Thank gawd, somebody at the Big Two finally figured out that jacking up the cover price tends to make people buy fewer comics.
There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. --The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Sounds good I just wonder were does this leave Comic store owners, are they making the same profit off of each book, or is their profit margin (which Marvel and DC decide) now going to be smaller. Meaning Comic stores now must sell more books to hit the same level cash sales.
I'm not advocating the status quo, and reducing prices is something the industry has needed to do for a while. I just view it as so hard to succeed in brick and mortar retail, comics shops especially. How will this move effect comic shops?
Marvels response seems kind of lackluster. Price drop on new titles, no real mention on current titles. It's good to see Marvel acknowledge the market for digital comics.
Way to many alts.
they were trying to get $3.99 for a COMIC BOOK?!?!
LOL.
I'm sure some of it is my being an old man and remembering buying premier ad-free direct distribution stuff like Watchmen for two bucks back in the day, but even adjusted for nostalgia four bucks for a comic is pretty dang steep.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
I will say this...I have seen ads for GR in DC Comics and I'm thinking I also saw 'em in Marvel...
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I suspect Marvel's trying to save face and not look like they're just following in DC's footsteps. That, and the new DC management seems to move a lot faster than Marvel's. You can bet Marvel will move entirely away from $3.99 22-page stories too, they'll just do it more gradually and quietly.|
Originally Posted by Scarlet_Phantom
Marvels response seems kind of lackluster. Price drop on new titles, no real mention on current titles. It's good to see Marvel acknowledge the market for digital comics.
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As to warden_de_dios' concern about brick and mortar stores, I dunno. It seems to me that it's not so much that it's that hard to keep a comic shop in business, so much as that most comic shop owners and managers are terrible businesspeople. Or at least that's how it seems in my area, maybe it's just something about the economy here. For the longest time my area could only support one comic and game shop, others would open and go out of business left and right. Finally someone who knew how to run a business bought one of the failing stores, right before the recession started to boot, and voila. Now we can support two comic shops in the middle of bad economic times.
Marvel should have gone down to $2.98 just to spite them.
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$2.88 aka: the Wal-Mart advantage. |
Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
Marvel should have gone down to $2.98 just to spite them.
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actually a drop in prices will probably be a good thing, because (and this is according to the folks running my own FLCS) it means more folks will be willing to drop the money to try other titles, or that some people who are wondering whether or not to drop certain titles will hold onto them in the long run. the profit margin between 2.99 and 3.99 is minimal as far as the FLCS's are generally concerned. of course, this is going to be something talked about quite a bit in New York. |
Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
Sounds good I just wonder were does this leave Comic store owners, are they making the same profit off of each book, or is their profit margin (which Marvel and DC decide) now going to be smaller. Meaning Comic stores now must sell more books to hit the same level cash sales.
I'm not advocating the status quo, and reducing prices is something the industry has needed to do for a while. I just view it as so hard to succeed in brick and mortar retail, comics shops especially. How will this move effect comic shops? |
for me this is a good thing, since i pick up quite a few DC titles, and the drop might mean a few extra $$s back in the wallet. (or knowing my stupidity, it'll mean i grab a couple extra titles or one-shots a month. fekt)
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Originally Posted by Scarlet_Phantom
Marvels response seems kind of lackluster. Price drop on new titles, no real mention on current titles. It's good to see Marvel acknowledge the market for digital comics.
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Well you know its called "moving the brand upscale", its a dumb move companies make all the time and its one of the reasons I really like to hate a guy called Jac Nasser. He's not a comic book guy, but he was steadily trying his damnedist to move the Ford Mustang upscale - like base car in BMW 3 series territory kinda pricing and GT Mustangs that would cost the same as the M3 and Shelby Mustangs, that well, you might as well go buy a Porsche 911. |
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
they were trying to get $3.99 for a COMIC BOOK?!?!
LOL. I'm sure some of it is my being an old man and remembering buying premier ad-free direct distribution stuff like Watchmen for two bucks back in the day, but even adjusted for nostalgia four bucks for a comic is pretty dang steep. |
Its to bad these jerks exsist and only have thier sights set on the stock value
------->"Sic Semper Tyrannis"<-------
If you notice the list of DC titles, many of them will be a few to several pages of actual story less, which means more ads....
I still welcome the change. I drop enough cash as it is in the store. If that means one or two more titles in my stack for the same money, I'll be happy.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
Sweet. I've got a monthly budget for what I let myself spend on comics, and most of what I'm buying these days is DC. I should be able to add a couple titles every month with the price drop.
@Quasadu
"We must prepare for DOOM and hope for FREEM." - SirFrederick
A new challenger enters (after a fashion): Dark Horse may be dropping the prices of its digital editions to $1.49.
Competition at it's finest.
Oh, and Nethergoat, this is why I've stuck to buying the TRADES waaaaay after events are over.
I'm very behind, but at least I get a complete story in one setting. And when I buy them, I usually get the trades at a discount.
Got's to do what we got's to do in this economy.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
OT aside: Wait, DC is doing another 'Weird Worlds' title? What's in it this time?
>Googles<
Oh - monsters as heroes. Garbage Man.
Back in the day they were doing decent adaptions of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars and Pellucidar series. At least for a few issues. Then it all went to heck.
Anyway, yay for price drop.
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i tend to pick up the trades when it comes to mini series or arcs in comic titles i dont normally collect. i try not to do that when it comes to regular monthly titles anymore since folks waiting for those to come out in trade collection affect the decision on whether or not to continue publishing the monthly titles. |
Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Competition at it's finest.
Oh, and Nethergoat, this is why I've stuck to buying the TRADES waaaaay after events are over. I'm very behind, but at least I get a complete story in one setting. And when I buy them, I usually get the trades at a discount. |
the only thing im not gonna be happy with in the price drop is seeing the page count drop back down. with DC they at least upped the overall page count and split the comics into a main story and a backup feature. it gave some face time to characters that couldn't hold a title on their own.if they regularly put out a few 40-page books that did that, i wouldn't mind shelling out 3.99$, but that's me.
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say, that's pretty good.|
Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
A new challenger enters (after a fashion): Dark Horse may be dropping the prices of its digital editions to $1.49.
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I haven't picked up a 'regular' comic in probably ten years, but I'd be tempted to check out a few titles at those prices.
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Oh, and Nethergoat, this is why I've stuck to buying the TRADES waaaaay after events are over.
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The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
I used to collect big time in the 80s. Now I occasionally stop into a comic shop and look through the used comic bins. Difference is back then I could buy one paperback book for $3 to $5 depending on how thick it was. Back then the most popular comic titles were about 60 cents. So let's go to the lower end. I could buy 1 book or 5 comics. A pretty fair exchange of entertainment value since I was almost guaranteed to read the comics again even if they weren't all that great when I would reread an arc or the entire series.
With comic book prices currently at $4 per comic I could read 1.5 comics for the value of a book. This is no longer even close to a viable entertainment exchange rate in my opinion.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
I have a feeling that the brick and mortar stores will be just fine.
As far as this announcement goes....I am happy that someone woke up and realized that this is now the way to go. As it was I was thinking about dropping some of the titles that really liked reading because of the price hike.
You only fail if you give up. - Dana Scully
Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum - Nick Cave
We're not just destroyers, at the same time we can be saviors. - Allen Walker
“As Co-Publishers, we listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive."
Yeah $3.99 is really too expensive for a 32 page comic... especially when maybe 10+ pages are advertisements.....
I have collected off and on since I was about 6 and recently when money got tight comics was the first thing to go. Bringing them down a dollar isn't going to change that though. But it is about time they realized they were pricing their core consumer out of the market.
it's been awhile since I purchased any comic books (that weren't trade format, or weren't from Japan), but dear lord, are people seriously paying 3.99 for 10 pages of ads? If over 1/3rd of your book is adds that thing shouldn't cost more then two dollars.
DC starts the sudden brawl with a massive left hook.
Marvel stumbles, and lands a jab.
Tales of Judgment. Also here, instead of that other place.
good luck D.B.B.