Diamond increase prices again??

RAMAN

Not sure if I have my facts straight here but I was in Sub-City this morning and the guy there was talking on the phone about an e mail he had gotten from Diamond about them putting up there prices on comics again. He seemed pretty pissed about it but said nothing about them (Sub-City) increasing their own price's. Thats all the info I could get, sorry! Any one else hear anything along these lines?

sammysteiger

Can't be that pissed if they lowered the $2.99 to €3.95 its alllllllllllll gravy

NuMarvel

Looks like the original poster heard right - http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20531

DIAMOND UK

Last December, LITG reported that Diamond UK was upping prices across the board for retailers, as a result of the crash of the pound against the dollar and increased fuel prices. While many retailers were visibly upset, it was a fairly unarguable case.

However, last week, UK retailers were informed that it was happening again. With another raise in prices of around 12%.

At the end of 2008, a $2.99 comic used to cost customers in central London £2. Currently the price is £2.20. With another rise in the net prices around 12%, you might expect to pay £2.50 in the near future. For a $3.99 book expect an increase from £3 to £3.15 to around £3.50.

This rise is above and beyond the rise of the dollar against the pound. There has certainly not been any significant changes in that since the last price rise in December. And in an economy with wage freezes, pay cuts, redundancies and deflation, it represents an even greater rise. And for a book such as "New Avengers" which made the $2.99/$3.99 price jump, it means the price of that comic, for a UK buyer will have more than doubled in fifteen months.

Graphic novel/TPB prices are also rising. A $7.99 book that was priced at a retail value of £5.99 will now be £6.99. A $19.99 price point currently at £14.99 in the shops will now be £16.99. This is almost parity between the pound and the dollar.

Diamond UK charge for the increased shipping, storage and distribution costs on top of the exchange rate, but this charge represents a greater mark up on that than traditionally charged.

It will be cheaper for some customers to order their comics from American stores and have them shipped air mail directly, rather than buy them through their local comic shop. And for some stores to engage in contract-breaking deals with American stores, to sub-distribute copies, rather than go through Diamond UK. And for Amazon.com listings of certain titles to be cheaper than the Diamond UK cost price.

There is the potential for a tipping point to be reached. If some stores increasingly leave the Diamond UK distribution model that is meant to deliver economies of scale for the international distribution of certain American product, this will prevent those economies of scale from being reached, which will lead to higher prices, and could feed the vicious circle until the current system collapses.

That so many publishers are tied in, willingly in most cases, to Diamond exclusivity, means that there are no other contractual alternative ways to source the majority of a comic store's stock.

I have spoken to some retailers who are in despair, some grateful at least that everyone will be affected in the same way, and some who are talking about selling or closing their stores.

Look for more on this story in weeks to come…

Fysh

I know times are tough and Diamond are having to adjust their operation to ensure that they remain profitable, but damn. I moved to London a year and a half ago, and I swear the price of comics over here has nearly doubled in that time.

I'm not sure who Diamond thinks will actually be served by this, given the Direct Market's niche audience - I mean, retailers will have roughly the same audience they always have, only now that audience has an opportunity to pay more money for fewer comics! Woo!

That said, if this breaks Diamond's back enough that the whole monopoly starts to crumble and alternative distribution systems actually emerge, it'll be worth it.

BlaasForRafa

I started to get about half my comics from a london comic shop but if this keeps up I might as well just go over to torrents instead and sod the lot of them. If Diamond are going to f*** with their customers then the customers can f*** back. This kind of crap ain't gonna wash in a recession.

NuMarvel

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

I started to get about half my comics from a london comic shop but if this keeps up I might as well just go over to torrents instead and sod the lot of them. If Diamond are going to f*** with their customers then the customers can f*** back. This kind of crap ain't gonna wash in a recession.

So when the price of a cinema ticket (hypothetically) goes up, so you'll preumably condone sneaking into the screen when no-one is looking or ask a friend to record the film for you with their camphone?

Guess the theory about increased crime rates during a recession is right after all...

Fysh

I suspect that increased prices will lead to increased piracy, but I'd actually rather see customers drop the relevant titles completely and move their attention and money to something else. There are comics out there which either don't cost as much, or give you more for your money, or both (Phonogram Volume 2 being the perfect example, IMO - I don't think I've ever seen such effort go into making use of every page in a standard american-size comic, and I'm also pretty sure it's not the most expensive comic I read).

So instead of saying "F*** Marvel/DC, I'm not paying for New Avengers/Justice League but I'll download it and read it for free anyway", why not say "F*** Marvel, I'm going to find something else to read instead that costs a reasonable amount"?

BlaasForRafa

NuMarvel wrote: »

So when the price of a cinema ticket (hypothetically) goes up, so you'll preumably condone sneaking into the screen when no-one is looking or ask a friend to record the film for you with their camphone?

Guess the theory about increased crime rates during a recession is right after all...

Instead of being holier than thou why don't you address the actual problem.

And Fysh, I'll read what I want to read, whether its mainstream or alternative. And if something is a reasonable price then I'm more than happy to buy it, I do not appreciate being gouged however and I think a lot of comics fans are fed up of being treated like virtual cash machines by diamond and comics companies.

NuMarvel

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Instead of being holier than thou why don't you address the actual problem.

I am addressing the actual problem. I'm acting like a responsible consumer and making choices about my spending habits. What will I keep buying? Is there a cheaper place I can buy them? Please note how my choices won't involve breaking laws.

If this isn't to your liking, instead of advocating criminal activity and trying to make the person that calls you on it look like the bad guy, why don't you tell us how to address the actual problem?

Fysh

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Instead of being holier than thou why don't you address the actual problem.

And Fysh, I'll read what I want to read, whether its mainstream or alternative. And if something is a reasonable price then I'm more than happy to buy it, I do not appreciate being gouged however and I think a lot of comics fans are fed up of being treated like virtual cash machines by diamond and comics companies.

I'm not trying to tell you what to read, I'm just saying that if you're not willing to pay for something because you consider it too expensive, why not actively support something else with your time and money instead?

Quite aside from the legal aspect of endorsing comics piracy, I'm also getting at the collector/fan mentality regarding long-form comics. Some fans get so involved and invested in a particular character or title that they start to think they have some kind of stake in that character or title; whereas the reality is that they are the paying audience of a form of commercial entertainment.

If the commercial aspect of the entertainment no longer works for you (say, because of price increases) then it's better to move your time and money to some other alternative entertainment that does work for you. It's one thing to say "I'm not paying to read spiderman because it's too expensive", but quite another to say "I've stopped reading spiderman because it's too expensive and instead I'm buying Invincible/Mouse Guard/Optic Nerve". The former position basically says that you think you're entitled to Spiderman stories because of some unspecified reason, whereas the latter position says that not only do you object to price increases but that you will support creators who charge a fair price for their wares.

To put it another way, the prospect of having their work pirated doesn't please any creators. If you actually want to see comics on the market that aren't corporately owned and revolve around a status quo, you have to support the ones that you enjoy by paying for them. Justifying piracy to yourself because of the price increases just means everyone in the chain loses, and if it gets prevalent enough then it's even money whether the publishers drop the prices again or just stop publishing the title completely.

JesterWX

What Diamons will do by increasing their prices at this point in time is to cause people to buy less comics. The current mood in this country and indeed in the UK and US is for people to watch what they're spending their money on. Comics are a 'luxury' item and in a recession they will take a hit anyway. Increasing the prices, whether it's the publisher or distributor will just see sales fall as consumers start to be more selective.

Dropping a title whether its because you want to save money or because of some other reason, artist, writer, editorial direction is the right of everybody.

The inevitable result will a streamlining of titles, publishers going out of business and a rationalisation across the board similar to the DC Implosion of the 70s and the 90s hit to the industry after the speculator bubble.

At that point 'piracy' won't be as big an issue as you might think as there'll be a lot less to pirate. I'm not advocating piracy but is it much worse than reading an issue in the shop while you're browsing or picking up your mates copy and reading it.

I mean if I don't buy the latest Bond DVD but watch the movie in my mate's house after the pub on a Friday night, is that piracy? If you checked my record collction as a teenager you'd have noted a lot of absent bands, bands that I list as among my favourites of that era. The rason being that my friends and I had a system, I bought Slade records, another guy got T.Rex and another Bowie, etc. We'd swop them around. Comics were treated in exactly the same way.

Comics were the trading cards of their day back then. Maybe that's what we should be going back to.

Fysh

Well, no, trading physical comics with your mates isn't piracy. Downloading scanned copies of comics which are uploaded by people who don't have the rights to do so, however, is piracy and that's what's being suggested here. I wouldn't compare it to Byrne-stealing either because these days it's considerably easier to download every comic released that week than it would be to go to your local shop and read every comic on the shelf without being given grief by your retailer.

And yes, in case you're wondering, piracy is that bad from the industry's perspective - publishers have to make money. In a niche industry like comics (particularly if you're dealing with the subset of "monthly superhero comics") publishers need to make money. If you don't think their product is worth the price they charge, don't pay it. But don't get a pirate copy to enjoy and pretend to yourself that it's okay because they're too pricey for you. At no stage was there ever an agreement that said you the customer were entitled to read comics at price X, and that you could pirate them if they got more expensive.

BlaasForRafa

Fysh wrote: »

Well, no, trading physical comics with your mates isn't piracy. Downloading scanned copies of comics which are uploaded by people who don't have the rights to do so, however, is piracy and that's what's being suggested here. I wouldn't compare it to Byrne-stealing either because these days it's considerably easier to download every comic released that week than it would be to go to your local shop and read every comic on the shelf without being given grief by your retailer.

And yes, in case you're wondering, piracy is that bad from the industry's perspective - publishers have to make money. In a niche industry like comics (particularly if you're dealing with the subset of "monthly superhero comics") publishers need to make money. If you don't think their product is worth the price they charge, don't pay it. But don't get a pirate copy to enjoy and pretend to yourself that it's okay because they're too pricey for you. At no stage was there ever an agreement that said you the customer were entitled to read comics at price X, and that you could pirate them if they got more expensive.

It really is pointless trying to talk to you, I give up.

NuMarvel

An update:

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

Last week, this column ran the story that Diamond UK was increasing the price of imported comics to shops by another 12% after a similar rise in December. This caused outrage amongst UK stores, threats that stores would be closed, would find new distribution options

On Friday, a week after announcing the increase, UK stores were told that, after looking at recent currency fluctuations, the price increase was on hold. And while it would be looked at again in April, current solicitation forms that list new prices would all be counted at the old prices.

Have you ever heard a hundred comic store owners breath a sigh of relief simultaneously?

Fysh

Yeah, it was definitely nice to hear that the extra gouging was at least temporarily postponed. No doubt it'll go up eventually though.

Which brings me to a different thought mentioned by Rich in the same column - will people switch over to reading the cheaper reprint books? Certainly if money's tight I can see that three books for £2 vs 1 book for £2 is a no-brainer, but it's unlikely to be a viable solution for people used to getting their comics every week because hanging around waiting for the reprints to get up to the point where you stopped buying the monthlies will take a while.

sammysteiger

ahh yes but I like American comic books, luv an original issue. mad I know but true.