4e & Internet Sales

[Keefe the Thief]

I have several LGS in my city, but none i would happily spend money at. I buy most books either on Amazon.de or at Dragonworld (who, operation out of a smalll post office, are in a way a FLGS).
The game shops here suck, and not a single one justifies the additional time to browse a book before buying (for more money).

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Other

I had been a FLGS customer out of conviction, but several years ago the trend became too obvious: The 'F' was being dropped, and the selection in the shop(s) becam so meager that they served as mail order stations anyway.

So when I found Dragonworld.de, I started to shift my busness over to them, until I ordered everything from them. NB: Dragonworld's prices are in most cases mutch better than those at Amazon.de.

At about the time of the release of 4e, a new shop opened in my home town and - lo and behold! - asking prices comparable or even lower than Dragonworld.

In fact this means that I'll buy my stuff from the either from a reliable internet source or my LGS (whether I grant this shop a 'F' remains to be seen), wherever I get the best offer.

The LGS only has a chance because it means just a 2 minutes detour on my way from work. I can't imagine driving by car to a game store, my time being too valuable for that.

Oh, yes, I nearly forgot; one thing I did buy from Amazon.de: Goodman Games' first 4e adventure was neither available in the store (or with their distributors) nor from Dragonworld.

I fail to see the advantages a brick&mortar shop offers to me. The reliability leaves something to be desired, the selection of merchandise isn't good enough to initiate impulse buys, and the famous 'added value' is nowhere to be seen.

Spending hours in a shop and talking to some RPG-kiddies (myself being 47 years old) isn't an attractive way to spend my time. One shop offered a demo game which enticed me to attend. It was some 10 years ago and I was the only interested gamer. Browsing before buying? Well, if there would be a chance that they actually have something in store I'm interested in...

Historically speaking my fable for LGS' is from the time when I was a small scale publisher myself. Back in the days ISDN was high tech and selling PDFs next to impossible. You had to print the books and absolutely needed all those game stores to sell them to. So it was in my best interest to support game shops, to help them prosper.

Sadly a lot of those shops were rather disfunctional, their owners expecting the publisher to do all the work promoteing the game. My understanding of 'division of work' was remarkably different from theirs.

 

[Slander]

I order pretty much exclusively from the interweb, but I try and go with the dedicated rpg/hobby retailers rather than Amazon or the like.

 

[Cadfan]

I voted "all DDI."

Its only partially true. I have the core books. Chances are that I will get all further material from the DDI, except maybe for adventures when I'm in the mood to dungeon bash instead of write campaign material.

From my perspective, the DDI is like the hypertext srd in 3e, except it costs money and includes supplemental material. I consider that fair.

 

[Phaezen]

Ashamedly I must admit the lure of the online retailer is strong.

Problem is in Cape Town there are 2 LGSs. One generaly has stock, but is expensive (30% + over a reasonable retail price, that is with giving a generous allowance for exchange rate and shipping) and not very friendly. The other is friendly, but rarely has stock, is difficult to get to and is more of a comic/mtg shop than a gaming shop.

Compared with my other hobby, paintball, where the LGS is friendly, well stocked, the staff are well informed, active in the hobby and service orientated (they will even help with emergency marker maintanance, replacing o-rings etc, between games at no charge). I gladly pay the small premium over what I could pay over the internet.

All small hobby and craft stores need to understand that the market has chaged over the last 8 or so years and they need to adapt business models to keep up with the environment. If you can't compete on price, focus on service, clean the shop, improve the lighting, be a bit more choosy when it comes to hiring staff and train then in customer service, provide those extra services that online retailers can't.

Phaezen

 

[Zsig]

Depends mostly on the prices.

Back in june when I bought the 4e gift set (via Amazon) I paid roughly 55% of the price I'd spend had I bought it at my FLGS.

Then I also bought FR Campaign Setting, FR Player's Guide and AV, although back then the price was already a bit higher...

Today the situation is a bit different. Back when I bought the Gift Set the price I paid was something like 1.6 times the price in dollar to get it on the currency of my country, today it's 2.5
My FLGS kept the dollar at 2.2 for their products, so yeah, I'm not buying anything from Amazon at the moment.

 

[darjr]

My problem is deciding on a particular store each time. There are six 'game shops' in my area, many of which are friendly and have stuff I want to buy. I game at a couple of them as well.

 

[Rolflyn]

All online, same for 3E and every other game.

 

[justanobody]

I don't buy 4e products at all beyond the PHB so....

I think a large number of people go the cheaper route. I buy from wherever is cheaper for something I know I want.

 

[Dedekind]

I purchase from the FLCS (comics). Basically, I just preorder and get a great discount (comparable if not more that Amazon) and I like the guy. OTOH, the amount spent in comics probably more than makes up for his book discount