Hey DannyAlcatraz -- I am not sure if I read your reasons why online, but why do you not buy PDF products? Do you wait try to get the good (primarily) PDF products via Lulu or when they eventually go to print?
I guess it's safe to assume you aren't a "DM with your laptop" kind of guy.
Heh- I don't even own a laptop!
Why I'm a Print Only Guy:
1) I spend enough time in front of a computer. Text on a screen fatigues my eyes in ways that regular print does not. The only PDFs I own are either prizes won, gifts from others or are business/education related.
2) Printing PDFs shifts printing costs to the consumer in a way that does not capture efficiencies of scale. It is cheaper for a company to print 5000 copies of a book than for 5000 PDF purchasers to have their PDFs printed in an equivalent quality format.
3) I already know how to read a book and that will never change. The technology of books will never be replaced by something similar that will render the old ones obsolete in form. As long as I can read the language, a book is always useful, be it 5 years or 500 years old.
In contrast, computer code changes. I already own some gaming oriented software & files that are not usable on any machine made after 2000. Imagine trying to open a character sheet someone designed on their computer in 1985 on your current PC of choice. I'm a Mac person myself, and even with its awesome backwards compatiblility, I can't usually do that.
And imagine if someone decided that the next generation of PDFs no longer needed to be Mac compatible (like the current online presence of Dragon & Dungeon magazines)? What then?
That is never an issue with hardcopy as long as the publisher and I speak the same language.
4) I can take any of my RPG books anywhere in the world without worrying about 120v vs 220v; laws that prohibit the kind of technology that the public can own or carry, and so forth. If, God forbid, my house were in a war zone or Katrina-scale disaster area, I could still enjoy my RPGs with friends without using anything more than the books, dice, pencil, paper & imagination, as opposed to a $$$$ laptop that, if nothing else, is theft-bait.
5) Hardcopy books are vulnerable to a lot of things, but not a hacker.
Are there advangages to digital gaming products? Sure- they're "green," they're incredibly portable, etc., but so far, no advantage is compelling enough to me to even consider digital gaming products of any kind.
I'll have more money to spend on feeding my G.A.S. (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome).
I fed that syndrome in a bad way about 10 years ago.
Still have any faves left over? My collection is smallish, but growing: a Yamaha Classical, a Caddilac Greenburst Ovation Elite tuned C-G-D-A-E-G, a Washburn fretless acc/elec 4str Bass, a Dean 25 Anniversary Caddy 3 humbucker model tuned C-G-D-A-E-G, the Dean EVO Special Select pictured in my Avatar, and 3 Jon Kammerer (
http://jonkammererguitars.com/gallery.php) guitars...one prototype "butterbean" 3 single pickup, a walnut accoustic with flamed F-hole, and a blueburst "factory dinged" version of one of these (
http://jonkammererguitars.com/detail.php?recordID=77&rowNum=0) tuned C-G-D-A-E-G.
You should see my wish list!