D&D 5E 3 Years Later: D&D's total Domination on Amazon (and Earth in General)

[Parmandur]

I have several 1e UAs that are in good shape with the errata. They are pretty easy to get on ebay

The availability on DMs Guild probably depresses the street price somewhat.

 

[TerraDave]

I asked Mike Mearls on Twitter this question:

"Has the 5e PHB already outsold the entire run of 3.0e and 3.5e PHB sales combined over the course of the entire run of 3e?"

And Mike Mearls answered:

"yes, 5e > 3.5e + 3e"

I believe [MENTION=6716779]Zardnaar[/MENTION] has argued in the past that this was not the case. Now we know.

Thanks for asking and its great he confirmed that. But the very existence of 3.5 strongly implied that 3E did not do as well as 5E.

For me, the only doubt is really regards to 1e. With the whole big 80s panic/fad and the fact that it was kept in print for 10 years.

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks for asking and its great he confirmed that. But the very existence of 3.5 strongly implied that 3E did not do as well as 5E.

For me, the only doubt is really regards to 1e. With the whole big 80s panic/fad and the fact that it was kept in print for 10 years.

Basic D&D, between B/X and BECMI, sold exceedingly well, also. If they end up passing BECMI numbers, that would be impressive.

 

[Zardnaar]

The 3.5e PHB also had binding problems, and for the same print run (the first one). However, you're not seriously arguing this is a material part of the numbers here, and accounts for the 5e PHB being in the top 100 of all books nationwide for all categories more than three years after release, are you? I can drill down on print runs and disprove that allegation if you are in fact making it.

Hey my 3.5 PHB bought more or less on release is holding up fine. 5E has been the 1st one to have drastic binding issues. Some 2E books have cracked spines but they took a rather large amount of abuse in the 90's (players dragging them by the cover and grabbing them). That PHB got used on Snnday though its cracked but the pages are not faling out and it was bought in 1995.

My 1E DMG and early PHB are also immune to pain I don't think they will ever break short of some serious abuse. They have stitched binding.

Trust WoTC to cheap out with binding after spending all that money on art lol. For those of us outside the USA how do we get them replaced?

 

[Zardnaar]

You must not have either the 1e Unearthed Arcana or Oriental Adventures.... Both books would start falling apart if you looked at them.

That aside, the first printing of the 5e PHB was fraught with binding issues that left a good portion of the print run falling apart with just regular usage of the book. Mine suffers that fate, unfortunately.

My 2nd hand OA is falling apart,. OA and UA are from 1985 and that when TSR cheaped out on binding although they started earlier in 1981 and changed it again in 85 IIRC.

Still 30 year old books vs a PHB falling apart in 18 months. First time its happened with a book I bought new.

 

[Zardnaar]

Thanks for asking and its great he confirmed that. But the very existence of 3.5 strongly implied that 3E did not do as well as 5E.

For me, the only doubt is really regards to 1e. With the whole big 80s panic/fad and the fact that it was kept in print for 10 years.

3.5 was rushed out to get that rush from the 3.0 PHB doing so well. 3.5 did not do so well apparently (sold half of 3.0 apparently), so they rushed out 4E.

 

[Mistwell]

Hey my 3.5 PHB bought more or less on release is holding up fine.

Much like for 5e, it was not the entire print run that had a flaw, just a meaningful percentage of it. And it was a pretty bad problem for those who did have that problem with 3.5. You can still find threads out there of people upset.

Trust WoTC to cheap out with binding after spending all that money on art lol. For those of us outside the USA how do we get them replaced?

They didn't cheap out. It was a manufacturing flaw. Same flaw Paizo just went through by the way. Did Paizo cheap out as well? Printing problems happen. Both WOTC and Paizo make good on anyone with an issue.

 

[Hussar]

Hey my 3.5 PHB bought more or less on release is holding up fine. 5E has been the 1st one to have drastic binding issues. Some 2E books have cracked spines but they took a rather large amount of abuse in the 90's (players dragging them by the cover and grabbing them). That PHB got used on Snnday though its cracked but the pages are not faling out and it was bought in 1995.

My 1E DMG and early PHB are also immune to pain I don't think they will ever break short of some serious abuse. They have stitched binding.

Trust WoTC to cheap out with binding after spending all that money on art lol. For those of us outside the USA how do we get them replaced?

Heh, it's not really fair to compare those old 1e books. Unless you feel like paying about $200 US for your PHB, you are not getting a book on that quality paper with that quality binding any time soon. People tend to forget that printing prices have absolutely skyrocketed since the late 70's.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Thanks for asking and its great he confirmed that. But the very existence of 3.5 strongly implied that 3E did not do as well as 5E.

Monte Cook is on record saying that 3.5 was planned long before the release of 3e. Sales had nothing to do with it (except indirectly); according to Cook, 3.5 was planned due to an anticipated slump in sales about 3 years into the edition. From what he describes, that slump common in RPG (or at least d&D) releases.

EDIT: turning typos into some semblance of English.

 

[TerraDave]

Monte Cook is on record saying that 3.5 was planned long before the release of 3e. Sales had nothing to do with it (except indirectly); according to Cook, 3.5 was planned due to an anticipated slump in sales about 3 years into the edition. From what he describes, that slump common in RPG (or at least d&D) releases.

EDIT: turning typos into some semblance of English.

I know that quote. I will try to track down the source, but what he said was that a mild update was planned, new art, that kind of thing, which had happened with 1E and 2E. Not a 3.5, I am pretty sure he was on record that no 3.5 was planned.

And not that it matters, companies make plans and change them all the time. If 3E was still selling well after 2-3 years, there is no way they would have done a 3.5. Or if they did, then WotC really is badly managed.