And why are the increases so drastic?
Going up from $5 to $6 is a 20% increase in price. Inflation doesn't justify it. And comics are overpriced as they are already.
And don't give me the "material costs" argument because digital comics cost just as much to buy.
That screenshot looks AI generated. It looks sterile.
t.
When a produce increases in quality, naturally it increases in price as well.
publishing doesn't typically increase prices every year on every title; what tends to happen is a title (not just in comic books, across any publisher) is printed at a set price point which covers the production costs and distribution costs and sets the profit margin of the product for the publisher (there's another profit margin in there for the retailer, so if you look at the "profit margin" of periodicals, it can seem quite high because there's two or (if there's a separate printer) three profit margins to consider)
typically when a price increase happens it's not to meet existing inflation - which would mean that the publications were being sold at cost, or even at a loss for the publisher - but to meet expectations of future inflation, because they don't change their prices month to month
so if currently inflation is running high - core CPI is almost 4% right now - then they have to factor that in to the costs; a dollar today is $0.96 a year from now at 4%, and $0.92 two years from now
thinking back to about 20 years ago, DC put its prices up in 25c increments pretty regularly - given they started at like $2 each this was a comparable increase to today, and it continued until 2007 when they settled at $2.50, then jumped to $2.99 in 2008 on most titles - 20%
the jump from $2.99 to $3.99 happened in 2011-2012 or so - 33% on most titles - so these jumps are not new or controversial, but they've been relatively rare for a while because the market was no longer imploding and CPI was relatively low for a full decade
when a product decreases in quality, it also increases in price, because fewer consumers are willing to pay for it
Fewer people are buying comics so they have to charge more to get closer to the original margins with the remaining die-hards.
what if the die hards just stop buying?
They do. It's called the sweet release of death. Marvel and DC are chasing ghosts instead of looking to the future. I'd be cool with it if they didn't starve all discourse and the market out through their monopoly, because as it is now we have to wait for their collapse to do anything else.
>anon discovers inflation
no, no, you misunderstand, he's saying he DOESN'T want to discover inflation, he doesn't want to hear about things that exist
no flation
only coma boo
Biden.
>Sales drop by 20%
>Prices increased by 20%
Problem fixed
If sales go down by 20%, you actually have to raise prices by 25% to keep making the same amount of money at the cash register.
(Ignoring every other factor, of course.)
>https://www.tbsnews.net/splash/dc-increases-price-monthly-batman-and-other-comics-221230
>24 March, 2021, 10:45 am
Article is real but it's three years old. Bait thread. Ignore.
By 2030 a 20 page floppy will be $10.
By 2035 a 20 page floppy will be $20.
And reddit tourists will still defend it by calling it "just a dollar per page" or "it's not for poor people pedro".
>Thinking American comics will still be made in 2030
>Why do comic prices keep going up
Because good things never happen.
That's why good comics get cancelled but bad ones continue.
That's why prices go up instead of down
That's why vegans eat only non-animal products instead of killing themselves.
Funny how no one ever complains about manga prices.
Manga offers you 100+ pages for $10 whereas comics give you 20 pages for $4
It also helps that Manga doesn't waste my time with troony worshipping bullshit either
Ask your buddy Biden when you're done sucking his dick for free on the internet
signs of a dying industry trying to kick a dead horse for all it's worth
All companies are profit driven, not in a way that ensures workers are paid and lights stay on, but that shareholders keep winning quarter after quarter. This means it's all an increasingly expensive race to the bottom.
Which is why companies bleed out franchises.
IT'S FRICKING BAIT
THE ARTICLE IS OLD AND NEVER HAPPENED
STOP ACTING LIKE OP ISN'T A LYING homosexual
this place loves bait though
seen scigay run up mad threads
>Inflation doesn't justify it
Inflation is an average. Hypothetical example, it is entirely possible for the average inflation to be 2%, but paper costs grow 10%.
>And don't give me the "material costs" argument
Comic publishers raise prices to maintain net income amid lower sales. Despite how this seems at first glance, it's not completely unreasonable, since printing fewer copies increases the cost per page.
>digital comics cost just as much to buy
Because retailers forced them to maintain price parity under threat of boycott.