New Comic prices!

[1Cool]

This may not be a great topic but I need to rant about comic prices. I read a stack of comics this weekend (rented at my local library) and the stack would have cost me over $100 for 30 books. What the . . !! Especially considering you only see a few modern books getting $1/issue on e-bay. And they wonder why kids don't buy comics anymore - you can pay $100 for two games and play them for weeks.

 

Regardless of the price, the stories were great and I enjoyed almost all of them but come on. Why can't they print the comics on cheaper paper or print it in China or something and bring the cost down a little. I actually tried to bend a corner on a book (since they had already wrecked it by putting a sticker on it) and that puppy wouldn't bend without some force.

 

cheaper paper for new books!!! Also Vote for Pedro!!

[njiron]

I here you man. I would be more than happy for them to ditch the gloss and go back to simpler products.

 

Because of the price of newer comics I've begun to just take out TPB's from my library. This seem to give me my fix of moderns.

[shadroch]

Which library rents comics?

[buttock]

The average book seems to be $2.50-$3.50, with 20 pgs of reading and 12 of ads. The time to read is less than 5 minutes. That's roughly $0.60/minute. If you charged that for a typical 90 minute movie, it would cost $54. It's exceedingly overpriced. I have bought 1 new book in 10 years for this exact reason. And I regretted it.

[Comicdey]

I vote cheap newsprint again with reasonable prices.....comics were priced low for a reason back in the day.....I might even start buying moderns again.

 

Let the creators and publishers make all their money from licensing their great ideas.....and let the kids read the comics again.

[SuperBird]

[DKB]

I don't think the paper stock is the cause for the high prices. And even if it is even somewhat of a factor, its the difference between a book being 2.99 and 2.75. That shift in price isn't going to make any folks unhappy with prices happy again.

[SuperBird]

it's a major factor. The cost difference between newsprint and glossy white paper w/ thick cardboard covers is immense.

[shadroch]

If you 'haven't seen the free Spideys that newspapers are giving away,they are on the cheapest paper I've ever seen.Terrible is too nice a word.

Most of the reason comics are so much is that Geppi wants them to be.He needs to make a certain profit per book,and as time goes by,he seems to want more and more per book.

[DKB]

If you 'haven't seen the free Spideys that newspapers are giving away,they are on the cheapest paper I've ever seen.Terrible is too nice a word.

 

And people want this?

 

How does the newsprint compare to the paper books like Gotham Central were published on?

[rjpb]

I vote cheap newsprint again with reasonable prices.....comics were priced low for a reason back in the day.....I might even start buying moderns again.

 

I wouldn't want to go all the way back to cheap 70s style newsprint - but the better paper quality with a matte finish that was popular in the late 80s is preferred to the slick paper of today - I'm also not fond of the "painted" coloring found in many current books - sometimes it's done well, but usually not.

[aardvark88]

New comics don't need to be printed in China. They are already printed in a backward province called Quebec that wants to separate from Canada. Marvel & DC have been using cheaper Canuck labor for over 10 years. "Printed by Quebecor".

[mica]

Not really a modern buyer but I have picked up an occasional copy of Conan and the pages seem puffy. This is right off the stands. Maybe it's the heavy ink?

Not sure if Newsprint paper could handle the heavy inks.

[Comicdey]

I quit buying when the mainstream comics hit 0.75 cents.....so it would have to come down quite a bit to get me interested again on a regular basis.

 

Why buy new books off the stands to read if 90% of them can be had for a fraction of the price off ebay a month later.

 

That is unless you're a mint collector, and that's what colossus comics is for.

[seank]

Which library rents comics?

 

The ones that have comic fans like us donate comics to them with the condition that the books be put in circulation instead of being sold at the annual sale to raise funds.

 

I'm contemplating taking a few TPBs over to my local library. And remember, donations to libraries are tax-deductable!

[1Cool]

All the libraries in my area have TPB for a ton of books and I have taken to reserving certain books and they e-mail me when they come in. The two closest libraries actually stock new comics with about 20 titles. Its been great since I can get my fix on the great Daredevil,Utimates and Hulk titles without costing a cent.

 

And if you live in the Ohio area - disregard all the crazy talk above. There are no comics at the libraries. Repeat with me - stay away from the libraries!!

[topofthetotem]

How much would a comic's cover price go down if the cheaper paperstock was used?

[Sal]

yeah, i bought a copy of Jungle Action 15 from nikos recently - on advise from Beyonder, who i believe waxed effusively over the storyline - and i swear to God, i had to put it down halfway through. there's just so much story that involved actual reading...and then i picked up the TPB for Villians United and blew through it in a half hour

[SuperBird]

How much would a comic's cover price go down if the cheaper paperstock was used?

 

well, figure they improved the paper stock when books cost about $.75 in the 80's. prestige format 48-page books cost $3 back then, and they have since doubled.To hazard a guess, $1.50 would be the standard cost of an average monthly today, if they were printed on the same paper stock.

 

At that price, I'd go back to buying moderns again, definitely.

[12c_Comic]

Not only are today's comics over priced but here in Canada an average comic issue is about a $1.25 more then the U.S. edition,when it should be alot closer now that the two currency are closer together then two years back.....