At what Cover Price do you Drop?

[Wombat]

I never bought individual issues, only by subscription. When I look at that cover price even four years ago I blanched.

Most magazines are long past my ability to afford.

 

[Erekose]

I also used to subscribe but now just buy at Orc's Nest. You're being ripped off at £7 - both Dragon and Dungeon cost £4.99 there. I nearly stopped buying Dragon because I often didn't read much of it, but then Erik Mona became editor. I think both magazines are better now than they've ever been before. Having said that, I think Class Acts is pretty weak and should probably be replaced by something more meaty.

Cheers


Richard

I live outside of London (Kings Langley) and so buying from Orcs Nest, or any of the other outlets, are effectively mail order for me which pushes the price up for p&p. The £7 quoted is my dim recollection of buying the odd copy from Borders (it was probably six-pounds something or other which I've rounded up).

I do like Erik Mona's writting (and his enthusiasm for Greyhawk, demons, devils and the like) but not enough to make me buy Dragon regularly.

 

[GVDammerung]

What I don't get is how nit-picky people are over a magazine. These days it seems if one or two pages (Wil Save, Downer, video game reviews) fail to be the height of perfection and utility, people feel they must register their displeasure.

Actually, such is a sign that people still give a rip about the magazines. Setting aside whether one likes or dislikes Wil Save, Downer, adverticles etc., they have less than 100% to do with D&D as a game to be played and may be appropriately noted as such. Leaving aside whether the resulting criticism is sufficiently valid to see anything done about the matter, that people take the time to speak up demonstrates that they are not apathetic.

So. You get to choose. Noisy fans with whom you may disagree, but who are still reading the magazines such that they see something to complain about. Or. Quiet fans, who when they get cheesed off, might just quietly disappear, along with their patronage of the magazines.

Can't speak for anyone else but if I was deriving my livelihood from publishing these magazines, I'd take readers however, whenever and wherever I could find them. I'd also try to accomodate their readership interests. But I'm not in the busineess.

 

[Evilhalfling]

unfortunatly in addition to the money there is also a storage space/filing system problem with me. I dont like throwing them away, and if I own it I would be compelled to dig up and read through old copies for the specifics that I need. (my complete collection of dragon runs from 60 - 200ish back when I was using parents disposiable income rather than my own.

I am currently in the camp of only buying demonmicon issues, and if there are less than 3 per year, then it comes out good finaincially. If they print more per year then I may have to reconsider buying even those.

 

[JoeGKushner]

What I don't get is how nit-picky people are over a magazine. These days it seems if one or two pages (Wil Save, Downer, video game reviews) fail to be the height of perfection and utility, people feel they must register their displeasure. There are things I don't get a lot out of, but the good still far outweighs the bad. And the bad is only "bad" in the sense that it does not strike my fancy.

Well, it is the internet.

I bet the number of messages written in on actual paper as opposed to e-mail is far far smaller amount. cost of effort and all that. (Like Downer is still not doing it for me in it's current format.)

 

[painandgreed]

They're $8!?! Yeesh!

I guess my limit is over that because I pick them up every month. Of course, I get through through subscription service at my local comic book store (at 20% discount) and their price just gets averaged into my weekly comicbook habit. I do pick up NewType for about $10 or so dollars, but that comes with a DVD of anime.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I subscribe to both, as I generally consider magazine cover prices to be insane.

Dungeon I'd consider worth buying at its currrent cover price, up to about $10 an issue -- it's a lot of adventures an issue, plus adventures make good reading.

Dragon ... not so much. I'd probably consider dropping my Dragon subscription if the subscription price exceeded $45 a year, which is what, $3.75 an issue?

Guess that gives a idea of the relative fun and utility I get out of the two magazines.

 

[rgard]

At what cover price does Dragon go from being something you may pick up on the stands occassionally to something you either subscribe to because it's so much cheaper or completely drop?

I think the $8 cover price is my limit but I'm already a subscriber so it's not quite as big a deal for me to continue my subscriptions.

Others?

The cover price doesn't currently seem to be a problem in my store. I always put one aside for my kids and me, read it, then let customers know what I thought was good in the magazine (based on what I know my regulars like)...then they buy it.

Of course this is an all round good deal for me as I trade abyssal blood iron to my distributor for the magazines.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Erik Mona]

Internet posts and emails have always played an important role in our decision making process on the magazines. Actual mail is good for contracts and letters from prisoners, but we don't "weigh" it more favorably or assume that it is worth more because it took longer to write or any of that other 20th-century nonsense.

--Erik

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I don't dungeon or dragon magazines. There is just too much stuff in each issue that I won't use to be paying $8 for them. It's even to expensive for the subscriber price.

I can see how Dungeon would be useful for a DM.

I can see how Dragon would be useful for a DM.

I am not a DM.

I used to subscribe to Dragon, but I noticed that, as the recent change happened, the amount of stuff I (i.e. the Player) could use dropped precipitously. I can't remember anything interesting in months, save for the comics.

Brad