DC and 3.99

[SpideySavestheDay]

Newsarama surveyed retailers for their take on the state of the industry. One of the topics was the price point. Retailers basically indicated it's all about the customers' perceived value.

http://www.newsarama.com/32826-what-pri ... iness.html

[drew]

Newsarama surveyed retailers for their take on the state of the industry. One of the topics was the price point. Retailers basically indicated it's all about the customers' perceived value.

http://www.newsarama.com/32826-what-pri ... iness.html

"while a $3.99 title by popular creative talent on well-known properties is a good deal. So when it comes to my preference on price, it's always about whether the comic sells or not."

"The bottom line is quality," said Mike Wellman, co-owner of the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach and Culver City, California. "$3.99 is an acceptable cover price as long as the consumer is getting a 20- to 22-page story, not a 12-page story and an eight-page back-up."

$4 bucks for a single comic is not a "good deal" ever - its a resigned/acceptable deal...page count be damned...

4 bucks for 10 minutes (give or take) of reading enjoyment (mileage may vary there too)

tough to call that a "good deal"

[MichaelCastle]

Newsarama surveyed retailers for their take on the state of the industry. One of the topics was the price point. Retailers basically indicated it's all about the customers' perceived value.

http://www.newsarama.com/32826-what-pri ... iness.html

"while a $3.99 title by popular creative talent on well-known properties is a good deal. So when it comes to my preference on price, it's always about whether the comic sells or not."

"The bottom line is quality," said Mike Wellman, co-owner of the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach and Culver City, California. "$3.99 is an acceptable cover price as long as the consumer is getting a 20- to 22-page story, not a 12-page story and an eight-page back-up."

$4 bucks for a single comic is not a "good deal" ever - its a resigned/acceptable deal...page count be damned...

4 bucks for 10 minutes (give or take) of reading enjoyment (mileage may vary there too)

tough to call that a "good deal"

I agree there is absolutely no reason 22 pages of entertainment should cost $4. Especially comparing it to other forms of entertainment. I can go see a two-three hour movie for $8. Image comics first volumes are $10 for usually a 100 pages or more of entertainment. DC and Marvel are owned by multi billion dollar companies and should have the goal of getting the product into as many hands as possible. Pricing first issues at 4.99 or 5.99 is a roadblock not an on ramp for potential readers.

[fudd71]

$4 bucks for a single comic is not a "good deal" ever - its a resigned/acceptable deal...page count be damned...

4 bucks for 10 minutes (give or take) of reading enjoyment (mileage may vary there too)

tough to call that a "good deal"

Here Here!!!

$3.99 is a stupid price point for a comic book anyway you look at it. I realize we have slowly accepted these crazy prices over the last few years to a decade like that frog in boiling water.

[bralinator]

$4 bucks for a single comic is not a "good deal" ever - its a resigned/acceptable deal...page count be damned...

4 bucks for 10 minutes (give or take) of reading enjoyment (mileage may vary there too)

tough to call that a "good deal"

Here Here!!!
$3.99 is a stupid price point for a comic book anyway you look at it. I realize we have slowly accepted these crazy prices over the last few years to a decade like that frog in boiling water.

I can pay for a month's subscription to both Netflix and Amazon Prime for the price of five comic books and I can read those five books in about an hour or two, maybe less. However, I can watch hours and hours and hours of content in 30 days with the Netflix and Amazon subscriptions. And although I love the medium and love to read, I've concluded that the current retail prices are a barrier to entry. Especially when you realize that publishing a comic in bulk costs around .38 cents a copy. Blame Diamond or Comixology, but I don't care who is to blame when it comes to my wallet.

If DCBS closed shop today, I would stop pre-ordering comics altogether and would probably pull the trigger on a Marvel Unlimited subscription instead and maybe wait for Comixology sales and occasionally trawl eBay for lots, trades, or bundles of comics I may have missed. Other pre-order sites (like TFAW) only offer 20% off, so compared to DCBS's 35%-50%, twenty-percent is just not enough for me to rationalize my current spending.

My price point for a new comic is apparently around $2.39 per issue.

I don't think I've paid retail prices for a trade or OGN in years. In fact I just picked up the Godzilla Half-Century War on eBay for $8, it retailed for $19.99 when it came out. Besides, I'm so far behind on my trades and omnibus' that I could probably stop buying anymore books and still have months and months of reading ahead of me.

Marvel may continue to experiment with ten-dollar anniversary issues and six-dollar #1's, but "the kids" today will either torrent the digital versions, or won't bother at all. Only a minority of readers go through the trouble of pre-ordering, and the ones that aren't already into the hobby aren't going to repeatedly drop $5 bucks on a 15-minute distraction. I think we have reached peak prices, in my opinion.

[Perseus]

Bralinator,
Such good points. If you are really strapped for cash like I am, I use my library digital app to read that same Godzilla trade for free. So, I agree comics are way too much. Like, you can buy some back issues for 5 dollars like a brand new comic that are 40 years old!

New number 1's need to debut at 1.99 or less in my book to get the reader hooked. Then, 2.99 is the maximum I'd pay for the next issue. Even that is cutting it close to me not buying it. I've learned many things about comics. They are a very disposable thing. It doesn't matter pretty much. I read an issue, and I probably will never read it again.

[JohnMayo]

...I've concluded that the current retail prices are a barrier to entry. Especially when you realize that publishing a comic in bulk costs around .38 cents a copy.

Price is certainly a barrier to entry. Both in terms of cost and in terms of perceived value or return on investment.

It might be possible to publish a comic for $0.38 in bulk but I question if that is true. Perhaps the key is in the definition of "in bulk." I'm not going to quibble about the definition of the term. The problem is comics no longer sell "in bulk" with most titles, including from Marvel and DC, selling under the 50K mark. This is a bit of a problem since lower sales yield higher prices which yield lower sales.

I recall buying comics off the rack at $0.35. Those same properties now cost $2.99 if I'm lucky and often $3.99 or $4.99 per issue. Sure, the print quality is better but not 10 times better. The older comics also had a better single issue return-on-investment value than the current chapter-of-a-story issue does today.

The value simply isn't there with comic books at the current price. If DC announced a Digital Comics Unlimited service at a similar price and functionality and Marvel's then I'd give serious consideration to switching over to digital entirely. I'd save a ton of money if i did that.

Long term, I'd almost certainly end up reading a lot fewer comics since I wouldn't have a physical pile of comics reminding me how much I want to read. Marginal titles would fall off my reading list almost instantly compared to the months long process it takes now because of pre-ordering comics.

[drew]

$3.99 is a stupid price point for a comic book anyway you look at it. I realize we have slowly accepted these crazy prices over the last few years to a decade like that frog in boiling water.

brilliant analogy - we're the frogs right?

but "the kids" today will either torrent the digital versions, or won't bother at all. Only a minority of readers go through the trouble of pre-ordering, and the ones that aren't already into the hobby aren't going to repeatedly drop $5 bucks on a 15-minute distraction. I think we have reached peak prices, in my opinion.

this industry was on a tenuous thread anyway - you may be on to something

[bralinator]

...I've concluded that the current retail prices are a barrier to entry. Especially when you realize that publishing a comic in bulk costs around .38 cents a copy.

Price is certainly a barrier to entry. Both in terms of cost and in terms of perceived value or return on investment.

It might be possible to publish a comic for $0.38 in bulk but I question if that is true. Perhaps the key is in the definition of "in bulk." I'm not going to quibble about the definition of the term. The problem is comics no longer sell "in bulk" with most titles, including from Marvel and DC, selling under the 50K mark. This is a bit of a problem since lower sales yield higher prices which yield lower sales.

I believe the .38 figure is 50K+, so not many titles hit that mark. Obviously the companies also have other costs, so even if they were paying a buck an issue to print, they still have to pay to have the books distributed, pay for employees, and then the retailers have to pay shipping, (any self-publisher can get 1000+ color comics printed around $1.00 per issue*), and yet they still charge the same prince for their digital prices. Why is that? There are no printing and shipping costs, yet Marvel and DC want to charge the sticker price for something that readers cannot download and don't actually own (DRM). Ostensibly this is to keep from knee-capping retailers, but it's the readers who are getting screwed.


*Some suggested printing companies for those who want to print their own comics.

but "the kids" today will either torrent the digital versions, or won't bother at all. Only a minority of readers go through the trouble of pre-ordering, and the ones that aren't already into the hobby aren't going to repeatedly drop $5 bucks on a 15-minute distraction. I think we have reached peak prices, in my opinion.

this industry was on a tenuous thread anyway - you may be on to something

I feel a change is coming very soon. It's my contention that the industry is not doing as well as its cheerleaders would have us believe.

[JohnMayo]

...and yet they still charge the same prince for their digital prices. Why is that? There are no printing and shipping costs, yet Marvel and DC want to charge the sticker price for something that readers cannot download and don't actually own (DRM). Ostensibly this is to keep from knee-capping retailers, but it's the readers who are getting screwed.

My understanding is that Comixology gets a piece of the digital price and that percentage starts to make the economics of the digital sale on par with that of the physical sale. I could be wrong about that. It has been a while since I've dug very deep into the matter.

Not killing of the print sales is a factor. But, yeah, things are really working out to the reader's benefit and that is a serious problem.

[MisterFerro]

...and yet they still charge the same prince for their digital prices. Why is that? There are no printing and shipping costs, yet Marvel and DC want to charge the sticker price for something that readers cannot download and don't actually own (DRM). Ostensibly this is to keep from knee-capping retailers, but it's the readers who are getting screwed.

My understanding is that Comixology gets a piece of the digital price and that percentage starts to make the economics of the digital sale on par with that of the physical sale. I could be wrong about that. It has been a while since I've dug very deep into the matter.

Apple used to get a cut before Comixology discontinued their app and introduced a reader-only app. That was around the time that Amazon bought the company. The percentages were around 30- 33% between the two, I don't know what the percentage cut is now.

[bralinator]

As I said earlier, I don't care if it's Comixology's fees or Diamond's fees, it's my wallet. No amount of excuses or reasons will ease the pain of the current and rising price points on digital or print comics. This is a fun but frivolous and disposable hobby that I've budgeted a certain amount of my income to on a monthly basis. My budget will not increase with the retail pricing, so it's Marvel & DC's business to lose and I've been unimpressed with most of Marvel's output lately. My tastes may be cyclical though. My income is not.

[jediknightbobby]

Myself personally, I just don't like digital comics. I don't feel the connection when reading them. I tried Marvel unlimited for 2 years and never had the joy of reading online. I hope for the best for the industry, but I do worry the pricing, the constant re-boots have hurt the industry for good. Hope not.

[drew]

Myself personally, I just don't like digital comics. I don't feel the connection when reading them. I tried Marvel unlimited for 2 years and never had the joy of reading online. I hope for the best for the industry, but I do worry the pricing, the constant re-boots have hurt the industry for good. Hope not.

weirdly - i prefer reading digital comics on my tablet over the print now - not as big a fan as reading on desktop/laptop/phone though

[SpideySavestheDay]

Value of alternative media to comic books is significantly higher, especially when they share the same subject matter. Let's look at Batman. The current Lego Batman movie will earn millions on top of millions at a $8.42 (average movie ticket) price point. The movie is 1hr45min in length. Batman: Arkham Knight sold five million copies in its first few months at approximately $50 on release (it is currently $19.99 on Steam). The game can take 15.5 to 27.5 hours to complete.

Using the approximation that a $2.99 Batman comic book takes 10-15min to read, then comics have very little value by themselves.

As frustrating as this subject has become, I cannot see myself leaving print comics due to one simple fact - I love visiting my comic shops. I meet friends, creators, the owners and their families and talk comics. Abandoning print means abandoning that social interaction. While the value of a 3.99 comic book is poor, value of the camaraderie is immeasurable.