Question:
I used to be pretty liberal when buying comics. If an issue looked remotely
interesting I would buy it. But not anymore. Anyone have any idea what
happened? I remember 20 years ago when the prices were 35 cents and then
made the big jump to 65 and that seemed like a lot. But compared to the
minimum wage it was still reasonable. Now comics on average are $2.50 and
minimum wage is $5.60. That is insane. Seems to me that they are still
selling more comics than ever because of the big collection push of the
early to mid ninties. How many issues sell per month? I am very confused
at the economics here, especially since Marvel did the bankrupcy thing. As
far as marvel is concerned, is the comic book cash cow funding all of their
other disasters (remember the marvel movies from the late 80's- echhh). I
know they have had more but I can not think of any off the top of my head.
Oh yeah, I forgot they use higher quality paper. Well I say that is crap,
paper in that big of bulk can not be THAT much more expensive. Even
comparing the prices to movie ticket prices they are way out of line. Movie
budgets have more than quadrupled in that time span and tickets have only
doubled ($4 to $8). Are comics going to end up dying because they are
becoming too expensive? I think this is the problem with drawing a bigger
audience because its too expensive to get into a series. It takes at least
3 to 4 issues for a comic to grow on a person and at the prices now that is
a huge investment. Am I the only one who feels this way? or is my true
cheapskate nature finally showing through?
Answer:
-I feel that way. In Canada, I pay 4.50 plus TAX for one Hellboy issue.
-They didn't "jump." They went to 40, then 50, then 60 cents before 65.
That was over seven(?) years.
They are probably selling _less_ than ever, except for maybe last year.
There may be a bit of a turnaround going on. Still, fewer copies equals
fewer people to share the fixed costs of each issue.
Well, that's not why. Marvel really didn't put out much for their movies,
and didn't stand to make much from them either. Unfortunately, that
included X-Men. That should change with Spidey. What happened was that
Marvel was used to buy other operations (Toy Biz) which were fine at the
time, but ended up dragging Marvel down. The comics make money, but they
weren't making enough to cover the debts the other operations racked up.
Check out paper prices in any office supply store. It makes a big
difference. Say Marvel gets, oh, 75% off what you or I would pay for paper.
Now say you pay double for glossy paper, and Marvel gets 75% off that as
well. They're still paying double. Then throw in the higher-quality
colouring, and the above stuff on low print runs, and it all adds up.
Really? It's more than than. My friend in Chicago told me she paid $11,
two years ago. It's C$13 for top seats here, which works out cheaper. Not
an increase on the same level as comics, but still a big increase.
But what can comic companies do about it? They have to cover the cost of
the print run, but they don't really have a lot of spare cash to take a loss
waiting for new readers. Nobody has a wealthy backer except for DC, and AOL
isn't exactly roaring along right now. The only way right to get readers
right now is to get them to read a Trade Paperback from a series, then
decide they want to order the monthly issues. My retailer says it works
well for Ultimate Spider-Man.
Something interesting may come from today's low print runs. If the market
does finally turn around in the future, back issues (ie. our current books)
are going to be considered very rare, and worth quite a bit. Consider the
cost of your comics an investment.
