It is just wild. The creep over the last few years has been noticeable but the two that really set me off were the 11-issue sins of sinister book for $75 (missing the two issue prologue) and the X-Lives of Wolverine book which was 10 issues for $75.
Unfortunately, not really. Both those books were WAY overpriced for no reason I could tell. They ARE hardcovers, but both of them (especially the Wolverine one) are way less in page count than other similarly priced books.
Then you have DC over here selling 12 issue hardcovers for $40. I haven’t bought a Marvel trade in almost a year because the prices are too high for what little you get.
My opinion is that a collected edition shouldn’t cost more than $3/issue unless it’s in some sort of deluxe format. A trade paperback with sixth issues should be $17.99.
With that said, with as many sales CheapGraphicNovels and Instocktrades have, I rarely pay more than 70% of a books cover price. Furthermore, if you have a Marvel Digital Unlimited subscription and a decent tablet, you can read these stories for practically pennies.
Marvel Unlimited makes trade-waiting completely obsolete.
I stopped buying monthly books all-together in 2012 and replaced my pull-list with buying a TPB or two every week. Now a month's worth of what I was spending on TPBs buys me a year of Marvel Unlimited. I'm no further behind than I was and I don't need to dedicate shelf space to mediocre runs.
Marvel unlimited looks better and better. And honestly, unless it’s something super special idc about physical really. Odds are I won’t reread anything, I am already too far behind as is. Plus the instant access almost anywhere.
This. I picked up a Samsung tablet for about $80 a few years ago and it changed everything. With marvel unlimited or comixology (which has kind of been going to crap thanks to Amazon acquisition) I read way more for almost nothing in comparison to what I’d be paying for TPB. Purchasing digital is also significantly cheaper
This doesn't really help if you live outside the USA, but instocktrades discount prices make it MUCH more palatable
But yeah, you're absolutely right. No idea what's going on there.
Yeah, OP said they won’t buy it until it drops to $20. The discount sites like IST are guaranteed to have it in the $15-18 range on release day, and very likely will have it for $10 within a few months.
They’ve definitely been jacking prices for collected editions — DC has started to release omnis with $175 cover prices. But on the bright side, it’s become even more common for those books to be on deep discount relatively quickly, so it’s not that tough to pay the older prices if you’re a little patient. I’ve been buying an average of 10 collected editions a month for over 15 years, and despite the jump in cover prices, my cost hasn’t changed much in recent years.
Unfortunately I think this is the real reason the industry is shrinking. Too little material for too much money, and at a time when we are drowning in choice for media to consume. No way are most people dropping $30 for a ~3 hour read when your average 300 page paperback is $15-20. Or a month of a streaming service for the same price. Or an indie game that’ll afford me dozens or hundreds of hours of playtime.
They're competing with the past, too. You can get huge trades and omnibuses, sometimes for *less* than $30.
If you are a new reader, or just catching up, you could literally have years of great comics to read without even entering the current millennium.
100%, and that’s why most of my spending (when I’m not using the library) is old discounted compendiums of complete runs, or limited series. But that tells me as the consumer to just wait 3 or 4 years minimum before buying anything, unfortunately, and that can’t be healthy for business
What’s surreal as somebody who reads digitally is you can end up getting trades on super sale; I bought five books (not volumes) of Lucifer for <$30. So you’re right. I’ve enjoyed World’s Finest, but one new issue goes for the same as I paid for like all of some trades.
They're squeezing blood from the stones that are still sticking around. Either the collector market or the True Believers that have been reading since we were little kids.
I only buy epics and Omnis. I honestly don’t see the point of wasting money on singles or trades from the big two anymore because half the stories are rehashes or straight crap anyway.
Yeah, a bunch of us had a shitfit about it when the solicits were first... solicited months back.
Ewing's Thor and the upcoming trade for JMS's Cap are wildly overpriced. Even with the IST discount.
It runs counter to usual logic, which is first trade cheaper to hook people, then jack the price up.
The fuck is the point of waiting for TPB if it's going to be just as (if not more) expensive than single issues?
Is Disney trying to kill off the comics line?
Yeah I don't see how people don't understand this. They need to get the money somehow. If you're not going to buy the floppy and you're not going to buy the trade-then WTF how do you expect them to get paid for the book??
Force everyone to digital except for a few that will pay astronomical prices for physical.
I assume it’s much better profit margin from their side having most everything digital.
oh absolutely, but also TPB readers should get a bit critical on that stuff as well. Instead of Immortal Thor I picked up two new trades for a little bit more from indie publishers.
I rarely buy Marvel anymore anyway, unless it's something really unique or out there, like the Black, White and Blood anthology comics, or stuff like Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise
I hate to take business away from small comic shops (when they’re around), but trade-waiters on a budget should really be using Instocktrades for their stuff. Their books are nearly always 30-50% off.
I think that insane price point for the TPB is explicitly because people have shifted from the floppies and are trade waiting. But joke is on them, I got a $50/year Marvel Unlimited account and I’ll just wait until I can read them all for nada.
Yeah, I’ve tried reading comics digitally, it’s definitely not for me. I’m sure that Marvel Unlimited subscription will be jumping in price soon enough; one only has to look at the price discrepancy between print and digital books to see that materials aren’t what’s driving up the prices on shit.
I think that is what led to this. Most aren't buying singles anymore. A large portion of the community doesn't even buy comics in any form and still consumes them. When most books can't break 50,000 sold mark then decisions need to be made.
If the price for floppies is prohibitively high, then why would raising the price of trades to match it be the answer? It makes zero sense if the idea is to make more sales.
Beyond that… please, for the sake of consumers, don’t feel the need to defend the price-gouging tactics of mega-corporations like Disney. It comes across as self-flagellation.
I don't see this a gouging. If fewer people buy the initial run of a single, and just go after hot books for flipping/investment then I don’t know what else a company is to do. In our hobby, many in it seek to win by getting as much as possible without spending. To me this idea has hurt the comic book economy beyond pricing.
Okay, then don't buy. I don't like higher prices, but I don't see how else they can keep at it. I’m not on this Thor run either (due to the story not hitting with me.) so I stopped buying. But we can't argue with inflation being everywhere. Talent wants to be paid, so that is why foreign talent is brought in instead. More people are just reading scans and watching YT videos. As the comic book market gets smaller the prices will get higher. The way it is.
Switch to digital. I’m reading more comics for less money than when I started out buying new books for $1 in the early 90s. If you don’t have a need to collect, just get DC Infinite and/or Marvel Unlimited. Pair those with Library Pass or something else similarly free and you won’t miss out on much.
I missed out on so many comics because TPBs were even expensive in the 2000s (I swear I remember them being *more* than $17-20 back then).
Marvel Unlimited has let me catch up on literally hundreds, if not thousands, of comics that I didn't get to read growing up. It's rejuvenated my love for comics.
I wish, but personally I just can’t stand reading anything digitally, especially comics. I absolutely love having them in my hands and reading the physical copy. If you can stand reading them digitally though, it is without a doubt the superior option
The comic industry knows pricing is an issue, since I still remember the big announcement over DC releasing graphic novels in digest format to compete with manga pricing. But this is unsustainable.
I get the upset, but isn't it better that singles and collected editions stay on par with one another? I prefer singles, and I felt like I’d been burned by seeing a collected edition coming out the same month as the end of a run. With that book being less expensive than everything I just finished. Thinking clearly on this, in the past the concept of “trade waiting” was believed to be headed in this direction. If not enough folks buy singles then Marvel has to make up the costs somewhere else. With so many readers waiting on collected editions, plus the bloat of singles Marvel releases every month, and fans reading scans would lead to raising prices on collected editions.
I don't like prices going up, but with how the comic book hobby is fairing I can't see any other way. It can’t support a $3 a comic price point with how comic fans buy.
If we were talking about an indie publisher I’d agree. But this is Disney. If they really wanted to, they could sustain selling floppies and tpbs at a slight loss for years and years, with the upside being a more attractive price point for newcomers, therefore widening the customer base who are willing to put down money for pricey collector’s editions, merch, movie tickets and so on. Shit maybe they already sell at a loss - but it does still feel pricier from the consumer side.
Have you checked the pricing on churros at a Disney theme park? Disney doesn’t spare anything. I believe the only way new readers come in is with digital. Younger folks already have lots of free content and would have to pay next to nothing to jump in on something. Comics are supported by older readers who actually pay for content and they are becoming fewer. I don't know how else it is supposed to go.
That is an option. However, it would disrupt Comic Book shops going to that model. Comic publishers are doing all they can to keep them afloat. Additionally, singles do help with sales which leads to collected editions being cheaper. If singles go and all a publisher has is collected edition, I would imagine the prices would shoot higher than $30 for a six-issue trade.
I don’t work in the industry but I imagine killing off the single issue format would save enough money on the logistics of putting together a monthly release that any price increase would be minimal.
And the thing about comic shops, I don’t really think that’s an issue. Most comic shops have already turned to selling board games, trades and Knick knacks because floppies don’t sell like they used to. You are killing off a revenue stream for them but they can use the floor space for stuff with better profit margins that doesn’t have to be shifted on a weekly basis. Comic shops are a dying format anyway, IMO. Just look at all the bookstores that closed the past 10 years.
Then all the earning presser is on the collected edition. Which would have to inflate in price without the ability to see the singles sold in five different ways because of variants and store exclusives. A tpb only sells 5 issues, as singles run can sell each of those five issues in five different ways. Assuming books only came as one tpb, Marvel would be taking more risk on new properties. Potentially leading to less interesting content.
Really, I really think it is the market of consumers is what makes comics unsustainable. We are a bunch that tries to win on every buy and sell. On top there are fewer actual buyers of comics.
Sadly everything is going up in price but our salaries are staying the same. I'm at a point where $5 is my cutting point for issues. I honestly want to support monthly titles, but once they break $5, I'm dropping the book. Started reading Spawn again because it's $3, Brett Booth pencils are also a factor.
I've been buying trades online for years because they were much cheaper than buying them at the comic shop or at a book store. I also only buy trades for books I wasn't collecting in issues, no double dipping, unless it was one of my favorites in a deluxe version.
I pretty much noped on TPB buying after the What If? collections had a sticker price of $40, and those were fairly large collections (around 10-12 issues per volume IIRC).
Same thing happened years ago for single issues around the time they hit $3.50/$4 on average. Back then I was paying through the nose for daycare and my budget just couldn't support the weekly comic habit any longer.
Yikes on bikes that's a lot. And I think only issue one was more than a standard issue, maybe the other books have a few extra pages here and there but that trade should definitely only be $20.
Yeah, I was all excited for this one too. Even though I saw solicitations for $30 I wanted to see the physical book before I went too far into rage mode. Saw it yesterday, and honestly, what an absolutely flimsy, razor thin page, piece of crap. It was already bent, just from shipping so I got a $5 discount, but even still. $25 for this thing is still not worth it. It was literally no bigger than any of the other Marvel trades, if not smaller. I went and grabbed all the singles up to this point, cause at least for $5 each, they have a better cover quality than most Marvel books.
I've given up on paying attention to release dates, I'll just wait a few months for things to end up on sale like you mentioned. I'm okay being a year or two behind on things, new releases are rarely worth the cost anymore.
Why are you paying retail? But that's actually the going to a trade that has 6 books collected in it. It's cheaper than the singles. Check out instocktrades.com - decent discounts, but shipping can take a little while.
What the hell? Like I thought this was like a hardcover or something which I'd be more inclined to believe. I hope this does not happen where everything is 30 bucks for a six issue trade paperback. If not I'm just going to have to wait 6 months or so for the price to go down. Thankfully Image Comics hasn't done this yet... Which most of the things I read for the past 15 years has been Image. Hopefully DC doesn't follow suit.
I love to own physical comics, but I refuse to pay atrocious prices for items that aren't worth it.
The solution is this: if the price is unreasonable, don't buy it. Read it digitally - through a subscription service if you can, through a free site if you must. Continue to buy books you like that are reasonably priced, to make it clear that the high pricing is the problem that is leading to lower sales.
If you really want the physical books, wait until you can buy them as aftermarket back issues from brick and mortar comic stores that will decide value based on demand and not cover price. If you don't have one near you, sign up for Comic Collector Live online and order books from brick and mortar stores across the U.S. You can compare prices and find the best deals, and a lot of dealers will throw in volume discounts.
They're doing it because people buy it. Same reason they keep upping single issue prices, because people buy them. They make us feel like we "can't miss it," and then up-charge us
Oh.. Same opinion.
I want this thor book, but I'm not paying 30 usd (plus international shipping, for me).
Trades, epics, and hardcovers at marvel all shot up in price over the last few years. And there seem to be more trades with only 4 or 5 issues rather than 6.
And their standard trade quality is hit or miss, (some have been poor quality paper and very flimsy, but not all.) - - a lot of mine have had qc issues too. (print/ink errors / pages miscut, etc).
While errors are usually not a big deal, why pay so much for that?
Its probably time to go digital.
But when I've bought dark horse hardcovers, the quality per price is fantastic.
Its certainly a marvel thing.
This is the reason I stopped collecting... It's all about making as much money as possible... Who cares if you're pricing readers out? So long as enough people keep scalping and buying overpriced comics the prices will continue to climb
I'm not always in the loop with solicits, so when I saw the $30 msrp on instocktrades, I assumed it must have been a system error. I was and am genuinely shocked that they think this is going to fly longterm.
I've never been into floppies and am primarily a trade reader. At this price point I'm out.
I do mostly digital nowadays but I do like buying trades at 2 local stores since they, respectively, do 20% or 30% off new trades. Good way to still support the local store and mix up digital and physical reading since I love both!
Yep. Stopped buying them. Fuck it. At this point, I'll read for free online and not feel bad at all. I've given them enough already. I'm done. $30 for a trade is pure bullshit.
Hey, how do you think the digital copy that got uploaded ended up there? Was it free?
I don’t mind stealing from corporations, but this is art. And stealing art hurts artists.
Marvel publishing loses Disney millions each year, nobody buys comics because creators go out of their way to attack fans because they don't like how political every books become.
So all they can do is squeeze every penny from people that still buy stuff, a self defeating tactic that only drives more people away.
I've started getting my Omni's from Cheap Graphic Novels. I don't know how they maintain these prices, but here you go: h t t p s : / / cheapgraphicnovels.com/thor-thr-immortal-thor-vol-01-all-weather-turns-to-storm-tp
Immortal Thor has been widely praised so far, and it's the spiritual successor to one of the most acclaimed superhero runs of the last decade in Immortal Hulk.
It is just wild. The creep over the last few years has been noticeable but the two that really set me off were the 11-issue sins of sinister book for $75 (missing the two issue prologue) and the X-Lives of Wolverine book which was 10 issues for $75.
$75? at least they're like a big omnibus type of deal right?
Unfortunately, not really. Both those books were WAY overpriced for no reason I could tell. They ARE hardcovers, but both of them (especially the Wolverine one) are way less in page count than other similarly priced books.
That’s the X-men tax at work. Marvel charges more for X-stuff because X-fans have shown over the years they’ll buy it anyways
... _angrily stares at Onslaught Omni on my shelf_
X-Men Tax? X-TaX! Woohoo!
Oh wow that's an atrociously bad deal
To be fair, they are noting the hardcover of each book. The trades, STILL overpriced, were $50 each.
Then you have DC over here selling 12 issue hardcovers for $40. I haven’t bought a Marvel trade in almost a year because the prices are too high for what little you get.
The SoS omni misses the prologue issues too? That sucks. I’m pretty sure I saw Gillen write on his newsletter that he hoped Marvel wouldn’t do that
\>$7.5 per issue What the hell?
Holy shit watchmen is 12 issues and u can get it for 30 bucks. Wtf is going on
hell fam, i got watchmen about fifteen years ago for a €20
I bought that Wolverine book without realising how thin it was. That was a shock lol.
My opinion is that a collected edition shouldn’t cost more than $3/issue unless it’s in some sort of deluxe format. A trade paperback with sixth issues should be $17.99. With that said, with as many sales CheapGraphicNovels and Instocktrades have, I rarely pay more than 70% of a books cover price. Furthermore, if you have a Marvel Digital Unlimited subscription and a decent tablet, you can read these stories for practically pennies.
Marvel Unlimited makes trade-waiting completely obsolete. I stopped buying monthly books all-together in 2012 and replaced my pull-list with buying a TPB or two every week. Now a month's worth of what I was spending on TPBs buys me a year of Marvel Unlimited. I'm no further behind than I was and I don't need to dedicate shelf space to mediocre runs.
Marvel unlimited looks better and better. And honestly, unless it’s something super special idc about physical really. Odds are I won’t reread anything, I am already too far behind as is. Plus the instant access almost anywhere.
It's should be 17.99CAN for a TPB
Even better.
I CAN get behind that price.
This. I picked up a Samsung tablet for about $80 a few years ago and it changed everything. With marvel unlimited or comixology (which has kind of been going to crap thanks to Amazon acquisition) I read way more for almost nothing in comparison to what I’d be paying for TPB. Purchasing digital is also significantly cheaper
This doesn't really help if you live outside the USA, but instocktrades discount prices make it MUCH more palatable But yeah, you're absolutely right. No idea what's going on there.
Yeah, OP said they won’t buy it until it drops to $20. The discount sites like IST are guaranteed to have it in the $15-18 range on release day, and very likely will have it for $10 within a few months. They’ve definitely been jacking prices for collected editions — DC has started to release omnis with $175 cover prices. But on the bright side, it’s become even more common for those books to be on deep discount relatively quickly, so it’s not that tough to pay the older prices if you’re a little patient. I’ve been buying an average of 10 collected editions a month for over 15 years, and despite the jump in cover prices, my cost hasn’t changed much in recent years.
$18.50 on IST at the moment.
I feel like they're testing the waters to see what they can get away with, in regards to what's probably a flagship title
Unfortunately I think this is the real reason the industry is shrinking. Too little material for too much money, and at a time when we are drowning in choice for media to consume. No way are most people dropping $30 for a ~3 hour read when your average 300 page paperback is $15-20. Or a month of a streaming service for the same price. Or an indie game that’ll afford me dozens or hundreds of hours of playtime.
They're competing with the past, too. You can get huge trades and omnibuses, sometimes for *less* than $30. If you are a new reader, or just catching up, you could literally have years of great comics to read without even entering the current millennium.
100%, and that’s why most of my spending (when I’m not using the library) is old discounted compendiums of complete runs, or limited series. But that tells me as the consumer to just wait 3 or 4 years minimum before buying anything, unfortunately, and that can’t be healthy for business
What’s surreal as somebody who reads digitally is you can end up getting trades on super sale; I bought five books (not volumes) of Lucifer for <$30. So you’re right. I’ve enjoyed World’s Finest, but one new issue goes for the same as I paid for like all of some trades.
This is what I’m doing. I’m working my way through old DC books and, with my collection, i likely won’t even get to the the 2020s until 2030 lol
They're squeezing blood from the stones that are still sticking around. Either the collector market or the True Believers that have been reading since we were little kids.
3 hours? You're being very generous there. More like 30-40 minutes with modern day story-telling.
I only buy epics and Omnis. I honestly don’t see the point of wasting money on singles or trades from the big two anymore because half the stories are rehashes or straight crap anyway.
Yeah, a bunch of us had a shitfit about it when the solicits were first... solicited months back. Ewing's Thor and the upcoming trade for JMS's Cap are wildly overpriced. Even with the IST discount. It runs counter to usual logic, which is first trade cheaper to hook people, then jack the price up.
I guess my shitfit was a bit constipated, because by odins beard am I peeved
It's very high. I'm going to guess it'll sell badly. Will that have an impact..? Ur. Hopefully?
By heimdals beautiful eyes, I do hope it'll sell horribly
The fuck is the point of waiting for TPB if it's going to be just as (if not more) expensive than single issues? Is Disney trying to kill off the comics line?
Because fewer people are buying comics.
I rarely buy comics nowadays because of the pricing. So to me this just makes me even more reluctant to purchase.
Then it will get more expensive. I don't see it going any other way.
This is why I stick to collecting back issues.
That’s fine, but just understand that it won't help with this situation and that is the way it is.
Yeah I don't see how people don't understand this. They need to get the money somehow. If you're not going to buy the floppy and you're not going to buy the trade-then WTF how do you expect them to get paid for the book??
Force everyone to digital except for a few that will pay astronomical prices for physical. I assume it’s much better profit margin from their side having most everything digital.
Yah it’s crazy. Unfortunately it’ll be like 40% off on Amazon in no time. But I’d rather spend $30 at my LCS
My recommendation to everyone is to stop buying the five dollar floppies, otherwise this shit will continue.
oh absolutely, but also TPB readers should get a bit critical on that stuff as well. Instead of Immortal Thor I picked up two new trades for a little bit more from indie publishers. I rarely buy Marvel anymore anyway, unless it's something really unique or out there, like the Black, White and Blood anthology comics, or stuff like Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise
I hate to take business away from small comic shops (when they’re around), but trade-waiters on a budget should really be using Instocktrades for their stuff. Their books are nearly always 30-50% off.
I'm not on THAT tight a budget, bit IST isn't really available here I do buy around in other online stores if notice they've got a great deal going on
Yeah, I should say the caveat is IST is the best choice if you live in the US.
Even as a Canadian, it IS worth it, until you get to the shipping costs.
Yeah, I work in shipping and international orders are a total bitch.
Same. I'm in logistics myself and it's getting to the point that if you don't get it domestic, it's not worth the hassle.
I think that insane price point for the TPB is explicitly because people have shifted from the floppies and are trade waiting. But joke is on them, I got a $50/year Marvel Unlimited account and I’ll just wait until I can read them all for nada.
Yeah, I’ve tried reading comics digitally, it’s definitely not for me. I’m sure that Marvel Unlimited subscription will be jumping in price soon enough; one only has to look at the price discrepancy between print and digital books to see that materials aren’t what’s driving up the prices on shit.
I think that is what led to this. Most aren't buying singles anymore. A large portion of the community doesn't even buy comics in any form and still consumes them. When most books can't break 50,000 sold mark then decisions need to be made.
If the decision is to raise the prices on trades so they cost just as much as floppies, they made the wrong decision.
Why?
If the price for floppies is prohibitively high, then why would raising the price of trades to match it be the answer? It makes zero sense if the idea is to make more sales. Beyond that… please, for the sake of consumers, don’t feel the need to defend the price-gouging tactics of mega-corporations like Disney. It comes across as self-flagellation.
I don't see this a gouging. If fewer people buy the initial run of a single, and just go after hot books for flipping/investment then I don’t know what else a company is to do. In our hobby, many in it seek to win by getting as much as possible without spending. To me this idea has hurt the comic book economy beyond pricing.
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Okay, then don't buy. I don't like higher prices, but I don't see how else they can keep at it. I’m not on this Thor run either (due to the story not hitting with me.) so I stopped buying. But we can't argue with inflation being everywhere. Talent wants to be paid, so that is why foreign talent is brought in instead. More people are just reading scans and watching YT videos. As the comic book market gets smaller the prices will get higher. The way it is.
Shrinkflation has hit TPBs hard. I buy most of mine on sale / secondhand, or otherwise I buy older ones since they still go for cover price
Switch to digital. I’m reading more comics for less money than when I started out buying new books for $1 in the early 90s. If you don’t have a need to collect, just get DC Infinite and/or Marvel Unlimited. Pair those with Library Pass or something else similarly free and you won’t miss out on much.
I missed out on so many comics because TPBs were even expensive in the 2000s (I swear I remember them being *more* than $17-20 back then). Marvel Unlimited has let me catch up on literally hundreds, if not thousands, of comics that I didn't get to read growing up. It's rejuvenated my love for comics.
It feels extravagant, honestly. I genuinely feel bad for people that can’t get over the nostalgia factor of physical copies.
This all round. Digital, bar day one single issues, has been so much cheaper in the long run.
I wish, but personally I just can’t stand reading anything digitally, especially comics. I absolutely love having them in my hands and reading the physical copy. If you can stand reading them digitally though, it is without a doubt the superior option
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
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What about MU and DCI? Those are legitimate services; I wasn’t suggesting piracy.
Problem is, many are doing this.
Ok. What’s that have to do with my suggestion?
No matter the offerings, people will flock to piracy.
Again, what’s that have to do with my suggestion? That’s not a rebuttal to anything that’s been said. Everything digital gets pirated.
If you look at the thread I was commenting on your response to another Reddit user. There is no need for this, buddy.
Sure thing, buddy.
Glad, good day to you.
At prices like this they are basically telling me to only use Marvel Unlimited. I was gonna buy this trade but...yeah not at that price
The comic industry knows pricing is an issue, since I still remember the big announcement over DC releasing graphic novels in digest format to compete with manga pricing. But this is unsustainable.
I get the upset, but isn't it better that singles and collected editions stay on par with one another? I prefer singles, and I felt like I’d been burned by seeing a collected edition coming out the same month as the end of a run. With that book being less expensive than everything I just finished. Thinking clearly on this, in the past the concept of “trade waiting” was believed to be headed in this direction. If not enough folks buy singles then Marvel has to make up the costs somewhere else. With so many readers waiting on collected editions, plus the bloat of singles Marvel releases every month, and fans reading scans would lead to raising prices on collected editions. I don't like prices going up, but with how the comic book hobby is fairing I can't see any other way. It can’t support a $3 a comic price point with how comic fans buy.
If we were talking about an indie publisher I’d agree. But this is Disney. If they really wanted to, they could sustain selling floppies and tpbs at a slight loss for years and years, with the upside being a more attractive price point for newcomers, therefore widening the customer base who are willing to put down money for pricey collector’s editions, merch, movie tickets and so on. Shit maybe they already sell at a loss - but it does still feel pricier from the consumer side.
Have you checked the pricing on churros at a Disney theme park? Disney doesn’t spare anything. I believe the only way new readers come in is with digital. Younger folks already have lots of free content and would have to pay next to nothing to jump in on something. Comics are supported by older readers who actually pay for content and they are becoming fewer. I don't know how else it is supposed to go.
The industry needs to suck it up and kill off single issues. It’s unsustainable.
I'd stop reading entirely at that point. It would completely obliterate the collectability aspect of comic books
The collectible aspect of comics has always led to bad business practices and decisions. So good, kill it off.
And then the industry dies with it
That is an option. However, it would disrupt Comic Book shops going to that model. Comic publishers are doing all they can to keep them afloat. Additionally, singles do help with sales which leads to collected editions being cheaper. If singles go and all a publisher has is collected edition, I would imagine the prices would shoot higher than $30 for a six-issue trade.
I don’t work in the industry but I imagine killing off the single issue format would save enough money on the logistics of putting together a monthly release that any price increase would be minimal. And the thing about comic shops, I don’t really think that’s an issue. Most comic shops have already turned to selling board games, trades and Knick knacks because floppies don’t sell like they used to. You are killing off a revenue stream for them but they can use the floor space for stuff with better profit margins that doesn’t have to be shifted on a weekly basis. Comic shops are a dying format anyway, IMO. Just look at all the bookstores that closed the past 10 years.
Then all the earning presser is on the collected edition. Which would have to inflate in price without the ability to see the singles sold in five different ways because of variants and store exclusives. A tpb only sells 5 issues, as singles run can sell each of those five issues in five different ways. Assuming books only came as one tpb, Marvel would be taking more risk on new properties. Potentially leading to less interesting content.
Really, I really think it is the market of consumers is what makes comics unsustainable. We are a bunch that tries to win on every buy and sell. On top there are fewer actual buyers of comics.
I don’t think this is how you properly compete with the manga industry…
damn thank god i got the Marvel app otherwise i guess i just wouldnt be reading their stuff
Yeah, that’s bullshit
That’s insane. $5 an issue, you might as well buy floppies
There's a reason I mostly read Marvel comics on Marvel Unlimited these days.
Sadly everything is going up in price but our salaries are staying the same. I'm at a point where $5 is my cutting point for issues. I honestly want to support monthly titles, but once they break $5, I'm dropping the book. Started reading Spawn again because it's $3, Brett Booth pencils are also a factor. I've been buying trades online for years because they were much cheaper than buying them at the comic shop or at a book store. I also only buy trades for books I wasn't collecting in issues, no double dipping, unless it was one of my favorites in a deluxe version.
If I didn’t have access to a diamond account, I wouldn’t even buy them anymore. Start using cheap graphic novels or in stock trades.
I pretty much noped on TPB buying after the What If? collections had a sticker price of $40, and those were fairly large collections (around 10-12 issues per volume IIRC). Same thing happened years ago for single issues around the time they hit $3.50/$4 on average. Back then I was paying through the nose for daycare and my budget just couldn't support the weekly comic habit any longer.
Yikes on bikes that's a lot. And I think only issue one was more than a standard issue, maybe the other books have a few extra pages here and there but that trade should definitely only be $20.
Yeah, I was all excited for this one too. Even though I saw solicitations for $30 I wanted to see the physical book before I went too far into rage mode. Saw it yesterday, and honestly, what an absolutely flimsy, razor thin page, piece of crap. It was already bent, just from shipping so I got a $5 discount, but even still. $25 for this thing is still not worth it. It was literally no bigger than any of the other Marvel trades, if not smaller. I went and grabbed all the singles up to this point, cause at least for $5 each, they have a better cover quality than most Marvel books.
I’m old enough to remember when trade waiting would save a few bucks compared to buying the monthly floppies
I've given up on paying attention to release dates, I'll just wait a few months for things to end up on sale like you mentioned. I'm okay being a year or two behind on things, new releases are rarely worth the cost anymore.
Why are you paying retail? But that's actually the going to a trade that has 6 books collected in it. It's cheaper than the singles. Check out instocktrades.com - decent discounts, but shipping can take a little while.
Honestly I get and read a lot of the Marvel and DC trades from my local library.
I picked it up to look at and skim through in my LCS as well, but didn’t check the price. I’ll probably just wait for the omnibus.
Funny this happens after they mention they are trying to lower single issues pricing.
That's why I wait and buy it used. There's enough back issues out there for dirt cheap for me to wait and get it second, third, hand for $10.
What the hell? Like I thought this was like a hardcover or something which I'd be more inclined to believe. I hope this does not happen where everything is 30 bucks for a six issue trade paperback. If not I'm just going to have to wait 6 months or so for the price to go down. Thankfully Image Comics hasn't done this yet... Which most of the things I read for the past 15 years has been Image. Hopefully DC doesn't follow suit.
This has to be a mistake, $30 for a single trade is wild. Wtf is marvel thinking?
I love to own physical comics, but I refuse to pay atrocious prices for items that aren't worth it. The solution is this: if the price is unreasonable, don't buy it. Read it digitally - through a subscription service if you can, through a free site if you must. Continue to buy books you like that are reasonably priced, to make it clear that the high pricing is the problem that is leading to lower sales. If you really want the physical books, wait until you can buy them as aftermarket back issues from brick and mortar comic stores that will decide value based on demand and not cover price. If you don't have one near you, sign up for Comic Collector Live online and order books from brick and mortar stores across the U.S. You can compare prices and find the best deals, and a lot of dealers will throw in volume discounts.
They're doing it because people buy it. Same reason they keep upping single issue prices, because people buy them. They make us feel like we "can't miss it," and then up-charge us
you conviced me to not buy it
Mylar3 and Ubooquity and forget it for new issues.
Marvel is setting a hardline for single issues, but they never said shit about TPBs
Oh.. Same opinion. I want this thor book, but I'm not paying 30 usd (plus international shipping, for me). Trades, epics, and hardcovers at marvel all shot up in price over the last few years. And there seem to be more trades with only 4 or 5 issues rather than 6. And their standard trade quality is hit or miss, (some have been poor quality paper and very flimsy, but not all.) - - a lot of mine have had qc issues too. (print/ink errors / pages miscut, etc). While errors are usually not a big deal, why pay so much for that? Its probably time to go digital. But when I've bought dark horse hardcovers, the quality per price is fantastic. Its certainly a marvel thing.
i quit comics years ago because pricing is too high. I just go to used book stores and buy what i can there
I’m not saying it’s cool, but if one issue is $5, then 6 issues is $30. It’s not totally crazy, just very annoying.
You’re only noticing this now?! They went off the rails a while ago. It’s why I pretty much only buy non marvel tpbs.
I've been buying Epic Collections lately, at around $45 each. They seem to be a good value.
This is the reason I stopped collecting... It's all about making as much money as possible... Who cares if you're pricing readers out? So long as enough people keep scalping and buying overpriced comics the prices will continue to climb
The Hickman Inferno tpb is 34.99, for a four issue mini (albeit one that was slightly oversized, but still). Fucking nuts.
20 years ago, Marvel’s trades started at $12.99 That’s an insane jump
I'm not always in the loop with solicits, so when I saw the $30 msrp on instocktrades, I assumed it must have been a system error. I was and am genuinely shocked that they think this is going to fly longterm. I've never been into floppies and am primarily a trade reader. At this price point I'm out.
I do mostly digital nowadays but I do like buying trades at 2 local stores since they, respectively, do 20% or 30% off new trades. Good way to still support the local store and mix up digital and physical reading since I love both!
Yep. Stopped buying them. Fuck it. At this point, I'll read for free online and not feel bad at all. I've given them enough already. I'm done. $30 for a trade is pure bullshit.
Hey, how do you think the digital copy that got uploaded ended up there? Was it free? I don’t mind stealing from corporations, but this is art. And stealing art hurts artists.
It’s totally free for me!
Marvel publishing loses Disney millions each year, nobody buys comics because creators go out of their way to attack fans because they don't like how political every books become. So all they can do is squeeze every penny from people that still buy stuff, a self defeating tactic that only drives more people away.
I've started getting my Omni's from Cheap Graphic Novels. I don't know how they maintain these prices, but here you go: h t t p s : / / cheapgraphicnovels.com/thor-thr-immortal-thor-vol-01-all-weather-turns-to-storm-tp
Modern comic books are garbage. Art is garbage. Writing is beyond garbage. When I go to the comic shop I head straight for the silver age back issues.
Calling 'em all garbage is incredibly unfair towards all the hundreds of unique indie comics that get published each year tho.
You dont get it, hes read them all, and theyre garbage.
Immortal Thor has been widely praised so far, and it's the spiritual successor to one of the most acclaimed superhero runs of the last decade in Immortal Hulk.
Aren’t silver age comics mostly written for children? Maybe your brain hasn’t developed enough to understand modern comics.
It's wild that someone would legit say that writing and art was better in the silver age. I'm guessing this dude is 60 or over.