The Real Truth Behind the Marvel Price Hikes

The problem is that Marvel was making a profit before the price hike. If the $2.99 price tag was so low that Marvel was losing money, then by all means, bump up the price. That's why most indie comics are $3.99. Marvel, however, publishes so many titles and so many copies of each title that they'll still make a profit if they sell Dark Avengers or Thor for $2.99 each month.

It's like when gas prices steadily rose last year to damn near $4/gallon. I whined and moaned then, and I'll whine and moan now.
 
I just don't get your mindset. You're basically saying " Look at those greedy business guys, trying to make money! How ****ing DARE they??!!??"


Hell, if anything i give kudos to they guy for making his statement publicly.


I mean; do you seriously think anything DIFFERENT is going on in any OTHER meeting anywhere in corporate America? If so, please come see the swampland i have for sale down in Florida. :yay:

You're in a recession, why on earth would now be a good time to increase you're prices if you're already making a good profit. Not a good time to be rocking the apple cart. Cause once people decide to say, **** comics I need to concentrate on paying rent and for food, you'll find those customers don't come back easily. Once you're not in the habit of getting comics it takes something to pull you back in (at least for me).

I might give them kudos if they hadn't already explained the price hike as something else.

Yeah I do think things are different. Marvel is right now a profitable company, most companies I know are desperate to stay in buisness and are dropping prices just to keep customers and not go completely under.

This swampland, if it's not too far north and is comercially viable and you've got it cheap talk to me cause I might buy it (if you were being serious, cause I actually am looking for land for a nursery, and now is a damn good time to buy).

I don't see a problem with taking issue with a PROFITABLE company raising prices in a recession just to see if they can squeeze a few extra dollars out of us. If they needed the money great, but personally I hope people are smart and realize what Marvel is saying and those 3.99 just sit on the shelf. Vote with your wallets people and demand to get fair value for what they offer.

But then maybe most of you guys here are rich and don't care, if so I envy you.
 
I'd hope that people would wise up and stop buying the ongoing titles Marvel's selling for $3.99, but if they're going to sit by and complain about Jeph Loeb's titles while eagerly awaiting the next issue, they're going to pay the extra dollar.
 
and what are we gonna say when comics are $6 or $10 a book???

About the same thing someone from 95 would say. "2.99 an issue? You're ****ing crazy".

Yet, when prices are 6$ an issue, the economy will have adjusted some minimum wage isn't the same as an issue of x-men.
 
The problem is that Marvel was making a profit before the price hike. If the $2.99 price tag was so low that Marvel was losing money, then by all means, bump up the price. That's why most indie comics are $3.99. Marvel, however, publishes so many titles and so many copies of each title that they'll still make a profit if they sell Dark Avengers or Thor for $2.99 each month.

It's like when gas prices steadily rose last year to damn near $4/gallon. I whined and moaned then, and I'll whine and moan now.

For the record, gas prices rising last year had nothing to do with supply, despite some eco-people complaining about reaching "peak oil". Prices rose because of runaway speculators, i.e. greedy people wanting to make a killing. Even amidst the rising cost of gas, the Bush Administration still was buying up reserves of oil it didn't need, helping the cost remain high. Ironically, it took the tanking of the economy to really bring gas down. In NY gas is usually under $2.80 most places; yes, it is now more expensive to buy a 22 page comic than it is to buy a gallon of gas.

I love how solicits claim comics are "32" pages. They are not, at least in terms of reading content. They're 22 pages with 10 pages of ads; whether house ads from Marvel or otherwise.

The loss of ad revenue has likely hurt the print arm the longest. Around 2006-2007 the amount of ads Marvel had was almost obscene. I vaguely recall a 22 page RUNAWAYS story that had 24 pages of ads around December sometime in 2007 or so. Nowadays not counting front and back covers, most comics have maybe 8-10 ads, and at least half are Marvel house ads for other comics. Ad revenue is a steady stream of income for print mediums, more so than actual monthly sales in many cases. It has been claimed that the reason Marvel publishes more books, even in the wake of a recession, is to keep ad prices at a certain rate. In recent articles Marvel bemoaned the notion of publishing "only" 40 titles if they took drastic measures to keep the cover price low. Personally I question whether the market can support the 100-150 books Marvel publishes a month. Nearly 1 out of every 2 comics on the racks are Marvel, and has been that way for a few quarters now.

There are some who see the prices of comics as low compared to other magazines and believe the future of the monthly comic is in doubling the price but also doubling the page count; say, $5 comics with over 40 pages of story a month; one poster on CBR suggested this. Frankly, most modern artists/inkers/colorists can barely handle 22 pages within 4-5 weeks. With late comics becoming more than a rare nuisance, that solution won't do.

Joe Quesada's business structure is many things, but I see part of it as very cynical. I easily seem him daring readers to abandon him, seeking a feast or famine structure. Daring the fans to "put up or shut up" every time he is asked an inconvenient question online or at a con, or someone did more homework than him and figured out that some story or policy or renumbering was illogical or flat out wrong, as with HULK #600. Therefore, the idea of Joe Q's Marvel so blatantly testing the wallet pain consumers and retailers are willing to endure in the wake of the worst recession in 20 years sounds about right to me. It's consistent.

The print medium has been taking hits lately, with many newspapers and magazines closing shop; even MAD magazine, which is attached to DC comics, shifted from monthly to quarterly, and had gone from zero ads in the 90's to many ads after. So some would say that some drastic actions in comics are inevitable. It is telling, though, that DC was the first of the big two to start going, "we'll actually try to justify the higher prices in some books with more content". Marvel CLAIMS they were "going to do that all along", so why keep quiet about it until, oh, a mere 2-3 months after back-up strips in many DC books were announced? Joe Q's loudmouth Marvel? Baloney.

Marvel's print arm held steady profits in last quarter 2008, which was seen as strong by many. That was just as $4 books were starting in mini's.

Prices are something that have risen at Marvel since Joe Q was freed from Bill Jemas; Jemas may have been a maniac with some bizarre and even terrible creative ideas (Mark Waid had some doozie stories), but he was the one trying to keep prices as close to $2.25 or $2.50 as possible. When the prices rose to $2.99, it was done gradually over about 12-24 months. Had Joe Q followed a similar slow rise strategy, the backlash wouldn't have been as harsh as it has become with a buck at once. But, I see that as more fitting to his provocative, passive-aggressive confrontational business nature. He reminds me of some sports radio personalities in NY radio who belittle or bully callers as know-nothings, but then conveniently forget when they are proven wrong, and expect you to do so, too.

Business wide, Joe Q's EIC tenure has been a huge success. PR wise with the customer base, despite advances in technology and con structures in the 21st century, it's been hit or miss. This price fiasco is simply one more example. Joe may not be as greedy or cynical as sports CEO's who rise seat prices to ridiculous amounts ($300+ for crappy games), but sometimes he seems like a microcosm of that strategy. There are ways to maintain and pursue profits without appearing or outright being full of contempt and cynicism for the customer base, as "out of touch" as they call it. Sadly, many businesses don't practice them.
 
You're in a recession, why on earth would now be a good time to increase you're prices if you're already making a good profit. Not a good time to be rocking the apple cart. Cause once people decide to say, **** comics I need to concentrate on paying rent and for food, you'll find those customers don't come back easily. Once you're not in the habit of getting comics it takes something to pull you back in (at least for me).

I might give them kudos if they hadn't already explained the price hike as something else.

Yeah I do think things are different. Marvel is right now a profitable company, most companies I know are desperate to stay in buisness and are dropping prices just to keep customers and not go completely under.

This swampland, if it's not too far north and is comercially viable and you've got it cheap talk to me cause I might buy it (if you were being serious, cause I actually am looking for land for a nursery, and now is a damn good time to buy).

I don't see a problem with taking issue with a PROFITABLE company raising prices in a recession just to see if they can squeeze a few extra dollars out of us. If they needed the money great, but personally I hope people are smart and realize what Marvel is saying and those 3.99 just sit on the shelf. Vote with your wallets people and demand to get fair value for what they offer.

But then maybe most of you guys here are rich and don't care, if so I envy you.


You bring up some good points.

Keep in mind that I never said this was necessarily a good idea (it may or may not be. I don't have the data that they do.) It may completely blow up in their face. Because once fans leave, it is very hard to get them back.

BUT, I don't have problem one with a company trying to find what the appropriate price is. As side income, I have a few rental properties (get back to me on the swampland. It sounds like the business plan is to throw kids into a swamp. If so, I'm in.) Now, I'd like to think that I offer a fair price for decent housing. Part of that whole process is deciding how much the local market will bear. After determining that, I can do one of a few things: I could price it higher than the local rate, and maybe let it stand vacant longer. I could price it low, shorten my vacancy time, but get less profit. Part of that calculation is how much time I want to spend tending to tenants needs; ie, people who pay a lot, want a lot. Now, I'm the one taking the risk, taking out the mortgage, paying the insurance, yada, yada, yada. Should I take less money because all of a sudden the economy turned bad? I may have no choice in the matter, but I don't lose sleep that I didn't lower my rents because other people all over the country were irresponsible and caused a recession.

Marvel has to make these same calculations, and either they make them right and reap the benefits, or wrong and pay the price.

Let me put it another way. Let's say they decide to raise prices to $6 a comic, and sales don't drop at all. That's a lot of money left on the table. And because sales didn't (in this fake scenario) go down, well, who's really being hurt here. Am I supposed to follow these poor schmucks around who don't know that they should pay their rent and utilities before buying comics. uh-uh. If they don't know how to spend money wisely, well, I've got an apartment to rent them.....
 
I'd rather wait for the trades, hopefully those won't go up too. They're already trying to rob us with those with all the hardback titles and having to wait six months for the paperback.
 
I'd rather wait for the trades, hopefully those won't go up too. They're already trying to rob us with those with all the hardback titles and having to wait six months for the paperback.

Sadly, Marvel has cynically increased prices for trades to try to stifle the "trade waiting" practice. One common tactic of 2008 was to release a "mini HC" that had the same amount of issues as a trade would (usually about 4-6 issues) with no extra content like many proper HC's have (such as sketches, a foreword, etc.) as justification to charge you $18-20 for a collection of sometimes even 4-5 issues, such as the SECRET INVASION story from INCREDIBLE HERCULES. The trade version does eventually come out...maybe.

For the record, six issues at $2.99 is approximately $17.94, so a trade for six issues that is $17.99 or over is technically more expensive than just buying the back issues at cover price (6 issues at $3.99 is $23.94). Of course, this is a Marvel that cannot count to 600 properly (Joe Q says, "Math is hard" on his MySpace). Trades are supposed to be ways to get stories slightly cheaper and compact with fewer ads. Manga in Japan is sold almost exclusively in trades. SCOTT PILGRIM is one of the best selling indie's around since the glory days of TMNT and it sells in trade format. Punishing those who choose to buy by that format may make immediate business/profit sense, but is backwards in terms of maintaining or growing an audience, especially as they "have to compete with TV, Internet and video games" as many comic people bemoan.

More recent tactics are to collect 4 issue stories into trades, but to shove in 2 needless reprints of some older comic to justify pricing the trade at 6 issue level.

DC trades are usually cheaper. VERTIGO has devised cheap trades and even $1 first issues lately. Marvel often will charge $4 for a first issue, even for a launch that they plan to keep at $3 for the rest of the issues, which frankly is backwards; don't you want people to try a first issue? Despite being "businessmen", a lot of the higher ups in comics are merely artists posing as businessmen, and have less market sense than a child with a lemonade stand.
 
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Wow. Marvel really are a bunch of bastards, aren't they? I'm used to buying trades to get collected stories for slightly cheaper (something I usually do with Vertigo and indie books), and with MI-13's recent cancellation, I was thinking of just buying the trades and selling the single issues to organize my book shelf (yes, I can be just that frivolous sometimes). Vol. 2 ("Hell Comes to Birmingham") will sell for $14.99 when it comes out, but those 5 issues were $14.95 when bought individually.

I checked several other recent Marvel trades, as well. If the individual issues come up to $X.95 (I never noticed how many 5-issue arcs there are, these days), the trade paperback sells for $X.99, exactly 5 cents more.

Screw that. I may never buy a trade from Marvel again.
 
To be fair, the average Marvel trade are still priced at around $14.99 for a 4-5 issue story, as more stories are under six issues from many titles, such as CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13. Granted, a 4 issue story at $2.99 is $11.96. A five issue story at $2.99 is $14.95. But the shock of Marvel that fans would do proper math and flock to trades before recent increases, when most were about $12-$13 (I remember USM trades that had six issues were about $13 for years, usually saving me about a buck or two on cover prices) reminds me of the shock of New York's MTA that their riders are smart enough to find the best value package for their money and exploit that to avoid fare hikes as best as possible.

There is a saying, and I forget who said it, but it went something to the effect of, "Not as many people are as foolish as a few people usually believe."

The irony is that trade sales not only can boost returns for a monthly series, but can help build cult franchises. RUNAWAYS was saved and relaunched in part because their digests were both popular and CHEAP, some $7-$8 for six issues. Now Marvel is trying to develop RUNAWAYS as a movie, and likely will get there some day. Trades also can sell for months or years after the monthly has been forgotten and become talked about classics depending on the story. Sometimes one has to invest, and sow something in order to reap it. Another infamous saying is, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Neither are many franchises. But instead, Marvel is shortsightedly seeing trades as an enemy or inconvenience when many cases they have allowed comics to venture into bookstores, libraries, and Amazon easily and easier for years.

Franky, being penny wise and pound foolish is supposedly something that was supposed to be out of style in the wake of the "new recession". Good to know it's still alive and kicking in many places. If humans got too collectively competent, misery might decrease and maybe those depression rates would go down. And who wants that? Pills make billions, baby! :o

The reality is that many shops online and in real life do offer discounts for trades, sometimes of over 10%, such as Amazon, selling $15 trades for about $11. But the fact that such things have to come from the retailer level is a little dismaying.
 
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I just don't get your mindset. You're basically saying " Look at those greedy business guys, trying to make money! How ****ing DARE they??!!??"


Hell, if anything i give kudos to they guy for making his statement publicly.


I mean; do you seriously think anything DIFFERENT is going on in any OTHER meeting anywhere in corporate America? If so, please come see the swampland i have for sale down in Florida. :yay:

Aloha,
Again, the fantasy of the MU versus the business of Marvel Enterprises-MVL.Within the business world, Marvel is being touted as the next Disney.Can someone name me a nationally distributed magazine that has NOT gone up in price over the past few years.While it is a comic book to the reader, it is part of a PUBLISHING BUSINESS.You may notice that more and more newspapers are GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. Because of many factors (internet,cost of production,etc.)I've seen enough examples of brilliant fanboys who would make LOUSY publishers.The youngest member on Marvel's board of Directors is in his 40's the oldest in his 80's. This ain't KID STUFF, it is major multi billion dollar BUSINESS.Both artists and writers of comic books today are getting paid much better than they did in the Silver Age of comics. Where do you think Marvel gets the money for their salaries?For a good example of greed within Marvel check out this book.These guys are the ones responsible for Marvel filing for bankruptcy back in the 90's
comic-wars.jpg


Spidey rules
 
However the guy in the OP boasted that Marvel is doing well and raised prices to get more money.
 
I quit reading singles last year. I didn't want to be caught in the middle of a story arc when I move for college. That and it cost alot of money at the time. So to keep up with my comics I'll either save alot of money and go to a con, buy backissues at my local store for cheap, or my best option trades.

I love buying trades when theres a big crossover story I don't have to worry about missing an issue, or forgetting the story. I've noticed trades going up as well the past few years. So I just buy my trades on Amazon used now. Why pay $25 for the hardcover when you can pay $6 with $4 in shipping.
 
I just don't get your mindset. You're basically saying " Look at those greedy business guys, trying to make money! How ****ing DARE they??!!??"


Hell, if anything i give kudos to they guy for making his statement publicly.


I mean; do you seriously think anything DIFFERENT is going on in any OTHER meeting anywhere in corporate America? If so, please come see the swampland i have for sale down in Florida. :yay:

It's amazing the lenghts you will go to defend Marvel, even when their dead wrong. I mean Marvel can come over and kick you in the nuts and you're response would be "Thank you sir, may I have another.":whatever:
 
I give THIS guy kudos for making the statement publicly and at least not being a coward about it, but Marvel themselves are just ticking me off lately. Just this one article (and the idea that Uncanny is going $4 soon) has got me re-evaluating my buy list. Just placed on the potential drop list...

Dark Avengers
New Avenger
Mighty Avengers
Avengers: The Initiative
Secret Warriors
Thunderbolts
Punisher

I'm still debating. I know I'm going to stick with Dark Avengers through the Utopia storyline since it ties-in with Uncanny X-Men (and I've been a hardcore X-Fan since day one so I'm not ready to drop them yet). However, with potentially droping New and Dark, that eliminates the center of most of the Avengers and Marvel storylines so I would just be collecting the offshoots and that would bother me, so the other closely tied in stuff will be dropped also. The only possible thing up there I'd consider sticking with anyway would be Initiative because I just love it so dang much. But the rest may be kicking the bucket soon.

This pretty much leaves me with just the X-Books and the Cosmic stuff. Oh well, there was a time when all I read was X-Men. I don't mind going back to that some.


Does anyone know when this Dark Reign event is supposed to wrap up? I know Utopia is the beginning of phase 2. I heard around the end of the year... anyone else know for sure? That would be the time I'd like to drop out of the Avengers myself, if I can hold off for that long.
 
I give THIS guy kudos for making the statement publicly and at least not being a coward about it, but Marvel themselves are just ticking me off lately. Just this one article (and the idea that Uncanny is going $4 soon) has got me re-evaluating my buy list. Just placed on the potential drop list...

Dark Avengers
New Avenger
Mighty Avengers
Avengers: The Initiative
Secret Warriors
Thunderbolts
Punisher

I'm still debating. I know I'm going to stick with Dark Avengers through the Utopia storyline since it ties-in with Uncanny X-Men (and I've been a hardcore X-Fan since day one so I'm not ready to drop them yet). However, with potentially droping New and Dark, that eliminates the center of most of the Avengers and Marvel storylines so I would just be collecting the offshoots and that would bother me, so the other closely tied in stuff will be dropped also. The only possible thing up there I'd consider sticking with anyway would be Initiative because I just love it so dang much. But the rest may be kicking the bucket soon.

This pretty much leaves me with just the X-Books and the Cosmic stuff. Oh well, there was a time when all I read was X-Men. I don't mind going back to that some.


Does anyone know when this Dark Reign event is supposed to wrap up? I know Utopia is the beginning of phase 2. I heard around the end of the year... anyone else know for sure? That would be the time I'd like to drop out of the Avengers myself, if I can hold off for that long.

Aloha,
With the exception of Dark Avengers and Avenger: The Initiative, you can get all of the other titles you mentioned from Marvel for $19.97 for 12 issues($1.66 per issue).So while the Newstand price is rising, Marvel WANTS people to subscribe.Marvel makes more of the money from comics that they sell through subscription than they do from selling to a distributor (middle man).Not necessarily you JH but sometimes I think folks just WANT to have something to be pissed off about instead of seeking out solutions.Marvel subscription is one solution.
Spidey rules
 
Sadly, Marvel has cynically increased prices for trades to try to stifle the "trade waiting" practice. One common tactic of 2008 was to release a "mini HC" that had the same amount of issues as a trade would (usually about 4-6 issues) with no extra content like many proper HC's have (such as sketches, a foreword, etc.) as justification to charge you $18-20 for a collection of sometimes even 4-5 issues, such as the SECRET INVASION story from INCREDIBLE HERCULES. The trade version does eventually come out...maybe.

For the record, six issues at $2.99 is approximately $17.94, so a trade for six issues that is $17.99 or over is technically more expensive than just buying the back issues at cover price (6 issues at $3.99 is $23.94). Of course, this is a Marvel that cannot count to 600 properly (Joe Q says, "Math is hard" on his MySpace). Trades are supposed to be ways to get stories slightly cheaper and compact with fewer ads. Manga in Japan is sold almost exclusively in trades. SCOTT PILGRIM is one of the best selling indie's around since the glory days of TMNT and it sells in trade format. Punishing those who choose to buy by that format may make immediate business/profit sense, but is backwards in terms of maintaining or growing an audience, especially as they "have to compete with TV, Internet and video games" as many comic people bemoan.

More recent tactics are to collect 4 issue stories into trades, but to shove in 2 needless reprints of some older comic to justify pricing the trade at 6 issue level.

DC trades are usually cheaper. VERTIGO has devised cheap trades and even $1 first issues lately. Marvel often will charge $4 for a first issue, even for a launch that they plan to keep at $3 for the rest of the issues, which frankly is backwards; don't you want people to try a first issue? Despite being "businessmen", a lot of the higher ups in comics are merely artists posing as businessmen, and have less market sense than a child with a lemonade stand.

This is good to know. Thanks for the info. And I have also noticed the DC trades are also cheaper. I mean I understand releasing main events on hardback and making reader's wait awhile (though I do buy events in single issue format) but releasing thing like Incredible Hercules or March to Ultimatum in hardback and having to wait till god knows when is ludicrous. I used to buy single issues but I didn't want to have to deal with delays, sell-outs and lack of space. But I'm maybe recondsidering this.
 
For the record, JewishHobbit, MIGHTY AVENGERS and AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE are both still $2.99. While Dan Slott's debut issue of MIGHTY AVENGERS, issue #21, was $3.99, it also had more story pages; I think about 34-36 pages of story (no reprints, no back-ups, the story was just longer). I still enjoy both.

The frustrating thing is there are a lot of very good books in this stage of the Joe Q EIC tenure. More now than in 2005 or 2006. Unlike Dan DiDio, he seems to treat his talent better and knows when to take a hands off approach and to trust the talent in place, such as with the space line of books. If he just gave better interviews and didn't make his business tactics so cynical and blunt, he'd be tops.

Subscriptions are one option. I wasn't aware all Marvel ongoings still had subs. That doesn't help with mini's, such as event mini's. Considering the average Marvel launch series lasts about 3 years tops before it is canceled or relaunched, it may not be an eternal solution for many ongoings, unless they are of stuff that will probably never die like FF, ASM, UXM, etc. Then there also is the matter of your local postman shoving your comic book into your mailbox with all the grace of a chimp on acid. My mother got subs for over a decade, and let me tell you, some issues came in MIGHTY mangled. They are also occasionally late, although sometimes you also get 'im early. But if none of those are concerns, yeah, you can usually get a good deal on subs.
 
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Marvel can go ahead and hike up the prices all they want. Some fans will just start downloading issues off the net.
 
While we are on downloads, this is another area where Marvel is trying to be innovative, but has made a bit of a blunder that anyone under 35 wouldn't have made.

They have an online comics division where they have material made exclusively online. Some of it is reprinted and resold in the direct market anyway, such as in ASTONISHING TALES. You would imagine the format for online comics would be rather simple. You have the comic as some sort of downloadable file that exists and can only be unlocked after you pay the cover price digitally, via PayPal or credit card or whatnot. $2.99, $3.99, whatever. You pay for every issue you buy online as if you would a normal comic.

You would be dead wrong. While this format works perfectly well for some online comics, indie's, and even some oddball fetish artwork, Marvel is too brainless to figure that out. Instead, you pay a bulk rate for the entire service and download what you want. It sounds convenient in theory, but this implies paying for stuff you may not want, instead of an as-wanted basis, like every single other "pay to view" online thing IN ALL OF THE INTERNET.

It is the sort of no brainer blunder that, once upon a time, someone would have been beaten for. Or at least given a bit of a tongue lashing, with the words "brainless twit" being used.

Some people also complain that the format for Marvel's website is often confusing. I wouldn't know as I barely go there, since often their catalog dates are subject to change. From my experience it isn't the most confusing website ever, nor is it the least.

In terms of pricing, a poster at the Newsarama forum named "RavenProject" summarized things pretty well from my perspective.

RavenProject from NEWSARAMA said:
I'm curious. Really curious. But not $3.99 curious. Especially not $3.99 twice a month.

We've reached the point where if Marvel (or DC) wants me to try a $3.99 book, then that book needs to smack me over the head with its sheer awesomeness, grab me by the short and curlies, and drag me to the store demanding I buy it.

"Curious" doesn't cut it any more.

Dead on.
 
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It's amazing the lenghts you will go to defend Marvel, even when their dead wrong. I mean Marvel can come over and kick you in the nuts and you're response would be "Thank you sir, may I have another.":whatever:

Oh, don't misunderstand me; i'm as outraged over the recent price hike as anyone else here.

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i think this was the first time ever that prices jumped up a full dollar. In the past it was usually in much smaller increments.

I'm not defending that in the least. I just thought it was odd that someone started a thread Saying "the real truth" behind this was that Marvel wanted more money.

No offense or anything, but that led me to believe that maybe you figured all the OTHER price hikes over the years were for a DIFFERENT reason.
 
I cannot believe the apologists on this site. They pretty much told us they were raising prices cause they wanted more money and some of you are ok with this even defending it????
 
It's not about being apologists. Businesses are in business to MAKE MONEY.

Recession or not.

"They should lower the price because we're in a recession. Comics should be cheaper because I just lost my job. I'm having a hard time making rent because Amazing Spider-Man comes out 3 times a month and that's not fair."

Grow up.

Why are you outraged that a company wants to make more money?

I'm a ticket broker. I bought Detroit Red Wings tickets for the Finals at $350 per ticket. I sold them for game 1 at $1000 each. And yes, even though we're in a recession and Michigan is in shambles, people are paying $2,000.00 for a pair in the lower bowl.

Now, am I not supposed to take their money because we're in a recession?? Call it greed, call it unethical, call me a scalper, whatever, I'm trying to get as much as I can, just like Marvel. Just like every other business. Screw the recession.

That's the way it works boys. Sorry if that's not fair, but that's the way it is.
 
Well there goes the explanation of increased operating costs.

I hope all of you read this, and think twice about supporting these $3.99 books. Send Marvel a message with your hard earned dollar that these type of greedy business practices are unacceptable and will not be allowed.

My comic guy told me something like this a few months ago but I didn't believe it. Ridiculous :down:

The reason I'm hesitant to pass on minis and 1-shots that are $4 is b/c Marvel may interpret it as a lack of interest in the character when it's really just the price tag. I'm sure if a mini sells poorly, that character is less likely to get more time in the limelight.
 
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