Post by G on Sept 18, 2010 21:50:57 GMT -5
Defiant1 posted a link on his site about how comic dealers were noticing people were buying less comics and cutting back with the $3.99 price increase. I borrowed the image from the link and got to thinking more about it directly from his thread, so I claim a thread steal for here from Defiant1's board (hope its okay) although we have discussed the price increase as far back as December 2008 here. But now that the prices are the norm and no longer a "coming soon" I was wondering if it is affecting how you guys think in terms of purchasing comics?
As the thread points out, no comics reported 100,000 issues sold to retailers in the latest report. I just added a new link to "Comic Chronicals" at the Quick Link spot at the top of the page. I've looked at the site and its good at showing monthly outputs in all sorts of manners but it clearly is showing a decline in comic sales even when compared to just one year ago. Its clear less and less people are buying comics and yet we still have them to go after and collect. When is it going to break down that too many people have left and not enough people to support new comics any more? How is this affecting you?
I know personally if I paid full price, I couldn't do it. I am thankful for places like DCBS where I can get a stack of comics for almost half of what I would pay in stores if I shop right. At worst I'm buying them at about 60% of the cover when all totaled together. It has made me very selective and quick to pull the hook on inferior products. I might give something a chance, but you better be at least pretty decent right off the bat or its no go for another chance. This isn't the day and age where we can give books time to grow on us. It has to show promise from the jump or it has to show good merits from wherever you jump into the story at. If the book is on issue 546 and you buy it, it has to be better than you would expect of any other issue 546. It just cant be below par anymore. Once a book turns sour, its done.
I'm not sure if others are playing it the same way but if so, I would think 2nd and 3rd tier crap will eventually die out. Hopefully it would pool better talent on better projects and result in better quality works out there. But in a day and age where we as collectors allow works like Image United to stand at issue #2 nearly a full 10 months after launch, it almost appears the worst enemy is ourselves. If we keep supporting stuff like this when they are unfaithful to even a simple deadline, then I guess we can keep expecting inferior quality comics at $4 a pop.
For the time being though I'm wondering. Is $3.99 the breaking point for you?
