There was a time in the early 1960’s when a dollar could buy the entire eight issue monthly output of Marvel Comics. Owning Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men (as well as several other heroes and a few teen humor comics) for a buck sounds almost as incredible as the comics that were being produced. Until the end of the decade, the price of a Marvel comic book held steady at twelve cents, allowing buyers to maintain their buying power for several years. However, as the 1970’s began, inflation caused the equivalent value of a dime begin to lose ground to the cover price of a Marvel comic book, with ten cents in 1961 worth only 17 cents in 1975 even though the cover prices of a comic were 25 cents. The eighties provide an even more stark example of the financial problems of comic buyers, as that dime from 1961 was now worth 42 cents in 1985, but the cover price of a comic went from ten cents to 65 cents. Ten years later, in 1995, that dime was worth 50 cents but cover prices were now $1.50, meaning that buyers had only one third of the buying power they had in 1961. In 2015, purchasing power continued trending downward, with a 1961 dime now coming in at 79 cents whereas a comic cost $3.99. There are additional factors that contributed to this trend, including increased costs for improved printing quality, but the sad truth of the matter is that inflation is a super villain that even the combined might of the Marvel superheroes cannot defeat!
