Ben Riggs Releases Historical Sales Numbers for D&D Settings

[Jer]

I remember buying Greyhawk Adventures and Dragonlance Adventures for six bucks each at shop that also had the Wilderness and Dungeoneer's Survival Guides at that price. Unfortunately, I had already paid full price for both the survival guides. Worse still, a while later I'd return to that store and see them all marked down to $4 each!

Half Price Books around 2000 definitely had multiple copies of Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Oriental Adventures on their shelves around here. I ended up buying the ones I was missing then. I remember Ryan Dancey saying that TSR had a warehouse full of old AD&D 1e books in a warehouse as one example of them not thinking about their money (why are you paying to warehouse books you're not selling and have no intention of selling?) and I've assumed that Wizards sold off that warehouse full of stuff for pennies on the dollar just to get it off the books and that's where those books came from.

(These charts now make me wonder how many of those books were actually returns on those titles. Yeesh.)

 

[Mezuka]

No, the blue line was the OD&D Greyhawk supplement.

Edit: or actually, that does seem to be the Folio....

I think you are correct. It's the OD&D Greyhawk supplement. The Folio is weirdly missing from the graphic. Wiki "However, Gygax's The World of Greyhawk (TSR 9025) did not hit store shelves until August 1980"

 

[Parmandur]

I think you are correct. It's the OD&D Greyhawk supplement. The Folio is weirdly missing from the graphic. Wiki "However, Gygax's The World of Greyhawk (TSR 9025) did not hit store shelves until August 1980"

Maybe that's not what the RSR accounts actually showed, and they counted retailer orders from 1979? That actually makes more sense than a revival of the OD&F book like 4 or 6 years in.

 

[el-remmen]

Half Price Books around 2000 definitely had multiple copies of Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Oriental Adventures on their shelves around here.

Except I got mine in the early/mid-90s.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Wow. I own all five of those.

Am I the only one?

No, but you are probably in a small set

 

[Davies]

The only one I ever owned firsthand was From the Ashes, interestingly, having been introduced to Greyhawk through a copy of the Greyhawk Wars wargame I received as a Christmas present; my copies of World of Greyhawk and Oriental Adventures were bought second hand, years later. That the latter continued to have some sales into the early 2e era is consistent with what I thought was happening, back then.

 

[humble minion]

I've assumed that Wizards sold off that warehouse full of stuff for pennies on the dollar just to get it off the books and that's where those books came from.

I'd assumed WotC pulped the lot because doing that was a better investment than spending time and effort trying to find anyone who'd buy the things even at fire sale prices, and that anything in clearance bookshops in the 2000s had probably been there for years, or was a hand-me-down from some other bookshop or game store who couldn't shift it.

 

[darjr]

I'd assumed WotC pulped the lot because doing that was a better investment than spending time and effort trying to find anyone who'd buy the things even at fire sale prices, and that anything in clearance bookshops in the 2000s had probably been there for years, or was a hand-me-down from some other bookshop or game store who couldn't shift it.

I sure would like to know though.

You’re probably right

 

[Mezuka]

I'd assumed WotC pulped the lot because doing that was a better investment than spending time and effort trying to find anyone who'd buy the things even at fire sale prices, and that anything in clearance bookshops in the 2000s had probably been there for years, or was a hand-me-down from some other bookshop or game store who couldn't shift it.

Agreed. Shredding inventory is expensive but less expensive than immobilizing warehouse space that could be used for current products.

 

[overgeeked]

What's the update for today for those of us without Twitter?

 

[Parmandur]

What's the update for today for those of us without Twitter?

Dragonlance and Manual of the Planes today, Forgotten Realms and Spelljammer tomorrow:

 

[Parmandur]

He doesn't have any data on Adventure module sales, which for DL are probably a big part of the picture.

 

[Alzrius]

I remember buying Greyhawk Adventures and Dragonlance Adventures for six bucks each at shop that also had the Wilderness and Dungeoneer's Survival Guides at that price. Unfortunately, I had already paid full price for both the survival guides. Worse still, a while later I'd return to that store and see them all marked down to $4 each!

When I signed up for the RPGA in the mid-late 90s, they were actually giving the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and the Wilderness Survival Guide away as freebies to new members. I recall being quite surprised at being given two hardcovers in exchange for signing up, especially since joining the RPGA was itself free!

 

[overgeeked]

Dragonlance and Manual of the Planes today, Forgotten Realms and Spelljammer tomorrow:

View attachment 253543View attachment 253544View attachment 253545

Thank you.

 

[Davies]

Dragonlance and Manual of the Planes today, Forgotten Realms and Spelljammer tomorrow:

View attachment 253544

... I'm genuinely stunned by this. I mean, if you add in the adventures, I suspect the picture must be utterly opposite, but ...

 

[darjr]

For links and such

D&D General - Dragonlance and Manual of the planes sales, from Ben Riggs

Please note that these do not include the Dragonlance adventures. Today in actual D&D sales numbers! Dragonlance and Manual of the Planes! The three major setting releases for Dragonlance are charted below, with Fifth Age, a reboot of the setting in a new era and system, selling the worst...

www.enworld.org

 

[Alzrius]

Quick question for @BenRiggs about the figures you've been posting recently: are they in your forthcoming book? Because that seems easier to reference than tweets for information on historical D&D sales figures.

 

[Parmandur]

... I'm genuinely stunned by this. I mean, if you add in the adventures, I suspect the picture must be utterly opposite, but ...

Probably not, considering that allegedly the best selling Modiles were the Gygax Greyhawk originals (at least that's my understanding). WotC said as recently as 2015/2016 that Greyhawk was still the (distant) second most popular published Setting for people to play in.

 

[Mannahnin]

I think you are correct. It's the OD&D Greyhawk supplement. The Folio is weirdly missing from the graphic. Wiki "However, Gygax's The World of Greyhawk (TSR 9025) did not hit store shelves until August 1980"

Yup. Ben and Jon Peterson had an exchange in the comments on this on Ben's FB confirming it. The numbers for the 1980 folio are completely missing.

Edit: To clarify, I mean missing from Ben's data, at least. Jon's comment was too brief to confirm whether anyone else might be known to have that data.

 

[Parmandur]

Yup. Ben and Jon Peterson had an exchange in the comments on this on Ben's FB confirming it. The numbers for the 1980 folio are completely missing.

Classic TSR bookkeeping.