CB Cebulski on the Marvel $.99 sales

[JKtheMac]

His exact quote was "We sell [Amazon/Comixology] the comics at the same price [we sell them to you]" (assuming the brackets provided in the article don't change the meaning). He said they sell them the books for the same price they sell them to the retailers. They sell them, upfront, for a fixed price. If they don't sell anything to Amazon upfront and Amazon doesn't have to pay a fixed price for each book sold regardless of the price sold, then it's not the same as it is for retailers. This would mean Cebulski is either mistaken or dishonest. If Amazon only has to give a percentage of their sales total, Cebulski's statement is flat out untrue.

I think he is speaking generally. He isn't actually talking about digital in that sentence as far as I can tell. What seems to have gone awry is the contract that Marvel and Amazon have for promotions on digital formats. Amazon have these things built into their contracts so they can theoretically deep discount on digital, and this seems to be causing some consternation. What if anything Marvel can do about it at the moment is not clear. Marvel probably didn't expect this level of discount on new books.

This statement isn't even meant for us so I am not clear why we should be so concerned by it. He is simply trying to reassure retailers that he is aware of their concerns and if Marvel can do anything about it they will try. No duplicity that I can see.

[JKtheMac]

Am I missing something?

Yes. Brand new trades that probably would be reasonable sellers have been sold very cheaply in digital form, on or near the day of release, undercutting paper by huge margins.

[MindofShadow]

Yes. Brand new trades that probably would be reasonable sellers have been sold very cheaply in digital form, on or near the day of release, undercutting paper by huge margins.

Oh, didn't catch they are near release day.

Wonder why Amazon feels the need to undercut themselves that much. Their physical trades are already vastly cheaper than brick stores.

[skyvolt2000]

If you are still buying the product then you are taking money/sales from the comic stores. Now you might not care, I might not care, but as the comic stores are the traditional source of these products, if you start buying them from somewhere else, then they loose money as those products are still sold they just don't get the money from their sales.

And WHY oh WHY would I care?

Theses are the SAME comic book stores who were screaming Marvel SJW books were killing comic book stores. Along with the anti-diversity crowd.

No one wanted to hear how amazon, ebay, used book stores and other places with comics were killing business.

No one wanted to hear how toys and stuff in comic books stores could be found CHEAPER at Wal-Mart & Target.

No one wanted to hear how bad customer service and cesspool environment at some store chased folks off.

No one wanted to hear how Inhuman fans got chased out of stores.

It was just attack SJW Marvel books.

I don't see how discounting trades no one was going to buy at the LCS anyway really hurts them? If it was same day floppies i'd understand but anyone that is going to bargain hunt trades in the first place isn't going to the LCS to buy them.

Am I missing something?

It depends on the comic book store in question.

If all I do is trade wait-I am not in the store in the first place.

If I split between the floppy and trades-I would start at the store.

If I shop everywhere anyway-it won't make a difference.

I think it WILL hurt certain books. Not guys like Savage Dragon or America where you MIGHT see 1-3 trades. How does this REALLY hurt a Peter Parker? Guys who will have MOVIES?

The next Marvel solo film is technically Miles Morales in December. How much money will a comic book store LOSE if Amazon discounts ALL his trades around the time that film comes out?

ANd if this is going to be the norm-if I am Marvel-I ma going to give WAY More folks a solo shot.




Something I noticed.

Before this stunt NO ONE was interested in X-Men trades on Amazon. Aside from Deadpool & Old Man Logan-the only Team X-Men trade I saw in the top 100 was one from 2010.

Now with this sale-It's nothing but X-Men books including Iceman, Generation X, Jean Grey & Gold.

You would think it would be books like America or Black Panther WOW-yet those books dominated Amazon at higher prices.

I would be more concern that it takes a 99 cent sales to get anyone to read X-Men books. That says SOMETHING is not right about that franchise.

[Coin Biter]

Gosh.

To be fair, no doubt there are stores with poor customer service. But the idea that they belong to some malign collective group that embodies everything you appear to find frustrating is... bizarre.

I’ve no idea what this has to do with the X-Men, incidentally. All Marvel trades that are being released on Comixology are currently being heavily discounted on the day of release. In addition, there were sales in which all recent Marvel trades were discounted. The idea that this is specifically targeted at the X-Men because there are problems with the franchise is.... well, I’ve already used the term bizarre

Let’s move away from the retailers for a second. What, for example, does Jim Starlin think about the fact that the digital version of his new graphic novel is available on Comixology for less than a dollar, I wonder?

[Mike_Murdock]

I think he is speaking generally. He isn't actually talking about digital in that sentence as far as I can tell. What seems to have gone awry is the contract that Marvel and Amazon have for promotions on digital formats. Amazon have these things built into their contracts so they can theoretically deep discount on digital, and this seems to be causing some consternation. What if anything Marvel can do about it at the moment is not clear. Marvel probably didn't expect this level of discount on new books.

He was asked about the digital sales, so the answer is about the digital sales. If he was talking about non-digital sales, he could easily have responded with "Amazon isn't selling for 99 cents in physical copies." Instead, he said "we sell it to them for the same price."

This statement isn't even meant for us so I am not clear why we should be so concerned by it. He is simply trying to reassure retailers that he is aware of their concerns and if Marvel can do anything about it they will try. No duplicity that I can see.

First off, I do care about whether my local shop is able to stay in business or not. Second, that's entirely changing the subject. Someone wanted to interpret his statement. I explained what the statement meant and why it likely wasn't a true statement. The fact that the statement was meant for retailers as opposed to consumers is irrelevant.

And I absolutely call bullshit on that last sentence. It's possible there's no duplicity under two circumstances: One, he doesn't know what he's talking about or, two, Marvel sells the digital copies for the same price as they sell physical copies in the direct market and, when Amazon sells a digital copy for 99 cents, Marvel is making the same price in that sale as they would have made in the sale of a physical copy. I got the impression that you did not believe that latter theory was true. Given this, if you believe there's no duplicity, then you must believe that he doesn't know what he's talking about. I wasn't disputing the claim that Marvel was aware of this issue and looking into it, but that's not the part I was focusing on.

[Brian B]

I think "Akira Yoshida" is at the most charitable interpretation conflating things here. I have no idea what the digital license cost is to Amazon, but no way does it cost the same per copy as new hard-copy costs comic store owners. Also, Marvel sold Comixology/Amazon a license. They might have to wait for the license to run out or wait for an opportune time to end it, but there's also no way Marvel doesn't at the end of the day control pricing for its books. Again, I'm giving "Yoshida" the benefit of the doubt on his confusion here.

[Lee Stone]

It's the usual digital vs physical discussion, some people including me have gone 100% digital so no money taken from the comic shops, sales or no sales. And some people only value the physical ownership and keep buying from comic shops anyways.

I think it's still bullshit that digital prices are the same as physical since there are no printing and shipping costs.

True.
What happened to the argument for the rising price of comics being that you're buying physical art?

Digital should not cost the same as physical, for several reasons:

1. A never-ending supply. Infinite copies. These will never 'sell out'.
2. Marvel continues to profit on these infinite copies years after release. Unlike physical copies where their money is taken in three month's before the comics are released and they have no other profit from them after sold to the retailer. Hence, why in physical comics stories and events are quickly hyped, sold and then forgotten.
3. There's no collectors market in digital. No resale of copies from user to user. Comics in digital are bought primarily just to be read and not slabbed and flipped. They have no physical value.

Digital is just an alternate medium for comics.
Just like there is a difference in price between softcover and hardcover books, dvd and blu-ray, vinyl and cd, there should be a difference in price between digital and print. Simply because one of the two requires more production and is a collectable form for the media.

[Winter_fury]

What's CB job exactly as eic would't the somebody in charge of sales or digital know more about this ?

[Brian B]

What's CB job exactly as eic would't the somebody in charge of sales or digital know more about this ?

I am very certain that CB "Yashida" is not in charge of digital licensing and I doubt he is in charge of pricing strategy. But, as Editor-in-Chief, he would be aware of both, at least. He is new and in his defense, he probably hasn't had time to get familiar with what's going on with this particular sales channel.

[skyvolt2000]

What's CB job exactly as eic would't the somebody in charge of sales or digital know more about this ?

Unless he is being kept out of the loop on purpose. Because there is a bigger issue to think about.

If they are doing this sale-are they doing it as a test for something bigger?

Buy from Amazon and all new digital issues are 99 cents for a period of time before going $3.99.

Or Amazon is setting up to have floppies be set to sell from them directly thus eliminating the comic book store.

Think about it if you are somebody who buys at least $25 worth of Marvel-Amazon Prime or free shipping at $25 (if it's still there) and pay only sales tax is a deal.

ANd with comic book stores acting like they don't want Marvel books-why not look for another venue to sales your books-so fans can buy books without harassment.

[WebLurker]

Not really sure why it's Marvel's business what prices Amazon sets things on. At the end of the day, it's Amazon's right to charge what they want for the products they're selling.

[Brian B]

Not really sure why it's Marvel's business what prices Amazon sets things on. At the end of the day, it's Amazon's right to charge what they want for the products they're selling.

Why? Because that is not how things work. There are, no doubt, agreements, legal contracts, in place between Disney-Marvel and Amazon. We do not know the terms of those agreements, but there can be no doubt that for digital "copies" that the licensing fees and the terms around those licenses are covered by such agreements. Amazon probably is allowed to sell digital "copies" at the price they are selling them at, but as the publisher, the price of its books is certainly Marvel's business. They have sales strategies, marketing strategies and distribution strategies. If Amazon's sales policies and pricing don't meet Marvel's business needs then Marvel has to do something about it. Who knows what Marvel's strategies actually are, though? Those kinds of things aren't usually talked about in public.

[chaosfist]

While that is all undoubtedly true some of us have zero loyalty to the direct market. Some of us a, ,,

Ttre old enough to remember how ruthless and unscrupulous that market was and still see reflections of that today. And some of us have far too much paper in our houses already.

I agree whole heartedly about the paper thing. A couple years ago I decided to buy paper comics from the LCS. In less than a year I had comic books everywhere. I could only imagine what it's like for a life long collector. That's what lead me back to all digital. No comics to store and keep up with everything is easily accessible from my phone. I don't understand what these brick and mortar stores expect. All printed media is dying off. They are not immune to the market forces at play.

[chaosfist]

Gosh.

To be fair, no doubt there are stores with poor customer service. But the idea that they belong to some malign collective group that embodies everything you appear to find frustrating is... bizarre.

I’ve no idea what this has to do with the X-Men, incidentally. All Marvel trades that are being released on Comixology are currently being heavily discounted on the day of release. In addition, there were sales in which all recent Marvel trades were discounted. The idea that this is specifically targeted at the X-Men because there are problems with the franchise is.... well, I’ve already used the term bizarre

Let’s move away from the retailers for a second. What, for example, does Jim Starlin think about the fact that the digital version of his new graphic novel is available on Comixology for less than a dollar, I wonder?

Why would he care? Does he get paid a percentage of each book sold? Or is he getting a salary to do a job. If it's the latter he had nothing at all to complain about and even if it's the former because those books produce the same revenue for Marvel according to CB. It's only the LCS owners who have anything to complain about and to me it's like Blockbuster complaining about Netflix or Red box. We are a free market society here in the US. Customers will always choose the cheaper better option.