Why are slow-selling comics priced higher than others?

[johnnycoolxx]

I was just looking at the wall of comics at my shop and I was kind of amazed at how titles like Promethea and Sleeper that don't really sell that well are priced at $2.99. Shouldn't slow sellers be priced cheaper to attract more readers?

 

When I go into a shop, I rarely buy a comic priced at $2.95 and up unless Ive been following it already or I know the book is good from reading the previous trade. Comics are just too expensive and that $3 for 10-15 mins of story is too much when I could be renting a Kobe Tai movie instead. I know that comic companies can make money at $2.25 for hot titles like X-Men or whatever, but I don't get why other good selling comics like Daredevil are priced at $2.99.

[deathlok]

Kobe Tai

 

[DoubleCovaBrotha]

....where is this thread going?

[Althalus-migration]

Let me guess: you don't look much at comics outside of regular Marvel, DC, and maybe Image series, do you? The general price point for almost all indie comics has been $2.95 / $2.99 for years, already (apart from publishers like Bongo or Archie)... $3.50 isn't unusual for new series... heck, even Marvel's new Shanna is $3.50, for that matter... ;

 

There are probably multiple reasons for that price level. The first I would think of: lower printing numbers (often only a couple hundreds, very seldomly a few thousands) mean lower discounts at printers. Also the production costs (artists' pay, office overhead, etc.) have to be divided among those fewer units.

 

And larger publishers probably face the same problems on "slower titles", such as you cited with Sleeper and Promethea. They can't cross-finance all of those with high sellers... every book should at least break even on its own, and if the publisher thinks it cannot do that with a price tag of $2.50 or some such, why should he sell it for that?

 

Edit: As for why "good-selling" mainstream titles should be priced at $2.99: I admit that I myself don't look too closely at Marvel and DC titles, but looking at the Diamond order forms now, I can see that currently solicited titles with a price of $2.50 and below account for only (roughly) a third of the titles at Marvel and a good half of those at DC. The lower pricepoint doesn't seem to be so prevalent anymore. Inflation? Lower overall numbers for printruns, less overprinting? Lowered expectations after the series was last restarted (meaning the book sold better than expected when they calculated their price)? Higher production costs? No idea, but on the other hand I don't think they just try to make big bucks by racking the price up needlessly... ;

 

 

~Althalus

[johnnycoolxx]

I also like Kira Kener movies!