Dc comics $2.99 vs $3.99

[JasonTodd428]

I imagine that some stores get those incentive variants specifically so they can be sold at comic cons where collectors might be more likely to drop a lot of money for them.

[Digifiend]

It's not just Barry and Diana, and it's immediate effect, so the price change doesn't mean changing to monthly either. It's all DC Universe books plus Injustice 2, with the exception of New Age of DC Heroes.
https://www.newsarama.com/39872-dete...ng-prices.html

[Kyer]

It's not just Barry and Diana, and it's immediate effect, so the price change doesn't mean changing to monthly either. It's all DC Universe books plus Injustice 2, with the exception of New Age of DC Heroes.
https://www.newsarama.com/39872-dete...ng-prices.html

Welp. *folds up cards* I'm out. Knew Wally's return to Barry's universe was going to have some sort of catch...

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I'll still get Batman , but I hope they drop to monthly releases from the bi-monthly situation. Walking Dead after years at $2.99 finally went to $3.99 as well.

[DIVINITY]

What I really don't like, incidentally, is that $4 are 20 pages, not 22. They were shortened to keep the price at $3 so it's really sucky that they're keeping them at 20 pages for $4. DC and Marvel have been both doing this and they're often the most guilty of decompressed storytelling. It's especially grating to pend $4 on a comic that is just oen long fight scene. Compare this to most Image books, which may be $4 but they usually have at least 22 pages of story (often more) and fill up the rest with back-matter.

+1 This... Exactly!!!

More money should equal more story pages, you’d think. But I don’t blame Dc, they held that line for years, just wish the was adding those two pages back...

[Trey Strain]

They need to call the printers and tell them to start ordering newsprint and the related kind of ink every month.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

They need to call the printers and tell them to start ordering newsprint and the related kind of ink every month.

But, for the millionth time, according to people in the industry like Mark Waid, this would not bring costs down by any real amount - at one point it would have driven them up.

[SkyMason21]

Normally this would be a huge issue for me but I'm already cutting back on mainline DC. Batman, Tec, and Green Lanterns are the only bi-weekly titles I'm still buying, and if I don't like the Creative change on Green Lanterns I'll just have 2 left. I'll probably drop Tec too when Bryan Hill's brief run ends.

Overall it's still disappointing, somewhat more affordable comics and the bi-weekly schedule played a big part in my willingness to give Rebirth as a whole a try. It's really feels like it's fallen apart lately, and I haven't been intrigued by what seems to be on the horizon from mainline DC. But between the few Rebirth stragglers I'm still enjoying, a handful of New Age of Heroes books, and their imprints I still have plenty good titles to read.

[Trey Strain]

But, for the millionth time, according to people in the industry like Mark Waid, this would not bring costs down by any real amount - at one point it would have driven them up.

Yes, I've explained that a million times. Maybe more. Apparently you just don't want to hear it.

Later for what Mark Waid said in 2012. This is not a theory I made up. It's being done RIGHT NOW in 2018 by a company that doesn't enjoy DC's vast economies of scale. Per issue printed, DC's costs are NOT higher than that company's. DC's costs per issue printed are LOWER!

[numberthirty]

Reality Check...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.952a1cace46e

A dispute over tariffs on newsprint is costing journalists their jobs

THE LATEST lesson in the costs and benefits of tariffs comes from our very own industry: the print media. Specifically, the Commerce Department has imposed substantial new tariffs on newsprint from Canada, driving up newspaper production costs across the country. For papers already struggling to keep up in the Internet age, the impact can be devastating. To cite one example, the Tampa Bay Times of St. Petersburg, Fla., announced April 18 that it must lay off around 50 employees, responding to what it says is a potential $3 million annual cost increase.

[Trey Strain]

Reality Check...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.952a1cace46e

If the cost of newsprint goes up, then that will happen to fancier paper too. All paper comes from trees.

[cranger]

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

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

I carefully used the word shipped to make a distinction between what was bought by retailers and what readers bought. The point is, and it only gets worse if readers are not buying them, is that these high priced books are eating up the amount of dollars retailers have to allocate to all the books each month. Whether those books do well or not, a lot of other titles were probably reduced in order numbers to accommodate these top sellers.

The point is still that retailers don't seem to flinch at these cover prices, and I see no evidence in the sales charts that $2.99 is keeping any DC titles competitive with Marvel titles. That is, to the vast majority of readers and retailers it just does not matter. I would actually guess that retailers prefer $3.99 and higher as they make more money for the same amount of cost.

[iron chimp]

It sounds to me as if they're cutting those titles back to monthly, possibly at the request of the writers, and charging the same price they do for all their monthlies and that Marvel charges for all its comics.

I don't know why you'd go off on DiDio and Lee about that. But if you're fed up with paying four dollars for 20-page funny books in which all too often nothing much happens -- as well you should be -- then go here and vote for some price relief.

http://community.comicbookresources....s-on-newsprint

I just heard an interview with eric larson where he said that newsprint inners + a separate stock cover is actually more expensive to print than todays books where inners + cover are the same stock.

[Uncanny Mutie]

If the cost of newsprint goes up, then that will happen to fancier paper too. All paper comes from trees.

Exactly. It's just like all the people talking about raising minimum wage to $15 an hour. All that will do is make the cost of products and the cost of living go up in response, which will put you right back to where you started at first.

[DevilBat66]

Print is still a dying industry with less and less circulation every day. It's amazing that comics still do as well as they do in light of how all other print media has done in the last decade. Nothing is going to change that. Not newsprint paper or any other kind. Shipping physical product will continue to go up. Employees of companies getting living wages to keep up with increased cost over all aspects of life will continue to go up. This is a niche market selling a dying form of product. They will probably never really go away but they will continue to go up in price forever and ever.
I don't particularly like it but, it's reality. IMO comics have been overpriced since they went over a buck but that's just how it goes. I don't think a fast food meal should cost $10 but it does.

Would I rather comics were cheaper or could stay at $3? Hel yes. I also want comics to keep coming out so I'll continue to do what I've always done. Buy the comics I like with the money that I have for them. I haven't bought every comic that I wanted to read since I was a kid because of money so why should this price hike be any different.
I fully expect to be paying $10 a copy someday which will suck, but if it means there are still comics to buy when that happens, then that's really all that matters. I spend plenty of cash on entertainment, if comics take more and more of that, oh well. I like comics more than pretty much all other entertainment I consume so if it takes a bigger piece of the pie, so be it.