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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 13:54:46 GMT -5
While doing my reviews for Detective Comics #469-479...I was reminded how quickly the cover price started to rise during the 70's. When comics started they were 64 pages for 10 cents. They kept the price at 10 cents until the early 60's but dropped the page counts to 48 then 32 pages. In the 60's prices rose to 12 cents then by 1969 to 15 cents. By 1980 the cover price was 50 cents. Also the story pages dropped from 25 pages to 17 pages at one point.
Marvel pretty much stuck to the 32 page comics & did occasional Giant issues (48 or 64 pages).
DC played around with their formats - Giant sized issues of 80 or 100 pages & later on their Dollar Comics. DC also attempted to hold on to their back up stories whereas Marvel stuck to book length stories. For a short time Marvel's books were priced at 35 cents for 17 pages of story while DC tried 50 cents with 25 pages of story (17 main story/8 page back up) before both companies went to 40 cents for 17 page stories.
When DC found a way to do 50 cents for 25 pages of story & 64 page (reduced to 48 page) Dollar Comics (with no ads!) Marvel had to do the same.
Cover prices continued to jump after that & story pages dropped to today's 20-22 pages. DC & Marvel stopped their extra sized issues except for Annuals or a special issue. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jul 23, 2016 14:40:39 GMT -5
I remember the page count being 17 pages, somewhere around the mid 70's, I think it may have been during the 25 cent era.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 14:45:55 GMT -5
I remember the page count being 17 pages, somewhere around the mid 70's, I think it may have been during the 25 cent era. Page counts dropped from 20 to 18 to 17 during the 25 cent era & stayed there (30,35,40 cents) until prices jumped to 50 cents when they went back up to 25 pages. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,391
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2016 16:38:29 GMT -5
I was only collecting new comics between 1988 and 1994, and yet, within six years, prices jumped from 75 cents to 1.50 an issue. And now they're what--$5 an issue?
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 23, 2016 16:46:55 GMT -5
I was only collecting new comics between 1988 and 1994, and yet, within six years, prices jumped from 75 cents to 1.50 an issue. And now they're what--$5 an issue? Umm...I'm no expert on American pricing, but I'm fairly sure most are either $2.99 or $3.99, so no... Do you not buy any new comics? |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,391
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2016 17:14:56 GMT -5
I was only collecting new comics between 1988 and 1994, and yet, within six years, prices jumped from 75 cents to 1.50 an issue. And now they're what--$5 an issue? Umm...I'm no expert on American pricing, but I'm fairly sure most are either $2.99 or $3.99, so no... Do you not buy any new comics? I don't buy any of the Marvel or DC stuff, and the few indies i pick up don't have a consistent price point. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 23, 2016 17:18:52 GMT -5
Umm...I'm no expert on American pricing, but I'm fairly sure most are either $2.99 or $3.99, so no... Do you not buy any new comics? I don't buy any of the Marvel or DC stuff, and the few indies i pick up don't have a consistent price point. I gave up on DC in 2011, but I've never given up on Marvel. Most of the Marvel, Dynamite, IDW and Titan books I buy are priced at $3.99, and I gather all DC's relaunched titles are $2.99. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 20:11:16 GMT -5
I was only collecting new comics between 1988 and 1994, and yet, within six years, prices jumped from 75 cents to 1.50 an issue. And now they're what--$5 an issue? Prices tripled in 10 yrs from 1970-1980. Then it took 15 yrs to triple from 50 cents to $1.50. Now 20 yrs later comics are only double ($3) or 2.5 X ($4) as much. So the rate of increase has slowed somewhat. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jul 23, 2016 20:24:18 GMT -5
I've collected comics from when they were 20 cents and until they reached 1.95, I never struggled to keep up with the hobby. The price now has almost killed the hobby for me.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 20:29:47 GMT -5
Historical Prices up to 2015HistoryRead the link - it's pretty interesting data there. 
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 20:45:53 GMT -5
^^^^Thanks for the link in the above post. If you come across any articles about DC & Marvel's Giant Sized/100 page Specials/Dollar Comics...please let me know!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 21:06:40 GMT -5
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 23, 2016 22:04:55 GMT -5
2 Things drove the multiple price increases in American Comics during the 1970s
One was obviously the huge decline in sales that began with the post-Batman TV craze. The female portion in particular seemed most hardest hit with the romance comics practically all disappearing by the end of the 70s. At the sames time, with one affecting the other, newsstand owners devoted less space to comics and gave it to higher priced magazines since they generated larger profits per transaction
Second was the fact that the 1970s saw tremendous inflationary pressure on the economy throughout the decade. Many years saw double digit inflationary rates. The cost of paper in the manufacturing process saw unheard of increases
Besides raising the price and decreasing page count, the 1970s saw other cost-saving schemes with comic books. The metal printing plate was abandoned in favor of cheaper plastic plates which unfortunately increased blurry and substandard line reproduction. The actual size of the comics were also trimmed, specifically the width, by a quarter or a third of an inch
Publishers were in a panic over what was happening business-wise and tried every format they could think of to retain sales or newsstand presence. Higher price point formats like magazines,100 page specials and tabloid size to appease newsstand operators, digest size for supermarket check out positions
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 24, 2016 10:59:04 GMT -5
Some comics are $5 an issue. DC seems to be less greedy when it comes to price point. I just don't see Marvel releasing a big event comic with 80 pages of content for $2.99.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 24, 2016 12:42:57 GMT -5
I was only collecting new comics between 1988 and 1994, and yet, within six years, prices jumped from 75 cents to 1.50 an issue. And now they're what--$5 an issue? They aren't quite that bad... they started going up to $3.99 around new 52... DC briefly advertised 'holding the line at 2.99' then gave in. Just about all new Marvel and DC comics are $3.99 now (Marvel has a few that are 2.99 still, not sure about DC). At first, the $3.99 ones came with a digital code and the $2.99 ones didn't.. not sure if that's still the case. Some Indies (I know Dark Horse for sure) are $3.50. Marvel started doing $4.99 for #1s a few years ago, and DC followed suit. I think if it's double sized they do $5.99. DC has also been selling combo editions that sometimes have extra stuff for $5.99. When I started buying stuff off the rack in the early 90s, I remember Marvel had $1.25 titles and $1.75 tiles... while DC was mostly $1.50, and Image was mostly 1.99 |
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