Rising Price of Comic Books - Rant imminent

There's a lot of other great news in the comic book industry that I want to touch on. Before I do that, I think it's time for me to have a little rant.

I hate to sound like such an old man, but I was buying comics when they were about $1.00 to $1.50 per an issue. Then for a few years in the early 2000s, they stayed around $2.99. The past few years, $3.99 has been the norm and lately there have been issues that have snuck up to $4.99, $5.99 and $7.99. It feels like the industry is starting to settle on $4.99 per a book.

I know this is such a first world problem, but hear me out. A hobby that I love is becoming more and more expensive. I will admit I've been insulated from this somewhat because I get a big discount from my local comic book store. This is because I'm a subscriber and pick up a lot of books per month. So for the past few years, I've enjoyed a nice discount.

In a previous post, I mentioned how I have cut back my DC comic buying to the bone. I've supplemented that with more independent titles, but overall I'm cutting back on my books. With these price raises, that will go down even more.

The lower prices allowed me to be more adventurous with my sampling. Now, I simply won't take a chance on a borderline book.

The sad thing is, this is an industry that is full of fans that will continue to pay these prices (myself included) and therein lies the problem. There will never be a backlash big enough to curb some of this price gouging.

You might say, "Kevin, why don't you just not buy the books then". Yeah, but that's not the point. Let's not bring LOGIC into this discussion, okay?

At the end of the day, my problem is a value proposition. My extra dollars aren't buying comics printed on better paper. The covers aren't made of card stock. It's not like I'm getting that much more story in my books. Modern day comics take about five minutes to read on average as it is. Instead, I get more ads.

So yes, I will be buying less in the future, but it shouldn't have to be this way. It's this reason that I always look forward to comic book conventions (mostly Heroes Con) because that give me a chance to pick up books at reduced prices.

Whew. My little rant is over. See? That wasn't so bad was it? It was? Yeah, well, I'm rubber and you're glue. What you say bounces off of me and sticks back to YOU.