D&D 5E 5E PHB on Amazon $30 Pre-Order

[pickin_grinnin]

I am sorry, but I do mean it honestly. I wanted to explain my position, but then I realized, it still sounds as if I am a high horse. I really don´t want to forbid anyone to get something for a cheap price and I don´t condemn anyone who does. I just want to appeal to anyone to think about how much he likes his local gaming store and how much time he spends there, browsing in books, looking for games etc, and how it correlates with the money spent there. Don´t take those shops for granted. They need a revenue stream and should be paid for their service.

I have stopped shopping at the various FLGSs in my area because they never have anything I want. I used to do most of my geek shopping at them, but in the past several years they just don't ever have the things in stock that I want when I want them. I can overlook the higher prices when we're talking about 10 or 15% above what I could get the item for on Amazon (after figuring in shipping and taxes and such), but 25% is too much of a difference for me to ignore. I might be willing to ignore it if the store has worked hard to retain its customers, provided great service, etc., but that's not the case at most of the ones around here.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

And while I am glad some people have great FLG Stores, 90% of the ones I have been in since the late 1970s, suck, big time. The employees are more interested in playing warhammer/magic/pokemon/reading comics and talking with their buddies than helping a customer out

That has been my experience with both game and comic stores, too, particularly in the last 20 years. Sometimes the biggest offenders are the owners themselves.

 

[samursus]

Huh. Was going over my pre-orders to check for price drops and just noticed Hoard of the Dragon Queen says its a hardcover. Guess I just assumed it would be a softcover like most modules. Surprised I didn't stumble across this while reading all the threads.

Cool!

On the topic of FLGS's (or not so), I too have have a similar experience with my towns only RPG source. They have been here since I was a kid, and have always seemed haughty and unfriendly. To the point that during 4e I went to another town 60km away to get my fix, and found a MUCH friendlier source.

Unfortunately, the out of town store has pretty much switched to board games (which is good, because I have picked up a few of those). Although I have warmed up to the local guys lately (they seem a lot friendlier when I started going there with my gf) the price difference between Amazon and them dictates that I must REALLY want to keep them in business...

Yeah, not so much

 

[Falling Icicle]

$30 for the PHB is a pretty amazing deal. It was $37 when I ordered it a few days ago.

 

[Mark CMG]

I know it's been fluctuating but it is, as of this post, sitting at the $29.97 it was in the OP.

 

[zoroaster100]

I tried to pre-order the Starter Box and Player's Handbook and it took me four calls, as each time the person at the counter that answered the phone told me to call back later. They are supposed to be a Wizards Premier store, but had no idea when the products were to come out. At least they'd heard Dungeons and Dragons had a new edition coming out. I decided to order only the Starter Box through them for now and kept my pre-order through Amazon for now.

 

[fjw70]

My pre-order of the three core and the two adventures is down to about $146.

 

[SigmaOne]

I tried to pre-order the Starter Box and Player's Handbook and it took me four calls, as each time the person at the counter that answered the phone told me to call back later. They are supposed to be a Wizards Premier store, but had no idea when the products were to come out. At least they'd heard Dungeons and Dragons had a new edition coming out. I decided to order only the Starter Box through them for now and kept my pre-order through Amazon for now.

I walked down to my FLGS and asked them, and the people there did not know anything about it, either. So I'm keeping my Amazon preorder, too. I want to support them, but I've had trouble with them ordering games for me. I could have had Catan from Amazon in two days for half the price they charged me after I waited a month because they couldn't get it from the distributor. I don't want to end up missing out because they haven't got it together.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I walked down to my FLGS and asked them, and the people there did not know anything about it, either. So I'm keeping my Amazon preorder, too. I want to support them, but I've had trouble with them ordering games for me. I could have had Catan from Amazon in two days for half the price they charged me after I waited a month because they couldn't get it from the distributor. I don't want to end up missing out because they haven't got it together.

Often I think it is things like this, rather than low prices that are the downfall of many a brick and mortar store. If you can't provide basic customer service, you're generally not going to do well.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

Often I think it is things like this, rather than low prices that are the downfall of many a brick and mortar store. If you can't provide basic customer service, you're generally not going to do well.

Poor customer service is probably the #1 reason that small businesses fail.

In a past career I worked with a lot of businesses of every size. I saw the small ones making the same mistakes over and over:

1) poor customer service
2) unwillingness to keep things stocked
3) being open when the owner wants to work, rather than when the customers want to shop there (that's VERY common in comic and game stores)
4) not doing market research before establishing a business
5) not knowing the basics of running a business

6) For Texas businesses, not running the air conditioner cold enough, in some misguided attempt at saving money (it actually drives customers away).