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4.33 Years in: What Now for 5E? (and have we reached "Peak Edition?")
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 7529805" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>A few years ago (in the run up to 5e), I dug out the MSRPs:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?353385-Cost-of-D-amp-D-Editions-then-and-now&p=6272427#post6272427" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?353385-Cost-of-D-amp-D-Editions-then-and-now&p=6272427#post6272427</a></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The first printing of the 3e core books (and only the first printing) was sold at near-cost. With the second printing those rose to $30 each.</p><p></p><p>The reason for this was two-fold: they wanted to make it as attractive as possible to get people to switch, and they were also conscious that there was a lot of suspicion of WotC out there at that time (3e was, of course, the first edition done by "the Magic guys" after they bought out TSR).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It was an above-inflation jump. I think the theory* at that time was that they'd somehow priced in the Amazon discount (so that $50 was 'really' $30 or something). I'm not sure how valid that is - it might also be a reflection of the fact that this edition doesn't have the plethora of supplements.</p><p></p><p>* A theory based on not much at all, of course - I don't think WotC ever told us exactly why they chose those particular prices. After all, why would they?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There's probably one or more 'sweet spots' for book pricing, and there's probably some really clever people with spreadsheets who can project what they are. I wouldn't be at all surprised if $20, $30, and $50 are all points in a sequence, with the next one at... well, I don't know.</p><p></p><p>But I wouldn't be surprised to find that the MSRP of 6e isn't determined by inflation so much as some other pseudo-psychological reason.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 7529805, member: 22424"] A few years ago (in the run up to 5e), I dug out the MSRPs: [url]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?353385-Cost-of-D-amp-D-Editions-then-and-now&p=6272427#post6272427[/url] The first printing of the 3e core books (and only the first printing) was sold at near-cost. With the second printing those rose to $30 each. The reason for this was two-fold: they wanted to make it as attractive as possible to get people to switch, and they were also conscious that there was a lot of suspicion of WotC out there at that time (3e was, of course, the first edition done by "the Magic guys" after they bought out TSR). It was an above-inflation jump. I think the theory* at that time was that they'd somehow priced in the Amazon discount (so that $50 was 'really' $30 or something). I'm not sure how valid that is - it might also be a reflection of the fact that this edition doesn't have the plethora of supplements. * A theory based on not much at all, of course - I don't think WotC ever told us exactly why they chose those particular prices. After all, why would they? There's probably one or more 'sweet spots' for book pricing, and there's probably some really clever people with spreadsheets who can project what they are. I wouldn't be at all surprised if $20, $30, and $50 are all points in a sequence, with the next one at... well, I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised to find that the MSRP of 6e isn't determined by inflation so much as some other pseudo-psychological reason. [/QUOTE]
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