PW’s Beat blog posted its monthly analysis of the sales charts this week, and while I read those posts with great interest all the time, I did so with greater interest this month simply because I was curious to see how The Big Two’s embrace of $3.99 comic books might be effecting their sales.
I was surprised at the answer: Apparently not at all.
At least, not in any obvious ways. Here’s Paul O’Brien’s look at Marvel’s direct market sales in June. Marvel has been testing the $3.99 waters for so long, I can’t remember when they first started, but this year they’ve been much more aggressive, making some of their most popular titles $3.99-for-22-pages, as well as a majority of their miniseries. (I noticed last week, for example, that of the 28 new comic books Marvel shipped, 24 were at the $3.99 price point.)
But Marvel’s top books remain New Avengers and Dark Avengers, plus a Dark Avengers spin-off (Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia). Ultimatum, another $4 book, is right behind that little Avengers-related pack.
And the low-selling, $2.99 books—Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredible Hercules, Agents of Atlas, etc—haven’t shot up the charts, even though they’re now “value” books.
Granted, a lot of $3.99 books also sell poorly, including all those random Dark Reign miniseries like Dark Reign: Elektra and Zodiac and Lethal Legion, but they probably wouldn’t sell too much better at $2.99, would they?
I found these numbers to be sort of discouraging, as I was sort of hoping the market would punish Marvel’s move to the price increase, but, so far at least, they don’t seem to be visibly losing customers. I suppose it just goes to show that as much as I read and talk about comics, I don’t actually know anything about the business. (So it’s a good thing no one ever takes my advice).
Marc-Oliver Frisch’s analysis of DC’s June sales, meanwhile, similarly shows that the price increase of certain books to $3.99 doesn’t seem to have had any effect. The DC strategy was to an extra dollar to the price of many books, but to simultaneously add another dollar’s worth of content in the form of back-ups. None of these books dropped at an alarming rate, nor did any of them seem to add a bunch of new numbers, with the possible exception of Booster Gold, which picked up around 1,000 readers when Blue Beetle started appearing the back of it.
Frankly, I find this too alarming, as it seems to suggest that a) Marvel fans at least are willing to pay that extra $1 for 22 pages, whether they like doing so or not and b) giving fans more content for that extra $1 may not pay any great rewards (I noticed that the only Marvel $4 books I am reading, the 70th Anniversary Specials, which usually have at least 10 pages of back-up material, sell pretty poorly for Marvel, although that may simply be because Namor and Miss America don’t have a lot of fans).
This is, of course, only one month’s worth of data. Whether an increasingly common $3.99 price point ultimately hurts Marvel’s sales, and whether DC’s back-ups remain more neutral than a special enticement, won’t be clear for a few more months yet. (If not longer, given the wacky way the direct market works, with data reflecting what retailers buy based on what they think they can sell, not what is actually sold).
My fear is that Marvel will gradually axe it’s poor performers, as fans find less and less money to experiment on even “cheap” books like Agents of Atlas or the latest Exiles relaunch, and that DC will decide that their audience will be okay with $3.99-for-22 pages after all, and drop the back-ups (They seem to be flirting with this with Justice League: Cry For Justice, the first two issues of which sold for $3.99 for 22-pages, and contained a bunch of prose back-matter like character histories).
August 7th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I think the reason people are hanging on to these books is because they changed the pricing in the midst of a line wide event in the form of Dark Reign. People are interested in seeing how things progress and will pay the extra money to reach that conclusion. I will be interested to see sales data once Norman Osbourne has run his course and Marvel (if they keep to their past statements) begin making things more self contained.
Personally, with Marvel I am down to only Captain America and Deadpool (main series only, not $3.99 Merc w/ Mouth). I dropped Wolverine Weapon X which I enjoyed as a fan of 20-years-ago-Wolverine because I figured the trades of the series would be more cost effective for me. I’m tempted to switch Cap to trades as well once Reborn wraps if the $3.99 tag on the regular series is permanent.
I have really enjoyed the DC double features so far. Batwoman/Question, Booster/Beetle, and Streets/Manhunter have been so tremendous. Because of them, I’m more likely to try out a $3.99 Doom Patrol/Metal Men than I otherwise might have been. A few, like Action Comics gaining Captain Atom, have been duds to me, but I haven’t enjoyed the main features of Superman lately either.
Overall, I like to think I’m getting something for the money. A line wide crossover or double feature feels worth it.
August 7th, 2009 at 11:55 am
The $3.99 for Cry for Justice didn’t upset me as much as the Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps weekly mini, each issue of which had less than 22 pages of new material (and of uneven quality at that). I’m just glad the other Blackest Night minis (Batman, Superman, etc.) are $2.99 each.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I’m not doing it. I’m absolutely hard-lining on $4-for-22 page books. My pull is somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 of what it was a year ago, and i suspect i’ll be entirely out by this time next year. >>>tear<<< I used to get every single Bendis Book Marvel published, and after Ultimate Spider-Man Requiem #2 ($4, but oversized) i’ll be getting none of them.
It’s just insanity to me they raised prices 33% in the middle of a recession and the consumers are rewarding them for it. I’m just not that addicted i guess. I’ll probably keep following a couple favorite books in trade, but that’s it. and once you break the habit it’s easy to not come back.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Being a Marvel junkie for 40 years, I have stopped buying any of their books besides Daredevil and Fantastic Four—because of the price increase. I’ve been buying increasing numbers of select DC comics due to their price point of $2.99, with the exception of some of the ‘bonus’ $3.99 books. The Doom Patrol story for their debut issue was terrible, and the backup Metal Men story was just OK… But Batwoman has been terrific on the eyes….
Bottom-line: Marvel is near permanently losing me, and DC will lose me if they go to a 22page $3.99 price point.
If the industry won’t miss my weekly $30, then that’s just the way it is….
August 7th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I know its unrealistic, but I would pay $5 (or even $6) every month for an issue like Amz. 600.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I dropped every Marvel book except Marvel: Your Universe, and I’m probably going to drop that in favor of a Marvel.com membership.
My Marvel dollars flowed to DC books, particularly as I got hooked on the Batman: Reborn material. When DC crosses the threshold… not sure what I’m going to do.
It’s hard for me to imagine a day when I stop buying monthlies altogether, but I just can’t justify the cost against the value any more.
-J
August 7th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I think Cry for Justice was $3.99, because it is painted. I would argue that, instead of back up stories going away, we will see more. Marvel is even planning to do it with Web of Spider-man having a Spider-girl backup.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Im with artiepants–I love comics, but after Civil War I stopped loving them so much that I had to buy them all the time. I’m just not that into them as a consumer anymore, they’re just not worth the admission price anymore and I’m a bit tired of some of the theatrics that don’t really pan out. So, I’m out. But that’s what’s been great about ‘rama–I’m saving so much $$$ now and still can follow my faves.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Just to let you guys know, if you subscribe directly from Marvel then you’ll be paying half of the cover price. That’s what I’m doing and I haven’t really felt the effect of the price increase.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Aren’t these numbers what retailers buy and not what consumers buy? So it’s possible that stores over-ordered their books and misjudged what the consumers will actually buy. I think we’ll know more in a few months when the price point is better established.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
When the news broke about Marevel books being $4, I instantly started a list of books to drop. At that price, the comic has to be AWESOME, and something I just could not stand to miss. well, I bent a little bit. I kept Incredible Hulk. However, #12 was a perfect place to stop. Loeb hasn’t hit it exactly out of ther park since he moved to Marvel. I’m sticking with mostly DC. Seems like their stories are waay better at this point. It won’t shock me when they raise all their prices too, but their books are higher in quaslity anyway…I know, it’s just IMO
August 7th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I think the reaction to the price increase will be more gradual and long-term, and therefore (sadly) much harder to track.
This month’s lists indicate that relatively few people are dropping their books at the price increase, but I think that as a few months pass, people will start feeling the pain in their wallets and start cutting–and perhaps not even the $3.99 books.
(And as much as I appreciate DC putting in the back-ups, I wonder if those don’t drive a portion of the audience to trades. I used to read Blue Beetle, but have not interest in Booster Gold.)
August 9th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Can we say “price” instead of “price point”? Thanks.
Marvel = evil for $4 / 21 p. books (note the first page is usually a recap page - not new story and art
DC = great for $4 / 32 p. books and $3 / 22 p. books (and for that matter the Wednesday Comics format - the coloroing looks fine, folks, and the story and artwork - well, no one will love 100 percent of it, but even at 88 percent it’s a bargain and a blast to read and experience).
What the heck happened to Prestige Format books? 48 pages of story and art, cardstock cover, no ads, usually great creators -
not all this last-minute-no-name-fill-in crap that passes for so many regular issues these days.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:31 am
It’s truly unfortunately, but even as a luxury item, comic books have proven themselves to be relatively inelastic. The people who are buying them right now are the same who bought them five years ago, and they’re the same people who will buy them five years from now.
Because so many of us are collectors/completionists/OCD, when it comes to purchasing decisions, we’re more likely to buy Avengers (or Dark Avengers) at $4.00 than we are to buy Guardians of the Galaxy at $3.00, just because we’ve been buying Avengers for 10+ years, and Marve & DC recognize this, so they’re making as many titles as they can as reliant as possible on other titles. While, in the long-term it will ultimately destroy the super-hero market, right now it is safer and more profitable to to canibalize the current fans rather than develop new ones.