You’ve got to be kidding me.
DC Comics has announced that they are going to raise the price of some of their books to the $3.99 price point. Not to worry though, they’re going to throw in an extra backup story for your trouble.
So we got that going for us. Which is nice.
I pretty much stopped buying Marvel books because they went up to $3.99 and well that was four dollars more than they were worth. You got the same page count as before but you get to spend a buck more.
Yay.
For a while DC Comics ran their campaign, “Drawing the Line at $2.99”. Special titles, like “Event” books were $3.99 but for the most part the rest were $2.99.
The question I want to know is why are comics so expensive? Printing costs thanks to countries like China have dropped, the process to put a book together has become much easier, from the coloring, digital inking, production, etc…
Yet we’re paying more.
Both companies say how they need to bring in new readership, but how can you when you actually need a full time job to buy the damn books? If you were to buy just five books a week, you’re now looking at 20 bucks, plus tax—assuming your state has that.
Here’s the part where I say, “Back in my day…”
Well it’s true—anyone currently collecting comics that is at least 20 years old will be able to tell you they remember when comics were a dollar, 75 cents, 25 cents or even less. There will even be some that will say comics were easier to buy when they were only $1.95! I do realize that the paper is nicer, the art has gotten much better over the years but still, I see no reason for the books to be so expensive. The argument that the artists get paid more, doesn’t really hold up—there are a lot of artists out there that would jump at the chance to work for one of the “Big Two”. Sure, a guy like Jim Lee will command a huge contract, but if you take the time and look through the independent books or some of the online art communities you will find someone who would will draw just as well, for probably less than two thirds the cost of Lee.
I guess doing that would make too much sense.
My point is, with the state of the current economy, raising prices doesn’t help sales. If you want to bring in a new generation of readers, raising prices doesn’t help. If you want to keep all of your current readers, raising prices DOESN’T HELP.
My personal protest to this is I will no longer purchase any book from Marvel or DC that’s $3.99. I am going to drop any book I have on my pull list that is going to $3.99. I’m excluding Dark Horse, Image, IDW, et al from this because they don’t have the bank roll that Marvel and DC has. After all, those two are working with Disney and Time Warner money, respectively.
What are your thoughts on the price hikes or the costs in general? How can new young readers jump on when it’s cost prohibitive? Comment over at our facebook page.
Ever since I had lost my job, I had to drastically cut my purchase of the books. However, I willingly chose to cut off most books because of the 3.99 price tag. It was too much, especially for books which had a story line that sucked! (Does anyone remember Spawn/Batman, Batman/Spawn? Egads!) Seriously though, I was one of the guys that bought books out of boredom back when they were .75. It was so cool and interesting to read, that I made it my hobby and passion. But then they started with the gimmicks, crossovers, special events, etc….Like most people, I fell for them, but as I go back and look at these things, were they worth it? My answer is maybe 1/4 of those books that chose a way to “trick” someone into buying a book with a decent storyline worked, but the rest are probably stacked in the .25 or .50 cent bins. They should keep the books at 2.50 and if they want to introduce a special book, they can do 3.99 and people should decided whether they should buy them or not. But all companies will fail if they don’t start to think about their fans and the current economic situations.