r/comicbooks • u/Revolutionary_Ice371 • 6h ago

Discussion MyComicShop New Pricing Tool

Anyone get complete sticker shock today going onto the MyComicShop website and seeing literally ALL recent back issues in near mint condition uniformly go up to $10?!?! And very fine condition all go up to $8?!?! And so on.

Seriously. Go out and look. It’s their new pricing tool in full effect to fuck you over. If the issue is not the current issue of the series then the price automatically goes up to $10. Across the board. It is unbelievable. As soon as the newest issue hits then the one before it that was just selling for, say, $4.99 on their site is now $10.

If this isn’t a major fuckup on their part and is truly what they think the value of that comic now is, then I would hope all of you that use their site will send them an email letting them know what you think about their new pricing tool. I did.

19 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

8

u/emoryhotchkiss1 6h ago

Must be only specific series ? I looked at some stuff on my pulls and it’s still mostly normal for the ones I checked. Gunslinger spawn, spawn and transformers still 3.99 for nm and 3.10 for vf for most back issues.

I looked at the bloodletter mini and those were all $8 for nm though. But it’s probably harder to find

6

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 6h ago

For an examples Go out to any comic from the publisher: ignition press

12

u/mycomicshop 50m ago

Hi, I saw this and wanted to chime in. We've been doing some work updating and changing how we manage prices recently, and some things have been changed that are not where we want them to be--we had a discussion about this earlier today and are working on getting it corrected.
-Conan with MCS

3

u/YodaFan465 Rocketeer 3h ago

I wondered why the recent Rocketeer Classics one-shot (cover price $1.99) shot up to $10.

This is really going to cut back on my impulse buys — which is actually probably healthy, but MCS is no longer distinctive from the other overpriced back issue shops.

2

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 2h ago

It is not. They are now just as crappy a source for recent back issues as all the others out there (or worse). Midtown doesn’t have the selection that MCS has but the prices are still reasonable.

3

u/nodoubt_jr 5h ago

I noticed the same thing on a couple of ones I missed last month. What are other online retailers alternatives? Only other one I know is Midtown Comics.

1

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 5h ago

And maybe that’s part of the problem. But yea. Midtown. They’re still selling at cover price for recent current issues.

1

u/NeoNoireWerewolf The Goon 8m ago edited 5m ago

Midtown’s way better lately. Better prices, and they’ll give you free shipping over a certain threshold, think it is either $25 or $35. My Comic Shop has had crazy shipping costs for a few years now. I only buy from them if I can’t get it elsewhere, they just kinda suck these days. You’d be better off getting a book from an eBay seller most of the time.

4

u/thatsnomoon23 6h ago

I don't see that at all but I only went back to last week's which still show the reg cover price. I only looked at the first page though for that week.

7

u/WorstDugout711 5h ago

I just dug through a few titles and yeah it's hit or miss. Some issues from two weeks ago are still sitting at cover price, others jumped to $10 and it doesn't seem tied to demand at all. Feels like the tool is just slapping a blanket hike on anything that isn't this week's #1 priority listing, which is a weird way to handle back issue pricing.

5

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 6h ago

Go to any current series and look at all the issues before the most current. They’re all $10

3

u/Poseur117 Bullseye 5h ago

Detective comics you have to go back about 5 issues for the price hike. Still not great though

2

u/Little_Tommy_Tuggins The Question 5h ago edited 5h ago

Huh, you’re right. I just looked at Black Cat back issues as a new one released today and 4A and 7A are listed at $16.

Could this be in response to high shipping cost? Anyone wanna reach out to them?

Edit: do we know they are using a new pricing tool or could this be a mistake based on web design? Because I can’t imagine paying $20 an issue of a book that’s less than 5 months old.

3

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 5h ago

Also to your shipping question: no. They definitely cover the shipping costs with what they charge in shipping fees.

2

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 5h ago

This isn’t a mistake. I read their newsletter every week and a few weeks back they announced the new pricing tool was going to launch soon. And I did write them last night when I saw this and their response was:

“Thank you for reaching out. I was told that this is the result of a new pricing tool that is being used.”

4

u/Little_Tommy_Tuggins The Question 5h ago

That’s going to drive their business down on back issues. Glad you made a post, I wouldn’t have noticed until I missed a book and took my slow time to order it. Only to find out the $5 price is now triple.

2

u/Terrible-D 4h ago

I just looked at the latest Batman series, still cover price. Latest Spider-Man issues are really high. Hopefully it's a mistake.

1

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 2h ago

I think it’s focused on independent publishers. I don’t know why. I’m hoping it’s a mistake.

1

u/StrangeDiscipline902 3h ago

I’m getting the new Crowbound comic from my LCS and I looked it up, 1A is $10. They are only on issue 2.

Another new comic I get is Karman Blade, also on issue 2. 1A is still 3.99

I have some back issues in my cart that didn’t change price, but they are from the late 80’s.

1

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 2h ago

Yeah. It seems to be all series with certain publishers so hopefully it’s a mistake. It’s not old back issues. They did this to new series only.

1

u/3rd_Try_Charm 2h ago

One thing about MCS is that they are usually pretty good about addressing issues that customers bring to their attention. You did all you can really do for now except for possibly listing the sales that the new pricing kept you from completing and showing a tangible number. Sometimes a blanket change like this has bugs that cause things to go a little haywire, and sometimes businesses overestimate how much their customers are willing to accept. It might just end up that you will have to find another supplier for more recent books, but I don't see Buddy wanting that result. I'll watch for it whenever I order from them again, although I'm not actively collecting now and might be done for good anyway.

1

u/youllmeltmorefan 1h ago

There aren't many things that would make me buy from Mile High but this is one. Jeez. This is a rake step.

1

u/Deathpool707 1h ago

Guess I’ll find another source for missed back issues. Preorders is still useful part of their shop.

1

u/thatsnomoon23 6h ago

One thing I noticed and I'm not quite sure if it's new but if you go to their eBay store, NEW comics are priced at above cover price. Ridiculous. I like this store but stuff like this and their pricey shipping is making me reconsider things.

3

u/bab-85 5h ago

I think they do this because of the Ebay fee's. I have been buying from them for a long long time but always avoided their ebay store because of the price markup. This new pricing tool is disappointing to hear about but maybe if it's a new roll out it's a bug and needs to be reported (but in our current economy, I'm not sure it is tbh)

1

u/darksideoflondon 5h ago

eBay takes a ridiculous amount of your sale, most stores raise their prices on eBay to cover the fees.

-1

u/jackknightlight 2h ago

You are all describing the “market” of comics. Adam Hughes catwoman covers are selling fast. He’s always been a hot artist and he’s unfortunately not able to do any new covers at the moment. Amazing Spider-Man 1000 caused recent backissues to begin selling faster than previous trends. Spider-Man is hot? These indie books have really low print runs, hope I can buy them at cover 6 months after release. Me too, but what if you can’t? This is what the market trend looks like right now and mycomicshop is one measurement you can use to see it in action. You are not the only person trying to buy that book at that moment. While inventory is selling faster than you can replenish, the price must go up as the market demands. Too much inventory coming in and running out of warehouse space? Time to lower prices or have a big sale. The customer has every right to not purchase at asking price. The seller is under no obligation to lower their price because you want them to. It’s how commerce works. When the final thought is “there just aren’t any other shops or websites that will set up every comic from the past 2 years and sell every issue from every series for cover price and still have them in stock all the time” I hope saying it out loud gives you that oooohhh! Moment.

1

u/Revolutionary_Ice371 50m ago

No, your comment just gave me that “ohhhh he missed the point entirely and got cocky wanting to mansplain to me about how economics works” moment.

I’ve been collecting for a very long time so I know how this industry works. I also understand basic economics of supply and demand.

That is not what is happening here. So let me walk you through it. As I said in other comments it’s not happening to the big publishers and it’s NOT happening to books that are selling out on their site. I’ve kept certain series on my “want list” and they are always there. Selling at cover price. All of a sudden those same issues just got jacked up in price 100%. From $5 to $10. All the prior issues of the series. All the same cost. #1 is the same as #6: $10 for a NM and $8 for a VF. Then the latest issue is still cover price $4.99.

It makes no sense. They can’t all be valued at $10 when all other sites still charge cover price.

So go look up any series from the publisher, Ignition Press. Example, the series Bad Thoughts. Issues 1-3 are each selling for $10. Issue 4 is the most recent and it’s still sitting at cover price. Go look them up at midtown. Still all selling cover price.

So if your “theory” was correct then MyComicShop would be lowering prices to try to dump these issues because they have been sitting there for me to buy at cover price for months. What? So now that they’re $10 I’m DEFINITELY gonna buy them now? Ok. 👍🏻

I’m just trying to be kind and give a PSA to people here that there is either an issue with their site or they really made a bad business decision. They’re going to be stuck with more inventory and less future sales because I won’t be buying the series at all if all the prior issues are $10. I’ll just go to Amazon for the trade. I like floppies more but at this point I’ll choose the cheaper option. Hell. Buying them off eBay is cheaper at this point.