Craig Welsh has some thoughts on the prices of graphic novels in Canada. About the Frank Miller Daredevil Omnibus, he writes:
I thought about buying it when I was in Ottawa in mid-April, however I balked at the price. It retails for $99 U.S., but that isn’t what freaked me out. The Canadian price tag was $160.
It was enough that I took a look at some other recent purchases. Two other Marvel hardcovers I bought had the same exchange rate. Runaways Vol. 3 and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 1 retail for $24.99 US, $40 Can. Soft covers are just as bad. Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out Vol. 2 retails $14.99 US, $24 Can.
And it appears to be just Marvel. A recent DC purchase, DMZ: Body of a Journalist, goes for $12.99 US, $15.99 Can. Other recent DC trade paperbacks have a similar difference in exchange rate.
So let’s hit on a few points here. First, the dollar has surged a bit in the past six weeks, so it wasn’t at 94 cents back in mid-April. But it was around 90 cents and has been hovering, give or take a few cents, in that area for about a year. That means an accurate exchange rate would have been around $110-115. And yet Marvel Comics stuck a $160 price tag on the book. In fact, all of the Omnibus line has this ridiculous pricing. The Canadian dollar would need to be trading at around 65 cents to the U.S. dollar for this pricing to be even close to reasonable. It hasn’t been at that level since 2002. So the change isn’t exactly a shocking turn of events that Marvel was unprepared for.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Preach it, Brother Craig!
At least DC has recently adjusted its prices to be… well, not in line, exactly, but *more* in line with the exchange rate.
Some hardcover book prices are just crazy, though. I swear I’ve seen some hardcovers where the Canadian price is almost double the American price. Why would they?
June 5th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Additional costs like physical transportation and any applicable tariffs, I imagine.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Then why are Marvel’s prices higher than DC’s? The best example I’ve seen is comparing the Civil War trade and Infinite Crisis hardcover. Both are $24.99 US, but the Civil War trade is $40 Canadian, while the IC hardcover is only $33.99 Canadian. Why the difference?
June 5th, 2007 at 11:56 am
This is why I do mail order through the US. Ducking the exchange rate gouging more than makes up for the shipping cost.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Aren’t most of these books printed in Canada? Tariffs and extra transportation costs wouldn’t apply in that case.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
While many books are printed in Canada, I believe they’re generally shipped back to Diamond’s US distribution centres before being shipped back to Canada. So there are various tariff & tax issues, I imagine.
Most of the stores in Toronto – at least, the ones I shop at – either charge US cover +exchange, or just the straight US cover. The Canadian cover price is an unpleasant combination of a bad joke and price gouging.
June 5th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
it’s a cash grab – pure and simple… and it used to be worse, before Marvel made the big fan fare about lowering the Canadian prices… at the Silver Snail here in Toronto, it’s the very reason we charge the american cover price… the canadian prices are ridiculous…
June 5th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Ottawa is a shitty city in which to buy comics. In Toronto, just about every major comics store charges US cover price for new individual issues, and most of them charge US cover price or even lower for collections.
And I’m pretty sure Diamond has Canadian distribution centres. It’s why we get our comics a day earlier than the US sometimes when a national holiday doesn’t line up with an equivalent holiday in the other country. (Also, shipping back and forth over the border twice, since most of the comics in question are printed in Quebec, would be, what’s the word, dumbassed.)
June 5th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
At The Beguiling in Toronto, we’ve always made a point of charging the exact exchange rate on books brough in from the U.S. (pretty much everything from Diamond). In the year or two we’ve gone to U.S. Cover price on issues and trades because the Canadian dollar is v. close to the U.S. Dollar these days, but also because everyone else in town decided that comics were going to cost U.S. cover price.
It’s really annoying to sell books for less than they’re worth, but we do want to remain competitive. But I honestly wouldn’t shop at a store selling Marvel or DC Comics for the Canadian price printed on them, they’re really just trying to make an extra 20-30% off of their customers.
June 5th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
mightygodking: Diamond has 3 distribution wearhouses, all in the US.
A Canadian wearhouse probably doesn’t make much sense to them. I doubt there is a central spot where they could mail the books out from and get it to Vancouver and St. Johns on the same day.
There is a good possiblity Canada orders too little product to be worth a dedicated wearhouse. There is roughly 3200 Diamond accounts and there is what.. 500 stores in Canada, if that?
June 5th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Nice to see my little blog post got some reaction and that everyone seems to agree with me that Marvel is engaged in excessive gouging.
Also interesting to see less than kind things said about shopping in Ottawa. Something to keep in mind next time I’m there. I checked my receipts…the three stories I bought books in charged me full Canadian price, so I got royally screwed. Next time I go through I’m going to make a point of asking for the US price.
And Christopher, I’ve always liked the Beguiling and try to stop by on the rare chances I get time in Toronto.
But the point is, Marvel needs to address this. It’s a ridiculous situation.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I can’t speak for Marvel or DC, but we here at Oni Press just stopped printing Canadian prices on our books all together.
It may be different for Marvel & DC, but Diamond sells our books to Canadian retailers based on the US price, not the Canadian one.
If stores are selling the books at the printed Canadian prices, then I would assume it is the stores that are making the extra profit, not Marvel or DC.
But, like I said, I don’t know the details of Marvel & DC’s distribution agreements.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Marvel says—
“All your Loonies are belong to us!”
June 5th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I’m a little north of Toronto, and the store I go to, Planet X, sells at Canadian cover price, but with my membership I get 20% off new comics. U.S. cover in other Toronto stores, huh? Hmm…
June 6th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
I can’t even imagine buying books for the US cover price. It sounds nice. But that must be an Ontario thing…
As for Marvel, yes they are gouging Canadian customers for far more than the American equivalent costumer pays. And the Canadian costumers keep lapping it up.
If you want Marvel to offer hardcovers and trades at a fairer price point, stop buying the overpriced books.