incentives. I could see a similar situation arise with comics. I would hope the marketing departments at either house have looked into this possibility and rejected it once they've found that there is little to no pent-up demand from the general population for comics and that the hope of, in your example, boosting sales by a factor of 5 is just an illusion.

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tallmancomics-migration

tallmancomics-migration

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Scrooge,

You make some great points. I really don't know what the increased costs would be in reestablishing the newstand market, it might be substantial. But right now as the market exists there is not alot of new readership being created. This spells trouble for people like you and me who enjoy monthly comics. However, it probably doesn't equal trouble for Marvel and DC. Marvel, as a company, probably makes more money over the opening weekend of a comic related film than it makes in ten years of selling comics. Comics have almost become the one dispensable thing for the comic book companies. I have no figures, but I'm sure movies and merchandising dwarfs comic sales. I would just like to see someone with passion attempt something radical to reinvigorate the comics industry.

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tallmancomics-migration

tallmancomics-migration

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Scrooge,

After some further thought I don't think the comic market and the automobile market are analogoous at all. First of all less than 1% of all Americans buy comics, while almost all Americans buy cars (I don't know how many buy new as opposed to used but I would imagine it is a substantiall percentage of all Americans). The average comic buyer buys many issues every month, while a new car might be purchased once every five years or so. New comics are a relatively low cost item, cars are a major investment. The new comic market could easily be tripled, the new car market cannot.

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tomc

tomc

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i agree with dale roberts. go back to news print and lower cover price. they should try this on some new title launches, if it works add more titles.

 

the idea is to get comics back into grocery stores and drug stores again.

 

how can a average kid buy comics if he or she cannot find them?

i bought comics off the newsstand for a couple of years before i discovered the LCS.

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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Let me make a radical suggestion. If Marvel and DC would lower their cover prices to $1.00 their profits might actually increase.

 

No, the situation is too far gone to start thinking lowering prices would do any good.

 

Lighthouse had a very informative post on this subject, and basically those left buying Marvel and DC books are the serious addicts, who have accepted insane price spikes, yet kept on reading. It makes better (short-term) business sense to keep sticking it to these crackheads, raising prices a bit, and increasing profits because the addicts keep on buying. They whine and complain, but they keep on opening the wallet. Some drop out, but the price increase more than makes up the difference.

 

So this business plan makes sense, if you accept the industry is hopelessly doomed and you're just trying to bleed the old nerds dry before the curtain comes down. In 8-10 years, comics will probably be priced at $50 with a 5K readership.

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