Thursday, August 16, 2012

The $2.99 complaint

So in the past few weeks I have had several customers complain about our poster from DC that says "Holding the line at $2.99."  They usually make a annoyed sound and complain about the "Many 3.99 comics."  Roy and I have both pointed out DC only has a few of those titles and they give you additional material.  Most of the time they just shrug.  Sometimes they challenge what we are saying.  So here is an answer to all those that challenge Roy and I on this.  To be fair I will also give numbers for Marvel.  For both companies I am only looking at their core titles and not miniseries or annuals or specials.

DC (Core 52)  There are only 7 titles that are $3.99.  All 7, everyone, has 40 pages.  8 more pages than a normal comic.  That means there 45, I will say again 45 monthly titles, that are $2.99 for 32 pages.  Now 4 of the 7 titles are some of the most popular (Action, Batman, Justice League, & Detective).  So many people will see these prices as oppose to the $2.99.  Batman also started at $2.99 and then went up to $3.99, though they did increase the page count afterwards.  That means that roughly 87% of DC's core line is only $2.99.  That seems like a strong line to me.

Marvel by contrast has 54 core titles a month. 23 titles at $2.99 for 32 pages.  Roughly 1/2 of DC's monthly number at the same price.  29 titles at $3.99 over 4 times the amount DC has at the same price point.  And all 29 of these title are only 32 pages!  No additional content for your dollar.  1 title is at $4.99 for 32 pages.  Twelve of these are shipped twice a month.  Of those 1, Iron Man, ships once at $2.99 then again that month at $3.99.  2 others are $2.99 (Captain Marvel and Deadpool)  The other 9 are all $3.99 and are the top selling monthly titles for Marvel.

So overall, DC seems to be "Holding the Line at $2.99" rather well.  And the very few times they do not they give you extra content.  If only every company had the same respect for consumers.


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