Comic Book Resources

Of course most of Marvel news stand comics are the Marvel Two-in-One's for that $3.99 price tag. They;re mostly double issues of the Marvel Adventures and X-men First class line.

Not sure if it's really a "tax" though. Just a different package, and they're available in the direct market for the same price.

Yeah, Patrick, Marvel has done a very nice job of coming up with more expensive, yet content-efficient, comics to sell mainly on the newstands, like the Marvel Two-in-Ones, the Spider-Man Magazine and also their "Chronicles" series (first Civil War, then World War Hulk and now Brand New Day).

However, what I'm talking about here is specifically the fact that Marvel's normal comic line, you know, the single issue stuff, books like New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, X-Men: Legacy, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Mighty Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, etc. - their normal comics, are $2.99 in the Direct Market and $3.99 on newsstands.

I don't know if this is still true, but I believe that historically the big difference between the direct market and the news-stand is that the news-stand ones are returnable. That could be a factor here too.

Sure, it's definitely a factor, but since magazines are returnable, too, the main factor is the price one - since all of their periodical merchandise is returnable, newsstand retailers would prefer to stock the higher priced items.

I used to buy comics every week; I stopped when comics reached the 3$ mark. I'm sure as hell not going to start again if they cost 4 dollars each!

But I'm boycotting DC until Didio goes away, anyway. Which leaves only the occasional Marvel (and rarely, indies like True Story, Swear to God) in my buying list.

I admit I miss my weekly visit to my local drugstore and leaving with a handful of comics from across the publishing spectrum and nearly aways having a good read afterward. Fun times...

On the other hand, Brian, we newsstand retailers can fit more copies of the comics in the corresponding linear shelf space than larger magazines, which increases our sales per square foot. I can stock 40 copies of Marvel comics in the same shelf space as 6 copies of "Vanity Fair". So even at the lower price point, the limiting factor in shelf space devoted to comics is expected sell-through. I'm going to stock comics for a 50% expected sell though no matter how expensive they are, because they're so small and thin that even at the $3 level they bring up my return/square foot.

Two things, though:

For me, a comic book sale is an impulse sell from a kid who can talk his parents into getting one. In that respect, comics don't seem to be very elastic from a $3-$4 price movement. It doesn't hurt me to raise the price because Mom's going to buy the kid a comic at either price.

Also, Marvel likely makes more off a shipment of books to a LCS than they do me, since the non-returnability comes into play. If I've managed my inventory right, Marvel is likely to send me 10 comics, and get back five stripped covers and cash equivalent to the cover price of three copies. Marvel sends a LCS 10 books and gets back no covers and cash equivalent to the price of four or five copies. Raising the price of newsstand distributed copies doesn't hurt my sales much and it allows Marvel to receive closer equity from newsstands as it does from LCSs, which makes them more receptive to do business with newsstands while keeping LCSs at a competitive advantage when it comes to serious hobbyists.

I wouldn't mind a buck cheaper price point. LCSs wouldn't mind getting another buck per book, I'm sure. But LCSs don't want to lose customers to retailers that have the competitive advantage of returnability and I don't have the space or manpower to deal with back issues and pull lists. This'll work, for now.

It would be nice if they would at least increase content to match that outrageous price. FOUR BUCKS A COMIC? FOR 22 PAGES?

Thanks for the insights, Goinalon!