Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Not weird particularly, that's dead on 10% off. It will go lower on Amazon, eventually, but it's the same price my FLGS charged for a preorder.
D&D 5E Amazon US book sales rank.
- Thread starter darjr
- Start date
see
Pedantic Grognard
So, the USA Today Booklist has been back for a couple months. Bigby's did not make the list, even on its release week (the August 23rd report of sales for the week through August 20th). Unfortunately, it's hard to tell if that means relatively poor sales for the book compared to previous D&D 5th edition releases, or that the new version of the Booklist has had source and weighting changes that make the reporting for D&D hardcovers incommensurable to pre-hiatus reports.
see
Pedantic Grognard
Well. The USA Today Booklist out today (covering the seven days ending September 24th) doesn't have Phandelver (released the 19th) listed.
So, we still have the same "Have D&D new release sales gone down substantially since 2022, or is the rebooted USA Today Booklist doing something different than before the months it went quiet?" dilemma.
So, we still have the same "Have D&D new release sales gone down substantially since 2022, or is the rebooted USA Today Booklist doing something different than before the months it went quiet?" dilemma.
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
It seems that the non-core books sell the best at the pre-order stage. From older conversations (primarily about GW products) the bulk of purchases are within the first month to three months of a books, with a sharp drop-off after that. These days I imagine a good bulk of these books have already been on pre-order, probably for a couple months. Don't know how that might affect sources like the USA Today booklist.
It is interesting how huge of a price drop the Bigby book has though - I'm seeing it on Amazon at 44% off (and Phandelver is already 38% off; Planescape is 30% off; Book of Many Things which is to be released next doesn't appear to have a discount at all yet). I wouldn't expect a book that's selling like hotcakes to have such a huge discount so soon after it's release.
It is interesting how huge of a price drop the Bigby book has though - I'm seeing it on Amazon at 44% off (and Phandelver is already 38% off; Planescape is 30% off; Book of Many Things which is to be released next doesn't appear to have a discount at all yet). I wouldn't expect a book that's selling like hotcakes to have such a huge discount so soon after it's release.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
All D&D books have 30-40% on Amazon, all thr time. Amazon charges wholesale prices, same as Target for books.
Hussar
Legend
There is another point to remember too. A lot of these books are being sold in multiple formats. Sure, people buy the physical book. How many people buy the physical book, a copy for D&D Beyond and then a copy for something like Fantasy Grounds or Roll 20?
And, I'm sure there are people who only buy one format (like me - I buy my books for Fantasy Grounds) but, I know for a fact that some people are buying in multiple formats as well.
My point being that perhaps WotC can afford such deep discounts because they know that for every physical copy they sell, they are also likely going to sell X (some percentage of the physical copies) to the same person. I'm not saying that very well. Each physical copy sold is also responsible for selling some unknown number of electronic copies as well. Does that make sense?
And, I'm sure there are people who only buy one format (like me - I buy my books for Fantasy Grounds) but, I know for a fact that some people are buying in multiple formats as well.
My point being that perhaps WotC can afford such deep discounts because they know that for every physical copy they sell, they are also likely going to sell X (some percentage of the physical copies) to the same person. I'm not saying that very well. Each physical copy sold is also responsible for selling some unknown number of electronic copies as well. Does that make sense?
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
They've been pretty explicit that their commercial goal is to get people to play so that they buy into what really makes money: t-shirts and toys. Merchandising. The game is an engine for that, so they make it readily a ailable.
However, WotC doesn't take any hit with these sales, Amazon is giving the discount out of their profits from the MSRP equation: the goal is to underbelly and destroy smaller bookstores over time, as several FLGS folks have reported on here, of they charged the Aamazon price they make no money pm a sale.
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
I sorta get what you are saying. If WotC needs to make back $30K from publishing a book, they can split that out between physical book, D&D Beyond or the various VTT's.
Also, every book that WotC sells through a 3rd party - Amazon, FLGS, etc. has to do some mark up on WotC's cost to make a profit for themselves (in olden days, WotC's price to a 3rd party would be somewhere near 50% what a 3rd party has to charge). If WotC sells the physical copy off their site, they can do so cheaper because anything over the cost that a 3rd party has to pay is excess profit for them. Electronic copies even more so, especially if they cost near the printed book price.
Something along the lines of: WotC's cost to produce a book is $15. They sell it to a 3rd party for $30. That 3rd party sells it for $60. If WotC sold it directly, instead of making $15, they'd make $45 off a "sticker price" of $60 (And this doesn't factor in if there's a distributor between WotC and the 3rd party seller, like Diamond). Amazon is its own distributor, I believe, so they can trim that cost out on their book markup.
Also, every book that WotC sells through a 3rd party - Amazon, FLGS, etc. has to do some mark up on WotC's cost to make a profit for themselves (in olden days, WotC's price to a 3rd party would be somewhere near 50% what a 3rd party has to charge). If WotC sells the physical copy off their site, they can do so cheaper because anything over the cost that a 3rd party has to pay is excess profit for them. Electronic copies even more so, especially if they cost near the printed book price.
Something along the lines of: WotC's cost to produce a book is $15. They sell it to a 3rd party for $30. That 3rd party sells it for $60. If WotC sold it directly, instead of making $15, they'd make $45 off a "sticker price" of $60 (And this doesn't factor in if there's a distributor between WotC and the 3rd party seller, like Diamond). Amazon is its own distributor, I believe, so they can trim that cost out on their book markup.
Hussar
Legend
Yeah. I don't really have any answer here. WotC has tried pretty hard to keep the FLGS alive. Organized Play, that sort of thing but, wow, it must be such an uphill battle. It's not like WotC's the only one in this position either. GW obviously is in the same boat. Need to keep the FLGS alive as a huge marketing vector but how?
