$3.99 Price Increase Debate

[Flashforward]

Any thoughts on the impending line-wide price increase to $3.99 for a standard 32-page funny book? I don't really have anything I'd like to say in particular, but I just want to field some thoughts and opinions and to see what everyone thinks about how this will affect the medium as a whole.

[Rampage]

It will cut MY buying. A price increase in the middle of recession? STOOOO. PIIID.

[Black King]

I know DC has come out against the price increase and is trying to keep the standard price to $2.99 except in the case of extra-sized issues or the inclusion of back up stories (which they will being doing with titles like Booster Gold, Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol and a few others).

Personally as a (mostly) broke college student i don't like it

[goldenboy]

So how long before DC caves in I wonder. I believe Dark Horse is going to $3.50.

I think if comic books actually kept the same pace as inflation, they'd cost about a buck fifty or something like that, right? Way back before the readership implosion, back in the 70s or whatever they were a quarter. Then they kept jumping up by nickels and dimes...then the comic shops came into being. And now they're this niche, boutique product, with much smaller circulations, relatively speaking.

Does anybody subscribe to comics? I had been subscribing to a few Marvel titles for awhile...roughly 50% cheaper than buying at a shop. But I love going to the shop. And you can't get everything via subscription, can you?

[Black King]

i have 2 subscriptions @ DC and 3 @ Marvel, at DC they let you preorder some mini-series but not all and i know at marvel they only allow subscriptions to some titles (they said no when i tried to get Guardians of the Galaxy). As someone who likes to do most of their purchasing in TPBs its not that big of a thing but i wish they open up more titles to subscription.

[Flashforward]

So how long before DC caves in I wonder. I believe Dark Horse is going to $3.50.

I think if comic books actually kept the same pace as inflation, they'd cost about a buck fifty or something like that, right? Way back before the readership implosion, back in the 70s or whatever they were a quarter. Then they kept jumping up by nickels and dimes...then the comic shops came into being. And now they're this niche, boutique product, with much smaller circulations, relatively speaking.

Does anybody subscribe to comics? I had been subscribing to a few Marvel titles for awhile...roughly 50% cheaper than buying at a shop. But I love going to the shop. And you can't get everything via subscription, can you?

The big difference between Dark Horse and the big two is that Dark Horse has to pay huge licensing fees for the properties they use in their comics, like Star Wars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Marvel and DC are giant corporations and don't need to pay such fees because they own the characters that they put in their books, and on top of that, they have a ton of revenue from other mainstream projects, like films and merchandising. Dark Horse is purely an independent comic book company, and they make very little money off anything but comics, so I could forgive a marginal price increase on their part for the time being.

I've actually stopped going to my LCS in favor of shopping via the internet with DCBS. If even a fraction of the total fanbase follows suit, there are going to be a lot of shops that go out of business. For instance, at my LCS, I can get 25% off new books, but at DCBS, I get books for 40-75% off, plus I have the option of getting 2 mil mylars and fullback boards for only 50 cents per book. Seeing as how I used to have to get my boards and mylars shipped from another dealer, buying from DCBS makes it worthwhile for me. The price increase has only furthered the necessity of switching to an online dealer for me.

Plus, I've dropped all Avengers books, Hulk, Thor, almost all mini-series (damn you, war of kings!), and I'm much more selective about my buying habits than I ever used to be. The more they raise prices, the more books I'll be dropping.

I refuse to go to any company (DC or Marvel) subscription service, especially since I'm a condition whore. If I don't get my books in at least NM (9.4) condition, I complain like crazy. With books that are shipped singularly, there's always a chance that my mailman could destroy it by shoving it into the mailbox. He can't do that with a box that weighs 30 lbs.