$3.99 for floppies on fancy paper, or $1.99 for floppies on newsprint?

[MajorHoy]

This is the wrong question. I love my glossy floppies, but if it got floppies in Wal-mart, I'd be okay with newsprint at 2 bucks.

By the way, have people actually seen the actual, physical comic books that Alterna Comics produces? I looked a couple over at a Barnes& Noble recently, and was less than impressed. We're not talking top/known names for stories and art work, and one issue had printing quality that made me think more in terms of what Charlton Comics grinded out back in the 1970s with printing/coloring/lettering.

[dancj]

I think I might start a poll asking if people would pay $2 for a comic which came with a free $5 note.

I have a feeling the idea would go over well.

[The Darknight Detective]

I think I might start a poll asking if people would pay $2 for a comic which came with a free $5 note.

I have a feeling the idea would go over well.

Heh. Yes, it would. Unfortunately, as is the case with $1.99 floppies, it's also unrealistic.

[BaneBreaker]

I think I might start a poll asking if people would pay $2 for a comic which came with a free $5 note.

I have a feeling the idea would go over well.

Is it a digital $5? I hear digital is the hot currency these days

[MajorHoy]

Is it a digital $5? I hear digital is the hot currency these days

I think "virtual" is the term for the currency, not "digital".

[BaneBreaker]

Okay so it wasn't the best joke.

[CaptCleghorn]

Okay so it wasn't the best joke.

I thought my "free pony" joke was hilarious. It's OK.

[Trey Strain]

Heh. Yes, it would. Unfortunately, as is the case with $1.99 floppies, it's also unrealistic.

DC makes a profit selling floppies at $2.99. So selling floppies on newsprint for $1.99 is quite realistic.

[The Darknight Detective]

DC makes a profit selling floppies at $2.99. So selling floppies on newsprint for $1.99 is quite realistic.

No, it isn't at this point. If DC hadn't changed their publishing and creator practices a few decades back, then it might have been realistic. That ship has sailed, though.

[Trey Strain]

No, it isn't at this point. If DC hadn't changed their publishing and creator practices a few decades back, then it might have been realistic. That ship has sailed, though.

Well, we'll just disagree about that.

[The Darknight Detective]

Well, we'll just disagree about that.

I have stated here I would buy them if it were possible, but I grew up on newspaper-paper floppies. How many readers today who grew up on the post-newspaper floppies would buy them, Trey? But even if they would, is it cost effective? Creators get a much bigger slice of the pie today than they did when I was a kid.

BTW, does anybody know what the profit margin is for a DC floppie?

[Brandon Hanvey]

DC makes a profit selling floppies at $2.99. So selling floppies on newsprint for $1.99 is quite realistic.

Only if you can more than double your sales.

As stated elsewhere, DC/Marvel using newsprint will not lower their production cost by that much or even at all depending on their high volume contracts with their printers. At most, they could save maybe about 15 cents per issue.

Their costs in terms of creators still stay the same. Most estimates put the costs at around $10,000 to $15,000 for a 20 to 24 page comic.

Marvel and DC only get a portion of cover price from Diamond. Most estimates are from 40-55%. That give them about 2.00 per comic off a $3.99 cover price. So for a comic that sells around 30,000, that gives them about $60,000.

At $1.99, they would only make about $1.00 per issue. So they would only make $30,000.00 from sales

So let’s say the print cost on the current paper is 0.30 so $9000 for 30,000.
This give them this breakdown:
10-15k creators
9k print
1k misc
=20-35k costs
60k from sales
=40-25k profit

Now with the hypothetical newsprint lower cost of 0.15, it costs $4500 for 30,000.
This gives a breakdown:
10-15k creators
4.5k print
1k misc
=15.5-20.5k costs
30k income
=14.5-10k profit

Unless DC/Marvel can find a way to slash their production cost more than switching paper and/or more than double their sales from lower cover price, they’d be losing money.


Sources:
https://fairpagerates.com/
http://www.printninja.com/printing-p...-book-printing
https://www.cbr.com/is-diamond-comics-the-devil/

[Trey Strain]

Only if you can more than double your sales.

As stated elsewhere, DC/Marvel using newsprint will not lower their production cost by that much or even at all depending on their high volume contracts with their printers. At most, they could save maybe about 15 cents per issue.

Their costs in terms of creators still stay the same. Most estimates put the costs at around $10,000 to $15,000 for a 20 to 24 page comic.

Marvel and DC only get a portion of cover price from Diamond. Most estimates are from 40-55%. That give them about 2.00 per comic off a $3.99 cover price. So for a comic that sells around 30,000, that gives them about $60,000.

At $1.99, they would only make about $1.00 per issue. So they would only make $30,000.00 from sales

So let’s say the print cost on the current paper is 0.30 so $9000 for 30,000.
This give them this breakdown:
10-15k creators
9k print
1k misc
=20-35k costs
60k from sales
=40-25k profit

Now with the hypothetical newsprint lower cost of 0.15, it costs $4500 for 30,000.
This gives a breakdown:
10-15k creators
4.5k print
1k misc
=15.5-20.5k costs
30k income
=14.5-10k profit

Unless DC/Marvel can find a way to slash their production cost more than switching paper and/or more than double their sales from lower cover price, they’d be losing money.


Sources:
https://fairpagerates.com/
http://www.printninja.com/printing-p...-book-printing
https://www.cbr.com/is-diamond-comics-the-devil/

The publisher of Alterna Comics said that switching to newsprint lowered his TOTAL PRODUCTION COSTS by two-thirds! Alterna is charging only $1.50 for its color floppies, and 99 cents for some B&W floppies.

It's not just that newsprint is cheaper. It's also that 50-pound paper requires more-expensive ink.

These points were covered earlier in this thread, but I realize that reading through the whole thing might be a chore.

[Trey Strain]

I have stated here I would buy them if it were possible, but I grew up on newspaper-paper floppies. How many readers today who grew up on the post-newspaper floppies would buy them, Trey? But even if they would, is it cost effective? Creators get a much bigger slice of the pie today than they did when I was a kid.

BTW, does anybody know what the profit margin is for a DC floppie?

You'd still be able to get the collections on 50-pound paper. It's not as if that's going away.

[Brandon Hanvey]

The publisher of Alterna Comics said that switching to newsprint lowered his TOTAL PRODUCTION COSTS by two-thirds! Alterna is charging only $1.50 for its color floppies, and 99 cents for some B&W floppies.

It's not just that newsprint is cheaper. It's also that 50-pound paper requires more-expensive ink.

These points were covered earlier in this thread, but I realize that reading through the whole thing might be a chore.

I've read most of the thread. And I work in printing/publishing so I know the cost. And I and along with others have addressed why comparing Alterna (a single person running pretty much everything, low print volume publisher, with no page rates) to DC/Marvel (huge companies, high volume contracts, page rates to creators) is not comparable. Their costs vast differently due to volume. Marvel and DC's production costs are in the millions while Alterna is probably a few thousand.

I get it, Trey. You want comics to sell more. Most of us do since we love reading/creating them. But ignoring facts/experience of others will not make anything better.