Dc comics $2.99 vs $3.99

[CaptCleghorn]

I'm not "blaming" anyone. I just don't think it's fair to blame DiDio and Lee. It's as likely to be the doing of the writers.

DC will do what makes the most money. Or at least they'll do what they THINK will make the most money. At some point though, people will balk at further price increases. Then what will DC do? They'll just have to look at ways of getting their costs down. They might as well do that now.

Didio and Lee are upper management at DC Comics. Do you seriously think writers would have as much say in the publication frequency of a book as those two?

[M@Bowers2014]

I am so annoyed by this move by DC. I really can't afford another price hike so I'm going to have cut books. At least when you were getting a code with your books you were getting more bang for you buck.

[Trey Strain]

Didio and Lee are upper management at DC Comics. Do you seriously think writers would have as much say in the publication frequency of a book as those two?

Of course they might. if you sign someone from another company, or transfer him to another title, he might negotiate that arrangement. Hell, in this business, some writers get to demand the artists they want, and many people on the message boards support them in that.

The issue is, how will the readers react? Will they cough up $3.99 every month for one issue, and will that make as much profit for the company as $2.99 twice a month did? Maybe it'll work. If it does, it'll happen in part because enough readers won't perceive that as a price increase, although of course it is. They'll see it as, "I was spending six dollars a month on this title, and now I'm spending only four. Yay!"

[cranger]

I am so annoyed by this move by DC. I really can't afford another price hike so I'm going to have cut books. At least when you were getting a code with your books you were getting more bang for you buck.

It depends on which books you were getting and if some of them switch to monthly you could actually end up saving money.

[Johnny]

Good times.

[Trey Strain]

Aren't Action Comics and Superman going to monthly publication when Bendis takes them over? Who thinks that wasn't something he wanted and wasn't part of the arrangement when DC signed him?

[Jekyll]

Good times.

LOL!!! I mean I’m only getting two titles, so if they raise the amount a dollar and move them to monthly it’s not the end of the world.

[Bossace]

Between this and th stopping of digital codes I wonder how this will be received. Obviously I can’t see them lowering their prices but enough people contact them about the digital codes maybe they’ll reinstate them like marvel did after that blow back. Also didn’t DC try to one up marvel during that fiasco about how they would keep giving codes and now they’re the ones getting rid of the codes.

[Joshua]

Between this and the Doomsday Clock delays, I'm just not digging DC right now.

[Mace Dolex]

Eventualy in a year or so many of these books will find themselves collecting dust in the dollar boxes, thank god I stopped buying singles years ago.

[JasonTodd428]

The issue is, how will the readers react? Will they cough up $3.99 every month for one issue, and will that make as much profit for the company as $2.99 twice a month did? Maybe it'll work. If it does, it'll happen in part because enough readers won't perceive that as a price increase, although of course it is. They'll see it as, "I was spending six dollars a month on this title, and now I'm spending only four. Yay!"

I guess we'll see how fans outside this forum react and whether this is a more profitable move for DC then the $2.99 twice a month set-up they were using before. All I can say for sure is this, while DC has hiked their prices to $3.99 they have also changed the frequency by which titles come out from twice a month to monthly so, in most cases, that is going to be cheaper for the consumer who was spending the $6.00 for twice a month, like myself. It pretty much balances out in my opinion.

If they were hiking the prices from $2.99 to $3.99 for a twice a month book though I would drop those and move to trade waiting on them instead and a $4.99 twice a month like JL is supposed to be is just ridiculous IMO. The only reason I might be able to afford that one is because DC has cut my pull list with them to ribbons in recent months with a number of cancellations and creative team changes so I suddenly have some extra money I could spend on JL if I wanted. Even so its far more likely that I'll be trade waiting JL instead because its not a book that's really ever in danger of cancellation anyway and instead support some other titles that are more in need of the money.

[CaptCleghorn]

Aren't Action Comics and Superman going to monthly publication when Bendis takes them over? Who thinks that wasn't something he wanted and wasn't part of the arrangement when DC signed him?

Could be. But bendis is an exceptional case. very few writers get 2 page inhouse ads announcing their coming to the company. Writers dictating frequency and pricing still seems to be a rare occurrence, though.

[Kyer]

I just saw a major employee wage and benefit downturn (worse than the last two years) so $3.99 as a bi-weekly would end any entertainment from comic books even as a trade. (Although I now know what all my future birthday/Christmas presents requests are going to be.)

[chachi]

gotta raise the price to pay Bendis's salary. Same thing happened at Marvel.

[skyvolt2000]

While I hate it, I don't hold it against them. The $2.99 cover price is doing nothing to help them in the sales charts. While some (of us) vocal readers like to make a big deal of it just look at the top sellers. DC shipped a ton (aprox 450K) of Action Comics #1000. The two April issues of ASM combined for almost the same as AC#1000. Hunt for Wolverine #1 and Captain America #700 had $5.99 cover prices while Venomized #1 and Infinity Countdown #2 were $4.99. Marvel shipped solid number of Avengers for 16 weeks in a row at $3.99 at least.

Yes they shipped those books but how many actually got bought?

Also that $5.99 was for one issue not every issue.

The $2.99 is there but if it's a book that you don't care for-price does not matter.

I am not paying $2.99 for Sideways to get a Hotspot cameo. Nor that price for Flash to others that I see hit someone's bins or hit discounts prices on Midtown Comic way too often.

the return of "incentive" variants to artificially boost sales (and drive collectors nuts).

And WHO is forces the stores to order them or folks to buy them?

Most of those variants I don't see when they come out to begin with. I only see them at comic cons when stores were trying to get rid of them.