A timeline of cover-price increases for AVENGERS (1963-2023)

The following is an overview of the increase in cover price for the Marvel comics series Avengers from 1963 to 2023.  During that 60 year period, the cover price for regular-sized issues of the series in the United States increased from 12 cents to $3.99.  (The cover price has remained at $3.99 from 2009 to present, with some exceptions.)  I have made a simple chart showing that price increase timeline below:

What follows is a more detailed examination of each price increase, with exceptions noted for thicker issues (containing more pages).  The information comes largely from the Grand Comics Database.  There are three additional charts below showing the price increase over the 20-year periods from 1963 to 1983; 1983 to 2003; and 2003 to 2023.

The cover price of Avengers was 12 cents each from the series' debut (#1, Sept. 1963) to issue #65 (June 1969).  During that time, a few story pages had been dropped -- replaced by text pages -- as I explored in a previous post.

The cover price was raised to 15 cents beginning with issue #66 (July 1969).  This 15-cent price lasted through to #92 (Sept. 1971).

The next issue, #93 (Nov. 1971) was a thicker issue priced at 25-cents.  The intention had been to increase the page count and price of the entire Marvel comics line, but this change lasted only one month before reverting to a standard page count.

The new cover price for a standard comic book at Marvel was 20 cents.  Avengers had a 20-cent cover price from #94 (Dec. 1971) to #122 (April 1974).  (Although #100 was an anniversary issue, it was not a thicker, higher-priced issue as sometimes happens.)

Avengers had a cover price of 25 cents from #123 (May 1974) to #150 (Aug. 1976). (Again, #150 had the same page count as a regular issue.)

Avengers had a cover price of 30 cents from #151 (Sept. 1976) to #164 (Oct. 1977).

Avengers had a cover price of 35 cents from #165 (Nov. 1977) to #182 (April 1979).  This was the period when I started buying comics.  The earliest Avengers issue that I know I bought brand-new was #170 (April 1978) which I bought at a local drugstore when I was 7 years old.

Avengers had a cover price of 40 cents from #183 (May 1979) to #198 (Aug. 1980).

Avengers had a cover price of 50 cents from #199 (Sept. 1980) to #214 (Dec. 1981), with the exception of course of #200 which was a thicker anniversary issue priced at 75 cents.  Marvel did increase the page count of story content from 17 or 18 pages to 22 pages, in order to offset the pain of this 10-cent price increase.  I recall talking with my friends at the time about what would be a cover price increase that would force us to stop buying comics. We all agreed back then that if the price of a regular-size comic ever rose to $1.00, we would have to quit buying them!

Avengers had a cover price of 60 cents from #215 (Jan. 1982) to #253 (March 1985).  Issue #250 (Dec. 1984) was a thicker issue that had a $1.00 cover price.

At this point, it might be good to show how the overall cover price increase looks on a graph I made, showing the years 1963 to 1982 in one simple image:

As you can see above, in 20 years' time, the cover price had more than quadrupled.  You could have bought FIVE comics in 1963-1968 ($0.12 x 5 = $0.60) for the price of ONE comic twenty years later, in 1982-1984.

So, let us continue our chronology...

Avengers had a cover price of 65 cents from #254 (April 1985) to #263 (Jan. 1986).  This would be one of the shortest-lived cover prices in the series' run.  DC had already increased their cover prices from 60 cents to 75 cents in 1983, so Marvel was trying to keep their own cover price down for as long as possible, it seems, by adopting the more incremental 65-cent price.

Avengers had a cover price of 75 cents from #264 (Feb. 1986) to #290 (April 1988).

Avengers had a cover price of $1.00 from #291 (May 1988) to #343 (Jan. 1992).  Issue #300 (Feb. 1989) was a thicker issue with a $1.75 cover price.

The dreaded day had finally come when the cost of a regular Marvel comic had risen to $1.00 each.  But me and my friends who had worried about such a fate back in 1980 were mostly not buying them anymore anyway, having outgrown them or become bored and dissatisfied with the content.  The last issue of Avengers that I remember buying brand-new back in the 1980s was #299 (Jan. 1989).  I wouldn't buy an issue of the series again until 1997.  In retrospect, however, the late 1980s/early 1990s wasn't a bad period of Avengers, and the $1.00 cover price was a bargain, although I didn't appreciate it at the time.

Avengers had a cover price of $1.25 from #344 (Feb. 1992) to #373 (April 1994).  The $1.25 cover price is a bit misleading when shown on a graph because there were six issues of the series published during this time that were much more expensive.  

Issue #347 (May 1992) was a thicker issue with a $1.75 cover price. Issue #350 (Aug. 1992) was another thick issue that was a flip-book (reprinting Avengers #53 on the other side) with a $2.50 cover price. Issues #360 (March 1993), #363 (June 1993), #366 (Sept. 1993) and #369 (Dec. 1993) were also thicker issues, all of them having foil or cardstock covers and a $2.95 cover price.  Ah, the 1990s!

Avengers had a cover price of $1.50 from #374 (May 1994) to #402 (Sept. 1996).  Issue #375 (June 1994) was a thicker issue with a $2.00 cover price.  Issue #400 (July 1996) was also a thicker issue and had a $2.50 cover price.

The series was cancelled with #402, and replaced with the "Heroes Reborn" volume drawn by Jim Lee.  Avengers Vol. Two #1 (Nov. 1996) was a thicker issue with a $2.95 cover price.  Issue #2 (Dec. 1996) to #9 (July 1997) had a $1.95 cover price. (I think I started buying the series again with #8.)  

Issue #10 (Aug. 1997) to the final issue, #13 (Nov. 1997) had a $1.99 cover price, with the exception of #12 (Oct. 1997) which was a thicker issue with a $2.99 cover price. 

Avengers Vol. Three #1 (Feb. 1998) kicked off the Kurt Busiek-George Perez run that helped get me interested again in buying new comics.  It was a thicker issue with a $2.99 cover price.

Avengers Vol. Three #2 (March 1998) to #28 (May 2000) had a $1.99 cover price, with the exception of #12 (Jan. 1999), #25 (Feb. 2000) and #27 (April 2000) which were thicker issues with a $2.99 cover price.

Avengers Vol. Three #29 (June 2000) to #502 (Nov. 2004) had a $2.25 cover price.  (The series returned to its legacy numbering with #500, which normally would have been #85.  The final issue of the series was #503.)  The exceptions included the thicker issues of #34 (Nov. 2000) with a $2.99 cover price, and #48 (Jan. 2002), #50 (March 2002), #60 (Jan. 2003), #500 [#85] (Sept. 2004) and #503 [#88] -- all of which had a $3.50 cover price.  There were also two price-rollback issues where the price was actually lowered, to make them more attractive as a jumping-on point for new readers.  Issue #38 (March 2001) had a cover price of $1.99, and #77 (March 2004) had a cover price of only FIFTY CENTS!

Let's stop again at this point to look at the previous 20 years of cover-price increases, picking up where we left off before in 1983.  The graph below shows the cover price increase from 60 cents (1983) to $2.25 (2003).  So, you could have bought nearly FOUR issues (3.75 to be exact) in 1983 for the same price of ONE issue in 2023.  This is a little better than the FIVE to ONE rate of the previous 20-year period (1963 to 1983). 

Let's get back to the listing of issues.  We pick up in late 2004, which would begin perhaps the most significant Avengers run in decades, when the title was rebooted as New Avengers, written by Brian Michael Bendis. Issue #1 (Jan. 2005) to #7 (July 2005) had a cover price of $2.25, same as the previous series.  

New Avengers #8 (Aug. 2005) to #17 (May 2006) had a cover price of $2.50.  Incidentally, it was around this time that the newsstand editions of the issues had higher cover prices than the direct-sale (comics shop) versions.  While the direct-sale copies were $2.50 each, the nearly-identical newsstand editions cost $2.99. 

New Avengers #18 (June 2006) to #48 (Feb. 2009) had a cover price of $2.99. (I finally stopped buying the series in 2007, having bought it every month since 1997.)  The newsstand editions had a cover price of $3.99. 

New Avengers #49 (March 2009) to the final issue, #64 (June 2010), had a cover price of $3.99, with the exception of #50 (April 2009) which was a thicker issue for $4.99.

Avengers Vol. Four was the next series in the Avengers' legacy numbering. Issue #1 (July 2010) to #33 (Jan. 2013) had a cover price of $3.99.  The exceptions were #12.1 (June 2011) and #24.1 (May 2012) -- both of which had a lower cover price of $2.99 -- and the final issue, #34 (Jan. 2013) which was a thicker issue with a $4.99 cover price.  Incidentally, Marvel ended the distribution of its comics to newsstands (including bookstores like Barnes & Noble) in 2013.

Avengers Vol. Five #1 (Feb. 2013) to #43 (June 2015) had a cover price of $3.99.  The exceptions were #24 (Feb. 2014), #29 (July 2014), #34.1 & #35 (both Nov. 2014), #34.2 & #40 (both March 2015) and the final issue, #44 (June 2015), which were thicker issues for $4.99.

The next series in the Avengers' legacy numbering is All-New, All-Different Avengers which ran only 15 issues from #1 (Jan. 2016) to #15 (Dec. 2016).  They were all $3.99 each with the exception of the first issue, which was thicker than the rest and had a $4.99 cover price.

Avengers Vol. 6 was the next series, which has a little bit of confusing numbering.  The first issue was #1 (Jan. 2017), which had several additional fractional numbers (#1.1, #2.1, etc.).  After issue #11 (Nov. 2017) it returned to the legacy numbering, so that the next issue was #672 (Dec. 2017).  The final issue was #690 (June 2018).  From #670-on, the cover logo was "Avengers No Surrender."  All of these issues were $3.99, with the exception of the following thicker issues that had a $4.99 cover price: #1, #1.MU, #675, #684 and #689.

Avengers Vol. 7 was published from #1 (July 2018) to #66 (May 2023), written by Jason Aaron.  All of the issues had a $3.99 cover price with the exceptions of the thicker issues of #1 ($4.99 cover price), #10 [legacy #700] ($5.99), #31 ($4.99) and #50 [#750] (a 100-page issue for $9.99).  

Note: the legacy numbering jumps on the above series from #707 (for #17) to #718 for the next issue (#18) because another series, Avengers: No Road Home #1-10 (2019), is legacy #708-717.  For the sake of completeness here: all of those No Road Home issues had $3.99 cover prices with the exception of #1, 6 & 10, which were thicker issues with a $4.99 cover price.

Avengers Vol. 8 is the current main Avengers series.  So far the cover price has been $3.99, with the exception of the first issue (#1, July 2023) which had more pages and a $4.99 cover price.  The most recent issue is #4 (Oct. 2023) which came out August 9th.

Whew!

So, here is our final chart showing the cover price increases over the last 20 years, from 2003 to present (2023).  As you can see, the price has remained fairly stable compared to the previous two 20-year periods (1963-1983 and 1983-2003).  

This means that in 2003 you could have bought nearly TWO Avengers issues ($2.25 each) for nearly ONE Avengers issue ($3.99) today in 2023.  Compare this to the situations we showed earlier, where you could have bought FIVE in 1963 compared to ONE in 1983, or FOUR in 1983 compared to ONE in 2003.  Yes, the price has gone up -- but on the other hand, it hasn't gone up on regular-sized issues in over a dozen years, holding the price down longer than in any other period of time.

Having said that, I do expect the cover price to be raised to $4.99 at any time now.  However you can still buy issues at 2003 prices by subscribing to them via the mail, as I have outlined in a previous blog post.  

What do you think?  Is the price of a new issue too high, too low, or just right?  If you think that current issues of Avengers ought to have a different cover price, what price do you (realistically) think they should be?