Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics and Games in Whippany, New Jersey read Ron Catapano's comments regarding the upcoming comic book price drops threatening his bottom line (see "Ron Catapano of Ron's Comic World on Comic Book Prices") and had this to say.

I agree 100% with what Ron said.  Based on a 50% discount, it will take 134 books sold at $2.99 to generate the same amount of net profit as 100 books at $3.99.  That means even if you're regular customers purchase more books than before because of the friendlier price point, you won't be making more money until they buy that 35th extra book in a given month, or in whatever time period they actually make the required additional purchases.  If sales go up less than needed, we'll all be doing more work in terms of stocking and pulling books for less money.  Still, the price drop is positive because it will keep additional customers from leaving the hobby (who may be on the cusp of doing so).

What this shows is that without the additional changes that need to be made on the publishing end (see my previous post), the lowering of prices is only going to extend the life of brick and mortar stores a short period of time.  Marvel needs to be proactive and initiate a comprehensive change in their publishing strategy that will force DC to do the same.  Then there might be some long-term hope we can all feel again.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.