The Digital Switch and How It Affects Your Buying Habits

EarthGBilly

I finally have given in to digital.

It wasn't really a question. I have wanted to for a while, I just had to "get over" not owning a copy of the material. I had hoped that Image's DRM-Free formatting would inspire others to follow, but I could grow old waiting for that.

I accept that I am paying for the right to read the material instead of really owning it. Fine.

I have been with Comixology for about a week, but I'm pretty thrilled with the format so far. A lot of the monthly titles I'm currently buying are coming to an end or facing creative team changes, which makes it a good time to make the switch to digital. Besides, I don't really consider myself a "collector" anymore, just a reader, so the physical copies just take up space. Tell me I can read the book I want for less money and not have it sitting around when I'm done? I'm ready to commit.

Of course, though, there is an adjustment. The Comixology sales are amazing, but, if I'm not careful, they will break me. So I am kinda having to redefine how I am buying and reading my books.

For example, the Green Arrow sale going on right now. In that sale are the first 12 issues of Lemire's run, which I've been told is pretty amazing. 99 cents each? Yep, I'm buying.

I could blow through these in a week (much less, if I'm honest), but I have to realign my habits, both reading and buying. Given the sales, I have to factor those into my budget, but I also have to realize some of the sales will have me more interested in purchasing than others.

At first, I thought, hey, I'll treat these like a trade purchase... but that doesn't really work, given how often the sales happen. Buying "trades" once a month is one thing, but these sales seem to change weekly.

For the first time, I have to kinda play the long game in my buying. My buying habits have to resemble those folks who buy mostly runs of older titles instead of new single issues. I have to dole out my reading more. Instead of a straight forward budget, I have to divide the cost of runs over a multi-month period of reading.

Still, this is for the best. I was just wondering how the digital switch has affected other peoples buying habits, if they are making big adjustments like me or just keeping up with their monthly books.

WetRats

I've had a tablet for over a year now, still haven't bought a digital comic.

Don't plan to, as long as my LCS stays in business.

hauberk

WetRats said:

I've had a tablet for over a year now, still haven't bought a digital comic.

Don't plan to, as long as my LCS stays in business.

Exact same boat. My books are almost entirely filed and cataloged so that I can find things and so can my kids and so far, 2/3 are interested in reading stuff. I'm not going to repurchase and we already have custody battles over the family tablet.

Nick

I am about 50/50. I buy the ones I REALLY enjoy or may want to get signed some day from my LCS, but others I know I'll only read once and be done? iPad baby. I think a lot of people will continue to do this, the iPad is smaller than a comic, and of course can't compare with oversized HCs in my book, but I do love being able to carry 100's of comics with me that weighs the same as a trade.

playdohsrepublic

I dipped my toe in a couple of years ago and digital slowly took over my buying habits. Any new book I start I get digitally. And as I began to drop books I'm now at the point where I only get 3 titles in physical copies, one of which (Daredevil) I'm seriously considering switching now that a new volume has started. It was the sales that hooked me. I bought The Dark Knight Returns for 3.99. The whole thing. I paid like $5 for New Frontier. And then Image started dropping the price of their books after 30 days. I'd say the biggest change for me is that since the big 2 don't drop their prices for 6-12 months I have stopped buying their books. Image, on the other hand, makes up like 60% of my reading material. Dark Horse also has amazing bundles, and I read a lot more from them. I feel like the way the digital marketplace works its able to introduce me to books I never would have tried in the past. I cant tell you how many sales have hooked me for books from companies I've never even heard of.

As for the Big 2, I'm doing the trial month on Marvel Unlimited, and, interface issues aside (worst reader out there IMO), its a great service. I've read close to 75 issues of books I would never have purchased, but alsways wanted to read. It's made me a fan of characters I didn't care for before and more likely to conisder picking their books up in the future. The library is always about 6 months behind, but considering I have about that far back in the print books i was buying left unread that doesn't bother me, plus the instant gratification of being able to immediately read the next issue without waiting or paying is great. Considering how the 3.99 price point has pushed me away MU was a great tool to bring me back into the fold.

DC on the other hand... Their digital-firsts program is way ahead of Marvel's. They have new books come out every day and their master over the guided view format has yet to be matched. But all of them are out of continuity with New 52, so I've stopped reading everything pertaining to the primary DCU.

I should say that I'm not into signings or collecting at all, so I have no attachment to my physical copies which made doing the switch much easier for me I think.

fredzilla

For me it really depends on the book. I still get floppies, but I try to ensure they are the ones with digital codes so that if I decide to sell or donate my books one day, at least I will have a digital copy to read later. I also have a large collection of trades and hardcovers. There's something about having the physical book with the the tactile feeling of turning the page.

That said, I have spent waaaay too much money on digital books. I jump on a lot of sales on comiXology and post links to them in one of the threads on these here forums. I've been able to purchase a lot of books and read a lot of books that would not have normally caught my attention. I feel much better about spending $1 an issue or 50-60% off trades/collections. The nice thing about some of the sales I get is that it has been long enough for that book to have buzz behind it or not. I was a little piqued at the "Age of Ultron" storyline until I heard how horrible it was and so I was able to avoid it in print, and later when the digital issues went on sale. The biggest problem I have is that I only own an iPhone. My son has an iPad (we got it for him after he had to have major sugery and was going to be out of commission for about a month) and my wife has a Kindle Fire. I have to "borrow" one of their devices when I want to read something.

CaptShazam

I tried digital once about two years ago and it was just not for me at that timeI get just about everything in trade and I am satisfied with that.

I like the idea of saving space that digital would bring because my comic book room is nearly full. The big 2 however have help me with this the last few months by mostly publishing things I do not want.

Mr_Cosmic

I used to buy the occasional issue off of Comixology on my iPad. I've since switched to a Kindle Fire and find reading comics much more enjoyable with the higher resolution. I don't really buy single issues digitally anymore but I'll buy "trades" from Amazon and read them on the Kindle.

Chuck_Melville

I only get the digital freebies or previews. I still prefer the floppies over all.

EarthGBilly

I had no real attachments to an LCS, since the nearest one to my house is now... a 50 minute drive into another state? Yeah, wow...

Anyway, sometimes I think I will miss the physical copies, but then I look around the collection of books that are nearly overrunning my house and think I won't really miss them so much.

Some things I will continue to buy physical copies for. Series of trades that I've started picking up, I'll at least finish. Darkhorse titles that I want (because I have a Surface that I read on, and Darkhorse has continued to NOT develop a reader for Windows). Like I said in my original post, I'll continue on with my current pull list until creative changes or cancellations/endings.

Torchsong

I bought several New52 books digitally - like Legion and Demon Knights - and supported the Digital First books like Ame-Comi Girls (double dipping when these titles went to trade).

I've been a longstanding reader of the MarvelDCU which I don't use NEARLY as much as I ought to be, but I'm always glad to have it around.

And I read torrents of scanlated manga but only if it's not something available here via a publisher.

Greg

I still go to my LCS for what I have to have in print. Digital for stuff that I want to check out but don't want it taking up space. There is some stuff that I end up sticking with but usually wait for a price drop. I have contemplated going all digital, but I like my lcs and the guys who work there.

Nick

Torchsong said:

And I read torrents of scanlated manga but only if it's not something available here via a publisher.

Not to sound dumb...but aren't torrents illegal? Not judging or anything, I just am curious if they are even still around.

matchkitJOHN

I had stopped buying floppies in 2012 so I was pretty much out of comics. Then Superior Spider-man happened and I got pulled back in. I got that Superior Foes, Allred's FF, Superior Team-up, and the Daredevil Knights book. I picked up a few other things here and there. I also got my Nook HD+ when they did that price drop last year and I have gotten some issues here and there.

Now that Superior Spidey is ending I am going to find a stopping point for Superior Foes and Ms. Marvel (probably the first arc) My major digital purchase was the Daredevil bundle over a week ago. All 37 issues for $29! So I will probably get bundles and catch the sales. Thanks Fredzilla! I just have a hard time paying $4 for something digital. So I will probably find books from companies other than Marvel that discount their books.

Jersen

The closest I've come to going digital is reading some torrents I've downloaded of books that I haven't been able to find/purchase. It's definitely not the same as holding a physical copy and flipping through the pages. I'm the same way about books and music too, though. I have a Kindle and it's cool and I've read some books on it, but I still pick up physical copies. I've also purchased and downloaded quite a bit of music, but I still like having a CD that I can take to the can with me and read the liner notes.

Of course, space is the main issue with being such a stickler for physical copies, and I have an entire bedroom taken up with 17 long/short boxes of comics, a wall of bookshelves full of books and TPBs, and another wall of shelves filled with somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 CDs.

I should really just get over myself and embrace the future.

Mr_Cosmic

Nick said:

Torchsong said:

And I read torrents of scanlated manga but only if it's not something available here via a publisher.

Not to sound dumb...but aren't torrents illegal? Not judging or anything, I just am curious if they are even still around.

Torrents themselves aren't illegal. BitTorrent is just a peer-to-peer means of transferring data. Although, If what's being seeded is copyrighted..then yes, it's illegal.

bamfbamf

i'm purely digital at this point

before i went purely digital, i basically only bought 50% off trades at conventions or cheap sets of floppies of complete storylines from my LCS

so now that i'm purely digital, i only buy on comixology when books are on sale... i love @fredzilla‌'s 99 cent forum thread...

i also buy itunes gift cards when they are on sale, so i'm buying books for even less than 99 cents

the only time i pay full retail on comixology is when the latest walking dead collection comes out

so basically i'm a cheap bastard

but comixology is awesome... i can read comics where ever i am... i have twin boys, so finding the time to read comics gets harder and harder... i read a lot when i'm on the toilet at work... or on the toilet at home... and i never have to worry about finding space to store my comics or organizing my comics

the only con is that i cant share my comics with friends and who knows if comixology will be around in the future

i can honestly say, i am reading more comic books now, because of comixology, than when i was waiting for 50% off trades

Torchsong

What Mr. Cosmic said (in re: Are torrents illegal?) pretty much nails it.

Much of what exists in Japan doesn't make it over here (the US), so groups who are able to translate it create "Scanlations" of it, where they do some quick Photoshop fu and replace the Japanese with English.

Yes, it's still illegal. Nobody really seems interested in doing anything about it, though. I think if more money were changing hands (which it isn't) there'd be more interest. And I think when they DO go after the torrenters it's because they're posting scanned pages of books that HAVE been licensed and have English version ready to be bought.

What I've found particularly interesting is that there's a sort of "Honor Among Thieves" about many of the scanlations - if a book gets "picked up" (a good example is the recently acquired license for a book called BTOOM!) the scanlation group not only stopped their work, but posted at the end of the chapter an encouragement to readers to go buy the thing!

For myself, I don't read torrents of anything I can buy. If it's a new series I'm considering, I'll look at the first chapter on a torrent site to see if it's worth the buy. One exception was a license for a book that got picked up, was awesome, and the company with the license never printed anything beyond that. I used the torrent to find out what happened. If they ever start printing again or another company picks it up, I'll drop the torrent immediately.

joewhite73

My case will not specifically pertain to all of you since I am totally new to comics. I only read comics digitally. That being said, I currently only read Marvel comics through their Marvel Unlimited service. I paid $70 back in mid-Febuary and have read just over 200 comics!!! How in the world can you beat that? It will take me several years (if ever) to catch up to the newest released. But there are the obvious limitation to this approach...
I'm missing out on the DC universe. Well, I wouldn't say that is exactly true since I have not really jumped into the DCU yet. I am tempted to through by listening to the CGS guys.

Gargoyle

Been primarily digital for a while now, mainly buying through comixology sales...I can't bring myself to spend £2.49 on a comic that lasts 5-10 minutes and I don't own.

I've also got Marvel Unlimited which is crazily good value if you can handle being 6-12 months out of date, but as a WFTTer of old this is no big deal to me at all.