So How's The $3.99 Effecting You?

[JewishHobbit]

So a lot of us complain about how Marvel (and others) are upping their price tags. As of July's solicitation every mini and one-shot is $3.99 as well as Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Hulk, Thor, and now it seems Uncanny X-Men (perhaps others I've forgotten).

And it also seems that a new trend is starting where comics that aren't selling as well, such as Captain Britain & MI:13 and Immortal Iron Fist, go on 'hiatus' and are followed up on by one-shots and mini-series at $3.99 an issue, leading to readers having to essentially pay that extra dollar for what should probably just be the next issue of the ongoing series.

And not only that, but for some Giant Sized Issues and such such as King-Sized Cable and I think Thor 600, the prices are hitting $4.99 an issue (which exactly how the $3.99's started squeezing in, so is the $5 price jump coming soon?)

So with all this price gorging, how is it effecting your comic collecting habbits?

As for me, I no longer buy or try any mini's or one-shots that don't directly tie-in with something I'm already reading. Example: I was interested in the new 2099 mini but am not buying it. I like Deadpool, but all his new mini's and one-shots don't tie-in with his ongoing so I'm not buying them. I've always liked Wolverine's Weapon X days but his new series (don't know if it's a mini or not) is $4 so I'm not buying it, etc.

And besides those I've dropped Hulk and Thor and to justify buying New Avengers and Dark Avengers I've dropped Punisher, which I liked but something needed to compensate for the extra $2 I spend.

So with people like me who buy our max of what we can afford, all these price hikes are coming with a price. Either we drop the title or we drop other titles. I started slow (and it was easier due to how upset I still am at Marvel for Spider-Man: One More Day) but the more I drop the more I find I want to drop. I once spent an estimated $90 a month on Marvel comics. Now I spend around $50. So due to Marvel trying to get an extra $1 or two from me a month, they've wound up losing around $40 a month from me by encouraging me to start dropping titles.

This has also began to stretch to other companies and I've found myself dropping Justice League of Amercia, Justice Society of America, Green Lantern Black Canary, and Secret Six. Now, the only DC I read is Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, and I'm considering picking up Batman due to liking Battle for the Cowl (which is the last DC mini I thought I'd pick up).

I find myself trying more independant or smaller company comics and now I enjoy Echo, Umbarella Academy, Project Superpowers, Black Terror, Masquerade, The Death-Defying Devil, and The End League (which I was going to drop before dropping so many Marvel titles).

I did drop quite a bit to get my monthly spending under control, and the $3.99 price tag was a part of it, but it really did lead to me dropping even more than was needed. At my height when I started cutting titles I was spending around $150-$175 a month on comic books. I now spend around $90 a month.

So how did the $3.99 price hikes effect me? It got me to drop a LOT of comics, mostly Marvel, and has trimmed my buying habits near in half. And I find that I'm still looking for things to drop. I was just talking to a friend of mine and I'm upset about the Uncanny X-Men price hike (hopefully it's just temporary for the Utopia storyline) and that I'm debating dropping it. If I do then chances are a lot more X-Titles will follow, which is half of the Marvel that I buy. And I'm growing bored with paying $3.99 on New Avengers and may drop that soon, and if I do then chances are just about the entire Avengers line will follow as well, and that would only leave me with maybe 4 or 5 Marvel titles total. My list keeps falling and I'm worried this price hike may be the catalyst of me leaving the hobby I've loved for 18 years. And if by chance they start squeezing those $4.99 price tags in more, I'll probably drop Marvel line-wide then and there and only buy maybe 3 or 4 comics a month period.

So though it seems an extra dollar per issue here and there wouldn't be a big thing, it's the catelyst that got me to drop a ton of comics, hurting Marvel more (for what little it does) than helping it.

So how's the price hikes effecting you? Are you doing something differant? Are you dropping titles? Do you still buy them anyhow? Being that it's effected me so greatly I'm just curious how it's effecting the rest of you.

 

[Dread]

Part of the final straw for me dumping NEW AVENGERS, besides the fact that I could no longer bare with Bendis or complaining about him every month per issue, was that it was going to revert to $4 after SECRET INVASION. I could barely justify getting a book I hated at $3 an issue; $4 was plain masochism.

The $4 price tag has made me less willing to buy random one-shot comics and to be a bit more discerning about mini's, since all are $4 per issue now. I usually am always buying at least 1-3 mini's that Marvel puts out, so those random one-shot's fall by the wayside. Which can be a shame as at times they aren't bad.

In the old days it wasn't uncommon for me to stick around a title for 1-3 years to wait for it to get better, but if the title is $4, I won't wait nearly that long, or I would be more willing to drop a book I am getting for $3 if it is no longer cutting the mustard, with no sign of a new creative team in sight. Like this week I am getting 11 books and very seriously considering waiting on that issue of KICK-ASS, since I usually consider it a "meh book with moments".

I may have been willing to give SECRET WARRIORS a shot since Bendis was only co-writing it, but at $4 an issue, it was an easy pass.

I suppose the $4 thing wouldn't bother me as much if I didn't know that Marvel is CONSTANTLY putting out some mini's or one-shots that are really superficial and really appeal to no one and nobody, and can't be reasonably expected to sell well. MARVEL APES, MARVEL PETS, MARVEL DIVAS, and so forth, or stuff like TRUE BELIEVERS from last year and all that. You can usually go through the catalog every 6 months and find at least 1-3 dead weight mini's that could just be dropped and not bothered with to save costs. Marvel's domination of the Unit Share of the market (hovering around 50% for months, as in 1 out of every 2 comics on the shelves is a Marvel book) combined with the economy, loss of ad revenue and about half their books losing about 25% sales within the last half year or so seems like a recipe for trouble. But what do I know?

 

[Dread]

(double post)

 

[JewishHobbit]

Actually, unless I've not been paying attention only the 1st issue of the Secret Warriors was $4, the rest have been $3. It's one of the titles I'm barely hanging on to. The only reason why I've not dropped it is because I'm expecting what's going on to pour into other titles and become a major thing. If nothing much comes of it though I'll probably drop it with issue 12. Sad though, I like the artist.

And I'm making a prediction right now. The X-Men FCBD issue with Pixie was free, then they came out with the special reprint of it for $3.99 and I'm thinking it didn't sell well (Dread you'd probably know better than I. I don't usually pay attention to sales). However, I just read THIS where the Avengers FCBD issue coming up will be trimmed and quite a bit smaller than a normal issue. I'm predicting that shortly after that they're going to rerelease it at normal comic size for $3.99 an issue, and this time it'll sell due to comic collectors wanting the comic at normal size for their collection. I'm calling this price gorge right now!

And on a side note... when is Free Comic Book Day? I want that Green Lantern Blackest Night issue.

 

[Dread]

FCBD is in May, I think around when WOLVERINE 4 comes out.

(Yes, I call it WOLVERINE 4, unless you truly will be surprised to see a movie about Wolverine's past where he fights someone with claws and a healing factor at the end. Nope, never got that before!)

I did know about Marvel shrinking the size of their free comic that day, but it likely is for cost reasons.

Ironically, making the first issue of a new series MORE expensive than the rest of the issues seems incredibly backward. Wouldn't you want to make that first issue CHEAPER, to ENCOURAGE people to give it a try? I guess that would mean seeing retailers and readers as more than wallets with legs, though. Or maybe Marvel cynically figures most of their new launches will be dead by a year and a half anyway, so they just want to cash in as much as they can?

 

[venom892]

Well thankfully most of the books I collect have stayed at 2.99.However with Uncanny going up to 3.99 I might drop it.Also as much as I love Jason Aaron and Ron Garney I won't be getting Wolverine:Weapon X cause of the price tag too.Also Canceling Ghost Rider just so they could put the last six issues of the series in a 3.99 mini was a pretty crappy move from Marvel's part.They could have just left the series going at 2.99 until the end instead of trying to make a few extra bucks off the mini.Also while DC has announced a new Dini Batman book at 3.99 and Detective Comics is going up as well at least they have added more pages to the comic to justifie the price at least a little.I think if they are going to increase the price then they better make it worth it.Also they couldn't go up a quater or two?They went up a full dollar with no go betweens.As Dread said I see alot books getting the axe because the way the economy is going i don't see how people will be able to sustain several 3.99 books.

 

[Joker]

I've dropped most of the titles I read, but it had nothing to do with the price drop, and more to do with the fact that I wasn't enjoying a lot of them anymore. I'm down from $100 a month to $50 a month.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Well, as far as it goes for me it makes me a lot less likely to pick up minis and one-shots. The Wizard Of Oz may be the last mini I check out until the Electric Ant comes out, but besides that I'll probably skip out on most minis. Most of my titles have stayed the same $2.99 price (though, admittedly I don't buy a whole lot), the only book that went up was Thor and I dropped it after 600. That wasn't price reasons, though, I had just lost interest in it.

Detective Comics is going up to $3.99 as well, but there doing 8-page backups for it, so I don't mind paying the extra buck for that one.

But, yeah, it's basically stopped me from checking out minis and one-shots

 

[Ahura Mazda]

I haven't really seen the effect as I am either subscribed and the price has not changed or I buy them at a store here in Switzerland and I have not noticed anything.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I dropped pretty much all of the comics I sort of liked but was reading more out of habit than anything else, and I'm more picky about what I'll try now. I seem to be replacing the stuff I dropped with other comics that are better pretty quickly, though.

 

[RAMORE]

I'm down to about 1/3 of what I was collecting I was getting $60 worth now maybe $20 with the occasional trade thrown in.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

I have been dropping quite a few Marvel books cause it seems like while the cost is going up the quality is going down. I have been gradually getting more DC items. Their prices are going up but they are at least adding a little more per issue to make it worth it.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Pretty much I buy the cosmic books: Nova, GotG, War of Kings and I also get X-Men Legacy and Uncanny, as well as Ultimate Spider-Man...that is now all I buy.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

it blowz! for a cat who been buying comics since they were 20 cent they cost as much as a freakin playboy does!!!( and possibly not as fun hehe)That's crazy!!. i use to buy stuff I probably would never have thought of reading that was actually quite good now that is out the door. i only buy stuff that i know i will read or has some good T&A on the cover( I'm kidding about that hehe), but it has cut out me buying 20 copies of the same book. i still cant believe i got caught up in that nonsense either.i usually buy something and it it starts to suck it's history. the real only constant ones i buy is all the Avengers titles, Hercules,thor, BlackPanther and War Machine( those last 2 I'm still holding out hope for)

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I didn't know you were such an Avengers fan, BV.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

totally my man . i use to lose my mind with all the X-books, but that's over with. i love all the Avengers titles. i really start to dig them with Avengers Dissemble and when the young Avengers book started. good stuff Corp.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

What do you think of Mighty Avengers so far? It hasn't seemed to go over too well with your fellow post-Disassembled Avengers fans, whereas plenty of us pre-Disassembled fans are quite happy with it.

 

[iloveclones]

I haven't dropped one title. Added, if anything. Honestly, price changes haven't even registered with me since the 90s. Until I hear you guys complaining about it, I usually don't even know. I'd imagine I easily drop $30-40 a week at the LCBS.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Yes, us pre-disassemble fans have enjoyed it immensely.


I could see why the newbies don't like it, since there is a bit too much going on for them when they're used to three or four issues before anything major happens.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I haven't dropped one title. Added, if anything. Honestly, price changes haven't even registered with me since the 90s. Until I hear you guys complaining about it, I usually don't even know. I'd imagine I easily drop $30-40 a week at the LCBS.

Yeah, I don't really stress about which books cost what, specifically, but if I know prices on some are going up and I know I haven't really been enjoying some comics, I figure it's time to do some spring cleaning on the pull list. I'm pretty sure I've dropped more $2.99 comics than anything else, though, since I've dropped mostly DC comics.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

What do you think of Mighty Avengers so far? It hasn't seemed to go over too well with your fellow post-Disassembled Avengers fans, whereas plenty of us pre-Disassembled fans are quite happy with it.

i like i can still why Loki is one of you favorite villains with him disguising himself as the scarlet witch.I love Cho on the team giving Pym crap, but i think he is an awesome character over in Hercules too. my only prob is and i know it only the 1st couple issues,but if they want to pym to lead he should lead and not having the others questioning him especially Hercules who wanted to lead in the 1st place, but overall i like it

 

[JewishHobbit]

Yes, us pre-disassemble fans have enjoyed it immensely.


I could see why the newbies don't like it, since there is a bit too much going on for them when they're used to three or four issues before anything major happens.

Oh I like the fast pace of the book, I just don't like the fact that it was boring, the villain was drab, and only a couple of the characters staying in the book are interesting.

But I'll decide tomorrow if I buy the next issue after the first arc or not. I'm not really planning on it, but I'm going to give the book a look through.

 

[iloveclones]

Yes, us pre-disassemble fans have enjoyed it immensely.


I could see why the newbies don't like it, since there is a bit too much going on for them when they're used to three or four issues before anything major happens.

Wow, what a load of crap.

There are those of us that read Perez' original Avengers run, and I loved what they did with NA (not everything mind you.)

And the reason some of us weren't jumping up and down about Slott's MA seems to have boiled down to 1 of 2 things: A) They (meaning I) didn't much care for "magic" stories, and B) some weren't crazy about the art.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The art is a big part of what I've been hearing. People (like JH) seem to think the team is a bunch of losers, too. Which boggles my mind, but whatever.

i like i can still why Loki is one of you favorite villains with him disguising himself as the scarlet witch.I love Cho on the team giving Pym crap, but i think he is an awesome character over in Hercules too. my only prob is and i know it only the 1st couple issues,but if they want to pym to lead he should lead and not having the others questioning him especially Hercules who wanted to lead in the 1st place, but overall i like it

I like that everyone's questioning Pym. I think that's gonna be a logical part of the team's formation: Pym's gotta show everyone why he should be leading. I think it's clear now that Loki tapped him because he figured Pym would be just competent enough to get rid of Chthon but he could easily manipulate him to fail when the time is right. It'll be a great character moment for Pym if he proves Loki wrong.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Oh I like the fast pace of the book, I just don't like the fact that it was boring, the villain was drab, and only a couple of the characters staying in the book are interesting.

But I'll decide tomorrow if I buy the next issue after the first arc or not. I'm not really planning on it, but I'm going to give the book a look through.

Wow, what a load of crap.

There are those of us that read Perez' original Avengers run, and I loved what they did with NA (not everything mind you.)

And the reason some of us weren't jumping up and down about Slott's MA seems to have boiled down to 1 of 2 things: A) They (meaning I) didn't much care for "magic" stories, and B) some weren't crazy about the art.

C'mon guys, I was mostly kidding. While I haven't really enjoyed New Avengers, there have been stuff I've liked...but overall I'm not a fan of Bendis' writing style. (Other than Ultimate Spider-Man...I have loved that)

I miss the classic Avengers feel, and Slott gives us that...although I agree that magic stories tend to bore me quicker than anything else out there.