DC Books $3.99?
brydeemer
Posts: 216
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
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
Comments
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.
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
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.
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.
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!)
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.
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.
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 want to spend as little as possible. I'm not concerned with getting the most content.
Bry
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
Bry
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.
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.
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.
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.