Are comics too expensive?

Having returned to comic buying after 29 years away, I've been shocked at how costly it is to follow all your favourite characters each month. At $2.99 for the cheapest DC offerings, $3.99 for most others and $4.99 for something like INFINITY, it adds up, when many of them are only like 20-30 pages long. How do you guys do it? (collecting like a dozen titles a month?!!). I'm married with two kids and my wife is not happy with how much all these comics are costing me!! I guess the answer is just to wait for the graphic novels to come out at the end of a particular story arc.

Comics are one of my biggest weekly expenditures (I currently mooch off my dad and have very little living costs) especially when I go looking for back issues and variants. What really gets me is the way Marvel does their combined print and digital editions. I went to get a bunch of Superior Spider-Mans (Men?) and without realizing I bought about 10 of these combined print and digital issues, which are all listed at an extra dollar over the standard 2.99 price. Normally I don't mind getting the digitals as a bonus, I never buy digitals by themselves, full price for something that you don't even own but are granted access to to read is not my idea of a smart purchase, but occasionally I'll pick up some combo-packs for my preferred titles so I don't have to carry a full stack of issues around with me. The way DC does this involves a plastic seal around the comic so you can't get the code just by flipping through. Marvel just has a little peel off label inside the comic, but on the outside it's not always as obvious that you're paying the higher price for the digital issue you have to actually find the price or the little stamp on the cover. I know it's only an extra dollar per issue, but this adds up quickly and it's for a product that I get very little use out of as I much prefer having the actual hard copy in front of me for this medium.

I share a pull list with my brother in which we keep it under ten books. I pick 5 he picks 5 to keep it under a reasonable amount of money. I think all DC and Marvel comics should be $2.99. They are loaded with money; they really don't need the extra cash. Indie titles can go up to $3.99 regularly if they want because they obviously don't have as much money as they deserve. So yes, comics are expensive but you also have to think about all the work it takes to make a book. It suddenly makes the prices a bit more reasonable.

Definitely. I've had to chop my pull list down to about a fifth of what it was before, in the last couple of months, to save cash.

Not too expensive, that being said I wouldn't mind them being cheaper. Even if you pick up 10 different books monthly, that's still only around $30-40 a month ( not a week, a month). It'd be nicer to be cheaper, but there's nights I easily spend more than that at bar. I think about the other hobbies I've had, and comics is probably the cheapest hobby I've ever had to maintain. Really 30-40 bucks a month is not that bad, maybe more if you're hardcore and get more than 10+ different books a months, but still can't be that much more at $3-4 a comic.

I'm one of those people who wait until the end of the story arc to buy the volume. Nightwing would be my only exception.

Man, I spend roughly twenty to thirty dollars a week on comics. Although, I don't really spend on much else besides school expenses, bills and video games (which are sparse at the moment).

I do think titles shouldn't extend past the $2.99 price point though.

Way too expensive. Outrageously so.

Regular issues should be no more than 2.99 and Annuals should be no more than 3.99

I'd like to say yes, but what isn't too expensive these days? I think a Big Mac is too expensive. Reality is publishers price books to what they think will make the most money. Will pricing a book at $3 increase the number of sales to create enough profit increase over a $4 book with fewer sales. The big problem, if you want to call it that, is there are a lot of really good books worth reading right now, and most people can't afford to read as much as we would like.

Yes, yes there are.

I don't even buy newer comics anymore. I normally just buy a complete series comic list off eBay that was made in the 80's, 90's, or 2000's and enjoy them. If I absolutely need to catch up on current events, I just read up on the articles on this site.

@bezza: pr you could kill her and get the insurance $$. That'll buy a lot of comics ;).

Seriously, I feel you I spend about 90-100$ a month on books and I'm about figure out what I'm dropping from my pull list soon. Good luck man.

Comics cost too much, especially with too much garbage being put out.

Life costs too much.

It would be fine, if they didn't take pages off to overload you with ads.

There are a few titles I like to keep up monthly (Saga, Wonder Woman, Hawkeye), but most stuff I'll just wait in till it's cheaper and buy it digital.....

Yes they are. My pull-list was consisting of five books.Now i am buying one and i am thinking of picking up two more. The rest I will buy it when i can in trades.

EDIT: Lately i buy back-issues/trades from a shop i found that has extremely low prices. I picked Booster Gold volume 1 for 5 Euros.

There are a lot of Marvel books I would like to read but they all cost $3.99 a piece and that's too much money for me to spend every month.

Marvel is to expensive. It's 4 bucks for 20 pages, DC, well I have a secret website so I don't need to pay for them.

Yes. I try to keep my pull list under $30 a month, and even that only allows me to get six or seven books.

Considering how much work goes into them for the artist alone the price seems pretty reasonable to me...

This. The creators have to make a living too. There's also this thing called inflation.... a comic costs less than a gallon of gas where I live.

Actually, my hobbies like comics and sports cards (about $100 a month) is a lot cheaper than most hobbies my friends have. Most of them HAVE to get the newest smart-phones and television sets, and every other electronic device. We still don't have a flat screen T.V or a blue-ray player, and my cell-phones still "flips." And I'm okay with that, I'd rather see what Batman is up to these days. I remember when comics were 25 cents. That sounds great.... but the average income was about 12 times less, and that was back when they used the crappy, cheap-o paper.

I buy digital. (Problem solved)

@rulerofthisuniverse: Heathen!!!¡!!¡! :P

yes, yes they are....it took me so long to start buyoing comics, because they are so expensive...and i started buying more, when they aren 99cent sales on comixology. notice that the price of comics is up, but sales are down from their heydays???

The best advice I can give is to wait for certain online says. Most sites like marvel and comixiology have sales during the weekend and on Mondays. There's a great way to pick up some issues at very low price. Also if you have a online account or app with marvel you can also use digital codes to get the comics. You can go on ebay and buy digital codes for comics such as Infinity or All New x-men and get them at half off. If all worse fails you could also share your pull list with other people and they wi share their list...sharing is caring.

Marvel unlimited-problem solved!

They can add up..sometimes I try to consider what I have in my pull list at my local comic book store and take out some of my books I don't want if the story isn't as good as the others. Getting like 4-5 books in one trip and it costing like twenty something bucks can become tedious if you think about everything else you might need instead..food,bills,etc.

Yes. I set my limit at 30 dollars a month, and even that leaves me with only one or two books a week.

My advice to you is to do what your parents did, get a job sir! The bums will always lose. DO YOU HEAR ME LEBOWSKI? THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS LOSE!!!

Yes. Better wait for TPB.

Im all about used Graphic Novels on Ebay/Amazon.

Winning!

Usually yes. Comics are usually 4.99 euro. I'm from Dublin and in my comic-shop Forbidden Planet however, they sell back-issues for 50c. Now I need to find more space for the huge influx of comics!

Comics are far too expensive.

Only for people who buy like 20+ issues a month, i get mayve only a couple magazines a month since i got WoW game time to worry about to, about 15$ and RP for lol

There are far worse things you could be spending your money on.

Yes.

There is no way books as short as the typical graphic novel would sell for as high as a graphic novel. I rarely buy comics/graphic novels, I normally wait for them to hit the shelves of my public library. Sure it's a long wait, but unless it's something I know is going to be awesome, like the Darkseid War, I refuse to spend my money, not when I could buy a book that I'll get more enjoyment out of for an equal or sometimes lesser price.

• Yep they are way to expensive...I dont even buy single trade issues anymore...Ill wait a couple of months until the entire arc(If i like it) is released in a trade paper back Graphic Novel, and then buy it.
• And i understand the economic reasons why comics have become more expensive due to inflation, decreased value..etc...But man i wish comics were priced like how they were in the 1930s-60s..

sucks

@bezza: it's relative. but yes IMO.

No. Just spend your money wisely.