Is 3.5 experience a sales renaissance?

[M.L. Martin]

I'd notice that no edition of D&D has died immediately in the transition, although 2E-3E probably comes closest, probably because that's the only edition where all support was killed in one fell stroke. TSR kept 1E backstock listed in its catalog into 1993 (even up through 1996 for at least one Realms product) and had articles in DRAGON using 1E rules a year and a half to two years after 2E launched (163 or 167, depending on whether you count Oriental Adventures as 1E-specific).

Hypothesis: The OGL has not only made D&D unkillable, as many said it would back when it was launched, the combination of daring readings of it with the rise of the PDF market has made all pre-4E editions of D&D unkillable.

 

[Ghostwind]

I'll point out that there are still some great Bastion press deals here: Bastion Press - Studio 2 Publishing, Inc.

 

[Knightfall]

There isn't much of a 3.5 renaissance in my neck of the woods. The main LGSs refuse to support d20 books although they do support Pathfinder and Mutants & Masterminds. They are trying to get rid of the d20/OGL stuff as fast as possible, which is both good and bad.

It's good for me, right now, since I'm getting good deals on tons of v.3.5 material. It likely will be bad for me, later, when I won't be able to find any more books that I want, locally.

Perhaps that will change with the release of the final version of the Pathfinder RPG. Time will tell.

 

[jdsivyer]

Yesterday and I had a chat with my the own of my local gaming shop and he said sales of D&D related stuff (for his store, anyway) were about 60% 4e and 40% 3.0/3.5. He said it's been that way for the last few months. However, the sales of 3.0/3.5 might be inflated due to the discount he has on them

 

[jdsivyer]

Yesterday and I had a chat with my the own of my local gaming shop and he said sales of D&D related stuff (for his store, anyway) were about 60% 4e and 40% 3.0/3.5. He said it's been that way for the last few months. However, the sales of 3.0/3.5 might be inflated due to the discount he has on them

Never send a message the moment you are awake. That should have read:

"...I had a chat with the owner of my..."

Need coffee!

 

[haakon1]

Well, I've been buying pretty much everything that's even remotely interesting for 3.5, on the theory it won't be around much longer. Of the 3 local game stores (yes, 3, I am blessed to live in the Seattle metro area, a half hour drive from Paizo or WOTC):
1) Has lots of 1/2/3/3.5 edition stuff. The owner (a true grognard war gamer type) is trying to talk me into 4e, and says the older stuff is "compatiblish", if you just wing it and cram in monsters running under the old rules into the new game. Not sure how that works. <shrug> Charging face value for everything -- which is a bargain, perhaps, on some of the older stuff.

2) Has some 3/3.5 edition stuff, now at 75% off. Not a lot is left -- probably 80% gone. But if anyone wants Midnight, for example, they had everything for it last week. Owner says that 3.5 will go away after a certain point, and Pathfinder's licensing is not really 3.5 compatible. These folks helped do the WOTC game day in Seattle, so pretty pro-WOTC.

3) New store. Just was 4e and Pathfinder stuff, full price on both, and not a lot of copies. No comment from the owner when I brought some Pathfinder stuff.

 

[Ydars]

I noticed a few weeks ago that sale prices of 3.5E books on Ebay are very high and that the books seem to be keeping their value very well; indeed the often sell for higher prices than they originally retailed for. I suspect that 3.5E is far from dead.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Lots of people continue their campaigns and are gearing up to run long-planned campaigns in the future. If i had had the time to prep my RHoD campaign already, i would buy Magic Item Compendium etc. and gear up to run 3.5 for the next year or so. Now i´m converting it.
3.5 is a damn good game, and it is going to vanish slowly from the market. Its Pathfinder that will decide if it has staying power.

 

[S'mon]

I've bought a good deal of 3.5 stuff recently, more than for several years previously. Thinking about 4e freed me from some of the 3eisms I don't like - the rules-as-physics, high-crunch mentality - so I now run 3e much more the way I like it: rules are for players, the GM's job is to match challenge to reward.

 

[Betote]

I and my players are indeed buying some 3.5 stuff; we're hooked on Paizo products, and I myself am waiting for the 3.5 sales to come to Spain in order to buy some WotC books I'd like to have a look at (Expanded Psionics, maybe a couple of Eberron books).

As we aren't buying any 4e book, I'd say that yes, 3.x is still quite healthy for us, and it seems it'll be so for quite a long time