DC Rebirth monthlies back at $3.99 in April

[Danileriver23]

lol. Didn't even make it a year. Marvel called this from the start. Digital codes are pretty cool though.

[cranger]

I think the market has shown that whether a monthly comic is $2.99 or $3.99 it is going to sell the same. I appreciate DC for putting their money where their mouth is with Rebirth during the launch, I don't think I would have tried out anywhere near as many books as I did if they launched at $3.99 or higher, but no matter how much DC tries the market has decided $3.99 is the price.

We can only hope that the way the $2.99 twice-monthlies are structured allows them to stay at that price indefinitely.

[MajorHoy]

I really hope this doesn't have a negative effect on sales.

How can it not, A96? Sales figures have to drop after this.

But sales normally decrease on a title anyway as the months go by (and the issue # increases); this is probably why Marvel has been relaunching practically all their books every year or two (so the comics will have lower issue numbers and keep that "new series" smell).

The question is, do you lose more sales than you do in the profit you gain from higher prices? Sometimes, you lose readers but still make a profit on the overall product if the increased price covers those readers (actually the orders from the comic book shops) no longer paying for the product.

[The Darknight Detective]

The question is, do you lose more sales than you do in the profit you gain from higher prices? Sometimes, you lose readers but still make a profit on the overall product if the increased price covers those readers (actually the orders from the comic book shops) no longer paying for the product.

No disagreement there, Major.

[Bukdiah]

I have friends (though I don't see them as often as I use to), but they don't read comic books (as far as I'm aware these days).

And considering where I live and how old I am, "making new friends" around here isn't all that easy.
(Besides, a lot of my interests / tastes don't seem that popular these days.)

Aren't you 55 years young?! That's a perfect age to make new buddies lol

[Kuwagaton]

lol. Didn't even make it a year. Marvel called this from the start. Digital codes are pretty cool though.

Everyone knew it was coming because there is no such thing as a product that doesn't receive the inevitable price increase. I'll be spending maybe $8 more for the same comics every month, but I'll have saved about $80 between the beginning of Rebirth and April, since they held back or rolled back prices.

[GlennSimpson]

The question is, do you lose more sales than you do in the profit you gain from higher prices? Sometimes, you lose readers but still make a profit on the overall product if the increased price covers those readers (actually the orders from the comic book shops) no longer paying for the product.

Yeah, I'd say sometimes yes, sometimes, no, but if they think yes, then they have to give it a try.

[David Walton]

Books struggling are going to take a hit for sure. Monthly comics are just too expensive. They need to sell digital subscriptions at a reasonable price. If I continued to follow all the books I liked at full price I'd go broke. The answer isn't raise the price on stuff already selling lower numbers. It's gonna look great when they cancel Cyborg before his movie comes out.

I do wish digital subscriptions were an option. As it is, a subscription means nothing more than getting automatically billed full price for the individual issue when it's available.

Get a print subscription for monthly DC books right now and you'll still pay $24.99 for 12 issues. And I assume come March you'll be getting digital codes as well, unless they don't put those in the print subscription books.

[Lee Stone]

It's worse for a guy like me who doesn't read print. My cost goes up and I don't get an extra print copy to give away or sell on the secondary market.

I'm 100% digital, have been since the start of new 52. As someone who reads all of what DC puts out weekly this will sting and this adding digital codes benefits me zero as I receive nothing in this price increase. I don't have the storage space for comics anymore and this was my reason for switching to digital in 2011, not a fan of this.

I went all digital in 2011 and I now will rarely buy a comic above $1.99. I'll sometimes get a first issue to show support.
But otherwise, I just put new issues in my wish list and watch the Comixology price drop page online.
And when a book drops down to $1.99, I'll either get it or remove it from the wish list because I lost interest while waiting.

What's hurt me most is that DC has paused price drops. So I still have Future Quest and all the Young Animal titles on my wishlist that I may just end up take out. And I haven't read Titans or Doom Patrol since the first issues.
Meanwhile, it's caused me to shift my focus to old comics because they are $1.99. And DC and Marvel are finally starting to fill in gaps of their backlog.

And with Hoopla getting the Rebirth trades, I'll be adapting a bit more.
My plan is to read all the Rebirth trades on Hoopla and then rank them to see which ones I like the most and then put those titles on my Comixology wishlist until they go on sale.

[RobinFan4880]

But sales normally decrease on a title anyway as the months go by (and the issue # increases); this is probably why Marvel has been relaunching practically all their books every year or two (so the comics will have lower issue numbers and keep that "new series" smell).

The question is, do you lose more sales than you do in the profit you gain from higher prices? Sometimes, you lose readers but still make a profit on the overall product if the increased price covers those readers (actually the orders from the comic book shops) no longer paying for the product.

Going from 3 to 4 dollars means DC can lose a 3rd of their readership and still earn the same amount of money. So DC just has to gage whether a third loss will put the title into the cancellation territory (i.e. 20k or less units an issue).

[blaster86]

http://www.newsarama.com/32768-dc-s-...n-at-2-99.html
Digital will remain 2.99

[Mister Ferro]

http://www.newsarama.com/32768-dc-s-...n-at-2-99.html
Digital will remain 2.99

Best of both worlds imho.

[RobinFan4880]

No I see why it's blocked but I'm still sad about it. Lets say it's 30% vs 60% I would think readership on books would make a considerable jump if 3 4 and 5 dollar price points became 1.50 2 and 2.50 to generate the same dollar amount of profit for the publisher. It's driver-less cars on a small scale and people will be displaced.

Your right about Marvel they are so far ahead of DC it's not even funny their back catalogue is growing leaps and bounds faster as well.

And your right I never understood why Marvel and DC didn't do their own digital books without the middle man the investment in the website would have paid for itself by now.

Marvel built up their back catalog correctly by investing the Marvel Unlimited a decade ago, and slowly building up their back catalog. Now they have 15,000+ comics in there. However, when Marvel first started to release comics online, they had a paltry 20-ish comics, so even Marvel could not see the future, at least not until 2007 when they woke up and made Unlimited.

Both companies use a middle man because Digital was not seen as a big deal back when those deals were struck. Now Digital is representing a larger and larger portion of their audiences. Just like in print, both companies are shackled to a distributer. Hindsight is always 20/20. Both companies should have invested in their own proprietary digital platform but it is always easier to offload that on a third party. The only company who did not join ComiXology (for a long time) was Dark Horse. They had their own app. Still, even they had to bend a knee and join ComiXology because they have become the dominant figure in the digital landscape.

http://www.newsarama.com/32768-dc-s-...n-at-2-99.html
Digital will remain 2.99

OH SNAP! Way to go DC!

[Shadow 5]

I personally don't mind the $1 hike with the code, and would even be happy with it if the bi-monthlies did that too. I guess I'm kind of a rare reader where I like going to the comic shop every week and picking up physical issues and reading them in my hands when I get home, but then after that I would rather get rid of it and keep it as a digital file. I very rarely read my physical collection again anymore. It's just taking up way too much space. Only a select few titles do I bag/board and collect.

[RobinFan4880]

I personally don't mind the $1 hike with the code, and would even be happy with it if the bi-monthlies did that too. I guess I'm kind of a rare reader where I like going to the comic shop every week and picking up physical issues and reading them in my hands when I get home, but then after that I would rather get rid of it and keep it as a digital file. I very rarely read my physical collection again anymore. It's just taking up way too much space. Only a select few titles do I bag/board and collect.

The space problem was always my issue with print comics. Buying 3 or 4 comics a week adds up over the course of a year (that's like 180 comics a year). bag and boarded, that's basically a short box a year. Over a few years, you wind up with a mountain of comics that you rarely read and probably will not be able to get much more than half price for (if you are lucky).

I find I reference and re-read digital comics a lot more than print comics. It is just faster and more convenient.