Parity

I'm still reading through Sin City and Akira these days. It's a bit of a slow process because of my schedule and the library books' availability. It's an interesting process because Akira goes for an ever increasing payoff while Sin City seems to be about dimishing returns the more you read.

But what's getting me these days is that the Canadian dollar is now on parity with the American dollar yet our comics are still sold for a dollar more and trades at about $10 more, more or less.

I know markets are volatile and all that, but seriously, if shipping wasn't a killer I'd be getting my books from Amazon. Comics simply aren't affordable in Canada at the moment unless they are sold at the American cover price. For every 3 comics I buy, I could be buying four if I crossed the border. This makes me even less likely to buy floppies no matter how much I like the guys at the local comic shop. Same for trades. The online retailers are just offering the books at the prices closest to American prices for it to be worthwhile to buy locally as much as I would rather support the community.

Unless local shops can afford to sell at American cover price it's the hugely discounted online retailers who will make the most of this current situation, and their offered prices aren't anywhere close to the hugely discounted online prices on Amazon. Okay, some books are kind of close but if I buy $35 worth of books from Chapters online, shipping is free. If I buy from Amazon, shipping removes any saving I would have had.

Sucks to be north of the border if you want cheap kicks.