Paizo Price of Paizo PDFs goes up in 10 days

[djotaku]

Don't the reasons they claim for the price increase on some books also logically apply to the PDFs that aren't going up?

Two non mutually exclusive things could be going on there. 1) The stuff where the price isn't going up already has high margins built in. (Kind of how restaurants make the most money on alcoholic drinks, not food) 2) The stuff that's going up is subsidizing the stuff that isn't going up. That is to say that Paizo expects they'll sell more rulebooks than 64 Page adventures. So they can charge more for those to keep the price lower on the 64 page adventures - maybe even at a loss. (Back in the day Best Buy would sell CDs at a loss to get you in the door to buy the stuff they knew they'd make money on)

 

[Micah Sweet]

Two non mutually exclusive things could be going on there. 1) The stuff where the price isn't going up already has high margins built in. (Kind of how restaurants make the most money on alcoholic drinks, not food) 2) The stuff that's going up is subsidizing the stuff that isn't going up. That is to say that Paizo expects they'll sell more rulebooks than 64 Page adventures. So they can charge more for those to keep the price lower on the 64 page adventures - maybe even at a loss. (Back in the day Best Buy would sell CDs at a loss to get you in the door to buy the stuff they knew they'd make money on)

How very corporate of them. You'd think they had shareholders to look after.

 

[djotaku]

How very corporate of them. You'd think they had shareholders to look after.

To be fair to Paizo, this was purely speculation on my part based on the logic behind why a company would be inconsistent in raising prices.

 

[Micah Sweet]

To be fair to Paizo, this was purely speculation on my part based on the logic behind why a company would be inconsistent in raising prices.

Sure, but I'm not sure what answers to that question would be better. Kinda why I asked it.

 

[Dire Bare]

How very corporate of them. You'd think they had shareholders to look after.

Please.

Inflation has been insane and prices on EVERYTHING has gone up. Why should the RPG business be immune? Especially when RPG books tend to be underpriced to start, and margins are thin.

I'm not happy about Paizo's prices going up, but I'm not going to go on accusing them of being evil corporate RPG robber barons.

Sheesh, aren't we supposed to focus our unfair ire for TSR . . . oops, WotC?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Please.

Inflation has been insane and prices on EVERYTHING has gone up. Why should the RPG business be immune? Especially when RPG books tend to be underpriced to start, and margins are thin.

I'm not happy about Paizo's prices going up, but I'm not going to go on accusing them of being evil corporate RPG robber barons.

Sheesh, aren't we supposed to focus our unfair ire for TSR . . . oops, WotC?

I loved TSR. They made a ton of stuff I loved. More than WotC ever did (though they used to make I love too). Nothing they ever did caused a problem for me as a consumer.

My question has to do with the inconsistent nature of the price increase, not that there was one at all.

 

[cranberry]

There really isn't a need to increase prices on .pdf's by that much, as they eliminate the need to pay for the traditional infrastructure (that supports physical books). The cost to produce each incremental (unit cost) .pdf is a fraction of a cent.

Now, if they invested heavily in upgrading their computer hardware and software, then an increase is justified, but as far as I'm aware, they only upgraded the online "storefront" that supports all of their products, not just the pdfs.

Yes, I saw their reasoning about increased production cost, but I think $10 per unit is a bit much.

Nonetheless, I'll keep on purchasing things from Paizo, but at a slower rate, and be more inclined to really think about the purchase before I pull the trigger.

 

[Morrus]

There really isn't a need to increase prices on .pdf's by that much, as they eliminate the need to pay for the traditional infrastructure (that supports physical books). The cost to produce each incremental (unit cost) .pdf is a fraction of a cent.

The physical print run is one of the lowest costs in producing a book. What’s really expensive is development, art, writing, layout, all that stuff. That’s what you’re paying for, not the $3 it costs to physically print the thing.

 

[cranberry]

The physical print run is one of the lowest costs in producing a book. What’s really expensive is development, art, writing, layout, all that stuff. That’s what you’re paying for, not the $3 it costs to physically print the thing.

What about inventory holding cost?

 

[Morrus]

What about inventory holding cost?

Warehouse space isn’t expensive. I don’t even know what we pay it’s such a minor cost compared to the actual cost of developing a book. The cost to store that book is tiny.