What is the highest price that you're willing to pay?

[Shellhead]

What is the highest price that you're willing to pay for a normal issue of a monthly comic?

$3.00?
$3.75?
$5.00?
$8.50?
$10.00?
More?

Do you feel that comics present a good value for your entertainment dollars, compared to:

DVDs?
CDs?
Paperback books?
Concert tickets?
Movie tickets?
A pack of cigarettes?
A box of condoms?
A value meal at a fast food restaurant?
Dinner at a nice restaurant?
A six-pack of beer?
A bottle of wine?
A computer game?

[JLarson]

I stopped buying floppies when they started costing more than 2 bucks an issue. TPBs are encouragingly cheaper, but gimmicks like releasing "big" titles as HCs first is discouraging. I was impressed with both Wanted and Conan coming out in both paperback and hardback at the same time.

[Donald M.]

Simply put, I'm no longer willing to pay $2.50+ for a normal monthly issue that takes me 15 minutes tops to read.

I understand why books cost as much as they do, I also understand it's not going to get any better. The only sector of the comic book market that seems to be growing is Japanese Manga, and even that is nowhere near what it is in its home country. I am lead to understand that for what we pay for a 30 page issue here in the US, you get an anthology magazine or trade that's hundreds of pages.

We'll never have that here. The comics market isn't big enough to support it and never will be again. That saddens me, but there are other, more affordable forms of entertainment to fill the void.

Most American comics aren't worth the trouble anyway.

[Donald M.]

Simply put, I'm no longer willing to pay $2.50+ for a normal monthly issue that takes me 15 minutes tops to read.

I understand why books cost as much as they do, I also understand it's not going to get any better. The only sector of the comic book market that seems to be growing is Japanese Manga, and even that is nowhere near what it is in its home country. I am lead to understand that for what we pay for a 30 page issue here in the US, you get an anthology magazine or trade that's hundreds of pages.

We'll never have that here. The comics market isn't big enough to support it and never will be again. That saddens me, but there are other, more affordable forms of entertainment to fill the void.

Most American comics aren't worth the trouble anyway.

[Nate C.]

What is the highest price that you're willing to pay for a normal issue of a monthly comic?

$3.00?

I buy Amazing, DD, Usagi, FF, TMNT, Tales of TMNT, New Avengers, Spider-Man Unlimited, Ultimate Spider-Man at this price (plus a few others that catch my eye) at this price.

$3.75?

I would drop back to Amazing, TMNT, Tales of, Usagi, DD, FF, New Avengers at this price.


$5.00?

I would buy Amazing, DD, Usagi and TMNT at this price.

$8.50?
$10.00?
More?

I would drop them all.

Do you feel that comics present a good value for your entertainment dollars, compared to:


DVDs? No.

CDs? No.

Paperback books? No.

Concert tickets? No.

Movie tickets? Yes.

A pack of cigarettes? Yes.

A box of condoms? Yes. (Married, so...)

A value meal at a fast food restaurant?

No. The way I look at it is this way- minimum wage in 1990 was 3.30 and a comic book was 1.00. I could buy 3 comics for 1 hours labour. (And a fast food meal was a little higher than an hours wage)

minimum wage in 2005 (15 years later) is 5.15 and comic books are now 3 bucks. I can now buy 1 1/2 comic books for the same hour of labour that I used to buy 3 comic books for. (and a fast food meal still costs about an hours labour)

Dinner at a nice restaurant? Yes. (nice restaurant prices are ridiculous to me. But I go pretty often, and leave mad every time).

A six-pack of beer? N/A

A bottle of wine? N/A

A computer game? No. Video games are a ridiculously good value for the hours spent playing them.

[Ed Cunard]

What is the highest price that you're willing to pay for a normal issue of a monthly comic?

Honestly? It depends on my perceived quality of the comic. I won't buy, say, HOUSE OF M or THE GIFT for $1, but I'd probably pay at least $5 to stay up with something like TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD. Still, I probably spend more in trades and minicomics than I do in regular monthlies, so it's not often a concern.

Do you feel that comics present a good value for your entertainment dollars, compared to:

DVDs? Singles? No. Trades, it depends on the movie and the trade.
CDs? I haven't bought CDs in a while, but I'd probably weigh in favor of comics because of that--yay, satellite radio!
Paperback books? Really depends on the book and the comic, but a "book book" probably wins because of the amount of time each reading takes.
Concert tickets? I don't know if it's the same--a concert is an experience, while a comic is something you own.
Movie tickets? See above.
A pack of cigarettes? They're not entertaining, they're addicting. So comics win, in theory, but I know me, and if I had $4 for a pack, or $3 for a comic, I'd end up buying the pack.
A box of condoms? N/A
A value meal at a fast food restaurant? Not entertainment, really. It's not like one eats at a fast-food restaurant for the atmosphere.
Dinner at a nice restaurant? It depends on the company. If I like the person/people, and there's promise of good conversation, I'll probably go with the dinner.
A six-pack of beer? I don't think there's a clear comparison.
A bottle of wine? Ditto.
A computer game? I don't play any, so I'll go with comics.

[Samurai]

What is the highest price that you're willing to pay for a normal issue of a monthly comic?

$3.00?
$3.75?
$5.00?
$8.50?
$10.00?
More?

Do you feel that comics present a good value for your entertainment dollars, compared to:

DVDs?
CDs?
Paperback books?
Concert tickets?
Movie tickets?
A pack of cigarettes?
A box of condoms?
A value meal at a fast food restaurant?
Dinner at a nice restaurant?
A six-pack of beer?
A bottle of wine?
A computer game?
$3.50 is my max limit currently, and it's gotta be a pretty darn good for me to pay that. The new John Sable is $4 per issue, and much as I love Grell and Sable, I put it back on the shelf. The only book I'm currently paying $3.50 for is Shanna the She-Devil... love the art. If all the titles I collect were raised to $3.50, I'd drop at least half the titles, though.

They are not a very good value for the money IMO. I'd say a DVD, CD, paperback book, and a computer game are all FAR better value for the money.

[macul]

I can't really put a price on it. I think $3.5 might be my breaking point, but I'm just not sure. I do know that I need to drop titles due to current prices. I just can't keep spending as much money as I do on these things. I love em, but they are slowly pricing themselves out in my opinion.

[clayholio]

I usually draw the line at $3.00, but I've started picking up Jon Sable, which is my first book from IDW solely because of their $3.99 cover prices. I know the books look nice, but at some point you cross the line between "nice reproduction" and "fetish item."

I'm wavering on some of the $3.50 books. I don't necessarily mind Flaming Carrot being $3.50 simply because it's a unique book, and it doesn't come out monthly. Same on Shaolin Cowboy. Geof Darrow doesn't put out 12 books a year (or even a decade, I think), so when he draws something, an extra 50 cents aren't going to keep me from it.

When a book crosses the $3.00 threshold, it becomes much more important to tell a complete story at once. If I pick up a new comic at $3.50, and it says "Part 1 of 6," that sucker's going right back on the racks. Everyone loves their multi-part epics, but the first thing I'll do on a high cover price is figure out how much the series is going to cost me to read it.

As for comparative value for my entertainment dollar, it's not something I really think about. I love comics, so I'll get 'em. I also love music, so I buy CDs and go to the occasional concert. I love movies, so I go see 'em. I don't sit at home trying to figure out how to maximize my entertainment. If I want to get something, and I can afford it, I'll buy it.

[JTLauder]

For a typical 32-page comic book (of which only about 24 pages are comics), I'd pay no more than $2.50. If it's a special must-have issue, or if it doesn't have ads, I'd be willing to go $3.

This leads to another question...what are you will to sacrifice for them to keep the price down?

They already put all sorts of ads in them, and the size keeps getting smaller.
I love the glossy white paper. It adds more quality to the product and they last longer. But I'd settle of a matte finish if they'd lower the price. The newsprint paper of Marvel's Essential books are a great price, but that's going too low turns yellow easily.

[tcv]

This leads to another question...what are you will to sacrifice for them to keep the price down?

They already put all sorts of ads in them, and the size keeps getting smaller.
I love the glossy white paper. It adds more quality to the product and they last longer. But I'd settle of a matte finish if they'd lower the price. The newsprint paper of Marvel's Essential books are a great price, but that's going too low turns yellow easily.

I think your statement about yellowing is exactly why comics are so expensive. The publishers care more about collectability and long-term value. They've struck a balance, certainly. It's not like there are multiple-covers with foil-stamps and die cuts anymore. But we're also not printing on newsprint because, I believe, the companies would rather appeal more to collectors and speculators.

If the whole point is the story and the artwork, if we didn't care a whit about collectors or speculators, if they KNEW that people threw away each issue or kept them to compile their own volumes for later reading only, we'd see cheaper printing techniques and cheaper prices. There'd be no point to appealing to collectors because there wouldn't be any collectors.

I am simply flabberghasted at the value you get for comics. It's shocking compared to what I used to pay.

[metr0man]

$3.00 is definetly my ceiling for monthly comics, but even that's on the high end, meaning I wont buy unless I think its REALLY good.

Do you feel that comics present a good value for your entertainment dollars, compared to:

As always, this really depends on the quality of the movie/book/music and all that, but in general, assuming we're talking about good and great pieces of entertainment, my answer is NO absolutely not.

THe past month or two much of my comics money has been going to books instead. ender's game, the first pern novel, song of ice and fire, and the new harry potter. I can honestly say each of those gave me more enjoyment than any monthly comic out there, i would be up at 2 am telling myself 'just a few more pages just one more chapter', desite the fact i had ta get up early for work. I can also honestly say that if, say harry potter, was released one chapter at a time every month, no way would I be a fan of it.

DVDs?
CDs?
Paperback books?
Concert tickets?
Movie tickets?

[Expletive Deleted]

For twenty-two pages from Marvel or DC, three bucks is about my limit.

I'll go higher for something with extra pages or for something with a low print run, though.

[Shellhead]

I wish that I could say that $3.00 is my limit, but I've already cut down to just a few quality titles, and I might go as high as $4.00 an issue for those.

For my entertainment value, I consider comics to be

a much better value than: alcohol, cigarettes or concert tickets.

a better value than: dinner at a restaurant, especially a nice one.

an comparable value to: a movie ticket.

a worse value than: DVDs, CDs, or paperback books

a much worse value than: computer games or condoms. Especially condoms, as sex can be very enjoyable, but kids are very expensive and inconvenient.

With the possible exception of a condom, all of these other entertainment possibilities involve a longer experience than reading a single comic book. Comics still compare favorably with some of the alternatives because they aren't expendable. You drink a beer, and that beer is gone forever. You buy a comic book and read it, and you still own a comic book.

[Ray R.]

I'm wavering on some of the $3.50 books. I don't necessarily mind Flaming Carrot being $3.50 simply because it's a unique book, and it doesn't come out monthly. Same on Shaolin Cowboy. Geof Darrow doesn't put out 12 books a year (or even a decade, I think), so when he draws something, an extra 50 cents aren't going to keep me from it.


You have very good taste, clay. I make the same justifications for both books. As well, as Cho's "Shanna."

Other comics, like the usual D.C./Marvel fare: $3.00 sounds about right. I think I'd drop a lot of titles if they got much higher than that.

One caveat: the Gemstone $6.95 Disney books. If there's Rosa or Van Horn art I haven't seen, then I'll drop the coin for them. Get's iffy, though. Not sure how they can justify those prices for too long....especially on the non-Barks, non-Gottfredson, non-Rosa stuff. More power to them, though, if they can stay in the Disney game....

[Huh?]

$5.00 - But I would probably be buying about 5 books a month compared to a lot more now.

Do you feel that comics present a good value for your entertainment dollars, compared to:

DVDs? - NO
CDs? - NO
Paperback books? - NO
Concert tickets? - NO
Movie tickets? - YES
A pack of cigarettes? - NO
A box of condoms? - NO
A value meal at a fast food restaurant? - YES
Dinner at a nice restaurant? - YES
A six-pack of beer? - NO
A bottle of wine? - NO
A computer game? - NO

[K'Nort]

Right now I go with denial. I don't look at the cover price on monthlies.

I pretty much won't go as high as $20 for a trade though. Not with having such a good used book store nearby that seems to get things in as soon as they're published.

One additional value that comics share with books and movies is the social aspect. How much time/pleasure you get out of discussing them with others.

[MarvelKnight]

As long as I don't spend more than $50 a month on comics, I'm in good standing with the wife.

[Xiroteus]

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