D&D General D&D Book Prices Are Going Up

WotC announced today that D&D books will be increasing in price this year.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants will be $59.99 as a preorder and $69.99 thereafter. These will apparently come as physical and digital bundles, so you won’t need to buy the D&D Beyond version separately.

This space is dedicated to communicating clearly and transparently with our players- even when the topic isn’t particularly fun. Since the release of the 2014 D&D core rulebooks, we’ve kept book prices stable. Unfortunately, with the cost of goods and shipping continually increasing, we’ve finally had to make the decision to increase the price of our new release print books. We're committed to creating high-quality products that deliver great value to our players and must increase our prices to accomplish that.

This will go into effect starting with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and new releases after Glory of the Giants. Digital pricing is unaffected by this MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) increase, as digital products don’t need to be printed or shipped. The increase also doesn’t impact backlist titles. While we can’t promise that there will never be a change to the prices of digital products and backlist titles, we have no plans to increase either.

Players who purchase the Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants digital-physical bundle through Dungeons & Dragons store can get the bundle for $59.95 for the entire preorder window, which is consistent with our current digital-physical bundle pricing. After the preorder window closes, digital-physical bundle prices will go to $69.95.

 

[Parmandur]

Also Goodman Games sells books with a code sticker in them for the PDF from Drive Thru. However it means the books are shrink wrapped. Which it's claimed some stores do not like. However all the GS around here and abroad I've been too sell shrink wrapped books.

Note I do realized that stickers are probably not feasible for WotC just due to shear print size.

There are like six... maybe seven game stores around here.

My FLGS doesn't even carry Goodman Games products, and I've wondered why: that could be part of it.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Also Goodman Games sells books with a code sticker in them for the PDF from Drive Thru. However it means the books are shrink wrapped. Which it's claimed some stores do not like. However all the GS around here and abroad I've been too sell shrink wrapped books.

Note I do realized that stickers are probably not feasible for WotC just due to shear print size.

There are like six... maybe seven game stores around here.

Not sure why anyone would have a problem with shrink-wrapped books. I mean, I guess it's nice for customers to have a quick flip-through before buying, but I don't think it makes THAT much of a difference.

 

[darjr]

Not sure why anyone would have a problem with shrink-wrapped books. I mean, I guess it's nice for customers to have a quick flip-through before buying, but I don't think it makes THAT much of a difference.

I don't either. I do remember someone saying that it's the reason Paizo doesn't do codes, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone from Paizo say that.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't either. I do remember someone saying that it's the reason Paizo doesn't do codes, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone from Paizo say that.

Marvel has the solution printed in (nearly) every comic book, so I assume it's not that expensive to do (Marvel wouldn't do anything if it was AT ALL expensive!):

They cover the code with a peel-off sticker. SURE, a crafty code-thief could peel off the sticker while pretending to flip-through the comic and, what, take a picture with their phone? It's possible, but I've never seen it happen. It would be pretty easy to get caught doing it.

Doing that on a D&D book would be akin to stealing the poster-map out of the back of the hardcover. Possible, but not really worth worrying about for retailers. At that point, you might as well just steal the whole book. It would be easier.

 

[Velderan]

Also Goodman Games sells books with a code sticker in them for the PDF from Drive Thru. However it means the books are shrink wrapped. Which it's claimed some stores do not like. However all the GS around here and abroad I've been too sell shrink wrapped books.

Note I do realized that stickers are probably not feasible for WotC just due to shear print size.

There are like six... maybe seven game stores around here.

The downside to shrink-wrapping books is people can't look through them to see what type of material the book has. I know I've bought a few books because after flipping through them, I decided I could use the material.

In video games, larger chains have offered pre-order bonuses where you get a code to redeem on the system's online shop for bonus content. WotC could do something like that by including cards with redemption codes in their shipments to distributers, maybe limiting the program to FLGS alt cover versions to help promote sales at those places. It would help close the gap in price between FLGS and big retailers like Amazon and Target who sell below MSRP. As @FitzTheRuke suggested, the cards with the code could be stored behind the counter and given to the customer when they check out. That's probably the simplest way to manage it IMO. Still room for fraud if an employee steals the cards, but there isn't really a perfect solution.

Edit: it also could help WotC promote DDB to a portion of their audience who might not be invested in their ecosystem, people who probably are more likely to play in person using books. Giving them DDB material could help them see how smooth the platform really is and get them more invested in using it. Win-win IMO.

 

[Hex08]

I'm not straw manning, Teachers are being asked to carry firearms because of school shootings. That you didn't get that that was what I intended is lost on me. I was comparing that Amazon associates making the same or MORE than teachers was more telling about what we want to pay teachers and you rebutted that and I was calling out that no it really is a reflection of what we want to pay teachers who deserve a HECK of a lot more than we pay them/give them but again... do go on with how Amazon paying about the same as a teacher make is more of an indictment of Amazon than how much we pay teachers while we see people fighting to force them to have firearms in their classrooms, have bleed kits, run active shooter drills for first graders while simultaneously reducing their funding so that they are paying for their necessary supplies out of pocket and making it harder for them to write off those things on their tax returns as part of their jobs. Oh and demonizing them as groomers etc. Please... tell me how all that is a good excuse to compare the poor wages of a teacher being an indictment of the "poor" wages of Amazon employees who aren't being asked to deal with these things. Teachers are GROSSLY underpaid... by about 30k a year in my estimation. And yes I know all about the minimum wage.

I will end this conversation here because not the place for it. I was merely trying to redress the idea that Amazon isn't paying as poorly as believed nor the work environment it has been in the past. When I started it was 11 an hour. It's far greater than that now and most of that in the last 3 years.

Please do go on...

If you don't understand why I didn't get something from your original post that I responded to then I suggest you go reread it. When I track back our back and forth to the original post I responded to, you only addressed pay. It's when I disagreed with your premise that you started misrepresenting my argument by piling on other issues teachers have to deal with and that is strawmanning. I never disputed that teachers were underpaid nor did I dispute that some teachers are going through horrible times, all I did was say that both make crap wages. Both the teachers I know and the Amazon warehouse employees I know agree with this.

All of the other issues you bring up regarding teachers are horrible and something that needs to be addressed by society but were not part of your original post nor something I responded to (because it wasn't there). Further just because teachers can have it incredibly bad doesn't mean that there aren't serious issues in an Amazon warehouse, this is an example of the relative privation fallacy.

 

[Retreater]

Uh. Just verify it with a receipt of the purchased physical book. Works for loads of game companies (I think Cubicle, Chaosium, Free League.)
The only reason Wizards isn't doing it is because they don't WANT to do it.

 

[Oofta]

Uh. Just verify it with a receipt of the purchased physical book. Works for loads of game companies (I think Cubicle, Chaosium, Free League.)
The only reason Wizards isn't doing it is because they don't WANT to do it.

Funny thing is, it's also the reason they don't give you a free pony when you buy a book. They simply don't WANT to.

 

[Velderan]

Uh. Just verify it with a receipt of the purchased physical book. Works for loads of game companies (I think Cubicle, Chaosium, Free League.)
The only reason Wizards isn't doing it is because they don't WANT to do it.

Some stores I've bought books from don't specify what the item is on the receipt. The receipt says something generic like "D&D Book 49.99", it depends how granular their system is. That would make it hard for WotC to know which book you bought.

 

[Retreater]

Funny thing is, it's also the reason they don't give you a free pony when you buy a book. They simply don't WANT to.

Point is, they've said they were going to do it. Then all the WotC fans came rushing to their defense saying "it's too hard to figure this out."
Yeah. I get that they don't want to do it.