New Comics too expensive?

[Kevin76]

I was looking at some of the prices of new comics and am a bit in sticker shock..2.25,2.50,2.99 for 1 comic! Sure the quality has gotten much better.Covers are slick and shinny,comic pages are glossy and computer colored,but I think all that adds up to a big...so what? 2.99 for 1 comic is alot,especially for a junior/HS school kid.I'd much rather take a hit on the slick magazine #40lb coated stock and get the newsprint stock instead and have the book only cost 1.50 or so.If the industry wants more readers,a lower price may give comics a chance by saying "It's only a 1.50,i'll give it a try" Then if they like it,they can pick up more books for $5/6 bucks than only 1 or 2.So what do you guys think? Newsprint or expensive glossy paper? 1.50 for a comic or 2.99? Or should I shut up and mind my own business and they should keep things the way they are now?

[UnrulyAppendage]

I think the standard publishing line is each collector has a finite money supply. If their budget is $30 a month, they are going to get that regardless of the price of the comic. It is more economical for a publisher to sell 10 titles for $30 instead of 20 for $30. Less salaries to pay for less titles. Publishers are try to find the middle ground in regards to the amount of books published.

 

If they publish more titles and get different audiences, then their advertising rates can go up. If they publish more titles, but the same people are buying, then their ad rates go down, but the cost of paying the talent goes up.

 

As far as getting back to newstands, they are not wanted there because they are too cheap in regards to the amount sold. If they sold like hot cakes, it would be different and they could justify the space they take up. If comics ever get back to newstands, it will have to be reprints that contain at least 4 stories and have a cover price of 4-5 dollars.

[Psylocke Smythe-migration]

My opinion is that new comics are at a price point that most people under the age of 18 can not afford them. I also belive that prices of new comics are getting to the point of pricing out some adults from the market. I feel that part of this problem is that there now too many other entertainment choices competing for peoples hard earned money.

 

When I started collecting comics back in 1989, the average price was still under a dollar a comic. At this time, I could with the discount that my LCS was giving me, afford to purchase around 45 new comics a month and still have spending money for back issues or going out. Now with the prices averaging around $2.50 a book, I can not afford to continue to purchase the same number of comics as before. I had to cut down the number of new issues to somwwhere between 10 to 15 titles if that many and still be able to purchase back issues or have the extra money to go out and do things.

 

Due to this I basicly stopped buying new comics back in 2001. When I have the time and the money, I just concentrate on purchasing back issues that I need to fill in holes that I have in some of my runs and not worry about the newer books. I still enjoy comics and enjoy picking up issues that I don't own and reading them, but unless something financially changes for me, I doubt I will ever go back to purchasing new comics.

 

Psy

[DKB]

I spend quite a good deal on new books every week. And even considering that large amount, I outright cut out all IDW books because $3.99 is just too much to pay.

 

I'll toss money at 2.99 books all day long without complaining, but that next $ jump is a bit more than I'm willing to handle.

[DKB]

Of note, coming out either next week or soon is Warren Ellis and Templesmith's Fell from Image. 16 pages of story and a bunch of pages of backstory filler material for $1.99. Check it out. =)

[Jack Anderson]

With prices where they are, I'm at about 3 or 4 new comics a week, with the rest of my budget going towards old spidey comics to add to the collection. I don't really look around too much when I head to my LCS, because I'm already reading Ultimate Iron Man and the Infinite Crisis series', and that's more than enough to keep me happy and my wallet slim...

[joe_collector]

I haven't bought a new comic since 1992 or so, when Image and co. turned new comics into a joke, and I have not missed it in the least. In fact, I am glad I stopped paying for over-priced new books and couldn't even imagine paying $2.99 US for a comic off the shelf.

 

Instead, I now pick up more novels and DVDs, along with supplementing with some older back issues.

[Paladin]

and couldn't even imagine paying $2.99 US for a comic off the shelf.

 

Applaud you on this. I need to break the addiction. It's crazy at three bucks a pop. My first heavy buying started when they were sixty cents. I'm sure my jaw would've dropped back then if someone from the future had traveled back and told me what the prices would become.

[BradleyX2]

I'm sure my jaw would've dropped back then if someone from the future had traveled back and told me what the prices would become.

 

 

*My* jaw would have dropped from the time-traveling alone, nevermind the revleations about comic book prices.

[Jack Anderson]

and couldn't even imagine paying $2.99 US for a comic off the shelf.

 

Applaud you on this. I need to break the addiction. It's crazy at three bucks a pop. My first heavy buying started when they were sixty cents. I'm sure my jaw would've dropped back then if someone from the future had traveled back and told me what the prices would become.

 

Your jaw would have dropped at the future price of *anything*. Everything gets more expensive. I suppose if I did a lot of collecting in the 70's and 80's I'd be appalled as well, but since I'm a scant 23 years of age, I suppose a $2.50 price tag, while a lot more than the $1.00 I paid in the early 90's, doesn't quite disgust me enough to not read the few modern comics I enjoy.

[joe_collector]

Your jaw would have dropped at the future price of *anything*. Everything gets more expensive.

 

Let's not get into this again. I did a price evaluation on similar paper-based consumables like newspapers, novels and magazines, and comics have jumped an absolutely insane amount by comparison.

 

This is NOT a simple case of "everything gets more expensive" but the effects of a new economic system at Marvel/DC coupled with a significantly declining market.

[CainTheCaretaker-migration]

Your jaw would have dropped at the future price of *anything*. Everything gets more expensive.

 

Let's not get into this again. I did a price evaluation on similar paper-based consumables like newspapers, novels and magazines, and comics have jumped an absolutely insane amount by comparison.

 

This is NOT a simple case of "everything gets more expensive" but the effects of a new economic system at Marvel/DC coupled with a significantly declining market.

 

Are there statistics to back up the "significantly declining market" comment? Please allow me to be your mentor...

[delekkerste]

I spend quite a good deal on new books every week. And even considering that large amount, I outright cut out all IDW books because $3.99 is just too much to pay.

 

I'll toss money at 2.99 books all day long without complaining, but that next $ jump is a bit more than I'm willing to handle.

 

Shhhh...I made the same comment a while back and got a haranguing here about how $3.99 was not too much and that I should be willing to pay the extra $1 to support quality independent books.

[Chi Bamm]

Yeah I want to see the statistics on what the declining comic book industry

[Alberto1975]

I know I reduced the number of new comics I get monthly by half because it was getting too expensive.

Then again, if comics were $2, there would probably be people saying they're too expensive, and they should be $1, and if they were $1, people would say they should be 50c.

[Kevin76]

I used to pay $1 for an ASM back in 89 when Mcfarlane was drawing it,well worth it.A major superhero with mcfarlane art for a buck works for me...$2.99 for John Romita JR's latest...doesn't.BUT! ASM back in the 70's and 80's did have newsprint for pages,the new stuff has expensive glossy paper,that's why they are $2.99 each...While I enjoyed Batman & Robin #1 by Jim Lee and Miller.The slick card stock wasn't needed,nor the computer coloring.

[Chi Bamm]

If it is declining so bad, I hope it comes back out. But it looks like Marvel and DC are going more towards the other means of media i.e. the moves. It's sad it really is, because I'm sure all of here really love comic books, we grew up with comic books. I'm only 22 years old, but I want my kids to grow up with comic books, not all these video games, movies, and MTV. Comic books have changed in the past ten years because kids don't buy them anymore, we do. So Marvel/DC are catering to us, not to kids. Granted they have other "younger" comic books that they produce but they don't sell in the numbers that Crisis or New Avengers does. It's sad and it really depresses me.

 

What if the comics industry just plummeted, no new comics, never. Man that would suck so bad. Comic books are such a GREAT media outlet, they really are. You can do anything in comic books, there's no Hollywood budget, casting or anything, it's whatever the writer and artist want it to be.

 

I think that there is a chance and it's coming up. Ultimate X-Men with Bryan Singer. I really think this book has a chance to get more people, maybe more older people who used to read comics, or occasionaly used to read comics back into it. Look how many people saw X-Men the move. Do all those people buy X-men monthly.

 

Why can't the stories in the X-Men comic be just as appealing to EVERYONE as the movie was. I'm not saying change to comic books as much, just making them more appealing, that way more people would buy them.

 

Man, I really got off the topic of the prices of comics huh?? Well I buy way too many comics a month, I just realized this while reading this thread. I need to run down the list so I'm going to type it here, I hope no one minds

 

Ultimates

Ultimate Iron Man

Uncanny X-Men

X-Men

House of M

HOM Spider M

HOM FF

HOM Iron Man

OMAC

Day of V

Villians Un.

Rann Thang.

Soulfire

Fathom

Wolverine

Teen Titans

Outsiders

Green Lantern

Wheel of Time

All Star BR

Ultimate FF

Ultimate Secret

Otherworld

New Avengers

Young Avengers

Superman

JLA

Flash

Hunter/Killer

Runaways

 

That's 30 titles and I think only 8 of those are on my pull list. Well 8 of those are minis thank god, and what's that 22 titles left? I'll probably never pick up Teen Titans now that Johns is done, same with Flash, Wolverine, and probably Soulfire and Fathom because those projects are not getting anywhere fast. So it's down to 18 titles a month so what is that, like 54 bucks a month on comics, with a 15 percent discount it's 45.90, wow, that's some change, plus boxes and bags and boards? Expensive hobby isn't it?

[Chi Bamm]

Anyone else got any recommendations to knock off my monthly list??

[delekkerste]

That's 30 titles and I think only 8 of those are on my pull list. Well 8 of those are minis thank god, and what's that 22 titles left? I'll probably never pick up Teen Titans now that Johns is done, same with Flash, Wolverine, and probably Soulfire and Fathom because those projects are not getting anywhere fast. So it's down to 18 titles a month so what is that, like 54 bucks a month on comics, with a 15 percent discount it's 45.90, wow, that's some change, plus boxes and bags and boards? Expensive hobby isn't it?

 

You are an LCS owner's wet dream.

[delekkerste]

I know I reduced the number of new comics I get monthly by half because it was getting too expensive.

 

So, you decided instead to start collecting Greg Land original art covers at around $2,000 a pop? Interesting.