Ben Riggs Releases Historical Sales Numbers for D&D Settings

[darjr]

Classic TSR bookkeeping.

Yea, the numbers themselves and lack of some show us a bit of history all in themselves

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

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.

Once again, TSR somehow screws Greyhawk.

 

[darjr]

Here is what Jon Peterson said

In terms of sloppy bookkeeping, the issue is the figures here omit the 1980 World of Greyhawk folio. The blue line is the Greyhawk OD&D supplement, which drops off the radar pretty quick by this point. The WoG folio sold strong out of the gate (way more than the blue line) and didn't drop to zero until November 1983, when it was replaced by the WoG boxed set (the red line).

 

[Mannahnin]

Here is what Jon Peterson said

Right, which implies that Jon has seen sales numbers for the 1980 folio which Ben apparently doesn't/didn't have access to.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In the early 2000s, the D&D collectors scene was very different. All but the big rarities could be bought for no more than $20 (what I bought my copy of the Greyhawk folio for from my FLGS), oftentimes far less. I was lucky to have picked up a bunch of stuff back then, though there's still plenty I curse past-Ralif for passing on.

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.)

 

[Riley]

In the early 2000s, the D&D collectors scene was very different. All but the big rarities could be bought for no more than $20 (what I bought my copy of the Greyhawk folio for from my FLGS), oftentimes far less. I was lucky to have picked up a bunch of stuff back then, though there's still plenty I curse past-Ralif for passing on.

I have a trove of 1e-2e stuff. I bought the majority of it used, and at less than half the cover price.

Now I go into Half Price Books, and those books I bought for $5 are listed at $50. Ouch.

 

[Dire Bare]

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

He also doesn't show data on novel sales for Dragonlance. That was the strength of that particular setting, the novels. Much less so for Greyhawk.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Despite how we view 1e and 2e now, back then there was definitely a stripe of "why would I buy a 1e book when 2e is out now" going on and I suspect retailers were burned by it.

I'm not really sure I buy this, because being around then, that wasn't an issue I saw at all. On the contrary, there was a lot of "buy this even though it's 1E, because it's still totally usable. And if you look at the sales of OA, a deep-1E book, they're low but not impacted by this, unlike GH.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

He also doesn't show data on novel sales for Dragonlance. That was the strength of that particular setting, the novels. Much less so for Greyhawk.

Was TSR even the one publishing the novels back then? They sure weren't later, and WotC aren't now.

 

[Parmandur]

Was TSR even the one publishing the novels back then? They sure weren't later, and WotC aren't now.

They put them together, and published through random House...but TSR was responsible for returns, which ultimately blew up in their faces.