$3.99 is way too much for a new standard sized comic

[Real Elijah Snow]

Did anyone else catch the news that Marvel is increasing New Avengers, HULK and Punisher Max all to $3.99 monthly? These are staying at standard size. 2 of which are some of my current faves. Also, Dark Avengers will start out at that same price. What happened to $3.25? $3.50? $3.75? This is ridiculous. Nearly $4 for a 22 page issue is just too much. I know at this point it's only a handful of Marvel's more popular titles, but it won't be long before it's the standard. It's worked this way for a while.

These things are read through in under 10 minutes!!!(for the most part) It would be like buying a DVD of a new movie and having to pay $60 for it if you are looking at once through entertainment value for the money.(if it's your standard hour and a 1/2, and you assume that average read through time is around 10 minutes for the average current comic book).

I know there are cheaper options out there. I don't need to hear about how some get their new comics through an online source and only pay 50-70% of retail or whatever. I like the experience of going to the shop and buying off the shelf. I like supporting my local retailer. I don't mind spending $20-$30 a week on new comics. But once that goes up to $30-$40 for the same amount of titles; that's when the purge is going to begin for me.

Assuming within the next year that $3.99 is the standard price for new comics i will be cutting down to the titles that i can't stand to miss (at least currently).

That list includes the following:

The Walking Dead

Invincible

Savage Dragon

Uncanny X-men

Cable

Justice Society of America

New Avengers

Mighty Avengers

HULK

 

I will probably stick with a few of the following titles as well depending on how long the current creative teams stick around. Probably 6 of these 10 will be out.

Captain America

Daredevil

Fantastic Four

X-force

Wolverine

X-factor

Action Comics

Superman

Supergirl

Justice League of America

 

The Following are books i really can't see ever spending $4 a book on:

Amazing Spider-man(3 times a month, so it will count as 3 titles)

Punisher

Birds of Prey(or whatever the relaunch will be called)

Green Arrow Black Canary

X-men Legacy

Iron Man

Ultimate Spider-man

None of these lists really include the various mini-series and specials/one-shots i buy. These probably account for at least 2 titles a week of which i will probably cut 1 a week.

Basically to sum up, since the price has now reaching an unacceptable level, i am now looking at this differently than when i thought the price was really at the breaking point (2.99). Now that i am concerned with plunking down $4 for 10 or so minutes of entertainment my monthly spending is such:

 

Amount I would be spending if titles all stayed at $2.99 (i know Savage Dragon is $3.50)

36 books x $2.99 = $108

(amount at the $3.99 standard price that i won't be paying) = $144

Now that i am cutting titles, amount i am going to be spending at the $3.99 assumed price that most titles will be at within a year: 16 titles at $3.99 = $64

 

Wow. I will be reading alot less titles and spending about 1/2 the amount of money. Keep squeezing those pennies out of your shrinking readership Marvel. Go ahead and follow suit DC and Image. I don't know how many will do something similar at this price point but it has to be a significant number in my opinion. This is not a 25 cent increase. This is a $1 increase when the $3 was already really pushing it.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Agreed.

[followtheleader]

It will definitely help me to finally dump some books. No way am I paying $4 for something that is on the fence. Wolverine Origins will be the first to go if it goes up. Runaways too (though it might go anyway because I don't care for Moore's direction).

 

Concerning your list:

 

Spider-man will have to change soon. I think the 3 times per month will get pretty old and they will go back to multiple titles (to grab the quick dollar for #1s).

 

I'd pay for Ultimate Spider-man. It's been my jam since it came out and I still love it. Iron Man is a tough one. I've really enjoyed it since the re-boot. But a creative team could have me leave it real quick. It's just one of those books that tends to suck in the long run.

 

A lot of the biggees are about to go too. Especially FF & JLA. I've been so bored with them lately. Keeping JSA though. Daredevil & Cap are way too good to drop. But once Johns leaves Action Comics, adios for me.

 

Hulk is simply awful. I prefer the She-hulk back-up more than anything. Once at $4, this is the biggest offender of getting screwed by Marvel. Literally a 1 minute read, it's far too overpriced.

 

Pat

[s-man]

I wonder if $4 will be the price ceiling for regular books...can you imagine spending $5 or more for one? Kinda reminds you of the gas price bubble bursting

[porcupine48]

I remember buying comics for 50-60cents and reading them at the drive in before the sun went down..

[jordanscott]

I read an article last month, maybe on newsarama, where Marvel said it won't be a library wide price change.

 

It's only going to be titles that 'bridge events'. I believe that was the term they used.

 

That the higher cost books are going to be the books that cover the year between each 'big event'.

 

So, sounds like it won't be Runaways or Cap, the only 2 marvel titles I read, but who knows.

[moonlite]

Looks like its only on about 1/3 of the marvel titles.

 

Have heard no news about any price raise in DC.

 

FWIW, many indys have been 3.99 for a while with no decline in sales noted because of the price.

 

Also, gas prices are down, spend more on comics.

 

 

[whisp]

With the CDN exchange rate I am already paying $5 for some books. After Dead of Night:wwbn series is done I am dropping that title, once Moon Knight is not in Hulk Story line anymore dropping that series which will leave me with only the regular Moon Knight series. I will be happy when I am down to one book a month and then I will start picking up the Moon Knight appearances I need for my collection. I am not to impressed with MARVEL as of late with price hike and so many friggin variants.

[Hawkman]

i only buy a few titles at this point:

 

the walking dead

daredevil

green lantern

mouse guard

detective comics

 

luckily, mouse guard doesn't come out very often.

[johnnycoolxx]

It's hard to believe that It was just 2-3 years ago that the Ultimate books, ASM, and Marvel's main titles were only $2.25. I guess the big 2 are either getting greedier or they realize they're losing readers and want to milk them for every last dime.

 

You'd think that with they sucky economy and the industry losing readers that prices would go down. But I think the way things are going, the industry will raise prices until they reach the breaking point when fans start leaving in droves and that's when they'll finally start reducing prices.

[johnnycoolxx]

I wish Marvel and DC would use cheap newsprint, put 200 ads in their books, use cheap paper covers and do anything to reduce prices. I'd rather have a great story on cheaper quality paper and lower price than the fancy looking, $3.99 krap out there right now.

[Real Elijah Snow]

I wish Marvel and DC would use cheap newsprint, put 200 ads in their books, use cheap paper covers and do anything to reduce prices. I'd rather have a great story on cheaper quality paper and lower price than the fancy looking, $3.99 krap out there right now.

I totally agree here. I could care less what kind of paper it's on. Put a bunch more ads in the back of the book and sell the comics at $1.49-$1.99 and i would try out alot more books. Ad dollars would increase as the print runs do.

[kidcolt]

Last month my total was $140 for modern titles.....YIKES. I really need to trim down my list.

[moonlite]

i only buy a few titles at this point:

 

the walking dead

daredevil

green lantern

mouse guard

detective comics

 

luckily, mouse guard doesn't come out very often.

 

Yeah, the last mouse guard came out in Dec. 08.

 

The diamond order code for that was NOV07 indicating that it was ordered over a year before it shipped. Nice huh.

[jordanscott]

I wish Marvel and DC would use cheap newsprint, put 200 ads in their books, use cheap paper covers and do anything to reduce prices. I'd rather have a great story on cheaper quality paper and lower price than the fancy looking, $3.99 krap out there right now.

I totally agree here. I could care less what kind of paper it's on. Put a bunch more ads in the back of the book and sell the comics at $1.49-$1.99 and i would try out alot more books. Ad dollars would increase as the print runs do.

 

Ditto.

 

Glossy paper. Thick covers. All that stuff, does nothing to actually bring more enjoyment for me.

 

I don't know that they need to add more advert pages if they dropped glossy paper and the like. I'd think that would be a sufficient cost savings against current advert revenue that they'd be good at their pricing for a while.

[whisp]

Yeah I hate the $1 price increase on a book just because it has a hard stock cover. Only advantage of hard stock cover is it keeps book in better shape but hell most of my books get bagged right away so really is pointless. I rather have regular cover paper and save my $1.

[tsarax]

I agree with everyone on the stock covers and glossy paper. I don't need them.

 

I also feel the same as most of you about the price increase. None of the books I get are going to $3.99. But it will only be a matter of time, whether it is later this year or in a couple years. When all the books go to $3.99, I'm going to whittle my monthly books to almost nothing. I just can't justify the expense.

[General Zod]

Joe Quesada and Tom Brevoort both argued with me that the times and talent are calling for an increase. I pointed out that Marvel is playing with a 40% profit margin, but of course they tell me that is all the entertainment department and they get none of that. Hogwash. Marvel is a company and would die if they really let comics destroy what market they have.

 

It's like trying to lead a blind horse to water, talking to those two.

[PrismaticSmoke]

The times call for a price decrease.

 

And what Talent are they speaking of? Majority of Marvel ARC's are terrible from the story down to the art. Secret invasion was a dud. The only titles that marvel has that grabs me, are Cap, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, the New Punisher. the rest of my titles I read but they are in no form must have, must reads this moment.

[thanos_oftitan]

 

Just wait for the local shows and pick up books for under a buck!

 

At the last show there was a lady from Jersey selling new books for a dime each. I picked up a Walking Dead 49 for a stinking dime!