What's your breaking point on the price of Moderns

[bronzilla]

Good Point.. Kirkmans letter pages alone take me about 1 hr .Walking dead one of the handfull of moderns I still pick up.

[bronzilla]

Just thought of another reason I quit most moderns: HUGE EARTH SHATTERING MEGA EVENTS WHICH SHAKE THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF MARVEL AND DC UNIVERSE. You know the ones that happen twice a year, Heroes die, Heroes get ressurected. Meanwhile story lines run through all ELEVENTY BAJILLION TITLES forcing us to buy every stinking comic put out just to be able to figure out whats happening to your favorite characters. If I want to buy Spidey I want to buy Spidey. I do not wish to pick up every title put out by the big two, just to keep up with the adventures of my favorite Heroe.I was spending 100.00 per week on modern Comics, I figured I would use that money to advance my collection of Bronze Copper Silver and Gold. I am sure this has been ranted on before I just needed to get that off my chest.

[superman20]

so true, so said

[Sal]

don't forget about the point that's been raised in the past - a point i don't have a firm grasp on the particulars of - that retailers love the higher cover prices.

 

going back to newsprint wouldn't really have that large an impact on the cover prices of books, as newsprint has become relatively expensive.

 

what comic companies would be better served doing is to make digital editions of their books available to subscribers for a drastically reduced rate. essentially, this would entail offering digital subs to pamphlet subscribers for an additional x amount. even if they are pirated after release, it still would provide a decent revenue stream once adoption of that type of medium passed a certain threshold, plus it would allow for more widespread ("viral") distribution of the work and hopefully encourage more non-subscribers to sign up for paid copies

[MrBedrock]

don't forget about the point that's been raised in the past - a point i don't have a firm grasp on the particulars of - that retailers love the higher cover prices.

 

 

That is not entirely true. What retailers really love is volume . I would love for comics to be optimally priced so I can sell the most to the most people. The big problem is that the comic industry is not set up for it to be financially feasible or imperative for any part of it to do research to find out where that optimal price point is. D.C. is the only company that does any kind of focused market research through their Retailer Rep Program. Retailers do not have the funds to research price points. Most retailers do not have the funds to properly advertise. The rise of the trade paperback and growth of the graphic novel format is carrying and growing the market at this point, and gradually knowledge of that market (book stores and on-line book dealers) and it's inventory management systems will do more to help

comic retailers.

 

On an earlier point about lowering cover prices to increase sales. All of the large publishers have done low cost issues in continuous running titles to test that theory. The truth is that lowering cover price doesn't increase sales to any significant degree. The only area where lower prices have worked is in the reprint trade paperbacks (DC Showcase and Marvel Essentials) vs. higher cost reprint collections.

[Scrooge]

don't forget about the point that's been raised in the past - a point i don't have a firm grasp on the particulars of - that retailers love the higher cover prices.

 

 

That is not entirely true. What retailers really love is volume . I would love for comics to be optimally priced so I can sell the most to the most people. The big problem is that the comic industry is not set up for it to be financially feasible or imperative for any part of it to do research to find out where that optimal price point is. D.C. is the only company that does any kind of focused market research through their Retailer Rep Program. Retailers do not have the funds to research price points. Most retailers do not have the funds to properly advertise. The rise of the trade paperback and growth of the graphic novel format is carrying and growing the market at this point, and gradually knowledge of that market (book stores and on-line book dealers) and it's inventory management systems will do more to help

comic retailers.

 

On an earlier point about lowering cover prices to increase sales. All of the large publishers have done low cost issues in continuous running titles to test that theory. The truth is that lowering cover price doesn't increase sales to any significant degree. The only area where lower prices have worked is in the reprint trade paperbacks (DC Showcase and Marvel Essentials) vs. higher cost reprint collections.

 

Richard,

 

thanks for the insight from the other side of the counter.

 

I am glad to hear that DC has given thoughts and spent time and resources to broach the pricing issue. Point of Sales data from book stores and on-line sales should reveal quite a bit of valuable info.

 

Still, in defense of TallMan, his idea is that the combo of price drop and increased exposure would work, not simply the price drop. Also, let's face it and correct me if I'm wrong, but the publishers' attempts at low cost issues in continuous running titles didn't apply to their larger sellers but to more obscure series that could use help since they had low readership as it is. Wasn't Gotham Central one such book with lower price point? I wouldn't call this a blockbuster of a book. I know I have friends who would buy series like X-Men which they don't buy currently (even if they read the Avengers and Spidey books) if it was priced lower.

 

How successful have sales of off-brand DC Showcase been? Such titles as The Great Disaster, Elongated Man, or Shazam.

[tallmancomics-migration]

I think the bottom line is that the comic companies just don't care if they sell comics. The reason for this, I believe, can be illustrated by the original Spider-man movie. Here are some numbers:

 

Spider-man cost $190,000,000 to produce and advertise.

 

It generated $822,000,000 worldwide box office, $109,000,000 in related toy sales, $339,000,000 in DVD sales, $89,000,000 in VHS sales, and $60,000,000 in television rights. That is 1.4 billion dollars of revenue from a single movie release (1.2 billion minus production and advertising). I don't know what the distribution, manufacture, or incidental costs were, but the profits were substantial.

 

It's possible that Marvel Comics made more money from the Spider-man release than from every new comic they have ever sold in the entire history of the company. Why would they care about new comics? Heck, Marvel probably made more money on the toy sales alone than they made on every new Amazing Spider-man comic ever sold.

 

What is sad about this situation is that there is obviously a HUGE untapped American market for comic characters and stroylines. I have heard that in Japan comics are produced relatively inexpensively and enjoy a wide readership.

 

Oh well, if I netted a billion dollars selling product X, and fifty million dollars selling product Y, I probably wouldn't care too much about Y either.

[joe_collector]

It's possible that Marvel Comics made more money from the Spider-man release than from every new comic they have ever sold in the entire history of the company.

 

Actually, Sony got the majority of the cash. Marvel still did okay, especially since they risked $0, but it was mostly license fees and limited profit sharing.

[Dale Roberts]

I very respectfully disagree with Richard. I dont think lowering the price point for an issue, or for any short period of time, would really have any effect on volume of sales, but I am almost sure it would long term. I know back when I first got back into comics around 1988, comics were right around 1.00 and I bought tons of stuff and so did everyone else. Of course this led to tons of speculators, but lots of comics were being sold and consequently, lots of comics were being sold.

 

Maybe I am naive thinking that it could ever go back to that point. Actually, I know from a business perspective that it never will, but I do think many, many more books would reach many more hands.

 

I think a huge problem is the way the comic industry itself is set up. Basically, you have the superstores such as Amazon and Borders who work their own deals with the companies, and you have comic stores which have to work through Diamond. Not really a fair playing field to begin with, and the middle man really hammers the LCS, especially the smaller ones. Back in the day when Capital City was still around, things were considerably better. When they went away and Diamond took over, that is when most of the price escalations begans. Maybe it is completely coincidence. Maybe not.

[MrBedrock]

I think if prices were rolled back we would certainly sell more comics. But would we sell enough to cover the price rollback? It is an interesting question with no real answer.

All I can say is that, even with the increases in cover price, our sales volume is higher than it has been at anytime since 1992. And I think a much higher percentage of comics bought today are actually being read, as opposed to speculated on. Interestingly, 1992 was one year after we made the change from Capital City to Diamond. Houston was one of the cities that had a warehouse for both. We were having a TON of problems with our local Capital warehouse. As soon as we switched to Diamond many of our problems dissappeared and sales increased. That may also be coincidence, but Diamond has done and continues to do a tremendous job for us. Also, for monthly comic books, as far as I know, even Amazon, Border's etc. have to go through Diamond. They are the EXCLUSIVE distributor of monthly comics. Trades and graphic novels are another deal, though Diamond does have a book distribution branch. I do know that, as a higher volume comic store chain, my discout is competetive with those big guys on first run merchadise through Diamond.

[CAP Freak]

My Breaking point is 3.50 dollars. After that I don't buy them.

[tallmancomics-migration]

Joe C,

You are 100% correct, Sony reaped most of the profit from the first Spidey movie, still Marvel made about 100 million (risk free profit) from licensing fees, that's alot of fishskins. In fact Marvel currently makes less than 20% of its profit from publishing, the majority of its revenue generated from licensing its characters for movies, video games, lunch boxes, etc.

 

However, this is all about to change. After realizing the crazy profits they could realize Marvel cut out the middleman and signed a deal with Paramount to directly produce their own movies. Once the profits from this deal start rolling in Marvel might make less than 5% of its profit from publishing. What will happen to comics then? I envision your scenario of 1,000 super-addicts buying $50 new comics as not too farfetched.

 

Actually a more reasonable scenario is the end of the monthly comic altogether in lieu of TPB releases by elite and/or established creators which can be turned directly into movies.