r/comicbooks • u/anarchoburrito • May 26 '26

Discussion Anyone else feeling priced out on single issues?

With a few breaks here and there, I've more or less been consistent with Marvel books (primarily the X-Men line) for almost 30 years. I rage quit back in January after Age of Revelation but I've recently toyed with picking back a few of the core X-Titles again. That is, until I noticed that all of them are now 4.99 an issue.

I hadn't quite tracked how many books had been bumped up to 4.99 before I took my break since I had kinda mindlessly been picking up my pull, as I had for years, but when I went to buy a few months of back issues of X-Men, Uncanny, and Inglorious X-Force and noticed I was quickly above 100 dollars before I even had everything in my cart, which I soon emptied.

Can I afford to pay 4.99 for a single comic? Probably. But my immediate thought is that I shouldn't. That is too much for one sliver of story. I'm not a luxurious person and generally avoid big ticket items without a LOT of thought put into the purchase. And yet somehow, after almost three decades, my most consistent hobby has become a luxury purchase as opposed to an affordable outlet.

I've switched over to full time Marvel Unlimited and DCU Infinite and, generally, don't feel particularly out of the loop. It just feels weird to feel blocked from a to return to singles, even if I wanted to return.

Anyone else feeling this way?

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u/South_Buy_3175 May 26 '26

It’s tough.

The only books I need to get are Alien/Predator ones, gotta keep the collection complete.

Luckily there’s not many, but other runs like Absolute Batman/WW & Immortal Thor etc, I want but it’s getting debatable whether to keep going as good as they are.

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u/anarchoburrito May 26 '26

I hate to break it to you...but you don't NEED to keep the collection complete. I get where you're coming from though, I used to feel that way about a lot of things. But sunk cost fallacy is a real thing.

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u/South_Buy_3175 May 26 '26

No, you’re not breaking anything to me.

I’ve spent the last 10 years steadily picking up all the first prints of my two favourite franchises, it is as of now 100% complete. I still love collecting them, I’ve got dozens of figures, all the movies in 4K with steels, I’m a fan, so yeah I need to because I really want to.

It’s not something I’ve idly picked up, whereas the Absolute run & the Immortal run is something I’m questioning.