D&D 2E A bunch of 2e PDFs seem to have bumped up in price

[Joshua Randall]

The demand curve is not a straight line. It has a flat part. You can raise price there without consumers caring.

This has nothing to do with OGL. It apples to normal businesses too.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You jest, but all costs are going up for everybody, and have for years. I wouldn't be surprised if OneBookShelf is the one who raised the prices to make their ends meet.

We are talking about dollars here.

Parm, do you think people wouldn't be loudly complaining if OneBookShelf did that?

Because I know we have a lot of people here (and in other places I go) who actually create RPGs and RPG material and sell them on DriveThru and DM's Guild - and I am confident that if OBS had just bumped what it was charging people, we'd know about it.

And OBS doesn't control the prices - the creators do - OBS just takes a cut - correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.

Maybe the higher cost is required for some legal reason?

That seems about as likely as this being caused by Marvin the Martian sticking them up with his ray-gun and making them doing it.

 

[cbwjm]

2e Planescape products have definitely gone up. It looks like they are on sale for what was (almost) the old price.

 

[Jahydin]

Makes sense to me.

The worse D&D gets the move valuable the older stuff will become...

 

[Distracted DM]

2e Planescape products have definitely gone up. It looks like they are on sale for what was (almost) the old price.

Ah yes, the Amazon tactic.
"This item is $50, on sale down from $80!"
"But three weeks ago its regular price was $42..."
"Yes, it's on sale now! Get it while the sale lasts!"

 

[Nikosandros]

Maybe the higher cost is required for some legal reason? I don't know for sure obviously, but I speculate that maybe the IP for some books is joint held by WoTC and the writers. If this is the case perhaps the writers want more money per copy sold? I've noticed that Dragonlance books seem to be notably higher in price compared to Similar Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or Ravenloft content, unless there is another party that wants more money I cant imagine why a 30~70 page booklet of one campaign setting would be more than another in PDF form.

As far as I know there are no D&D products for which the IP is not 100% held by WotC. Gygax and Arneson has some leftover interests with TSR, but WotC liquidated them more than 20 years ago.

Regardless, I think its more on the WoTC side of things. A couple months ago I poked Drivethru about WGR4 The Marklands not being available, but there was a Sample PDF in their style you could find on google. You could also find reviews for it listed under Drivethru's User profiles and a cached google page. I figured WGR4 must have been removed by accident when they tinkered with the website.

It could have been a lie but when I asked Drivethru about it they said:
"We don't have much information or control over which products or formats are available on our site. We recommend you submit suggestions on release schedule to Wizards of the Coast on the D&D Facebook page or via their Customer Support page."

Is is certainly true that some products disappear without explanation. S1 Tomb of Horrors was gone for years before appearing back recently.

 

[Echohawk]

As far as I know there are no D&D products for which the IP is not 100% held by WotC. Gygax and Arneson has some leftover interests with TSR, but WotC liquidated them more than 20 years ago.

That's not true! WotC do not own (all) the rights to, at least:

• The 1st edition Conan and Red Sonja D&D products.
• The 1st/2nd edition Lankhmar D&D products.
• The 2nd/3rd edition Diablo II D&D products.
• The 3rd edition Kingdoms of Kalamar D&D products.
• The 3rd edition Warcraft D&D book.
• The 5th edition Ricky & Morty D&D starter set.

 

[Nikosandros]

That's not true! WotC do not own (all) the rights to, at least:

• The 1st edition Conan and Red Sonja D&D products.
• The 1st/2nd edition Lankhmar D&D products.
• The 2nd/3rd edition Diablo II D&D products.
• The 3rd edition Kingdoms of Kalamar D&D products.
• The 3rd edition Warcraft D&D book.
• The 5th edition Ricky & Morty D&D starter set.

It seemed to me quite obvious what I was talking about: TSR products currently being sold on Drivetrhu.

 

[Echohawk]

It seemed to me quite obvious what I was talking about: TSR products currently being sold on Drivetrhu.

Ah, that's true. WotC doesn't generally put up stuff for sale on the DMsGuild that they don't own the rights to. A few notable exceptions are Palace of the Vampire Queen, the first 50-odd issues of Polyhedron and the Paizo-era issues of Dragon/Dungeon. All of those were released as WotC PDFs on Drivethru, but then withdrawn from sale, presumably because someone noticed that those are not titles for which WotC owns 100% of the rights, after all.

 

[Nikosandros]

IIRC, the Palace of the Vampire Queen reprint is being currently sold by Precis Intermedia.