I remember when I was 15, scrounging lunch money, being pissed when they went up to $1.50 from $1.25. I remember when I had 25 books on my pull list at $2.99. Now I buy 2 comics a month at $4.99. So now I spend $10/mth vs $75/mth. They obviously don’t want my money these days!!!
Why aren't you still spending $75/mo? You could still get 15 books per month. I think something else is in play here - maybe you're more discerning these days (not a bad trait to have) and it's more difficult to find something that's good? Either that, or maybe you have a bunch of other expenses you didn't have before. Otherwise, the math is simple: 15 x $5 is the same as 25 x $3.
@@heroineburgh it’s a total rip off. That’s a terrible margin to be blowing on new comics. With even less return on personal value. I can buy back issues for $1-3 and they are even better quality.
@@RamManNo1 Indeed, that is what a lot of people are doing, and there are many comic shops which concentrate almost entirely now on back issues. They tell me they can't sell new books to save their life, and maybe they're right. I don't fault them for it, I was just doing the math. If you still want new comics, you can still buy an average of 15 per month with a $75 budget. If you mostly don't want new comics, that's fine, too. You can pass by the table of indie comic creators at your local Comicon selling their books for $5 or more (because they have to) and head straight for the back issue longboxes to get that old-school value and quality you mentioned. We try to provide that with our books, too, but we can't do it for $3.
@TomOBedlam-i1s You'd love Pittsburgh, especially New Dimension Comics in Homestead (Ed Piskor's old stomping grounds) which has a huge used TPB section. Our issues are sold there on the local spinner rack.
I'm old enough to remember comics were affordable for blue collar kids. So getting into comics way later whoa I realised comics was for adult pricing. They not only lost a generation of kids maybe two, but also an entire class of kids.
I think they were 15 cents when I first started buying. I was shocked when I went to start buying again in the 90's and they were $2. Now, at $5 or more per comic, there isn't enough value per comic for me.
I remember when comics were carried by 7-11 and cheap grocery stores. Anytime my dad had to drag me along to something when I was in kindergarten and he didn’t have a babysitter he’d stop and buy a couple comics to keep me busy. When I started reading he’d buy 3 or 4 per week to keep me away from the tv. In 2024 that would be an expensive hobby.
Comic prices have far out-paced income levels to the point I used to be able to make impulse buys if I saw something that looked interesting on the shelf. Now, the quality is far below what I expect and the cost is far higher than I'm willing to pay. The result? I'm priced out. I only buy books on discount and back issues these days, and that's just fine with me.
New readers are priced out. Kids are priced out. Even diehard fans that have read for decades are cutting down or quitting altogether. Comic prices aren't even worth it if they were competently created, which they aren't anymore. What's shocking is the masochists that still buy the overpriced garbage
I remember when comics were a 0.25. I didn't buy them. My Uncle would read two comics books during his lunch hour. I would pick them up on floor of the back seat. Bored, I would read them. At $7, that's two gallons of gas. He would be spending $280 per month compared to $20 per month. $280 is a car payment. Looks like Comics is status symbol for the wealthy.
bought some old comics and found posters inside and thought, why aren’t they just selling variants as posters? Or putting it in as extra content in floppies. We both know the answer but the greed is out of control, when they could be offering greater value for readers. It would even give them a one up on Manga by putting variant covers inside as posters. Wes is right. Most companies AND retailers are price gouging their small audience to keep the industry afloat. They do not realize it makes them entirely inaccessible to young (NEW) readers that they are in desperate need of. “buyers control the market price” - Nick GQ (UA-cam online comic retailer)
This is why I buy every Spawn title and it's variant cover. Pre-ordering through my comic shop the cost is actually $1.94 per issue plus they bag and board my books for free. Also buying every ghost machine title,where many of their #1 issues are oversized at $3.99. And every one of these books comes with cardstock covers and excellent thick glossy interior pages.
@@undeterminedalias yeah this for sure. I feel like my money was well earned by ghost machine after reading one of their books, I definitely don't feel that way after reading a Marvel $4.99 "talent tax" book and the staple pops at the centerfold due to horrible quality control issues after just one read through. I was pretty disappointed that John's is pushing Geiger to a monthly book that Frank can't keep up on art and replacing him with Paul Pelletier, but I rather enjoyed Paul's art on the latest issue, I thought it was more consistent than the transition from Mooneyham to Pelletier on GI Joe.
I am an independent comic book maker, and the cost of printing just keep increasing . It has increased twice this year from the printer company I use, and I will not print my comics in China.
Even if you use China, its very expensive. And you don't have to pay yourself for your work. I fully agree that comics are priced outside their value, but I don't think guys like this understand the price pressure.
DC’s decision to make Action Comics weekly is baffling. Especially with the $5 cover price. At least cut the backup story (that most people skip) and make it $3.99.
Most trade paperbacks collect 6 issues of 20-22 pages. Why they don’t go compact to save shelf space for retailer AND SAVE the readers $5 -$10 is an easy sell.
I work in a high school library and we just got a few of those new DC Compact books and they look great and the price is very reasonable. That should be the model, as well as Marvels Mighty Masterworks.
Agreed! 5 - 6 is way too much. I remember in the late 90s/ early 00s 2.75 or 3.50 comics were considered top of the line - Annuals, small collected editions, deluxe books. It's totally crazy now.
It's the same with movies and video games. They forgot that this is poor man's entertainment. Look at all the streaming services that are also struggling. No one has money for all this stuff.
Tough to shell out all that cash on NEW books. I was at a Con this weekend and people were going nuts on OLD books at a vender that was doing $30…for an ENTIRE short-box🤑
They’ve priced out their future audience and a good deal of their existing customers. I give out comics at Halloween and the kids love it. But I’ve also seen parents bring them into the shop and bawk at the prices (among other things). The well will eventually run dry with “collectors “. Alterna still has reasonably priced books and it’s a big reason I can give them out. My LCS also cuts me a deal on $1 books and leftovers from free comics days. But even if they find something they want to continue reading, the price is a deterrent. Most kids that come into the shop either leave with toys,manga or empty handed. It’s sad honestly. I’ve watched my shop pivot away from new books for awhile now. Not to mention I haven’t seen anything hyped enough to drive lines of customers in since the failed Bat/Cat marriage debacle.
When the current speculator bubble fully pops (already VERY deflated) there will not be the underlying customer base (readers in the 6 figures for many titles in the mid 90s) to keep things afloat. They are entirely selling to speculators with the lipstick of the decent looking ratio variant (that will ultimately be worth $1-10 a few years from now) on the pig of the art and story inside.
Agree. Comics are way too expensive right now. This price tag is a huge barrier for new readers, especially younger ones. Kids cannot afford 6 dollar for regular Ultimate Spider-Man comics with their pocket money. Probably, they even keep their money and buying Lego set at the end of the month.😂 We don't even discuss about competitors, like Manga or Anime.
I remember when the $5 price point was for indie books. Now, there's either no difference between indies and the Big Two, or the Big Two are more expensive. If the top publishers want to give the industry another heyday, they need to match Image Comics. Then the other things wrong in comics will need to be address. I don't see them taking all the necessary steps to accomplish that, let alone getting pass the price point issue.
I remember saying to myself that I wouldn’t buy a comic over £5 unless it was an annual or oversized but now I’m regularly paying just over that for regular books from the big 2 and some from Image. I do get a discount from my online store of 25% if I buy 5 or more books though.
Listen, Most of the comic book fans are "divorced dentists" like that guy said. We actually pay more for back issues and we don't mind. The product sells itself. But since the new books suck, they are condemned. And the market will always reveal the real value of the book. I will never how shocked I was when I saw the old x-o manowar with art by Quesada with the gold foil cover in the dollar bin. Even the iron age books will reveal their real value in time
20 minutes is being generous, with modern decompressed storytelling a 22 page modern comic can be finished in a little over 5 minutes. It’s just ridiculous to expect somebody to drop $4-$5 for such limited entertainment.
The price really is a wall for lapsed readers that keep in touch with what’s going on in comics by watching you and others. Considering the poor quality of story & art, the constant events, relaunches and likelihood of a comic being dropped after 6 issues, the price is obscene. I had a big pull list for decades until the late 2000s but it’s not worth it to me in both price and quality to keep one now. It’s better to wait for the trades. Unfortunately for the LCSs, the economy is so bad when I get trades I get them on Amazon.
@@gothamcitycomics6981 I've turned to second hand trades to feed my (fully admitted) addiction. I think I would need to make a full size figures to afford the amount of comics I read if I was buying at $4.99 a pop for 22 pages (that can be read in 5 minutes with modern writing styles.)
What made Chuck Rozanski popular is the Edgar Church collection. It's a very pristine Golden Age collection from a guy that uses them as models for his work such as calling cards, birthday cards etc.
Comics with questionable art and story - combined with high prices, yeah my kids will not be reading new comics anytime soon. It feels like the industry is trying to off itself.
I think that Ram V's Detective story is the most expensive story ever. You need like 180$ to read a story with no good conclusion, plotholes, and mediocre art. Welldone DC, this is the worst Detective Story ever.
@@Dion1605x bruce scares scarecrow so much(for a second he gives up to barbatos) and with the machine crane connected, the city remembers to fear batman again.
@@Dion1605x Like most of the comic book runs hero beats villain in the end:D okay stroy is not for everyone but artists was really good. Ivan reis rafael albuerque gulliem march dexter soy.
Sell comics in grocery stores that kids can afford to buy that appeal to general audiences with inoffensive advertisements. Generations of kids are growing up less literate because publishers, distributors, and “local” comic shops want to sell fewer and more expensive comics with multiple variant covers and political and social agenda-driven gender-grooming stories. Local comic shops are part of the problem because most of them are not local, and they don’t sell comics kids can afford to buy or that are appropriate for kids to read.
If only. Western kids these days aren’t going to bite, but I would as an adult. Price matters, as does content. Art is king in comics & the ‘writer based’ 4-6 part stories really bore me by this point. Anticlimactic style of storytelling that never truly ends with the needless string you along ‘cliffhangers’ they suck. Finish the story.
Fantastic Video on this particular Coverage - I was telling someone on X few days back that our publisher's "Low-key" encourages Piracy at the highest Productivity Because of situations as such. & then they Prey on the remaining customers w a New idea Called "Omnibus" because they expect your gonna hold your dollars until they Get arc together. Comics need a Think-Tank of sorts to tackle these problems with peers trying to hi jack it
I think the collection that you were thinking of was the Edgar Church collection… also known as the Mile High collection. There was also a second Mile High II collection, so it could have been that.
Just makes it easier to not spend my money. Least amount of money ive spent on Wednesday's in years. Even when i add a new ongoing like Absolute Batman i typically find something to stop reading in its place
Comic fans have been gripping about the rising prices since marvel and dc reduced their 25 cent books to 52 pages back in the month of June 1971. i remember a bud of mine checking out my superman 242, and saying "Its so thin!" that's when DC's yearly giants went to 35 cents.
I used to buy six or seven books a week. I'm down to three books a month. When I retire in a couple years, I'm dropping all floppies and switching to Marvel Unlimited.
this kind of relates back to your point about committind to either gn or monthly floppies. for monthly floppies it should be no more than 3 dollars, especially digital. the prices they charge now are gn or trade paperback prices. go back to newsprint for monthly comics to lower the price. they are supposed to cheap disposable entertainment.
When I was a kid I relied only on back issue bins... I didn't pickup comics regularly until I started working and had my own income. Marvel and DC titles had just increased to $2.25 at the time. I have trimmed my pull list significantly to barely 3-4 titles now that $4.99 is now the norm... and I am certainly not gonna start buying Spawn or Scooby Doo
Really wouldn’t mind paying if they increase the quality and quantity (as in number of pages) going into each issue. But, there are so many books where nothing consequential happens in 32 pages.
I’m enjoying Space Ghost but it’s going to get more difficult to pay the price if a book comes out I want more. Especially when the writer has me blocked on X. Never heard of him before SG.
I will give Marvel credit for keeping foil covers at the same price as the main covers ($4.99.) At DC if you have a main cover at $4.99 you can bet the foil cover will be anywhere from $6.99 to $9.99. I also wanted to add that the horrible cash grab of the Batman Day free comic of The Long Halloween #1 special edition, they added a foil cover version that is $9.99 and as soon as you open it you see the main cover that still says it's free.
when collecting anything not every product has to be good, and when you think of collectors (more common in some industries than others) often times much of their collection is trash! That is why I don't understand how so many limited series/trades are so bad (in the opinion of most content creators) when it should be the on-goings that are so bad, because the strategy with on-goings is to pump them out as fast as possible - mostly because they are meant for quick consumption, but once they became collectables it was just another reason to just keep pumping them out.
Dstlry is expensive, but my god do they produce a nice looking, feeling, and smelling book. They also have a social media guy that will answer your questions within the hour. I don't mind paying for those books. They're always top-notch quality inside and out, plus they have the best creative teams.
I spend lots of money on manga because they give me enough content that I'm not afraid to read it and be disappointed that it went by so fast like I am with individual comics.
Well it’s called economy of scale if your not selling many it cost more the more you sell the more you can bring the price down. As both marvel and DC have gone out of the way to decrease customer retention.
my pull list is the smallest its ever been because prices ive been gift carding amazon trades fot a few years unless it a book i want to live i.e she-hulk
This is correct, Absolute Batman, Superman, WonderWoman started 36-40+pages 4,99 and the next issues 20-30 pages 4,99usd :D , JLU is top art and only 3,99 for 20-30 pages , anyway everyone does it it seems , buying comics in Europe is extra expensive add 1$ more on top of the price , these comics in EU start from 5,99$
Yeah but I haven’t done singles for years I mainly buy trades or omnibus collections which are already high but I prefer to spend more on a complete collection in one like a omnibus than singles feels better to me to buy.
I partially blame Diamond for this. They have completely sandbagged the industry in the early 2000s, preventing the industry as a whole from evolving into a more sustainable model.
@@Doopy_Huckleberry They held back comic shops and publishers from innovating the way they distribute and connect with customers, shutting down things like subscription and mailing services. They also monopolized the comics distribution process, which removed the natural price controls that come with a free market.
@@omegaman2846 ah yes, true. I do remember back in the 90s that finding a newsstand copy vs a direct copy it would be cheaper. Makes sense that the monopoly you speak of going direct only and diamond being sole distributor they can force price hikes on comic shops and publishers.
I think it says a lot that even after all the force feeding captain marvel in the mcu that’s there’s no comic book or at least one that comes to mind. Didn’t the last movie featuring the character come out just last year 😆
I feel for comic book companies though, its not cheap to put out a comic, and even though they are paying as little as possible to the creators, its still really expensive to publish. You cannot just use a flat inflation calculator because the cost of printing and paper has gone up so badly in the last 20 years or so.
Couple the high cover prices with the fact that many / most of these titles wind up in dollars bins is depressing. I don't need my modern comics to be valuable. I just want to read them. They need to have a Cover A that is cheaper IMO. I'm finally entertaining the idea of a digital subscription to DC. The annual plan / monthly is the cost of 2/3 floppies on NCBD. And you just need to wait 30 days.
This is what happens when you quit trying to increase the customer base by bringing in new readers. To compensate they blow up the price, and further marginalize the whole comics reading audience.
How the he'll did Marvel manage to do the Direct Market for micronauts, ka-zar, etc for just 15 cents extra (at the time)& they were 32 pages, add free then??
My thing is, at my reading pace, i could read about 10 comics a week. Any more and they spill over to the next week so $50 a week is okay in my book 👍 but then again i started reading comics in 2020 so im very familiar with these prices and the quality of writing
In Marvel Age they talk about Marvel 2099 how expensive comic books are going to get. And now that is becoming a reality. Going to need million dollars or more to buy comic books if the prices keep going up.
I love these videos the most where you state facts about the condition of the industry. Buckley should be touted as a liar because the price points of Marvel comics is all over the place. I have dropped every Marvel comic besides Hulk and Venom because of this, although it appears they raised the price on the All New Venom series to $4.99 so I'm guessing I'll be dropping that too. I went from buying 20+ monthly Marvel comics down to what I can count on one hand in the past 2 years because of their price gouging and horrible quality control issues, and also because i don't want to pay $4.99 a comic for a story that takes anywhere from 6 months to several years of single issues to be resolved if it ever does. They only shot themselves in the foot pricing out this 40 year Marvelite. I'm not even going to bring up the atrocious price of every Aliens vs Avengers book 😂.
I've been buying comics from 40 years ago that have more pages and are better written and with better art (even without the benefit of computer colors)... usually for 3 bucks or less.
I feel for my LCS, I only order Transformers, Void Rivals and something called Uncanny Valley from them, I did order Silverhawks Copper Kidd from them but it took weeks of asking, I am sure it won’t be long b4 they don’t exist
I dropped out when prices hit 2.99. came back 3 years ago, choked on the 3.99, price, but shelled out anyway. I'm not gonna buy anything that's more expensive than that, with the exception of Ultramega by Jason Harren, which is like 60 pages. McFarlane is an American Hero for holding the line at 2.99. I just wish I enjoyed his comics.
Alterna Comics used to be the way at $1.50 a piece, but shops hated it seemingly. They can’t stand making a fan happy, so LCS are part of the prob. Put them in stores & cost less + no more woke-ism
Lol....Wes, im old enough to remember going to spinning rack with younger Cousin and we wondered why marvel had on the cover " still only 35 cents"___next month or two....it was up to 40 cents (we were p.o'd) lol
Didn't Marvel recently tell us they were aware of the high cover price and the problems this caused for retailers, and didn't they promise they would take that into account during the X-Men relaunch and make new books more affordable and accessible...? Well, I haven't seen much of it yet and the few Marvel titles I still pick up are "all" 4.99, which is more expensive then before the relaunch. 🙄 The only one that still gives us comics for a low price (and on good paper as a plus!), is McFarlane. I don't always agree with Todd, especially when it comes to toys and action figures, but I respect him for that. If Todd can do it, you're not going to tell me Marvel (Disney) and DC (WB) can't!
It's to the point now where I visit my local Ollie's and buy the six books for five ninety nine. They also have seven packs and most of the books are in good shape. Found a couple of Batman books that are worth money. There's also number one's and books from three years ago. When comic books were two ninety nine I would buy ten number one issue's like the Punisher ongoing series. At least then I could make some money and still afford to buy new number one's. I'm trying to sell my collection of about two thousand books now.
I literally find overstock of comics that came out from the last six months in the $1 bins. (that's $1 canadian). it's time to use lower paper stock or something to get this cheaper.
also why the hell is marvel publishing 70 comics and dc almost 60?! when you said that wes, my jaw dropped. no wonder they charging so much. it should be more like 15 titles a month!
I remember when I was 15, scrounging lunch money, being pissed when they went up to $1.50 from $1.25. I remember when I had 25 books on my pull list at $2.99. Now I buy 2 comics a month at $4.99. So now I spend $10/mth vs $75/mth. They obviously don’t want my money these days!!!
Why aren't you still spending $75/mo? You could still get 15 books per month. I think something else is in play here - maybe you're more discerning these days (not a bad trait to have) and it's more difficult to find something that's good? Either that, or maybe you have a bunch of other expenses you didn't have before. Otherwise, the math is simple: 15 x $5 is the same as 25 x $3.
@@heroineburgh it’s a total rip off. That’s a terrible margin to be blowing on new comics. With even less return on personal value. I can buy back issues for $1-3 and they are even better quality.
@@RamManNo1 Indeed, that is what a lot of people are doing, and there are many comic shops which concentrate almost entirely now on back issues. They tell me they can't sell new books to save their life, and maybe they're right. I don't fault them for it, I was just doing the math. If you still want new comics, you can still buy an average of 15 per month with a $75 budget. If you mostly don't want new comics, that's fine, too. You can pass by the table of indie comic creators at your local Comicon selling their books for $5 or more (because they have to) and head straight for the back issue longboxes to get that old-school value and quality you mentioned. We try to provide that with our books, too, but we can't do it for $3.
@TomOBedlam-i1s You'd love Pittsburgh, especially New Dimension Comics in Homestead (Ed Piskor's old stomping grounds) which has a huge used TPB section. Our issues are sold there on the local spinner rack.
I'm old enough to remember comics were affordable for blue collar kids. So getting into comics way later whoa I realised comics was for adult pricing. They not only lost a generation of kids maybe two, but also an entire class of kids.
I think they were 15 cents when I first started buying. I was shocked when I went to start buying again in the 90's and they were $2. Now, at $5 or more per comic, there isn't enough value per comic for me.
I remember when comics were carried by 7-11 and cheap grocery stores. Anytime my dad had to drag me along to something when I was in kindergarten and he didn’t have a babysitter he’d stop and buy a couple comics to keep me busy. When I started reading he’d buy 3 or 4 per week to keep me away from the tv. In 2024 that would be an expensive hobby.
@@sometimesfriendly9839 35 cents when I started reading.
@TomOBedlam-i1s they’ve been losing readers since the 70s. The big crash came in ‘96.
Expensive and TERRIBLE! Don’t forget TERRIBLE!
Comic prices have far out-paced income levels to the point I used to be able to make impulse buys if I saw something that looked interesting on the shelf. Now, the quality is far below what I expect and the cost is far higher than I'm willing to pay. The result? I'm priced out. I only buy books on discount and back issues these days, and that's just fine with me.
New readers are priced out. Kids are priced out. Even diehard fans that have read for decades are cutting down or quitting altogether. Comic prices aren't even worth it if they were competently created, which they aren't anymore. What's shocking is the masochists that still buy the overpriced garbage
I remember when comics were a 0.25.
I didn't buy them. My Uncle would read two comics books during his lunch hour.
I would pick them up on floor of the back seat.
Bored, I would read them.
At $7, that's two gallons of gas. He would be spending $280 per month
compared to $20 per month.
$280 is a car payment.
Looks like Comics is status symbol for the wealthy.
When you look at it historically, Marvel has been the one pushing price increases. Personally, I wished it had stopped at $1.50.
Back between 1998-1999,Carl Ichan wanted to have marvel go back to the cheaper 1980s paper and roll back prices to 60 cents.
bought some old comics and found posters inside and thought, why aren’t they just selling variants as posters?
Or putting it in as extra content in floppies.
We both know the answer but the greed is out of control, when they could be offering greater value for readers.
It would even give them a one up on Manga by putting variant covers inside as posters.
Wes is right.
Most companies AND retailers are price gouging their small audience to keep the industry afloat.
They do not realize it makes them entirely inaccessible to young (NEW) readers that they are in desperate need of.
“buyers control the market price” - Nick GQ (UA-cam online comic retailer)
Spawn books are the more affordable at mostly 2.99
And depending on lcs can get preorder discounts under 2$😊
This is why I buy every Spawn title and it's variant cover. Pre-ordering through my comic shop the cost is actually $1.94 per issue plus they bag and board my books for free. Also buying every ghost machine title,where many of their #1 issues are oversized at $3.99. And every one of these books comes with cardstock covers and excellent thick glossy interior pages.
@@Doopy_Huckleberry plus the Ghost Machine art and stories are high quality
@@undeterminedalias yeah this for sure. I feel like my money was well earned by ghost machine after reading one of their books, I definitely don't feel that way after reading a Marvel $4.99 "talent tax" book and the staple pops at the centerfold due to horrible quality control issues after just one read through.
I was pretty disappointed that John's is pushing Geiger to a monthly book that Frank can't keep up on art and replacing him with Paul Pelletier, but I rather enjoyed Paul's art on the latest issue, I thought it was more consistent than the transition from Mooneyham to Pelletier on GI Joe.
With better paper too
I am an independent comic book maker, and the cost of printing just keep increasing . It has increased twice this year from the printer company I use, and I will not print my comics in China.
Even if you use China, its very expensive. And you don't have to pay yourself for your work. I fully agree that comics are priced outside their value, but I don't think guys like this understand the price pressure.
Agreed! I'm in the same boat, and I won't use the slow boat either. Keep supporting American business and f the CCP! It is what it is.
how is it cheaper to buy a brand-new blu-ray movie than a comic book?
DC’s decision to make Action Comics weekly is baffling. Especially with the $5 cover price. At least cut the backup story (that most people skip) and make it $3.99.
They did this in the 80s and 90s also.
@@billybarnett2846 when comics were $1
I think it’s only weekly for this story arc which ends in December
@@billybarnett2846yeah and it failed
I just picked up a copy of that new small “DC Compact Comics” Hush paperback for $9.99. That seems like a great price for freaking Lee and Loeb.
Most trade paperbacks collect 6 issues of 20-22 pages. Why they don’t go compact to save shelf space for retailer AND SAVE the readers $5 -$10 is an easy sell.
The compact format is a great idea.
I work in a high school library and we just got a few of those new DC Compact books and they look great and the price is very reasonable. That should be the model, as well as Marvels Mighty Masterworks.
Comics are very expensive here in Brazil too in these days. I confess that is more and more hard to be a comic book collector lately.
@TomOBedlam-i1s It's Marvel and DC published by Brazilian Panini. I had Danilo Beyruth Necronauta that's is a independent Brazillian comic too.
Remember $2.99? Todd McFarlane still does!
I would hunger for comics that are anywhere between $1-$3
Thanks again for putting this serious problem into perspective, Wes. Keep it up!
Thanks Brian!
Funny you bring up Image. I started reading Spawn again because of their $2.99 price tag and I'm enjoying it.
The industry will last maybe 5 years if it does correct itself
And that is exactly why I support the Spawn books. Value. A little respect for people.
Agreed! 5 - 6 is way too much. I remember in the late 90s/ early 00s 2.75 or 3.50 comics were considered top of the line - Annuals, small collected editions, deluxe books. It's totally crazy now.
It's the same with movies and video games. They forgot that this is poor man's entertainment. Look at all the streaming services that are also struggling. No one has money for all this stuff.
Tough to shell out all that cash on NEW books. I was at a Con this weekend and people were going nuts on OLD books at a vender that was doing $30…for an ENTIRE short-box🤑
They’ve priced out their future audience and a good deal of their existing customers. I give out comics at Halloween and the kids love it. But I’ve also seen parents bring them into the shop and bawk at the prices (among other things). The well will eventually run dry with “collectors “. Alterna still has reasonably priced books and it’s a big reason I can give them out. My LCS also cuts me a deal on $1 books and leftovers from free comics days. But even if they find something they want to continue reading, the price is a deterrent. Most kids that come into the shop either leave with toys,manga or empty handed. It’s sad honestly. I’ve watched my shop pivot away from new books for awhile now. Not to mention I haven’t seen anything hyped enough to drive lines of customers in since the failed Bat/Cat marriage debacle.
You’re right!Alterna has Alternaween. You can buy a bundle of all ages comics to give to kids. It’s a great deal.
Here Comes CALICO $2.99
When the current speculator bubble fully pops (already VERY deflated) there will not be the underlying customer base (readers in the 6 figures for many titles in the mid 90s) to keep things afloat. They are entirely selling to speculators with the lipstick of the decent looking ratio variant (that will ultimately be worth $1-10 a few years from now) on the pig of the art and story inside.
💯
Agree. Comics are way too expensive right now. This price tag is a huge barrier for new readers, especially younger ones.
Kids cannot afford 6 dollar for regular Ultimate Spider-Man comics with their pocket money. Probably, they even keep their money and buying Lego set at the end of the month.😂
We don't even discuss about competitors, like Manga or Anime.
I remember when the $5 price point was for indie books. Now, there's either no difference between indies and the Big Two, or the Big Two are more expensive. If the top publishers want to give the industry another heyday, they need to match Image Comics. Then the other things wrong in comics will need to be address. I don't see them taking all the necessary steps to accomplish that, let alone getting pass the price point issue.
I remember saying to myself that I wouldn’t buy a comic over £5 unless it was an annual or oversized but now I’m regularly paying just over that for regular books from the big 2 and some from Image. I do get a discount from my online store of 25% if I buy 5 or more books though.
Listen,
Most of the comic book fans are "divorced dentists" like that guy said.
We actually pay more for back issues and we don't mind.
The product sells itself.
But since the new books suck, they are condemned.
And the market will always reveal the real value of the book.
I will never how shocked I was when I saw the old x-o manowar with art by Quesada with the gold foil cover in the dollar bin.
Even the iron age books will reveal their real value in time
A movie ticket is about 10$ (A movie is around 2hrs) A comic is around 5$ for 20 minutes of reading
Yeah& these modern movies are agenda driven crap so struggle to make $
Hollywood needs surgery to recall it’s head from arse
20 minutes is being generous, with modern decompressed storytelling a 22 page modern comic can be finished in a little over 5 minutes. It’s just ridiculous to expect somebody to drop $4-$5 for such limited entertainment.
The price really is a wall for lapsed readers that keep in touch with what’s going on in comics by watching you and others. Considering the poor quality of story & art, the constant events, relaunches and likelihood of a comic being dropped after 6 issues, the price is obscene. I had a big pull list for decades until the late 2000s but it’s not worth it to me in both price and quality to keep one now. It’s better to wait for the trades. Unfortunately for the LCSs, the economy is so bad when I get trades I get them on Amazon.
Every customer we have left is working a minimum 2 jobs to afford comics.
@@gothamcitycomics6981 I've turned to second hand trades to feed my (fully admitted) addiction.
I think I would need to make a full size figures to afford the amount of comics I read if I was buying at $4.99 a pop for 22 pages (that can be read in 5 minutes with modern writing styles.)
What made Chuck Rozanski popular is the Edgar Church collection. It's a very pristine Golden Age collection from a guy that uses them as models for his work such as calling cards, birthday cards etc.
Throw in QR codes and public contempt for long time customers Marvel can rot.
Comics with questionable art and story - combined with high prices, yeah my kids will not be reading new comics anytime soon. It feels like the industry is trying to off itself.
That sounds about right
Loved to hear more about the spawn universe
I stopped collecting 20 years ago. I'm just been selling my collection off on eBay. I'm more into the art of the comic. Drawing art for collectors
It's time to go back to news print. They can make high price collectible issues on glossy paper but the bulk needs to be on news print.
I think that Ram V's Detective story is the most expensive story ever. You need like 180$ to read a story with no good conclusion, plotholes, and mediocre art. Welldone DC, this is the worst Detective Story ever.
Come on ending was good. And most of the artists was top tier. But its expensive yes.
@@arman3804 Tell me what happened at the end without research.
@@Dion1605x bruce scares scarecrow so much(for a second he gives up to barbatos) and with the machine crane connected, the city remembers to fear batman again.
@@arman3804 And you want to tell me that a competent writer needs three years for it?
@@Dion1605x Like most of the comic book runs hero beats villain in the end:D okay stroy is not for everyone but artists was really good. Ivan reis rafael albuerque gulliem march dexter soy.
Sell comics in grocery stores that kids can afford to buy that appeal to general audiences with inoffensive advertisements. Generations of kids are growing up less literate because publishers, distributors, and “local” comic shops want to sell fewer and more expensive comics with multiple variant covers and political and social agenda-driven gender-grooming stories. Local comic shops are part of the problem because most of them are not local, and they don’t sell comics kids can afford to buy or that are appropriate for kids to read.
Yep. Won't happen but this ^^^
If only. Western kids these days aren’t going to bite, but I would as an adult. Price matters, as does content. Art is king in comics & the ‘writer based’ 4-6 part stories really bore me by this point. Anticlimactic style of storytelling that never truly ends with the needless string you along ‘cliffhangers’ they suck. Finish the story.
Fantastic Video on this particular Coverage - I was telling someone on X few days back that our publisher's "Low-key" encourages Piracy at the highest Productivity Because of situations as such. & then they Prey on the remaining customers w a New idea Called "Omnibus" because they expect your gonna hold your dollars until they Get arc together. Comics need a Think-Tank of sorts to tackle these problems with peers trying to hi jack it
I think the collection that you were thinking of was the Edgar Church collection… also known as the Mile High collection. There was also a second Mile High II collection, so it could have been that.
Just makes it easier to not spend my money. Least amount of money ive spent on Wednesday's in years. Even when i add a new ongoing like Absolute Batman i typically find something to stop reading in its place
Comic fans have been gripping about the rising prices since marvel and dc reduced their 25 cent books to 52 pages back in the month of June 1971. i remember a bud of mine checking out my superman 242, and saying "Its so thin!" that's when DC's yearly giants went to 35 cents.
I used to buy six or seven books a week. I'm down to three books a month. When I retire in a couple years, I'm dropping all floppies and switching to Marvel Unlimited.
In addition to the two DC Scooby-Doo titles you mentioned, their Looney Tunes book is also only $2.99. It's fun!
Here in Edmonton Alberta, last week I spent $8.40 for each new DC comic I bought………….. :(
I buy independent floppies and Kindle trades.
this kind of relates back to your point about committind to either gn or monthly floppies. for monthly floppies it should be no more than 3 dollars, especially digital. the prices they charge now are gn or trade paperback prices. go back to newsprint for monthly comics to lower the price. they are supposed to cheap disposable entertainment.
Writing for the trade is the most frustrating thing for me because I forget what happened last issue half the time.
Todds Violator #2 out next week is 5.99 but it does have full interior art by Kyle Hotz
When I was a kid I relied only on back issue bins... I didn't pickup comics regularly until I started working and had my own income. Marvel and DC titles had just increased to $2.25 at the time.
I have trimmed my pull list significantly to barely 3-4 titles now that $4.99 is now the norm... and I am certainly not gonna start buying Spawn or Scooby Doo
Really wouldn’t mind paying if they increase the quality and quantity (as in number of pages) going into each issue. But, there are so many books where nothing consequential happens in 32 pages.
I’m enjoying Space Ghost but it’s going to get more difficult to pay the price if a book comes out I want more. Especially when the writer has me blocked on X. Never heard of him before SG.
The digital subscription for a year or trade wait is the only affordable option.
I will give Marvel credit for keeping foil covers at the same price as the main covers ($4.99.) At DC if you have a main cover at $4.99 you can bet the foil cover will be anywhere from $6.99 to $9.99. I also wanted to add that the horrible cash grab of the Batman Day free comic of The Long Halloween #1 special edition, they added a foil cover version that is $9.99 and as soon as you open it you see the main cover that still says it's free.
when collecting anything not every product has to be good, and when you think of collectors (more common in some industries than others) often times much of their collection is trash! That is why I don't understand how so many limited series/trades are so bad (in the opinion of most content creators) when it should be the on-goings that are so bad, because the strategy with on-goings is to pump them out as fast as possible - mostly because they are meant for quick consumption, but once they became collectables it was just another reason to just keep pumping them out.
Dstlry is expensive, but my god do they produce a nice looking, feeling, and smelling book. They also have a social media guy that will answer your questions within the hour. I don't mind paying for those books. They're always top-notch quality inside and out, plus they have the best creative teams.
I spend lots of money on manga because they give me enough content that I'm not afraid to read it and be disappointed that it went by so fast like I am with individual comics.
Well it’s called economy of scale if your not selling many it cost more the more you sell the more you can bring the price down.
As both marvel and DC have gone out of the way to decrease customer retention.
my pull list is the smallest its ever been because prices ive been gift carding amazon trades fot a few years unless it a book i want to live i.e she-hulk
This is correct, Absolute Batman, Superman, WonderWoman started 36-40+pages 4,99 and the next issues 20-30 pages 4,99usd :D , JLU is top art and only 3,99 for 20-30 pages , anyway everyone does it it seems , buying comics in Europe is extra expensive add 1$ more on top of the price , these comics in EU start from 5,99$
Yeah but I haven’t done singles for years I mainly buy trades or omnibus collections which are already high but I prefer to spend more on a complete collection in one like a omnibus than singles feels better to me to buy.
Def been forced to scale back on my monthly pulls. Way too expensive to keep up with all the titles of interest
I partially blame Diamond for this. They have completely sandbagged the industry in the early 2000s, preventing the industry as a whole from evolving into a more sustainable model.
@@omegaman2846 how so?
@@Doopy_Huckleberry They held back comic shops and publishers from innovating the way they distribute and connect with customers, shutting down things like subscription and mailing services. They also monopolized the comics distribution process, which removed the natural price controls that come with a free market.
@@omegaman2846 ah yes, true. I do remember back in the 90s that finding a newsstand copy vs a direct copy it would be cheaper. Makes sense that the monopoly you speak of going direct only and diamond being sole distributor they can force price hikes on comic shops and publishers.
I think it says a lot that even after all the force feeding captain marvel in the mcu that’s there’s no comic book or at least one that comes to mind. Didn’t the last movie featuring the character come out just last year 😆
The cost of printing has gone up that's why comic prices have gone up. Too bad the quality of comics have gone down
I walked away due to the price years ago. Glad I did as the quality now is not worth the price for sure.
I feel for comic book companies though, its not cheap to put out a comic, and even though they are paying as little as possible to the creators, its still really expensive to publish. You cannot just use a flat inflation calculator because the cost of printing and paper has gone up so badly in the last 20 years or so.
The current cover prices would not be a problem if the content was worth the money.
Couple the high cover prices with the fact that many / most of these titles wind up in dollars bins is depressing. I don't need my modern comics to be valuable. I just want to read them. They need to have a Cover A that is cheaper IMO. I'm finally entertaining the idea of a digital subscription to DC. The annual plan / monthly is the cost of 2/3 floppies on NCBD. And you just need to wait 30 days.
I just picked up all twelve issues of Camelot 3000 at my LCS for $12. That’s how buying comics should be.
This is what happens when you quit trying to increase the customer base by bringing in new readers. To compensate they blow up the price, and further marginalize the whole comics reading audience.
There are no "gateway comics" that are cheap, plentiful and designed like dandelions to spread everywhere. Rising price costs ONLY increase piracy.
How the he'll did Marvel manage to do the Direct Market for micronauts, ka-zar, etc for just 15 cents extra (at the time)& they were 32 pages, add free then??
Oh wow, Marvel & DC actually give you review copies? I can’t believe that.
My thing is, at my reading pace, i could read about 10 comics a week. Any more and they spill over to the next week so $50 a week is okay in my book 👍 but then again i started reading comics in 2020 so im very familiar with these prices and the quality of writing
In Marvel Age they talk about Marvel 2099 how expensive comic books are going to get. And now that is becoming a reality. Going to need million dollars or more to buy comic books if the prices keep going up.
I love these videos the most where you state facts about the condition of the industry. Buckley should be touted as a liar because the price points of Marvel comics is all over the place. I have dropped every Marvel comic besides Hulk and Venom because of this, although it appears they raised the price on the All New Venom series to $4.99 so I'm guessing I'll be dropping that too. I went from buying 20+ monthly Marvel comics down to what I can count on one hand in the past 2 years because of their price gouging and horrible quality control issues, and also because i don't want to pay $4.99 a comic for a story that takes anywhere from 6 months to several years of single issues to be resolved if it ever does. They only shot themselves in the foot pricing out this 40 year Marvelite. I'm not even going to bring up the atrocious price of every Aliens vs Avengers book 😂.
I've been buying comics from 40 years ago that have more pages and are better written and with better art (even without the benefit of computer colors)... usually for 3 bucks or less.
When a comic starts nearing the price of a movie ticket people will feel a way about it.
I started for few months in 77 at 25 cents. Then in the 80s with GI JOE at 60 cents. All the way to earlier 90s at 1.25. by they I was into cars.
I hate the large format that DSTLRY puts out. Same with DC'S large format. You can't store them without them getting bent etc.
I feel for my LCS, I only order Transformers, Void Rivals and something called Uncanny Valley from them, I did order Silverhawks Copper Kidd from them but it took weeks of asking, I am sure it won’t be long b4 they don’t exist
I dropped out when prices hit 2.99. came back 3 years ago, choked on the 3.99, price, but shelled out anyway. I'm not gonna buy anything that's more expensive than that, with the exception of Ultramega by Jason Harren, which is like 60 pages.
McFarlane is an American Hero for holding the line at 2.99. I just wish I enjoyed his comics.
Dating myself here Wes, but I remember when comics were a dime then 25 cents …. Things are so different now
Alterna Comics used to be the way at $1.50 a piece, but shops hated it seemingly. They can’t stand making a fan happy, so LCS are part of the prob. Put them in stores & cost less + no more woke-ism
If I had to pick only one Publisher, I would go with Image. They even used to get my attention when I was a teen in the 90s.
Doesn't Alterna charge $1.50 per issue? And they are on pulp. Unfortunately they don't have titles that people want.
Lol....Wes, im old enough to remember going to spinning rack with younger Cousin and we wondered why marvel had on the cover " still only 35 cents"___next month or two....it was up to 40 cents (we were p.o'd) lol
Alterna is still $1.99 for their newsprint line.
Didn't Marvel recently tell us they were aware of the high cover price and the problems this caused for retailers, and didn't they promise they would take that into account during the X-Men relaunch and make new books more affordable and accessible...? Well, I haven't seen much of it yet and the few Marvel titles I still pick up are "all" 4.99, which is more expensive then before the relaunch. 🙄
The only one that still gives us comics for a low price (and on good paper as a plus!), is McFarlane. I don't always agree with Todd, especially when it comes to toys and action figures, but I respect him for that. If Todd can do it, you're not going to tell me Marvel (Disney) and DC (WB) can't!
Image also typically puts their trade vol 1's at $9.99.
In Australia you can double the cover price. But as we keep getting told its all meant for a modern audience now, whoever they are.
You have to be able to drop approximately $50-100 per week to collect on a regular basis.
This is why I buy Alterna books. It’s only $1.99 on newsprint.
It's to the point now where I visit my local Ollie's and buy the six books for five ninety nine. They also have seven packs and most of the books are in good shape. Found a couple of Batman books that are worth money. There's also number one's and books from three years ago. When comic books were two ninety nine I would buy ten number one issue's like the Punisher ongoing series. At least then I could make some money and still afford to buy new number one's. I'm trying to sell my collection of about two thousand books now.
I literally find overstock of comics that came out from the last six months in the $1 bins. (that's $1 canadian). it's time to use lower paper stock or something to get this cheaper.
also why the hell is marvel publishing 70 comics and dc almost 60?! when you said that wes, my jaw dropped. no wonder they charging so much. it should be more like 15 titles a month!
Like Captain America but nother relaunch.Stopped Immortal Thor at $9.00 a month now just occasional back issue.
Not so much as a reach-around before the shafting.