$3.99 price point...will WE show Marvel it's a bad idea?

[Just Bill]

The change in prices that Marvel, DC, and Vertigo have made just makes me love DCBS even more

DCBS allowed me to keep buying at 2.99.  Now at 3.99 my buying has diminished a great deal... and I really try to eliminate even more, but addiction is a terrible disease. 

[Wood]

As most of you know, I love the numbers. It comes with the territory of being a portfolio manager.

But I love comics a LOT more than the numbers. It's why I'm doing 11 O'C and why I listen to a dozen other comics casts and why I spend ridiculous amounts of time and money on the hobby. And a lot of the time people joke about my obsession with the numbers, they might not realize that I talk about them because I see a lot that concerns me and yet sometimes feel powerless to stop it.

As a capitalist, I don't begrudge anyone their right to make money, and make lots of it. If the market will bear a price point, it's not only reasonable, it's optimal to charge the highest price that will be acceptable to the market. So for a long time I've sat back and scoffed at the cries of how expensive comics have become. Because the reality is that, cry as we might, we hardcore guys/gals keep on buying.

In fact, about 2-2.5 years ago the first time I ever had a conversation with Vince was about the price of comics.

Fast forward to today. There's been a lot of talk that Marvel is prepping us for a line-wide $3.99 price point. I had been holding out hope that people were putting the cart before the horse. But then I took a look at the March solicitations:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/081216-marvel-march-2009-solicitations.html

By my quick count, 34 books are priced at $3.99. Of those, only 13 have more than the standard 32 pages.

This disturbs me.

We are in the worst economic recession in, at least the last 40 years, and when all is said and done the economic destruction is going to be worse than anything outside of the Great Depression. Millions of people are going to lose their jobs. And we are experiencing DEFLATION; meaning the price of goods and services is declining in aggregate.

Yet, Marvel is pushing toward a 33% price increase at a time when even the most insulated businesses are feeling pain.

So why are they doing it?

They want you to believe it's because they need to. I'm sure they will argue to investors [myself included] that costs are higher, the market is shrinking, and the price is necessary to keep the publishing business healthy. Sounds great but it's NOT TRUE. Over the last nine months, Marvel's publishing division has generated 37.2% operating margins. Those are FANTASTIC margins, and would be the envy of most publishers [in any type of publishing, not just comics]

So why are they REALLY doing it?

I believe it's a combination of two things.

A) What has helped, now will hurt. Lots of talk about how great it has been for comics to leave the direct market and move to bookstore shelves. However, with the economy getting rough, that causes a major problem. Stuff sold to book stores and conventional retailers = RETURNABLE. And Marvel [and DC] run lean operations. They don't have a business model built on warehousing tons of returned trades. They are lean, and the vast majority of their inventories are held by Diamond. Returns = erosion of profits. Quickly. And with Borders verging on closure, Barnes & Nobel struggling, and Amazon getting leaner [inventory wise], that means the golden goose of the last few years is laying an egg.

B) The audience is stagnant, but loyal. We talk all the time about the importance of new readers. And while there are always anecdotal stories of new people getting into comics, the trend is undeniable. Not many new people are finding monthly floppies and starting to read them in the direct market. As a result, despite lip service, Marvel [and DC and others] know where their bread is buttered. But they don't have a lot of respect for us either. They view us a cigarette smokers. We are loyal to a fault. We'll pay higher prices because we need our fix. And we have this belief that we need to endure higher prices to "support the industry."

So here's the all important question...ARE THEY RIGHT?

If we all sit down to fill out our DCBS orders or to tell our LCS owners what to pull for us, and don't blink an eye toward those $3.99 books, we are PROVING THEM RIGHT. We are, effectively, telling Marvel that they SHOULD move the line to $3.99, and that DC and others should follow suit. Because we may bitch online about prices, and we may get on our podcasts and rant. BUT WE ARE STILL BUYING THEM.

The ONLY way we can stop this from happening is to SPEAK WITH YOUR WALLETS. Don't buy those $3.99 books. You love Jeff Parker? So do I but I'm not paying $3.99. You think Red Hulk is great popcorn fun? Superb, but $3.99 is what they're tempting you with. Think Jon Hickman is a natural for Secret Warriors? Me, too, but paying $3.99 for it would only be adding fuel to the fire.

I can't stress this enough. If you want to complain about the rising prices of books, but are willing to pay for them anyway, SHUT THE HELL UP. Seriously, I don't want to see rants from people over the next few months saying how "pissed" they are about what Marvel is doing, only to follow that up with something like, "but I couldn't resist buying them anyway." Either buy them and accept the price hike quietly, or complain and put your money where your mouth is.

I'm going to. It pains me to not buy some of these new books; but on principle I'm not going to. And you know what? I'll be able to get them at cons next year in discount bins. Guaranteed.

For once a Wayback Wednesday where my views then are all but identical to my views now.
 

[Farrell]

For once a Wayback Wednesday where my views then are all but identical to my views now.
 

Have you kept away from $3.99 books as you intended?

[Wood]

Have you kept away from $3.99 books as you intended?

What I said was people (myself included) needed to either a) avoid $3.99 books or b) don't complain about them if you buy them. I started avoiding them, but as Marvel moved most of their books to that tier it was nigh impossible, but I also don't complain about $3.99.
 

[Matt Kramer]

The only book that I'm buying with a regular price of $3.99 is The Stand.   

I've dropped every other book that consistently went up in price without adding any other value.  I'm just saying right now that Atlas is on very, very thin ice after the stunt #1 pulled with its page count.

[Dotanuki]

Everything is available for download. 

If Burroughs was here this is what he'd say...it's true...

[Dotanuki]

As long as you realize it's a rationalization, so be it. I did the same thing with music. Kept telling myself that as soon as the music industry gave me a viable way to pay for digital music, I would switch. But I never lost sight of the fact I was stealing in the interim.

This is basically how I feel about seeing True Blood Seasons 1 & 2 via torrent files. I'm not willing to blow $60+/month for digital cable nor am I willing to wait six-months-to-a-year for a $60 DVD collection or iTunes/etc files. HBO wants to maintain the cable TV status quo, of course, and wishes to make money on the old coax first and for as long as possible...this is counter to my interest so I enjoy the torrents. It's a rationalization for stealing and I feel bad about it...maybe not bad enough to stop though, probably because I think it's time to do away with old-school cable TV.

[JoeyN]

If the cost becomes to high over time, if all books go to $3.99, I'll just start dropping big two books. Stick more to the Indy stuff I already buy.  Probably would drop more on the Marvel side, as I decided to add more of there stuff recently to my list (more of a DC fan these days).  Won't read them hard copy or via the net.  If they make it too expensive to read everything I want, I won't waste my time reading them.  I have done the same with games. I used to buy a crap ton of stuff, but with the $60 price point, and the way they drop prices quickly my purchases this year have gone down 80% or so money wise. 

[steve bryant]

If Burroughs was here this is what he'd say...it's true...

How does that pertain to Edgar Rice Burroughs?
 

[Just Bill]

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/32CzkQ/techland.com/2010/05/26/dc-confirms-shift-to-3-99-price-point//r:t

So now DC has confirmed that they are following suit.  Which is another blow to my continued reading of comics.  I've gone from a fairly heavy buyer to a couple of items a month and the discount bins.  Now I'm thinking it'll be all discount bins and amazon.com for collections.  This is going to totally change how I read comics as I will be less likely to follow the interconnected books in serial form that I've always enjoyed and instead favor things that are self contained and finite.  And that is simply because I prefer those kind of stories collected moreso than what I've traditionally read in the singles. 

[Just Bill]

... and what's funny... I think DC stands to lose a much larger portion of their audience over this move than Marvel did... not sure why, but Marvel Zombies tend to be exactly that.  DC fans tend to be a much more fickle bunch. 

Or maybe I'm just talkin' outta my ass again.   

[deadcowaroma]

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/32CzkQ/techland.com/2010/05/26/dc-confirms-shift-to-3-99-price-point//r:t

So now DC has confirmed that they are following suit.  Which is another blow to my continued reading of comics.  I've gone from a fairly heavy buyer to a couple of items a month and the discount bins.  Now I'm thinking it'll be all discount bins and amazon.com for collections.  This is going to totally change how I read comics as I will be less likely to follow the interconnected books in serial form that I've always enjoyed and instead favor things that are self contained and finite.  And that is simply because I prefer those kind of stories collected moreso than what I've traditionally read in the singles.  

Ugh....I hope that doesn't spread to Vertigo.   I've been buying less and less DC titles, and this will probably reduce it even further.

EDIT: Now that I read it, I see Vertigo is included. Big ...looks like I'm going to be making quite a few cuts (Vertigo books are probably safe though).

[Dotanuki]

 

How does that pertain to Edgar Rice Burroughs?
 

[evaD]

This is basically how I feel about seeing True Blood Seasons 1 & 2 via torrent files. I'm not willing to blow $60+/month for digital cable nor am I willing to wait six-months-to-a-year for a $60 DVD collection or iTunes/etc files. HBO wants to maintain the cable TV status quo, of course, and wishes to make money on the old coax first and for as long as possible...this is counter to my interest so I enjoy the torrents. It's a rationalization for stealing and I feel bad about it...maybe not bad enough to stop though, probably because I think it's time to do away with old-school cable TV.

I think it becomes easy to justify when you feel like they are the thieves. I'm sure Wood could explain how cable companies justify the fees they charge, but that doesn't change the way it feels.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/32CzkQ/techland.com/2010/05/26/dc-confirms-shift-to-3-99-price-point//r:t

So now DC has confirmed that they are following suit.  Which is another blow to my continued reading of comics.  I've gone from a fairly heavy buyer to a couple of items a month and the discount bins.  Now I'm thinking it'll be all discount bins and amazon.com for collections.  This is going to totally change how I read comics as I will be less likely to follow the interconnected books in serial form that I've always enjoyed and instead favor things that are self contained and finite.  And that is simply because I prefer those kind of stories collected moreso than what I've traditionally read in the singles. 

This is probably a game changer for me as well. I don't mind paying the higher price if I know the money is going to the people that produced the book, but when it's going to share holders and business guys earning 6 figures I'm less inclined to pay the money. I'll be cutting most of my DC books now I guess. There are a few I'll continue to read, like Unwritten, but there are quite a few that can go.

[evaD]

Looking at the title of the thread, I'm thinking no.  In fact what we evidently did was show DC that it was an excellent idea. 

[Matt H.O.W.L.]

... and what's funny... I think DC stands to lose a much larger portion of their audience over this move than Marvel did... not sure why, but Marvel Zombies tend to be exactly that.  DC fans tend to be a much more fickle bunch. 

Or maybe I'm just talkin' outta my ass again.   

Smells like it.

[GLewis]

This thread makes this article make much more sense to me.
[url]http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=26382/url]

[Farrell]

EDIT: Now that I read it, I see Vertigo is included. Big ...looks like I'm going to be making quite a few cuts (Vertigo books are probably safe though).

I'd imagine eventually everything will be $3.99 (or above), but for the moment it's easy to read that article as meaning American Vampire, which has been $3.99 since its first issue, as the Vertigo book going up.  Hopefully, anyway.  I've been cutting back already and leaving off books I like but consider inessential, including Vertigo books like Northlanders and Greek Street, and if they're going to $3.99 I doubt I'll get anything besides Scalped and Unwritten.  And those I'll probably get only in collected form. I think I'm about as devoted to comics as anybody, as well as being about as stupid with my money as anybody, and if I'm dropping stuff, I can't imagine that bodes well for sales in general.

[deadcowaroma]

I'd imagine eventually everything will be $3.99 (or above), but for the moment it's easy to read that article as meaning American Vampire, which has been $3.99 since its first issue, as the Vertigo book going up.  Hopefully, anyway.  I've been cutting back already and leaving off books I like but consider inessential, including Vertigo books like Northlanders and Greek Street, and if they're going to $3.99 I doubt I'll get anything besides Scalped and Unwritten.  And those I'll probably get only in collected form. I think I'm about as devoted to comics as anybody, as well as being about as stupid with my money as anybody, and if I'm dropping stuff, I can't imagine that bodes well for sales in general.

I'd probably keep a good portion of them. Fables might be in danger though.

[nilcam]

The only floppies I buy are the ones I can subscribe to. I'm not a comic collector anymore; I'm a reader. This keeps my per issue cost around $2 which I can live with. I keep an eye out for the deals that Marvel offers so that I can cut the cost even lower. For example, for $50, I got 1 year of Amazing Spider-Man. Also for $50, I got one year of X-Factor, X-Force and Wolverine: Weapon X. These are great deals. My Thunderbolts and Thor The Mighty Avenger subscriptions were $19.97 per year.

$4 is a really dangerous price point. It is very prohibitive and possibly harmful to the industry. Compare a 32 page comic at $4 with a 340 page issue of Shonen Jump for $5. It's pretty clear which is the better value for the consumer. My Shonen Jump subscription was $26 for a year.