Marvel Business Practices Discussion

[Smart Internet Man]

I mean, I just read alot of posts that rail on about how digital comics should go to $1.99 just because it's digital and trades/HC's are great because of certain discounts. But, at the end of the day, it's the monthly print format that makes this thing tick. I'm not sure why the digital and tpb/HC buyers need to complain.

i agree with you there, so thanks for clarity. the print model is the foundation, and until that changes, the pricing format for digital should remain as it is.

i don't agree with you as far as trades and HCs go. with their business model, the re-releases should be cheaper.

[Sabrewulf]

i agree with you there, so thanks for clarity. the print model is the foundation, and until that changes, the pricing format for digital should remain as it is.

i don't agree with you as far as trades and HCs go. with their business model, the re-releases should be cheaper.

I agree. The resale value on ebay for comics is poor. In fact I think half the value of a new comic book is the urgency to have it as soon as.

With a tpb you lose that and thus I don;t see the reasoning behind charging more per issue than you would for the monthly.

DC seem to get this and they are going to piss all over Marvel with tpb sales once the new 52 start getting released.

[Eobard Thawne]

I mean, I just read alot of posts that rail on about how digital comics should go to $1.99 just because it's digital and trades/HC's are great because of certain discounts. But, at the end of the day, it's the monthly print format that makes this thing tick. I'm not sure why the digital and tpb/HC buyers need to complain.

You read alot of posts from people complaining that trades/HC's are so great because of certain discounts??? That is a complaint? Argh, why are these discounts so great!! I just want to pay more for my trades but I keep getting these darned discounts!

[Mr. Rice]

Scud, the Disposable Assassin?

Thumb-up, man.

Hell yeah brother. The Whole Shebang is the greatest value in comics today. I have my Scud Action figure swinging from the thumb tacks on my cork board.

Only one issue away for hardcovers.

I hear ya, but I'm mainly talking about trades.

I hear ya, but I wonder if people were saying the same thing when they went down from 6 new issues initially.

Yeah, it's definitely a slippery slope. I had to sit and think about where I would draw the limit. 4 for twenty is pretty bad, but luckily in that case you usually get annuals.

[Nova2814.1]

First Wolverine, Legion Or Monsters and now X-Factor.

---Amazon listed for $19.99---

What annoys me is they charge the same as they do for some 5 0r 6 issues tpbs.

Plus do they work out a tpb of 4 issues of a $2.99 book should be the same as 4 issues of a $3.99 book.

Are you talking about paperbacks or hardcovers? Because I can't find any 4 issue Marvel paperbacks on Amazon with a $20 cover price. Legion and X-Factor are all listed at $15/$16.

If you're talking about 4 issue hardcovers at $20, then those have become more common in the last few years. The earliest ones I can think of are the premiere hardcovers for Jeph loeb's Hulk series (in fact, one of those had only 3 issues), but there's also some Uncanny X-force, Fantastic Four, Ultimate Thor and numerous others throughout the years.

i was just about to purchase the WATXM hardcover until i saw it only had issues 1-4. wasn't it originally solicited to contain issues 1-6?

The official solicit was for #1 - 4, so the contents are correct.

The Uncanny X-Men hardcover has 6 issues.

Which one? Vol 1 of the relaunch has 4 issues. Vol 2 is solicited with 6 issues, but has a $25 cover price.

[Rasputin9977]

I mean, I just read alot of posts that rail on about how digital comics should go to $1.99 just because it's digital and trades/HC's are great because of certain discounts. But, at the end of the day, it's the monthly print format that makes this thing tick. I'm not sure why the digital and tpb/HC buyers need to complain.

There's less over year expenses with digital than with print. Also digital has traditionally been cheaper.

[deathcry]

There's less over year expenses with digital than with print. Also digital has traditionally been cheaper.

explain please? (about the expenses..who's expenses?)

digital has been traditionally cheaper where?

[Rasputin9977]

explain please? (about the expenses..who's expenses?)

digital has been traditionally cheaper where?

Sorry, auto correct. That's supposed to be over head expenses not over year. Digital doesn't have the print expenses tuat floppies do.

And comixology.

[CyberHubbs]

Sorry, auto correct. That's supposed to be over head expenses not over year. Digital doesn't have the print expenses tuat floppies do.

And comixology.

Marvel has to slice a percentage off the top -- something like 30 or 40 percent -- right to iTunes.

[Will.S]

i was just about to purchase the WATXM hardcover until i saw it only had issues 1-4. wasn't it originally solicited to contain issues 1-6? this is some serious bullshit. maybe it's time to drop the Big Two completely and enjoy my favorite creators' indie books. i've already dropped the amount of titles i get from them considerably.

Yeah when I saw how little was actually contained in the hardcover with THAT price I just shook my head and put it back on the shelf. It's kind of sad that it's actually cheaper if you buy the single issues, personally I'll wait for a bigger collection.

[FriendRoss]

Marvel has to slice a percentage off the top -- something like 30 or 40 percent -- right to iTunes.

if not higher. then comixology gets a cut

[David Walton]

Marvel has to slice a percentage off the top -- something like 30 or 40 percent -- right to iTunes.

Not sure about that. I do know that Mark Waid has argued digital comics prices need to go down, and Peter David has said he makes more profit off lower-priced digital novels than hardcovers.

This isn't really a criticism that's exclusive to Marvel, because digital novels haven't gone down significantly on Amazon, either. You can often find a discounted new book cheaper than a digital novel.

I don't think Marvel is price gouging customers or anything, but I would like to see digital content go down. I'm not sure why, for instance, Daredevil #1-8 are 1.99 because they were just digitized recently, while day-and-date issues will (presumably) remain cover price for the forseeable future.

[Chiasm]

So are the hardcovers collecting issues #1-4 or #1-6 of Uncanny X-men? Amazon says 1-6 but reviewers are saying its wrong and its really 1-4. For $13.45 its a good deal if its 1-6 but if its 1-4 its hardly better than paying $3.99 per issue and I already made the choice to not support Marvel at that price.

[thecrimson]

So are the hardcovers collecting issues #1-4 or #1-6 of Uncanny X-men? Amazon says 1-6 but reviewers are saying its wrong and its really 1-4. For $13.45 its a good deal if its 1-6 but if its 1-4 its hardly better than paying $3.99 per issue and I already made the choice to not support Marvel at that price.

This is what I tend to do. I create an expansive wish list of trades and wait for said trades to drop in price. It's how I got so many Witchblade trades. I just waited for the prices to drop. It's actually what I do for ANYTHING I want on Amazon. Even games, but that makes sense.

[mikekerrIII]

explain please? (about the expenses..who's expenses?)

digital has been traditionally cheaper where?

everywhere the cost to distribute a digital comics bandwidth wood be tiny compared to printing costs, Bandwidth is incredibly cheap and has been getting cheaper at a steady rate. Server costs have been dropping the same way. Confering the images that they use to print the books to the pages of a digital books is a very simple task and doesn't require much labor and not huighly skilled labor

A youtube movie costs less to transmit that the cost of a page view of the advertisements ( fractions of pennies), and even a short clip is far larger than a digital comic, sometimes an order of magnitude larger

Paper and shipping cost have been going the other way for a long time and unless someone changes the laws of supply and demand will continue to move the same way.