Marvel Comics Now 4 Bucks

[genrlzod]

If people stop buy a book say The Avengers, due to price wouldn't Marvel just cancel the title? I can understand people not wanting to pay $4.00 for a book but unless it's X-men or ASM I don't see Marvel lowering the price I see them canning the title. Just my

[the blob]

Price v. Inflation:

They don't figure the price of Gas in inflation, and the cost of paper has been rising at much higher than inflation for years.

 

Compare to the price of a movie. In the '40s, it cost between 15 and 25 cents to see a movie. A 10-cent comic was therefore 40-66% of a ticket price. Now, a movie ticket costs $10. Seems to me that $3-$5 is still in the right range.

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The typical 10 cent comic in the 1940's was the 48-64 page comic I hypothesized in an earlier post ... so roughly 3X the comic of today for the bigger ones.

 

Not to mention, few movies in the 1940's had the budgets of today's movies (even inflation adjusted), plus your 15-25 cents often got you a B movie as well as the main attraction!

 

Unlike today, that 10 cent comic got read by like 10 kids.

 

Counting on these going up in value is silly. Sure, a small fraction will. But I see no evidence of "scarcity" in going through the overstock boxes, particularly of any book for which a retailer incentive variant is produced.

 

Sure, you will get surprises (Chew #1, etc.), but heck, those are worth something now, you don't have to wait 10 years. Spending $4 hoping to get a "winner" in 5-10 years? That's a worse bet than scratch off lottery tickets. No, the $ you're spending is for your reading entertainment and it's too much, particularly for a regular size floppy.

[slym2none]

If people stop buy a book say The Avengers, due to price wouldn't Marvel just cancel the title? I can understand people not wanting to pay $4.00 for a book but unless it's X-men or ASM I don't see Marvel lowering the price I see them canning the title. Just my

 

What if everyone stopped buying all their titles? You think they would just close up shop, and not even attempt to try and figure out a better business model???

 

 

 

-slym

[genrlzod]

If people stop buy a book say The Avengers, due to price wouldn't Marvel just cancel the title? I can understand people not wanting to pay $4.00 for a book but unless it's X-men or ASM I don't see Marvel lowering the price I see them canning the title. Just my

 

What if everyone stopped buying all their titles? You think they would just close up shop, and not even attempt to try and figure out a better business model???

 

 

 

-slym

 

They may and the model could be something like digital comics no more monthly books. Maybe they would go to trades only, twice a year for $14.95 you get 100 pages. All I am saying is if you take a tile that is on the bubble and people stop buying it, then I can see the company canceling the book before they drop the price. I have only been collecting since the mid-80s but I have never seen a time when a cover price went down. Maybe this happened in the past but I never heard of it.

 

Personally I blame Previews. They are the only game in town. They are a monopoly and in a way can set prices. Maybe a company wants to sell a title in B&W for $1.95 and issue. If Previews says no, they are out of luck. If there were just one other company that would distribute comics I feel prices would be lower.

 

Like I said there are titles that I like and have been selling at $3.99 for over a year, I have no problem buying them. I enjoy the art and enjoy the story. If either changes I will stop buying the title. Just because the book loses half its value once I leave the store doesn't matter to me, I want the story and I want it now. Sure I could wait for the trade or look for the back issues 6 months down the line at a discount, but I don't want to take the time to look for them I'm just lazy that way.

 

 

 

[moonlite]

Well my customers with pull boxes who have been with me for more than a year get 3.99 titles for 3.39 and they get 2.99 titles for 2.54 a piece. I think that is a little better deal and it hurts sometimes to give the discount but it helps in knowing they will be there every month to pick up the months (well generally speaking) because if they have been there for a year, they are generally motivated to continue collecting. When I had my first store in MS, I made a decision to stop the discount and print my own in-store credit slips that were issued depending on how much you spent. The credit slips were then good for back issues or supplies. I have thought many times of converting my current store to this system as cash flow as waned over the years.

 

As far as what I have read from Marvel and some industry sources, I would say that there was no need for the price increase but that they were testing the waters so to speak. Some of the independents have been at 3.99 since their start (look at the new Star Trek books for instance) and doesn't seem to hurt them much. There is interest there for the books and people want them so much, they are willing to pay for it. If Marvel cut back on titles and put out a little better quality, maybe the point would stand.

 

There have been smatterings of 3.99 and 4.99 all over the place for the last several years and I think those were tests also. I don't think anything much past 3.99 for a book is going to stick or have staying power but thats just my opinion. I am sure it has been said for years on every price increase.