D&D 5E 5E's poor book bindings

[see]

$50 US in 2020 is about ~$15 in 1980 based on online inflation calculators ($1 in 1980 is about $3.30 in 2020). I remember the books costing closer to $25 in the early 80s, which is closer to ~$80 each in 2020.

Well, you remember what you remember, but dragging out my copies of AD&D 1st edition books and looking at the covers:

Player's Handbook, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.
Unearthed Arcana, price printed on the back cover, lower left corner: $15.00.
Wilderness Survival Guide, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.
Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00. (Child World/Children's Palace price sticker on front, $11.97)
Greyhawk Adventures, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.
Manual of the Planes, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.

My copies of Oriental Adventures, the Dungeon Masters Guide, the Monster Manual, the Monster Manual II, and the Fiend Folio do not have prices clearly printed on them, but they have some sort of TSR product number on the back cover near the ISBN that begins "394-" and ends either "TSR1500" or "TSR1200", which I believe were indicators of the MSRP.

 

[Helldritch]

In an other similar thread, I mentionned that you can repair the books quite easily. All you need is a sharpened flat screw driver and fabric glue. My books looks like they've never been repaired. The glue is quite cheap on Amazon but it can be bought in any store that sells fabrics. The screw driver is quite easy to come by too and if it is small enough, it might not even need sharpening.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Well, you remember what you remember, but dragging out my copies of AD&D 1st edition books and looking at the covers:

Player's Handbook, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.
Unearthed Arcana, price printed on the back cover, lower left corner: $15.00.
Wilderness Survival Guide, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.
Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00. (Child World/Children's Palace price sticker on front, $11.97)
Greyhawk Adventures, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.
Manual of the Planes, price printed on the back cover, lower right corner: $15.00.

My copies of Oriental Adventures, the Dungeon Masters Guide, the Monster Manual, the Monster Manual II, and the Fiend Folio do not have prices clearly printed on them, but they have some sort of TSR product number on the back cover near the ISBN that begins "394-" and ends either "TSR1500" or "TSR1200", which I believe were indicators of the MSRP.

That's entirely possible, or I'm misremembering later 2e books. Early on I had to get my books from a specialty book store and it wouldn't surprise me if they were overcharging us. We didn't get a Walden Books until the early 90s.

However, it doesn't really matter, because the price of the 1e books at $15 in the early 80s is about $50 in 2020, and the 1e books still have lower quality paper, are limited to black ink, and have roughly half the page count. There is no way you'd expect those kind of production values at $50 because of the binding. It would be a laughing stock.

 

[HomegrownHydra]

That's entirely possible, or I'm misremembering later 2e books. Early on I had to get my books from a specialty book store and it wouldn't surprise me if they were overcharging us. We didn't get a Walden Books until the early 90s.

However, it doesn't really matter, because the price of the 1e books at $15 in the early 80s is about $50 in 2020, and the 1e books still have lower quality paper, are limited to black ink, and have roughly half the page count. There is no way you'd expect those kind of production values at $50 because of the binding. It would be a laughing stock.

Casebound used to be standard for hardcover books, it's not some super-expensive luxury. Also, costs for offset printing are heavily determined by the number of books printed. 5e is printing huge numbers of each book which dramatically reduces costs. WOTC could easily do casebound and still make a hefty profit on each book.

For perspective, the 13th age core book came out a year before the 5e PHB and is casebound, has the same page count (320 pages), is full color, has waaay nicer paper (it's really thick and glossy like a quality coffee table book), was printed in the US, and it was priced at $45. The Eyes of the Stone Thief adventure book was released the same year as 5E, has the same qualities as the 13th Age core book with 360 pages and was $50 dollars. The Timewatch core book came out in 2016, has those same features, is 392 pages and is priced at $50. All these books have way tinier print runs than 5e books which drives up their unit costs even higher yet they are profitable at the prices WOTC is charging for 5e books.

 

[MNblockhead]

This thread got me to thinking. Do you treat books any differently now then in the past?

For example, I remember buying metal corner protectors for my 1e books and making covers out of grocery bags. I was careful to break in new books to avoid cracking the spine. Etc.

I really cared for my books and I also used them all the time.

Now I'm still careful with books but mostly they stay on the shelf and I pull them out to read or reference but I don't travel with them because I have D&D Beyond for WotC material and Kindle or PDFs for other publishers.

I wouldn't even know where to get corner protectors any more (I suppose Amazon, but never bothered to look) and don't see much need for them, because I'm not toting a small library of books around in my backpack any more.

 

[Zardnaar]

Casebound used to be standard for hardcover books, it's not some super-expensive luxury. Also, costs for offset printing are heavily determined by the number of books printed. 5e is printing huge numbers of each book which dramatically reduces costs. WOTC could easily do casebound and still make a hefty profit on each book.

For perspective, the 13th age core book came out a year before the 5e PHB and is casebound, has the same page count (320 pages), is full color, has waaay nicer paper (it's really thick and glossy like a quality coffee table book), was printed in the US, and it was priced at $45. The Eyes of the Stone Thief adventure book was released the same year as 5E, has the same qualities as the 13th Age core book with 360 pages and was $50 dollars. The Timewatch core book came out in 2016, has those same features, is 392 pages and is priced at $50. All these books have way tinier print runs than 5e books which drives up their unit costs even higher yet they are profitable at the prices WOTC is charging for 5e books.

Nice.

I wouldn't mind premium binding with new art cover maybe.

Would pay a premium price as well. I didn't send mine in no receipt.

 

[Parmandur]

Nice.

I wouldn't mind premium binding with new art cover maybe.

Would pay a premium price as well. I didn't send mine in no receipt.

WotC didn't ask me for a receipt, just a photo of the printing details page and the damage. And they let me keep it.

 

[Zardnaar]

WotC didn't ask me for a receipt, just a photo of the printing details page and the damage. And they let me keep it.

It's from 6 years ago and I'm in New Zealand.

 

[jasper]

It is extremely common to get bindings that fail. It was common with 4e printings. It was common with 3e printings. Every book from the last 20 years has had reports of books that fall apart, even within the first six months. WotC has always been good about replacing those that fail prematurely, and they've always had to do so. If you got books that lasted 5-6 years of heavy use, you got good bindings. Bad bindings are the ones that fail in 5-6 months of use. Those are the ones WotC replaces.



No.



It's an identical binding process, so no. Some books don't wear as well as others; it's mostly random. You get a lot more reports of failures at the beginning of the game's lifespan because that's when a huge number of people buy all three books at once. It's luck of the draw combined with how heavily you use your books.

The 1e AD&D books had library-reference-grade case bindings, which are the most expensive bindings available due to the materials, time, and labor involved. If those were used for 5e books it would more than double the cost of the book. $50 US in 2020 is about ~$15 in 1980 based on online inflation calculators ($1 in 1980 is about $3.30 in 2020). I remember the books costing closer to $25 in the early 80s, which is closer to ~$80 each in 2020. And the 1e books were in black ink with plain, if heavy, paper and they have half the total page counts. 5e has 988 pages in the core books (5e PHB 316, 5e DMG 320, 5e MM 352). AD&D 1e has 480 pages (1e PHB 128, 1e DMG 240, 1e MM 112). Something like three-quarters of the cost of the 1e books was the binding. That's why they last.

Instead of $150 you'd be dropping $300 to $400 for a set of 5e core books with bindings equivalent to the 1e books, and the only thing that would be better would be the binding. Previous editions have had premium versions of books (I have a 3.5e leather bound premium edition) but I don't think it has better bindings.

Would money be saved If 5E went back to just Black and White printing to pay for the better bindings?

 

[Parmandur]

It's from 6 years ago and I'm in New Zealand.

I had mine for like four years before they replaced it: worth asking.