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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 7:21:41 GMT -5
BC articleMonth in and month out Batman is DC's best seller, but when the rest of your line has anemic sales, you need to prop up revenue-so let's add a little filler and charge $5 an issue for the next story arc of Batman...the first of which has already been solicited at $3.99, so interested in the story-going to cost you a buck more than we said initially to get it. Way to show your customers you appreciate their business DC/WB...I know about a quarter of our pull customers at the shop that this will be the straw that gets them to drop Batman, and our casual impulse buys will be down because of the price point, so we will likely have to cut our orders on this for the duration of the price point. Our Batman pulls have already dropped by a third over the course of the Zero Year arc and our walk up sales of non-pulls by about 50%. I know they are trying to increase revenue by leaning on their top seller, but I seriously hope this doesn't backfire on them. Following on the heels of Capullo accidentally announcing he may be leaving Batman soon because his contract with DC is up and the upcoming wave of fill ins for the move interrupting the regular DC books, DC is taking a huge gamble they can maintain their customer base here and leveraging those loyal fans for all the revenue they can muster. Oh, and by the way, if you want a digital copy combo pack...that issue will cost you $6... I just don't think TPTB at DC get it. I wish they did. I would be much happier with a DC I felt conducted business in a way I wanted to support. -M
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 1, 2014 13:31:36 GMT -5
Yeah, but it's also 30 pages. That may be padded but it's not more cost per page, is it ? What was it previously ?
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Post by Randle-El on Oct 1, 2014 13:34:53 GMT -5
Is this a permanent move to $4.99, or just for the next couple of issues because they are oversized? I won't mind it if it's temporary, but I'm definitely going to drop the book if it's permanent.
When the new 52 started, Batman was a $2.99 book. In the middle of the Court of Owls story, when it was clear they had a hot title, they bumped the price up to $3.99, but justified it by saying they were providing back-up stories. Those back-up stories did not last and the book is still $3.99. Offhand, I don't know if they increased the page count of the regular story to replace the back-up, but to me it felt like a bait-and-switch. Now they are telling us that the book is being bumped to $4.99 with extra pages. But will those extra pages remain a part of the book, or will they pull a bait-and-switch here too?
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 1, 2014 13:41:26 GMT -5
Reminiscent of when Marvel did their study that they could maximize their price with hardly any lapse and instantly comics comics are $3.99 and most lots of publishers followed.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 14:46:18 GMT -5
My biggest problem with the move is simply this...for most of the customers at our shop (and I suspect for a great many other comic consumers) comics are a zero sum game. They have X amount of dollars to spend in any given/week or month, and no matter what comes out, that's all they can spend. Marvel and DC have been fighting for who gets the biggest slice of the pie, but really have done nothing to grow the pie-I don't really expect them to, I expect those that don't benefit from the status quo to be the ones to have the most incentive to grow/change the market. The problem is there has developed such a divide between Marvel folk and DC folk among customers that a move like this is less likely to shift dollars from Marvel to DC, and more likely DC is just cannibalizing it's own sales , as the guy who has to spend the extra buck to keep buying Batman because he is a loyal DC guy, will drop a different DC book to afford it-he likely has the set budget after all. DC's sales are already too top heavy, with its top 4-5 titles accounting for far too high a percentage of their total sales for their line to be healthy. A move like this has 2 likely outcomes-sales shift from lower selling titles up to the top-meaning more bottom selling titles that are providing your line diversity move into cancellation range sales, or sales on your top selling books start to decline as people resist the price change. People are not likely to have more money to spend on comics suddenly, and adding secondary product like a back-up story (often of lesser quality or by less well-known or fringe creators) to charge more does not engender customer good will. DC hopes it will generate more revenue and shift dollars in the market share from Marvel, Image et. al. to DC. I don't see it working based on customer habits I see. The most likely outcome is books like Catwoman or Batwing get dropped or one of the new Bat-realm books like Gotham Academy or Arkham Manor get a pass form cash-strapped customers.
I had forgotten the back up bait and switch with $3.99, but yeah in a way this does smack of the same kind of marketing. I guess we will see how it all plays out...
-M
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Post by Randle-El on Oct 1, 2014 15:18:35 GMT -5
So I went back and picked out a few issues to do page counts. Here's what I found. I did this quickly, so I might be off on the page counts by 1 or 2 pages, but I think it's accurate enough to get an idea how much story you were getting. I didn't count any of the extra pages like channel 52 or previews of other books. I also didn't count the $4.99 or $5.99 books since that wasn't the price for a "regular" issue.
1) In the early $2.99 issues, they had about 22-24 pages of story. I think the first issue might have been a little longer.
2) When they bumped the price up to $3.99 at issue #7, they included backups which filled the page count out to 28 pages.
3) After the price bump, sometimes there was a backup story, sometimes there wasn't, but the page count held at around 28 pages. So you were still getting more content than when the book was $2.99.
4) With the start of the Zero Year story, they dropped the backups from the $3.99 issues... BUT they did not increase the pages for the main story either! Page counts were about 22 pages of story for $3.99. So we were back to the same amount of pages that we were getting for $2.99 when the new52 started, but now we're paying an extra dollar.
5) Coincidentally (or perhaps not), starting with Zero Year they switched to the heavier cardstock covers. I don't know if this was meant to justify the fact that we are still paying $3.99 for less content.
So now they are telling us we are paying $4.99 for 30 pages of content. Guess what? We were already getting a little less than 30 pages of content back when they increased the price to $3.99! So effectively they are raising the price an extra dollar with no additional content to show for it.
Honestly, this just seems really underhanded to me. Trick your buyers into accepting the price increase by promising extra pages, then quietly remove the extra pages when you think nobody's looking.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 16:43:28 GMT -5
So now they are telling us we are paying $4.99 for 30 pages of content. Guess what? We were already getting a little less than 30 pages of content back when they increased the price to $3.99! So effectively they are raising the price an extra dollar with no additional content to show for it. Honestly, this just seems really underhanded to me. Trick your buyers into accepting the price increase by promising extra pages, then quietly remove the extra pages when you think nobody's looking. Bingo ... Son of a gun, you are so right here! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 17:59:06 GMT -5
We've got some pissy responses from our Batman regulars although no one dropped it...yet.
For now, I'm not too bothered about it...as most of my back-issue 60s and 70s Batman purchases average...well considerably higher than $5 per copy...but even I have my breaking point. For example, I avoided over 90% of anything Spidey published in the 90s, not because of cost, but quality.
But I wouldn't be surprised if DC gets some bat-lash for this...
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Post by Earth 2 Flash on Oct 2, 2014 6:17:56 GMT -5
As a Not-so-big-Bat-fan, it really depends on how DC handles their back-up feature. If the extra 8 to 10 pages featured some hero I like, such as the Huntress -- I would jump on board and pay the $5. If the extra 8 to 10 pages were about Lucius Fox or Alfred -- I will continue to save my money... ...and MAYBE buy it when its offered in a year on ComiXology for 99 cents.  |
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Post by Dr. Poison on Oct 2, 2014 6:57:33 GMT -5
We've got some pissy responses from our Batman regulars although no one dropped it...yet. For now, I'm not too bothered about it...as most of my back-issue 60s and 70s Batman purchases average...well considerably higher than $5 per copy...but even I have my breaking point. For example, I avoided over 90% of anything Spidey published in the 90s, not because of cost, but quality. But I wouldn't be surprised if DC gets some bat-lash for this...
Thanks,
PG
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 8:45:33 GMT -5
BLEEDING COOL POSTED SOMETHING ON OCTOBER 1STDC’s Batman Comic Jumps To Five Bucks An Issue Posted on October 1, 2014 by Rich Johnston  The already-solicited issues of Batman #35-37, beginning the Endgame storyline, are increasing in size. To thirty pages of story each issue. And, as a result, the price of Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, will be increasing from $3.99 to $4.99 (or $5.99 for the combo pack which includes a digital download code.) While superhero comics have jumped to that price point or beyond, for individual issues, this will be the first time a regular monthly title has made that jump. Issue 35 is out next week, just in time for NYCC…. From me, I just wanted to report this piece of information here.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 8:51:08 GMT -5
FROM NEWSARAMABATMAN: ENDGAME Gets New Higher Page Count, Cover Price by Michael Doran Date: 01 October 2014  DC Comics has informed comic book retailers that as of this month's Batman #35, the debut issue of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's next big "pivotal" story arc Endgame, the story page count and cover price for each issue of the arc will increase. Each issue will contain 30 story pages in a 40-page issue and as such, the cover price will increase from $3.99 to $4.99 for the U.S. Standard Edition and $4.99 to $5.99 for the U.S. Combo Pack edition. Because the issues solicited so far - this month's #35, November's #36, and December's #37 - were solicited with the old page count and cover price, the issues will be made returnable for retailers at a later date. he notice to retailer does not clarify whether Batman will return to its previous story page count and cover price after the conclusion of Endgame in March with Batman #40 and Newsarama has not yet received a comment from DC clarifying the issue. We will update the story if and when DC responds. Article Link
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Post by Randle-El on Oct 2, 2014 10:06:50 GMT -5
MRP posted the link to the BC article in the original post. It seems both they and Newsarama broke the story yesterday. So far, there have been no responses from DC attempting to back people away from the edge of the cliff, so to speak, which would appear to indicate that this may be a permanent move. That's just my own speculation though.
And for the record, Dr. Poison I don't think your reprimand of Jez is warranted. I did not find Jez's response to be insulting to anyone. She wrote:
"We've got some pissy responses from our Batman regulars although no one dropped it...yet."
She was pretty clearly saying that the responses were pissy. It's the same difference between a stupid idea and a stupid person with an idea. And I believe the people she was referring to were people from the LCS that she works at, not forum members.
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Post by Dr. Poison on Oct 2, 2014 11:50:22 GMT -5
MRP posted the link to the BC article in the original post. It seems both they and Newsarama broke the story yesterday. So far, there have been no responses from DC attempting to back people away from the edge of the cliff, so to speak, which would appear to indicate that this may be a permanent move. That's just my own speculation though. And for the record, Dr. Poison I don't think your reprimand of Jez is warranted. I did not find Jez's response to be insulting to anyone. She wrote: "We've got some pissy responses from our Batman regulars although no one dropped it...yet." She was pretty clearly saying that the responses were pissy. It's the same difference between a stupid idea and a stupid person with an idea. And I believe the people she was referring to were people from the LCS that she works at, not forum members. Thank you for your input however, if Jez's comments were directed towards members of this forum(which Jez's use of "we" gave me the impression of), that's still kind of insulting. I'll wait to hear from Jez before making any changes in direction here. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 18:07:02 GMT -5
I hope these responses you are referring to are not from our members here at CCF/HOJ. Insults as such are not tolerated on this forum. If you are referring to people from another forum, social media avenue, etc., I'd still like you to not use that particular adjective you used again around here.
Thanks,
PG Jesus Christ, my pal is a dealer and I help him sell books. I was referring to our customers. Please get a clarification before you post in red, it is embarassing, unwarranted and out of place. I'm not participating in this forum if this guy is a Mod here...'pissy' is a bad word? My God. |
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