Monthly Comic Book Cover Prices

Average prices of the Top 300 comic books offered each month
by Diamond Comic Distributors, 1995-present

The table below presents the average prices of all comics in Diamond's Top 300 from January 1995 to present here, as well as the average weighted prices — which means, the price of the average comic book ordered within the Top 300. (Basically, you take all the money the top 300 sold for and divide by total number of units.) For a look at cover prices from earlier times, see Median Cover Prices Since 1961.

The figures from July 1995 to August 1996 reflect Diamond's sales when Marvel was exclusive with Heroes World, so its mix of comics is different (and more expensive than when Marvel was included). As of September 1996 to March 1997, we have integrated the Heroes World and Diamond charts, so we're back to the whole market again, and prices drop, because Marvels were cheaper than most other comics. And then it's all Diamond after that. Note the drop in prices at the beginning of 2011, as well.

It is worth noting that comics cover prices have not really accelerated that much faster than core inflation in the last two decades. We can see below that if we were to track from 1994's prices using the inflation rate, comics prices have tended to outpace those rates — not surprising, since comics pricing is tied to paper costs and other costs of production that increase at different rates.

We can see that there have been times in which prices have increased faster than others: particularly 2008-2010, when major publishers tried to go from $2.99 to $3.99 in defiance of the general recession the rest of the economy was suffering. Comics publishers pulled back on price increases at that point. But generally, we might expect that a $2.25 comic book in 1994 ought to cost about $3.50 twenty years later, in 2014 — which it might if most publishers didn't eschew half-dollar increments.