Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Hitting the Limit: Comic Prices

I was talking to Jim last night about the upcoming Emerald City Comicon. He wanted to know if I was going to take any spending money, and my answer was a quick "no". The reason for this is simple.

The price of comic books in the current market have turned me off to buying new ones. When books hit $3.99, I hit my limit. Suddenly my habit felt like a burden- a huge financial one.

I honestly have wandered around my basement looking at my many long boxes, feeling pissed off that I spent so much money over the years on books that sit in a box. Of course, I also feel the same way about DVD's, CD's, and hardcover books, so I digress a bit.

My point is that I am scared to spend anymore money on comic books at this point. I enjoy the few that I still get, and I really appreciated your responses on what you are reading. I just wish that the limit on a new book was $2.50 or under.

I know that publishers and creators have to make a living, so I am under no false illusion about the reality of things. It just disappoints me. I loved comic books for so many years, and now I just feel bitter. I think that is a big reason I didn't blog for awhile. I didn't get my books every week any more, and I couldn't spend much on the ones I did get. Thank God for Discount Comic Book Services. If not for them, I wouldn't be able to afford them anymore at all.

It feels weird to go to a major comic event without any desire to spend money. I sincerely hope that when I get there it changes. Right now I want to work the HERO Initiative booth to raise money for creators in need and I want to help Jim out at his booth. I also want to see my wonderful friends, and that is the bonus.

What do you think would help me change my mind? Is it too late, because of the price of comics? I worry that it will never be the same again.

Has the price of comics changed your opinion?

4 comments:

Vaklam said...

The price of comics has definitely changed my habits. I wait for the trades on most things I want and I'm not even buying as many of those as I used to.

Also, I haven't updated my comics blog in a long time because I'm not reading enough of them to have anything to write about. And this is all mostly due to the increased prices.

David Beard said...

I am enjoying swap sites that let me get crap out of my house and pull stuff in cheap. My wife and I use paperbackswap. For $2 in postage, I send someone a book, and another comes to me.

MOCK! said...

My pull list seems to get smaller and smaller each month...With only one of us working, it gets harder and harder to justify my "habit." I have my comics logged in a database from Collectorz...sometimes my only comic related pleasure comes from tweaking the data base or reading other people's blogs...

Nick said...

You know my whole story. Short of Walking Dead, I stopped buying singles over a year ago.

Comics singles have just gotten too expensive and become less about providing a good story to people and more about trying to sell crap to geeks. 22 ads and 10 pages of actual story is a crock of shit, that's all I am saying. (Looking at you Daredevil)

I don't think your the only one with this issue either, I think a lot of people will slowly start to quit buying singles and maybe at best buy stuff in trades. With the US economy getting worse everyday people are having to cut back and the simple fact is none of the comic companies are wising up to this or giving a flying flip

Maybe this is a doom and gloom statement but if things keep going the way they are, the comic industry is gonna hit a wall and go the way of magazines and newspapers aka out of business.

Digital distribution systems are the only thing that are gonna save the medium both in terms of quality given to us, and profits given to them. I can tell you right now, if DC offered a service where you can have all the current comics for that month as they come out, in a digital format easily readable for 50 bucks a month, I'd sign up for it. Same goes for Marvel/Image/IDW/Dark Horse etc. With tablet PCs and things like the Kindle/iPad/etc coming out, now more then ever is the best time to come out with something like this.

Ok sorry went on a bit of a ramble there. Hope you have fun at Emerald City Comic Con, heard Wil Wheaton AND Leonard Nimoy are gonna be there. Give props to Steve Lieber & Jeff Parker if you can for Underground.