Amazon.com no more for game purchases: Hypothetical...

[Wil]

Given the distance to the nearest game stores and my general disdain of those, if the book was available full-price online and the shipping was comparable to the what the gas would cost me to get there...I'd still order it online. I just don't have the time, patience or energy to drive to any FLGS, regardless of whether the online prices are cheaper or the same. Hell, if the online prices were slightly (like a dollar or two) higher online I'd probably still buy online.

 

[Dark Psion]

It isn't just the discount that Amazon offers. Back before the internet, I would sometimes have to go to three or four different gaming stores just to find that one book I wanted. With Amazon, I can get it all at one place, I can get it delivered to my door and since I am an Amazon Prime member, I get free two day shipping! Too many other stores may offer you a discount but the shipping is twice what you were discounted.

As for those local gaming stores, they are all gone now and it wasn't the internet that did them in. One kept re-inventing it's self every month. One month it was a gaming store and next month it was a comic store. At the best RPG store, the owner was a fan of tabletop miniatures but if you were not then it was, buy your book and get the hell out!

Also keep in mind that the money I save at Amazon is being spent at the EnWorld store on the books that Amazon does not sell. If I had to pay full price on them, I would not be able to buy the others.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I will say the only good thing about Amazon is if they screw up enough times they might actually have to start paying people back!

In all truth, I have had three occassions where I sent in a check for an order to them, and had to follow it up with emails and phone calls in order to receive my stuff. They have been good about making it worth my while. I have gotten about $120 in discounts from them if not more.

Lately, my dad has been kind enough to me to let me oder through Amazon using his Credit Card, I just have to give him the cash for the order, and it is all even. Credit Card payment seem to work a whole hell of a lot better than by sending check.

 

[Treebore]

You know, people have to get over this "support your poor local LGS" mentality.

Has anyone noticed the price of gas lately?

Has anyone besides me noticed that a lot of foods have doubled in price over the last 5 years?

Has anyone noticed how much the cost of housing has gone up in the last 5 years?

The cost of cars?

The cost of candy?

The cost of Soda?

Yeah, go ahead gaming companies. Quit selling through Amazon and the like. Cut your own throats.

That or make the rich open up that "trickle down effect" to a life supporting level so we can afford to support a non essential hobby.

I support my LGS as much as I can afford to. If I had to pay full retail on my gaming collection I wouldn't own 70% or more of the books I do.

So what to the gaming companies want? Me to buy 3 to 4 times the amount of books I otherwise would? Or severely cut down my buying and have me support my LGS? If they want sales to fatten their coffers they need to realize they can't have it both ways.

The economy is booming for the rich and stock investors. Wages for the working class continue to suck while the cost of living keeps going up almost weekly. I can read between the lines.

 

[Nightfall]

Damn! How'd you get THAT set-up? I want one like that.

It's not much of a setup as it is I grovel, walk dogs and have a VERY supportive family.

Tree,

Wow. You are unhappy today aren't ya?

 

[Nyeshet]

There are five stores within reasonable driving distance of where I live where one could expect to purchase rpg books. Two have, over the last five/six years focused more and more on cards and comics - to the extent that you would have to order the book through them (which I could do myself).

The next two are a Barnes and Noble and a Borderlines that happen to be across the street from each other. Between the two of them they have the more common rpg books. Rarer ones would - again - have to be ordered through them. (A nice Waldenbooks that used to be near where the Borderlines now is had a much better selection, actually, but it went under a few years after the Barnes and Noble moved in across the street. Now, a year after Waldenbooks folded, a Borderlines has moved in. After one year both stores are still there, but I wonder if that will still be true a couple more years from now.)

The last has a good selection, but it is the furthest from me (about 10-11 miles) and it never places any rpg books on sale. Minatures, dice, board games, and sometimes even anime, but never the rpg books.

Otherwise I have Amazon.com, ENWorld.org, and DriveThruRPG.com for my gaming book needs. Sometimes they require printing after the fact (in the case of pdfs that are not available in print), but these are the core three I use for any book not likely to be found at Barnes and Noble or Borderlines (where I would get the card member discount).

Now, five-ten years ago, there were three/four stores nearby other than the online stores or the two massive stores that had rpg books, but one went out of business, two all but dropped rpg books, and the other is on the edge of my radar considering gas prices these days - especially with the larger stores not quite half that distance away and online options available.



So, after saying all this, if Amazon.com stopped carrying rpg books I would focus more on B/N and Borderlines for printed books. If those two also stopped carrying rpg books, I'd focus more on pdfs from ENworld.org and DriveThruRPG - and would print a single copy if necessary. Ebay is also an option, of course, but I have not quite gotten into the habit of using it all that often. Perhaps I should check it out more. If printing pdf books or buying off Ebay became too expensive I would simply buy less - likely far less, if it were that expensive.

I will not pay full (printed book) price for rpg books these days. I have actually cut back a bit on buying fantasy / sci-fi books for pleasure reading in part because of the price - unless I can get them from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borderlines of course (as the former has good sales, while I have a couple cards that grant a discount at the latter two).

 

[Nightfall]

Ny,

Yeah the price is kind of steep...but there you are. Pleasures aren't cheap! Even the women of the evening are starting to charge more! *is kidding!!* Please don't ban me!!

 

[Hussar]

I have no LGS, so, supporting or not supporting doesn't mean anything to me. Also, living overseas means that I get REALLY hit by the small company's shipping costs. The only reason I was able to get the Scarred Lands books that I have is because SL went belly up.

OTOH, Amazon.jp carries many Green Ronin, AEG and other books. So, not being able to buy from an LGS doesn't hurt me that much.

I wonder why there is so much hate for Amazon though?

 

[Nightfall]

For me it's simple. They screwed me on a couple deals back when they were starting out...now I just don't trust them to do anything right.

 

[Nyeshet]

Has anyone noticed the price of gas lately?

About $3 per gallon, about threefold what it was five years ago.

Has anyone besides me noticed that a lot of foods have doubled in price over the last 5 years?

I have. Not all have doubled, but all have increased noticeably. The minimum increase I've seen in all foods and drinks is an increase of at least 20-25% over the last four years. This is for basic things - bread, milk, etc. More "luxury" foods such as chips and chocolates have about doubled, give or take perhaps 10%.

Has anyone noticed how much the cost of housing has gone up in the last 5 years?

Five years ago I got a one bedroom apartment for $485 in a decent neighborhood. Now, as of this coming October, it will be $585. That works out to about a $1 increase every 18 days. There are better neighborhoods (often fenced in with their own pools, tennis courts, etc) that cost about 650-700 for a 1 bedroom apartment. But that would not be a fair comparison, as I imagine they have also increased by about a hundred dollars in the last five years - perhaps even $150, considering the extras.

The cost of cars?

I bought my car from a relative when it was about ten years old, so I can't really say I know how much they have increaed (or not) in the last five years.

The cost of candy?

I already mentioned that chocolates have nearly doubled in price in the last five years, and many others have kept up - probably more to increase profit margins, as I don't imagine sugar is becoming as "scarse" as chocolate (due to increased consumer demand, rather than decrease in supply). Coffee is under the same types of pressures as chocolate, actually, and its cost has similarly risen.

The cost of Soda?

About +50% from what it was 4-5 years ago.


You forgot to mention the costs of clothing, shoes (I go through a pair every nine months or so.), and shipping for ordered merchandise (I work in that field - all costs went up shortly after last summer, and many locations decreased the number of shipments they receive per week (increasing the load of the other shipments received) - which in turn results in longer waiting times for the items to come in. A nice double punch: increased shipping costs and increased shipping time . . . .

Gas prices are the main thing, though. Most foods really didn't increase all that much (maybe 10% over the prior 3-4 years) before last summer. Then I noticed some items jumping from $1.05 to $1.25 in only a single year's time. Not much, but compared to the fact that it took 3-4 years for it to move from $0.95 to $1.05 that's quite a bit of inflation. Luckily having a membership card allows one to get less "luxurious" items at close to reasonable price - especially if one plans carefully and avoids chips, chocolates, and a few other items that have IMO risen to unreasonable levels in the last couple years.