For those paying attention at home, you will know that I am an evil canuck from my arctic stronghold somewhere "up there by Alaska", also known as a Canadian to some. Our Monopoly money has managed to crawl its way up out of the basement over the past couple years and is now worth a whopping $1.01 US! This week's release of The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 2 was probably the final nail in the coffin for me and set me off on this rant. Hit the jump for my full soapbox meltdown.
was probably the final nail in the coffin for me and set me off on this rant. Hit the jump for my full soapbox meltdown.As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, Absolute Sandman came out this week. Retail price is $99.00 US. In soviet Canada book costs $120.00 CAD give or take. Doesn't seem too bad. It's such a long way across the border and we don't have any trade agreements since our countries have been warring over seal blubber for centuries. Wait a minute. That's just me and my neighbour Bob at war over seal blubber. We actually print the majority of comic books and ship them to the US. You'd think most comics would be cheaper up here or at least near par with the US counterparts.
Other atrocities in the price war are books like last month's Captain America Omnibus that I was interested in but could not purchase from my local comic shop as I am not insane. Retailing at about $74.99 US, this baby would set me back about $90.00 CAD plus tax, which is 14% where I am from. A $15 markup is ridiculous and I just went to eBay or Amazon.COM (not CA) where I got the comic for about $45.00 CAD. A 100% markup over the easier and cheaper options, even after factoring in shipping, is just plain sick.
that I was interested in but could not purchase from my local comic shop as I am not insane. Retailing at about This sickness is not just with trades though. As you can see, I read a tonne (screw your ton!) of comics each week. Buying these really set me back a lot, especially when I look at the US cover price compared to the CAD one. Luckily my shop gives me discounts for buying so many books. Otherwise, I doubt I'd be able to purchase nearly as many each month. US prices are listed as usually $2.99 US. The going Canadian price is $3.75! That's a 25% markup on EVERY BOOK and our dollar is worth MORE. Remember, we print a huge percentage of the actual comics each week up here in Canada and ship them down for US retailers. It is definitely not related to shipping expenses. This is just plain highway, or border in this case, robbery.
Now this isn't a new thing. For the past few years, our dollar has been worth fairly close to the US dollar. Typically, we'd be around 85-95 cents range, which isn't that big a gap to be honest. Even taking into account when we were down in the 70 cents range, these markups are ludicrous and make no sense other than to drive people out of the Canadian comic market. It's a wonder most comic shops in my area have gone out of business. It's hard not to feel hated by Marvel or DC when they stiff you this hard. Just a year ago, Marvel had some Omnibus collections that retailed for $99.00 US and $149.99 CAD. That was with a 10 cent difference and gave us a 50% markup.
Blah. I'm gonna get off my soapbox now. Just had to rant and vent for a little bit over this. I hate getting my pants pulled down over the price of my books each and every week despite my devout loyalty to the hobby. I find myself being driven to trades, all of which I'm forced to typically buy from eBay or other US based websites, just because the prices have skyrocketed despite the value of the Canadian dollar. These recent "Still Only 399 cents!" slogans on Marvel's useless wastes of space in the One More Day issues further exasperates me as $3.99 US quickly jumps up to like $4.75 CAD or more and all I get from it is a character bio and some sketches and more ads. That box slapped on each issue just serves to remind me how much I am being shat all over by the Big 2 each and every week. None of these make sense either when I can go down to the bank and trade in $3.99 CAD for like $4.03 US.
Sorry, even my closing paragraph ran off into a bigger rant. I'm sure even my US readers are becoming more and more annoyed at the rising prices of comics and I'd hate to be in the UK or Australia or other US comic receiving nations that probably get screwed even worse than us. Well, curious to hear how others are dealing with the surging prices lately with no end in sight. Any other suggestions on websites to purchase comics would be nice as well, aside from the obvious Amazon.com and eBay.com websites.
Follow each of us on Twitter:
5 comments:
I've noticed that Image books have been the most on par with our dollar. The last issue of Invincible was around $3.20 CAN compared to the $2.99 US price.
Maybe they are taxing you for the awesomeness of Wolverine? Or the lameness of Alpha Flight? I don't know, doesn't seem right, but it's good to see you have found a way to get around it.
Out of curiosity, are the subscription prices for comics higher up there? If not, despite the knock to your LCS, that might be a solution for your weekly needs.
I've honestly never tried subscriptions before. I have this built in fear of getting a folded in half comic in my mailbox or the soaked, water drenched collectors edition. I'm sure that is a completely unfounded fear, but still something that has always kept me from subscribing. I also like just going to the shop and looking around. I wouldn't have picked up Atomic Robo #1 this week without having seen it at my shop on the shelf.
I typically buy most of the Invincible books in hardcover jzintel, but it's good to know at least some companies aren't gouging the heck out of us.
Thankfully some LCBSs are trying to ease the pain for us beleagured canuckleheads. My store, Happy Harbour in Edmonton, has started to float their prices closer to the actual rate. e.g. Absolute Sandman is listed at $101.86 and the newest issue of Countdown is $3.08. Unfortunately this cuts into the usual file holder discount a tad, but at least they're trying.
Oh and often I find that amazon.ca is about par with amazon.com + shipping.
zjk - It's good to hear some comic shops are actively doing something to combat the gap in the US and CAD cover prices.
As for Amazon, I'll admit I haven't purchased anything from them in the last several months. I do know that the last time I did, I compared .COM with .CA and I ended up saving almost $40 by using .COM, even after shipping. They've probably adjusted the prices in relation to the dollar or it might just have been the specific books I purchased at that time.
Post a Comment
Thanks for checking out the Weekly Crisis - Comic Book Review Blog. Comments are always appreciated. You can sign in and comment with any Google, Wordpress, Live Journal, AIM, OpenID or TypePad account.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.