Todd, thanks for this article. Glad to see i’m not the only “fool concerned with price tag on comics”. :)

Interesting counterpoint to the doom and gloom people have been throwing at the #DCYOU relaunch:

http://graphicpolicy.com/2015/08/31/dc-comics-dcyou-shows-strength-looking-beyond-physical-sales/

The $1 increase is for NEWSTAND comics only. This is DC supporting the Direct Market which loses countless dollars year-to-year to the larger chain bookstores. And before jumping on DC’s case look at some history: MARVEL actually used the same gimmick a few years ago when they raised their prices $1 per book at the newstands (if memory serves it was sometime around 2011). This isn’t DC being greedy, it’s DC looking out for the little guy and offering a lower cover price for comic book store customers

Wow Erik, that’s a really interesting article. Thanks for sharing that link.

Honestly, Clint, it looks more to me like offsetting the cost of returnability. Which they have every right to do, especially if it allows them to get their comics into another market.

A cynical person might say that he happily pays the $1 per book surcharge just to stay out of the dark and dusty comic book shops. Okay, I’m just joking, RELAX!!!

Using Uncanny X-men as a baseline, here’s how the cover price would look in today’s dollars due to inflation.

1981 $.50 in 2015 would be $1.31
1982 $.60 in 2015 would be $1.48
1985 $.75 in 2015 would be $1.66
1988 $1.00 in 2015 would be $2.02
1992 $1.25 in 2015 would be $2.13
1994 $1.50 in 2015 would be $2.42
1995 $1.95 in 2015 would be $3.05
2001 $2.25 in 2015 would be $3.02
2004 $2.99 in 2015 would be $3.78
2010 $3.99 in 2015 would be $4.37

I’m sorry but anything over $3 a book is completely ridiculous. The only reason I don’t buy as many titles as I used to is price. I used to try everything, no matter the artist, no matter the writer, no matter the character or publisher, I’d give anything a try. Now I’m down to about 10 books a month and I’m about to give up with these prices. I’d rather go back to books printed on newsprint than keep paying these rates.

I pay $3.99 for the smaller publishers but that’s it for me. If Marvel and/or DC move to $4.99, there’s no way the little guy can’t follow suit and my 30+ years of buying new comics will come to an end.

Mike

Another explanation for the persistant $2.99 price for Teen Titans Go! would be that the TV show is a great support (and I live in France) to the paper version – or is it the other way round? One would have to have a closer look at the audience figures and floppy sales to confirm that – and as such, it complements Todd’s possible explanation that parents probably wouldn’t pay more than $2.99 per issue to support their childrens’ desire to pursue the Teen Titans adventures in comic book form as well. As a parent myself, I know that I wouldn’t.
Now, as an adult reader, I only buy two or three titles from the big two (because of the artists and writers working on it mainly) given their recent prices evolution. I don’t mind paying more if it’s to support smaller publishers – yet, I know the meaning of “smaller” should be put in perspective – as I sincerely think we have to support them since they regularly put on their A-game these last years.
Ànyway, very interesting article.

That quote from Dan Didio about raising prices on a shrinking audience is amazing. He’s absolutely right (in the quote), but in practice, most publishers are still “papering over” the reality of a shrinking audience with higher prices. Same thing in book publishing. We’re at a point now where you can easily spend $18 for a regular paperback novel.

This is a losing strategy for all the obvious reasons. Readers are the lifeblood of publishing and other small-item entertainment products, where you need lots of unit sales to make the economies of scale work. Loyal readers will sometimes pay a premium price for a premium product like IDW’s Artist Editions. But very few will pay an inflated price for the same product that was cheaper yesterday.

I’ve seen scenarios where a comic line commanded a premium price and turned into something lucrative with a small readership, but none of them have lasted. If you’re making things for a small audience, you need ALL of them to stay for the long haul, or else you lose too much margin, and that’s too difficult a trick to pull off.