DC Books $3.99?

brydeemer

I guess I wasn't paying attention, as I haven't ordered a single issue in a long time. So DC books are $3.99 now, too?

I was trying to decide if I should order Batman digitally or get the trade or whatever and I noticed that starting with issue 8, the digital issues on Comixology cost $2.99.

This really sucks.

I know everything costs more these days, not just comics, but it's getting harder and harder for me to justify spending that much money for one comic. I've been reading fewer and fewer superhero books and spending most of my money on indie books, but it is still fun to read some Marvel and DC.

I hate that I have to chose very carefully and hesitate over spending the money. I really wish that older books could be $.99 digitally. If I can't buy the new stuff, at least let me buy 25-year issues of "West Coast Avengers" for cheap. Something. Anything.

I guess I've just reached that age when you start to think everything should cost as much as it used to when I was a kid.

How does everyone else handle this decision-making process?

Bry

John_Steed

I didn't grow up a "single-issue-reader". I was buying the first couple of the newDC from comiXology mainly to be able to follow the discussions on the interwebs. But the price for those 20+ pages are outrageous.

So I soon settled for those awesome sales they have. There is always plenty of good stuff . And I'm also getting lots of cool indie books. TopShelf is a company that sells many of their outstanding products for cheap. They always rock my boat.

In short: I stay away from those $2.99/3.99 books. There are plenty of good alternatives.

brydeemer

I should add that when I explore the Comixology app on my iPad I really want to check out a bunch of these books. I just find it hard to click the button and actually spend the money.

Once in a while I'll do it, but most of the time I just sigh and close the app and go read a book. It's not what I want to do, but that's just what ends up happening.

Bry

luckymustard

I'm not aware of any DC books that don't have extra/back-up material that are $3.99.

And because of that it doesn't affect my buying habits. Sometimes I buy the $4.99 to $7.99 books and am fine with it because I see that they are longer.

Chuck_Melville

Yeah, the majority of the DC titles are still $2.99. The few that are $3.99 have extra pages and usually a second feature, so you at least get your money's worth.

jaydee74

The Batman book is $3.99 because of the added content of a backup story which is now a thing that they will do. I happen to like the particular backup story so I don't mind paying the money but I buy a considerable amount less than I used to. However, I still buy Marvel and DC which are my bread and butter entertainment books. However, with the exception of the Batman book, I won't buy any book that isn't $2.99.

Greg

I got scared there for a minute. Chuck's right, it's still $2.99 for the majority of the titles and $3.99 for the titles with extra pages.

fxmatt

I don't have a problem with Batman at $3.99 because the added backup stories have been decent but I can't say the same for Justice League. I'm not a Shazzam fan and wish I could opt out of that extra dollar for a JL book without the backup.

jaydee74

See, for me it's the reverse. I like the Shazam backup more than I do the Justice League story.

Torchsong

Digitally I buy day and date two books (Demon Knights and Legion) - I spend the $2.99 because I want these books to continue. So I'm voting with my dollar.

Bryan, if you want DC books on the cheap, check out the deal at www.tanga.com (full addy is in another thread). I just subscribed to Batman for essentially a buck a book ($11.99). You won't get them much cheaper than that.

I'm also buying the Ame-Comi books when they put them out - which are 99 cents each and digital only (although the first book is coming out now for the WW one). I'll likely double-dip and get a collected trade if they make one (big hint DC!)

luckymustard

Torch, check out the recent solicits, because I'm pretty sure I saw Ame-Comi collections there, coming out in October-ish.

Planeis

brydeemer said:

I guess I wasn't paying attention, as I haven't ordered a single issue in a long time. So DC books are $3.99 now, too?

I was trying to decide if I should order Batman digitally or get the trade or whatever and I noticed that starting with issue 8, the digital issues on Comixology cost $2.99.

This really sucks.

I know everything costs more these days, not just comics, but it's getting harder and harder for me to justify spending that much money for one comic. I've been reading fewer and fewer superhero books and spending most of my money on indie books, but it is still fun to read some Marvel and DC.

I hate that I have to chose very carefully and hesitate over spending the money. I really wish that older books could be $.99 digitally. If I can't buy the new stuff, at least let me buy 25-year issues of "West Coast Avengers" for cheap. Something. Anything.

I guess I've just reached that age when you start to think everything should cost as much as it used to when I was a kid.

How does everyone else handle this decision-making process?

Bry

Here's what drives me crazy about this. Comics to me are a very similar industry to magazines. Published monthly or bi-monthly, writers, editors, artwork, deadlines. If you buy a copy of Motor Trend off the rack at a store it might be $5. But you can order 2 years worth for like $18. That means each issue is less than $1.

Now before people start point out the artists, keep in mind a magazine like Motor Trend probably takes 5,000 pictures per issue and has to whittle them down. They travel all over the country. And the magazine is probably 5 times longer than your average comic book.

So look, why the hell doesn't sell reasonably priced subscriptions. I know, you can find sales here and there and get good deals. But the price of a magazine subscription isn't a sale, thats just how it works. They want subscriptions so that they can go tell their advertisers that they have 200,000 guranteed readers every month or whatever. DC should be selling subscriptions right from their website for cheap.

And when it comes to a digital subscription we should all be able to buy one years worth for $10. Period. End of discussion. Even if it comes out a week "late" they could sell sooooo many copies. And not only that, but given the digital distribution format they could put more ads in without having to pay for printing and could put a 15 second comercial in the middle if they wished.

Their pricing model is so super effed up its ridiculous.

Planeis

Chuck_Melville said:

Yeah, the majority of the DC titles are still $2.99. The few that are $3.99 have extra pages and usually a second feature, so you at least get your money's worth.

How is that getting your moneys worth? Its not the same medium, but you can spend $5, just a little more, and get several hundred pages worth of content in a book. Or, like I wrote above for the similar medium of magazines you can get very cheap subscriptions. And not only that, but when I subscribe to Motor Trend or ESPN for $20 for two years I also get the digital versian of the magazine plus extra content for FREE.

luckymustard

Maybe like the video game industry is starting to realize (EA recently) that what they've been charging isn't working, and adjusting down accordingly, the comics industry will too, soon hopefully.

Torchsong

I think you've kind of answered your own question there - it comes down to advertising. I'm a regular subscriber to Wired - I think it's maybe $10 for a year - but the book is perhaps 50% ads, probably more. I don't read Motor Trend or ESPN but you can either confirm or deny if the situation is the same. So when you have that much advertising, you can hawk the book for cheaper.

In my funnybooks I see maybe one to three ads (to be fair I never really sat and counted them). I wonder if circulation plays a role in that as well. If the average book is pushing 33,000 copies a month (and yes, I pulled that figure out of my ass) maybe they really *can't* attract advertisers to them.

Chuck_Melville

Planeis said:

How is that getting your moneys worth? Its not the same medium, but you can spend $5, just a little more, and get several hundred pages worth of content in a book. Or, like I wrote above for the similar medium of magazines you can get very cheap subscriptions. And not only that, but when I subscribe to Motor Trend or ESPN for $20 for two years I also get the digital versian of the magazine plus extra content for FREE.

Okay, I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

It's not a book; it's more akin to a magazine, and it's cheaper than most magazines, and with a whole lot less ad content. I'm not much attracted to taditional mail subscriptions because that leaves the packaging prey to the mercies of the mail handler, and I've yet to receive a magazine or catalog that doesn't get manhandled and mangled in some unfortunate manner, so I don't feel like I'd be getting any benefit out of getting a cheap subscription to anything unless it were shipped inside a steel box.

The average comic at DC is $2.99 for 32 pages. That's 9.3 cents a page. The 40 page comic is $3.99; I'm paying an extra dollar for those 8 pages. (Ideally, I should only have to pay 75 cents, but what are you going to do?) Basically, I don't care. What matters is that there is more material and that there is an extra story. I don't even care if it's a story that I don't like; it's still an extra story. (Usually, I do like the extra story.) Therefore, I personally feel it's worth the extra buck and I want that extra story. I'd rather pay $3.99 for a 40 page comic than for a 32 page comic. (I'd feel a lot better, though, if I were paying $3.99 for a 48 page comic...)

brydeemer

I wish I could have a choice, at least digitally, to buy just the Batman portion for $2.99 or the whole thing for $3.99.

I want to spend as little as possible. I'm not concerned with getting the most content.

Bry

jaydee74

luckymustard said:

Maybe like the video game industry is starting to realize (EA recently) that what they've been charging isn't working, and adjusting down accordingly, the comics industry will too, soon hopefully.

Not if it's a Brian Michael Bendis book who insists that people want to pay $3.99 for a book because guess what? People pay $3.99 for a book and it's not going to change unless people start voting with their wallet and don't buy that book.

brydeemer

Yeah, I'm really not sure why they aren't offering digital subscriptions yet.

It would be great to get a discount and to have the issues pushed to your device on Wednesday at midnight. I don't want to forget that a new issue came out.

We have the technology, let's start using!

Bry

Torchsong

luckymustard said:

Torch, check out the recent solicits, because I'm pretty sure I saw Ame-Comi collections there, coming out in October-ish.

Yep! I saw that. I'm holding out hope they'll collect and trade the whole shebang. I won't mind double-dipping for that. Apparently there's also grumblings about an ongoing series for it. Earth AC, anyone? :)

Planeis

Torchsong said:

I think you've kind of answered your own question there - it comes down to advertising. I'm a regular subscriber to Wired - I think it's maybe $10 for a year - but the book is perhaps 50% ads, probably more. I don't read Motor Trend or ESPN but you can either confirm or deny if the situation is the same. So when you have that much advertising, you can hawk the book for cheaper.

In my funnybooks I see maybe one to three ads (to be fair I never really sat and counted them). I wonder if circulation plays a role in that as well. If the average book is pushing 33,000 copies a month (and yes, I pulled that figure out of my ass) maybe they really *can't* attract advertisers to them.

Sure, magazines have a lot of ads. They have a lot of content too, much much more than a comic. And the comics I read have much more than 3 ads already.

brydeemer

How about this: Can I please have ads in my digital comics? Lower the price by another buck or two. I'll happily look at ads if it means I can read more comics for less money.

Bry

Planeis

Chuck_Melville said:

Planeis said:

How is that getting your moneys worth? Its not the same medium, but you can spend $5, just a little more, and get several hundred pages worth of content in a book. Or, like I wrote above for the similar medium of magazines you can get very cheap subscriptions. And not only that, but when I subscribe to Motor Trend or ESPN for $20 for two years I also get the digital versian of the magazine plus extra content for FREE.

Okay, I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

It's not a book; it's more akin to a magazine, and it's cheaper than most magazines, and with a whole lot less ad content. I'm not much attracted to taditional mail subscriptions because that leaves the packaging prey to the mercies of the mail handler, and I've yet to receive a magazine or catalog that doesn't get manhandled and mangled in some unfortunate manner, so I don't feel like I'd be getting any benefit out of getting a cheap subscription to anything unless it were shipped inside a steel box.

The average comic at DC is $2.99 for 32 pages. That's 9.3 cents a page. The 40 page comic is $3.99; I'm paying an extra dollar for those 8 pages. (Ideally, I should only have to pay 75 cents, but what are you going to do?) Basically, I don't care. What matters is that there is more material and that there is an extra story. I don't even care if it's a story that I don't like; it's still an extra story. (Usually, I do like the extra story.) Therefore, I personally feel it's worth the extra buck and I want that extra story. I'd rather pay $3.99 for a 40 page comic than for a 32 page comic. (I'd feel a lot better, though, if I were paying $3.99 for a 48 page comic...)

I'm not attacking you or anything, I just feel very passionately about this topic. It is more akin to a magazine, which is why I compared it to that above. But its not cheaper than most magazines. It's not even close. A subscription to your favorite magazine could easily work out to be 75 cents or less per issue. Thats my whole point. You can get several years worth of your favorite magazine for $40 or less. And yes, they do have more ads. Sure, but they also have much, much, much more content. You can finish a comic in 10 minutes. Reading a magazine cover to cover takes one hour plus.

I get it if you want it to be in absolutely pristine condition that you want to buy it off the shelf. Fine. You can still do that just like you can buy magazines off the rack. But I've gotten plenty of magazines through the mail and they turn out just fine for my purposes.

And also, like I said, magazines offer subscriptions for super cheap compared to the cover price and give you the digital copy with extra content for FREE.

Chuck_Melville

brydeemer said:

I wish I could have a choice, at least digitally, to buy just the Batman portion for $2.99 or the whole thing for $3.99.

I want to spend as little as possible. I'm not concerned with getting the most content.

Bry

Wouldn't the simplest solution, in that case, be to not buy anything at all? Content is why we buy the comics in the first place. The more content I can get for my money, the more content I am.

As a long, long time comic reader, I miss the days when comics were anthologized and you could get three or more (admittedly compressed) stories in a single issue. I lament their passing.

David_D

brydeemer said:

How about this: Can I please have ads in my digital comics? Lower the price by another buck or two. I'll happily look at ads if it means I can read more comics for less money.

Bry

It's a good question-- I wonder if they have decided that they would rather get their customers to have to sign into the store and see the other things on offer every week, rather than making a bigger price up front and letting you passively download (a la TV subscriptions via iTunes). I would guess that, just as you can possibly get some impulse buys if you can get the consumer to show up to the shop once a week, Comixology and the publishers they work with feel they will benefit by having customers log into the store as often as possible, and possibly make some extra purchases while they are there. I assume that is why Marvel is giving away those digital copies with their print comics, as well as trying to get people to use that ridiculous AR app. They figure the more often you are in their App, the more often you are a click away from buying something else.

David_D

Planeis said:

Chuck_Melville said:

Planeis said:

How is that getting your moneys worth? Its not the same medium, but you can spend $5, just a little more, and get several hundred pages worth of content in a book. Or, like I wrote above for the similar medium of magazines you can get very cheap subscriptions. And not only that, but when I subscribe to Motor Trend or ESPN for $20 for two years I also get the digital versian of the magazine plus extra content for FREE.

Okay, I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

It's not a book; it's more akin to a magazine, and it's cheaper than most magazines, and with a whole lot less ad content. I'm not much attracted to taditional mail subscriptions because that leaves the packaging prey to the mercies of the mail handler, and I've yet to receive a magazine or catalog that doesn't get manhandled and mangled in some unfortunate manner, so I don't feel like I'd be getting any benefit out of getting a cheap subscription to anything unless it were shipped inside a steel box.

The average comic at DC is $2.99 for 32 pages. That's 9.3 cents a page. The 40 page comic is $3.99; I'm paying an extra dollar for those 8 pages. (Ideally, I should only have to pay 75 cents, but what are you going to do?) Basically, I don't care. What matters is that there is more material and that there is an extra story. I don't even care if it's a story that I don't like; it's still an extra story. (Usually, I do like the extra story.) Therefore, I personally feel it's worth the extra buck and I want that extra story. I'd rather pay $3.99 for a 40 page comic than for a 32 page comic. (I'd feel a lot better, though, if I were paying $3.99 for a 48 page comic...)

I'm not attacking you or anything, I just feel very passionately about this topic. It is more akin to a magazine, which is why I compared it to that above. But its not cheaper than most magazines. It's not even close. A subscription to your favorite magazine could easily work out to be 75 cents or less per issue. Thats my whole point. You can get several years worth of your favorite magazine for $40 or less. And yes, they do have more ads. Sure, but they also have much, much, much more content. You can finish a comic in 10 minutes. Reading a magazine cover to cover takes one hour plus.

I get it if you want it to be in absolutely pristine condition that you want to buy it off the shelf. Fine. You can still do that just like you can buy magazines off the rack. But I've gotten plenty of magazines through the mail and they turn out just fine for my purposes.

And also, like I said, magazines offer subscriptions for super cheap compared to the cover price and give you the digital copy with extra content for FREE.

To echo what Torch was saying earlier, the unfortunate reality is that comics, as a readership, is not as attractive of a demographic to advertisers, as well as to the people that magazines and their affiliated subscription services resell our eyeballs to. Wired, Motor Trend, and ESPN can afford to make less on the cover price because they are reaching a harder to reach, more valuable demographic.

At the end of the day, as comics readers, what we like is a pretty rarefied thing. A sub-culture within a sub-culture. Our eyeballs are simply not as desired, so we end up having to pay more for our content. At the end of the day, a lot more people- and especially those in a more desired demographic- would rather read about cars, sports, and gadgets then read the continuing adventures of Superman and Batman (or, any fiction, for that matter). So, when you want something more rarefied, you end up having to pay more.

BlackUmbrella

I just wait until the price drops. Sometimes out of impatience I'll pay $3.99 for a book, but it hurts to do it. I buy behind the curve one month on DC, and pair that with buying from DCBS's Comixology store, which gives you back 5% in store credit.

Torchsong

David_D said:

At the end of the day, a lot more people- and especially those in a more desired demographic- would rather read about cars, sports, and gadgets then read the continuing adventures of Superman and Batman (or, any fiction, for that matter). So, when you want something more rarefied, you end up having to pay more.

And - to put it on the other end of the spectrum, the *more* pigeonholed your audience, the more you'll expect to pay. Some subscriptions run in the $50 and up range for extremely segregated readerships. A subscription to Photoshop User will run you $99, for one example.

WetRats

I believe it's a mix of what @Torchsong and what @jaydee74 said.

Small print runs mean what advertising there is pays less. And most ads seem to be house ads these days, which pay nothing, or ads for licensed material which probably get a discount.

And the market has shown that die-hard fans will pay $3.99 for the must-have titles. Even without extra content.

random73

@Planeis you are preaching to the chior. I cannot give you enough "agree"s.

David_D

Torchsong said:

David_D said:

At the end of the day, a lot more people- and especially those in a more desired demographic- would rather read about cars, sports, and gadgets then read the continuing adventures of Superman and Batman (or, any fiction, for that matter). So, when you want something more rarefied, you end up having to pay more.

And - to put it on the other end of the spectrum, the *more* pigeonholed your audience, the more you'll expect to pay. Some subscriptions run in the $50 and up range for extremely segregated readerships. A subscription to Photoshop User will run you $99, for one example.

Of course. Not to mention specific investment publications and academic journals that have subscriptions that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.