Why are there so many HK comics rental shops but none english one?

[gogetter]

What do you think? I mean most english comics cost around the price of HK comics but there's not a single english rental shop in singapore? Are there any legal issues involved?

[LoneWolf]

I think cld be sued as they are more established company. Moreover, english comics more of collector nature, so business case is small as ppl rather buy. My 2 cts views :D

[rascal_father]

its quite difficult economical to maintain a proper catalogue of english comics. Firstly they are not cheap, and english itself has many genres of comics to choose, keeping them store is tedious(furthermore storing it for the next person, they damage easily as well). there is also the issue of royalty, rental fee of DC and Marvels titles bought up by Gogetter(not to mention the various independents)That's only for the singles issue.

AS for TPB rental, its takes a very long time for the different publisher to put out compilation of each titles: e.g Ultimates, Batman Hush. So customers patronising the stall would be infrequent.

[gogetter]

So if someone would to rent out english comics, does it become piracy?

[rascal_father]

have yet to check the fine print inside the cover. however i believe there is one especially we are dealing with IP. like anything, you buy for your own consumption and not for commercial aspect liked renting or such. Should you do that, obviously a certain percentage of your revenue from renting should go to the publisher as they have potentially lost some customers.

[Hades]

So if someone would to rent out english comics, does it become piracy?

I thinks should be ok for renting as long as the contents are not those XXX 1...

[Dio]

I mean most english comics cost around the price of HK comics

Really?! i though HK comics cost ard 4+ but angmoh ones cost 6+?

actually i feel that it's because the readership of angmoh comics are lower than HK ones. the closet i got to renting angmoh comics was the translated version. i remeber reading spawn in chinese :laugh:

[rookiyong]

My thinking is that any rental of books/comics/vcds/dvds are illegal and is an infringement of copyright laws, unless you are licensed to do so by the governing bodies.

For English comics, there seems to be more readers who are willing to buy rather than just want to read, so it may not be as prosperous as HK comics. Over here its still alright, Shan Gao Huangdi Yuan, but in HK, they are proposing to collect royalty fee from the rental shops as it burn big holes in their income.

[Fire]

i think english comic rental market is small here, even library had comic section already, further more, the readers prefer to collect rather than rent (i think)...
anyway, the law part, i'm not very clear, but if i were the publisher, for sure i wont allow ppl to do so, coz this will affect my readership and mostly...$$$$ involved is always a sensitive issue...
but if ppl just rent out in small scale...like personal loaning to ppl around that u know...(collect or not collect rental)...shld be ok gua....anyway..they wont know wat...since they are so far away (like wat engcheong said loh...)

[gogetter]

Really?! i though HK comics cost ard 4+ but angmoh ones cost 6+?

No lah, most cost around 4+ to 5+.