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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2018 18:44:38 GMT -5
When the price of comics reach $6.99 or more ... I'll stop right there. Right now, at my age; I stopped altogether and decided to stop getting them; and I do make some exceptions like Mike Allred's Superman Action Comics 1000.  I just got it in the mail and cost me $8.00 to ship it to my home address. Any $6.99 for a regular comic is a no-no in my book and my days buying them are gone. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2018 18:53:27 GMT -5
I don't know since I don't pay cover price. It would all depend on my lifestyle/living expenses.
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Post by hondobrode on Nov 1, 2018 0:18:33 GMT -5
$ 2.50 was when I was seriously considering slowing it down, and then $ 3 it way slowed down, being a combination of price hike and decompression and a bloating of titles.
I hardly buy any "family" of titles anymore, and instead buy stand-alone titles I like, like Hawkman, the Fantastic Four and The Terrifics.
The Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers, X-titles franchises are done for me.
Also, another reason why indy titles, besides having some very fresh content, are more appealing in some ways, what with the Big Two morphing our characters more and more outside of their core personalities IMO.
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Post by berkley on Nov 1, 2018 4:43:05 GMT -5
I think the first time I did this was years ago with the Moore/Sienkiewicz Big Numbers. Can't recall what the price was now but I remember feeling it was an order of magnitude above what I had come to accept as the upper limit for a single comic book. In hindsight, I should have bought it - not that it mattered in the long run since Sienkiewicz dropped out of the project and Moore didn't choose to carry on without him. I did manage to find the two issues that were produced a few years after the original release and it would have been yet another ground-breaking piece of work for the medium by More.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 2, 2018 5:50:39 GMT -5
Cover price means nothing to me, as I am a fully-employed professional who leads a relatively simple but comfortable life. If the books I want to buy cost $3.99 or $4.99 or even more, I'm able to spend those amounts without having to really worry about it.
However, I get older, my tastes have become more discerning, so the number of books that I'm actually interested in buying has shrunken greatly. As of today, I only buy three monthly books, with one about to be dropped (Aquaman) and the other two being bought only because I am a hardcore fan of the characters (Captain America and Moon Knight), not because either book is all that great.
I look at it like this. If George R. R. Martin ever gets around to writing the sixth Song of Ice and Fire book, and when it is released, it has a $49.99 cover price on it, I'll still buy it; I'd buy it at $60 or $70 even. That might seem like a lot for one book, particularly when the others in the series haven't been that much, but I'm so invested in the characters and the story, which I know will probaly be high quality based on his previous work, so therefore I am willing to pay a higher price for something I really want.
The problem is that the current crop of output from Marvel and DC doesn't really do it for me, so it doesn't matter what they charge, as I'm not buying anyway.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 2, 2018 19:51:10 GMT -5
For me it was went $3.99 became standard and $6 and $7 became normal for special issues. It's not so much the cost, but if I'm going to spend $3.99 on entertainment, I'd rather have 3 or 4 older comics from a $1 bin, or used novel than one single comic that is going to take 10 minutes to read.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 3, 2018 15:15:04 GMT -5
Cover price means nothing to me, as I am a fully-employed professional who leads a relatively simple but comfortable life. If the books I want to buy cost $3.99 or $4.99 or even more, I'm able to spend those amounts without having to really worry about it. However, I get older, my tastes have become more discerning, so the number of books that I'm actually interested in buying has shrunken greatly. As of today, I only buy three monthly books, with one about to be dropped (Aquaman) and the other two being bought only because I am a hardcore fan of the characters (Captain America and Moon Knight), not because either book is all that great. I look at it like this. If George R. R. Martin ever gets around to writing the sixth Song of Ice and Fire book, and when it is released, it has a $49.99 cover price on it, I'll still buy it; I'd buy it at $60 or $70 even. That might seem like a lot for one book, particularly when the others in the series haven't been that much, but I'm so invested in the characters and the story, which I know will probaly be high quality based on his previous work, so therefore I am willing to pay a higher price for something I really want. The problem is that the current crop of output from Marvel and DC doesn't really do it for me, so it doesn't matter what they charge, as I'm not buying anyway. I have pretty much the same outlook, if it's entertaining I really don't worry too much about the cost. I mean, in the scheme of things if you're gainfully employed what's the real difference between a dollar versus three dollars? Either way it's just a fraction of what you make in an hour. It was different as a kid and your income was smaller but as an adult it's nothing, unless you're buying like 30 books. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2018 22:27:54 GMT -5
I have a set budget for new comics in periodical format. It's basically how much I am willing (not able but willing) to spend each month to support the guys at my lcs and what they do. Within that budget is my pull list and any special orders/trades/toys/etc. I get there each month. As cover prices go up, I simply trim what I am willing to get as a monthly, my budget doesn't change. I'd rather get most stuff in trades (and do) and that stuff usually doesn't come out of the budget as I usually order trades online, and some stuff I have print subs to that average 40-50% off cover that doesn't come out of the lcs budget. Neither does our subscriptions to Marvel Unlimited or DC Universe. I also have a budget for buying local small press comics either from creators directly or from the shops that carry them, and these I expect to have a larger cover price because of economy of scale. So for me, all cover price determines is how many books I get while supporting my lcs, not how much I am willing to spend there each month. If prices rise, I cut back the number of titles I get If something new launches I want to get, enough dollars have to be trimmed off of what I am already getting for it to fit within the budget, so a higher priced title is more likely to get dropped to fit a new book simply because it frees up a larger chunk of money within the budget, but not because it has passed some threshold of acceptability for me. If I don't get the book as a monthly when it comes out, I can still read it later via trade, subscription service, local library, Hoopla, or bargain bin at a con if I choose to do so. My current budget is about $50 a month at the lcs, and I am at about 10 books on the pull-though I just trimmed a bunch off to make room for the Conan titles coming in 2019. That leaves a little room to pick up a trade, a toy, or a higher priced special issue in addition to the 10 or so books I get. If cover prices go up, I'll trim back the number of titles to make sure it fits in budget and has a little wiggle room for impulse purchases or special orders. I could buy more; I choose not too. I could spend less and still have access to pretty much everything I wanted to read too, but I choose to support the guys at my lcs. Cover price is a very minor factor in the decision making process, and only affects how I allocate what I spend, not how much I spend, so there is no magic cut off point for me.
-M
edit to add: double shipping books are far more likely to keep a book off my pull than cover price as it eats a larger portion of the budget
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2018 18:29:37 GMT -5
The problem I have nowadays, folks, is the decompression. I find it hard to justify some prices to myself when it'll be "Part One of Six" or something similar.
Now, I know that if everyone waited for the trade, then monthly books would soon become extinct - and then what would we have as trades? Nothing! I know monthly comics are bread and butter to companies. And, yes, there are books that are worth picking up monthly even if it's an incomplete tale. Personally, I am glad I am buying Immortal Hulk and Dick Tracy.
But the industry should see it from the perspective of consumers. As a taxi driver, my income varies. I have a limited amount of disposable income to spend on comics. Bills, council tax and so much else must come first. Realistically, why wouldn't I wait for the trade of the recent Justice League title? I want to support the industry - and monthly books - but it is a question of income. If I was a millionaire, I'd buy every book on a monthly basis.
Imagine, though, if other forms of entertainment were the same. Imagine if a six-issue TV mini-series released an episode - just one episode - per month on a disc costing £2-3. If it was compelling enough, you'd buy it. But wouldn't it be tempting to just wait until all six episodes were released as a boxset, a boxset that will be cheaper than buying the episodes individually?
It's complex. Like I stated, there are titles, such as Immortal Hulk, that are so utterly compelling, I want to buy the monthly issues. And it's even better when titles, even those that do arcs, give us a story that works in isolation. But if you really do get the impression that the issue you've bought is a very small part of a wider arc, why wouldn't you wait for the trade?
It dawned on me in 2004 when a Superman issue was released. I hadn't bought a Superman comic in years at that point. I can't recall the exact issue, but the entire story was pretty much Superman chatting to a priest, something to do with people who'd disappeared. It felt incomplete yet it cost me more than the comics in my youth. Eventually, I did buy the trade and that isolated "Superman meets a priest" story made sense within the context of the trade. But it's that kind of approach that can make me wary about spending on books.
After all, in my youth, 40 pence got me a complete story such as Superman Vol. 2 #9 (1987), where the Man of Steel fought the Joker. No arc, no tie-ins, just a one-off Supes/Joker story. Today, £3-4 may just get me a tale that is incomplete with five or eleven further issues to go before I really get to appreciate it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2018 19:32:27 GMT -5
Imagine, though, if other forms of entertainment were the same. Imagine if a six-issue TV mini-series released an episode - just one episode - per month on a disc costing £2-3. If it was compelling enough, you'd buy it. But wouldn't it be tempting to just wait until all six episodes were released as a boxset, a boxset that will be cheaper than buying the episodes individually? Exactly, this thought hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm a Darren McGavin Night Stalker Fan and I wanted to buy the two made for TV movies ... The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler and at one time they offered both of these movies individually for $14.99 a piece. I decided to wait a few years and went to my favorite DVD store and they offered both of these movies on DVD disc for $9.99 and got one movie per side. I still have that disc today and I play it almost on annual basis for the past 20 years and got my money worth. Patience is a virtue ... and what you said in above makes perfect sense to me. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2018 19:34:54 GMT -5
I get my comics/toys for 20% off via my comic shop (I order via mail, and they ship once a month to me). It's a relationship I developed thru friendships on CBR/YABS board, where I got friendly with a comic shop owner . . and when my local shop stopped offering discounts many years ago looked into mailorder options.
anyways. . my "breaking point" is $3.99 regular issues - tho that really only applies to the big 2 (Marvel/DC).
I've gladly been supporting the $2.99 DC books, and even willing to support the $3.99 mini, or the occasionally oversize (like the recent DC Nuclear Winter special or the Action 1000) for $10.
but the relaunches over and over, with new 1st issues at $4.99 or more? nope. .those are my cut off points.
and I'll support $3.99 for Dark Horse, Image, or any smaller publisher, if the book sounds interesting.
even with my discount, I still spend way too much for comics, so really don't support much from the big 2 that's over $3.99, and even have cut back on some Image books, since i can trade wait for cheaper.
anyways. . my 2cents
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Post by mrbrklyn on Dec 1, 2018 10:58:52 GMT -5
When the price of comics reach $6.99 or more ... I'll stop right there. Right now, at my age; I stopped altogether and decided to stop getting them; and I do make some exceptions like Mike Allred's Superman Action Comics 1000. I just got it in the mail and cost me $8.00 to ship it to my home address. Any $6.99 for a regular comic is a no-no in my book and my days buying them are gone. I considered this, but I am not going to. Varient covers really annoy me. |
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Post by mrbrklyn on Dec 1, 2018 11:07:34 GMT -5
Cover price means nothing to me, as I am a fully-employed professional who leads a relatively simple but comfortable life. If the books I want to buy cost $3.99 or $4.99 or even more, I'm able to spend those amounts without having to really worry about it. However, I get older, my tastes have become more discerning, so the number of books that I'm actually interested in buying has shrunken greatly. As of today, I only buy three monthly books, with one about to be dropped (Aquaman) and the other two being bought only because I am a hardcore fan of the characters (Captain America and Moon Knight), not because either book is all that great. I look at it like this. If George R. R. Martin ever gets around to writing the sixth Song of Ice and Fire book, and when it is released, it has a $49.99 cover price on it, I'll still buy it; I'd buy it at $60 or $70 even. That might seem like a lot for one book, particularly when the others in the series haven't been that much, but I'm so invested in the characters and the story, which I know will probaly be high quality based on his previous work, so therefore I am willing to pay a higher price for something I really want. The problem is that the current crop of output from Marvel and DC doesn't really do it for me, so it doesn't matter what they charge, as I'm not buying anyway. I have pretty much the same outlook, if it's entertaining I really don't worry too much about the cost. I mean, in the scheme of things if you're gainfully employed what's the real difference between a dollar versus three dollars? Either way it's just a fraction of what you make in an hour. It was different as a kid and your income was smaller but as an adult it's nothing, unless you're buying like 30 books. I don't think that is, for most people a particularly ration way to view prices on entertainment. Entertainment prices have been inflating all around, from movie tickets to comics. I suppose they are depending on folks to have that reaction to pricing, but the truth is that my salery is limited and I need to budget it, and I resist inflation... be it the rent, the price of apples or comics. I budget $30 a week for comics purchases. As a matter of economics and principle I won't go over that budget, and If I like a back issue book, then I will just do without new titles for a while. I have definitetly cut titles out of my purchases because of the price tag. And that will continue into the future. The same holds true for Movies, Baseball games and apples.... |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 1, 2018 18:27:18 GMT -5
I have pretty much the same outlook, if it's entertaining I really don't worry too much about the cost. I mean, in the scheme of things if you're gainfully employed what's the real difference between a dollar versus three dollars? Either way it's just a fraction of what you make in an hour. It was different as a kid and your income was smaller but as an adult it's nothing, unless you're buying like 30 books. I don't think that is, for most people a particularly ration way to view prices on entertainment. Entertainment prices have been inflating all around, from movie tickets to comics. I suppose they are depending on folks to have that reaction to pricing, but the truth is that my salery is limited and I need to budget it, and I resist inflation... be it the rent, the price of apples or comics. I budget $30 a week for comics purchases. As a matter of economics and principle I won't go over that budget, and If I like a back issue book, then I will just do without new titles for a while. I have definitetly cut titles out of my purchases because of the price tag. And that will continue into the future. The same holds true for Movies, Baseball games and apples.... The only way I see that as being a consideration is if you have to read every book, or watch every movie...but if you're only reading the books that truly look worth reading and the movies that really look like they need to be seen right away on the big screen then as I said there really isn't a big difference in real cost. At any given moment, at least for my tastes, there are only ever really six to eight books a month that look like must buys to me, and that's been pretty consistent for my whole life; so sure if they were all a buck a book eight bucks would be a pretty sweet deal, but in the scheme of things even if we go ahead and raise the price to five bucks a book that only brings the total cost of my month's comic entertainment to forty bucks which while far greater than eight bucks is still less than what I make in two hours and two hours of my labor seems well worth a month's entertainment in my eyes. And it's the same with other forms of entertainment as well, with movies are there really many months that contain more than two or three films that look like must see events?And how many months are there where there are none at all? So sure, five bucks a ticket would be nice but in the scheme of things it doesn't mean I'm going to get all that much more out of my entertainment dollar as I'm still only going to go see one or two films a month whether the cost of the ticket is five bucks or fifteen and both are just small fractions of my income. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 1, 2018 18:28:09 GMT -5
As a consumer I like the choice of variant covers.
Overprinting product that there's no demand for because comic companies are creating false scarcity is a classic bubble mentality and is probably going to destroy the mainstream comics industry, of course, but as a consumer i like them.
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