Will wonders never end? Ok, it’s not a wonder, it’s called the economy being bad, people having less money to spend on things like comic books, and prices being way too high. If you don’t know let me be the one to break the good news.
The price of on-going titles for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics that cost $3.99 will be lowered in January 2011 to…….
$2.99
That’s right, the price drop will be a big whopping dollar. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m actually really thrilled and glad this is happening but it’s one of those things that has the possibility of being a too little too late deals. It will help in a way but exactly how much will it help?

It’s a tough question, really, it is. In one of the articles I read, which I have put the link to at the bottom of this, it said that one of reasons that the price was being lowered was because of how the $3.99 price might be keeping people from getting new titles and collectors dropping some of the ones they read. I agree with both of these points, it really does keep people from buying new titles, I can speak for myself and a few other comic fans on this point because I’ve passed on a lot of titles that I would like to read but don’t because of the price. I can also say that there are titles that I do collect that I’ve dropped because of the price increase. Granted there are some titles that I won’t drop no matter what the price of them are but that’s only with one character.

So what good will the drop do in these two matters? Lets start with the first one, the picking up new titles now that they cost $2.99 an issue. For me, that’s a maybe answer. I will save money on some titles when the price goes down but it won’t be to the point that I will be able to justify picking up new titles. It’s possible that people that read fewer titles than I do might be more willing to pick up new titles but I think this will better for people that are just starting to read comics. As for the other, having collectors dropping some titles, will these collectors start picking them back up again? Hmm, doubtful. I say this with me being a collector myself. The titles that I no longer get I will continue not getting. Being a collector if I dropped these titles it was because they are not ones that I was getting to collect in the first place. They are ones that I read just because I want to read them and I’m addicted to comics. So because they are ones that I can do without I’m not worried about collecting them so after dropping them I’m still not worried about getting them again.
Add in the main reason that I wouldn’t do either after the price drop, back issues. If I’m starting a new title I would have to find out what’s going on. Now years ago that would be really simple, just read up to 5 back issues and you would be caught up.

Ten years ago comics would have long story lines that wouldn’t last that long, as in it would happen once in one title and when it was over it was over. Then it would be back to normal with the stand alone issues. So much simpler back then. Now it’s so different. Marvel has had a story that’s been going on for the past 7 years, DC comics has done the same thing. Story lines that just keep going and going and though if you pick certain ones up there is still the stand alone stories but the main titles have the plots that would confuse you. Which means having to buy the back issues or get the trade paper backs. The back issue one could be extremely expensive, even more so if you had just bought the issues when they were at $3.99. If you’re a collector you know what I mean, if you’re not, then the price of back issues might double or triple and in some cases be 4 times the cover price, for one issue. Now just imagine needing to 98 titles, yep there are stories that are that many, like right now the Blackest Night story that DC did that I’m reading right now, 98 that I have that if I wanted to pick up I would have to buy. That’s a lot of money when you think of it costing up to 12 bucks a issue or more. This same reason goes for a collector. As I said, if I dropped it that means it’s not that important so I really don’t want to have to pick up any back issues to get caught up on the story.
Though the good side, the great side, the point that I like, the total for my weekly cost will drop and for me that’s enough to keep me happy.

Articles to read about the price drop.

www.deadline.com/2010/10/dc-comics-drops-prices-to-2-99-for-2011/
www.pinkkryptonite.com/2010/10/chaching_marvel_dc_dropping_pr.html

Marvel Comics Official Site: marvel.com/

DC Comics Official Site: www.dccomics.com/dccomics/