D&D 3E/3.5 Ben Riggs shares Sunless Citadel sales numbers

[BenRiggs]

I can tell you WHY there doesn't appear to be much of a Sales bump in December: These are WotC's numbers, so it's sales TO stores, not sales AT stores. We generally have to stock up in late November (and maybe a bit in early December) but we can't generally get too much product in the 2nd half of December, because a lot of the distributors are closed for the holidays. Then we sell all our product during that time, and we can't get replacements until January.

Which sucks somewhat, because we wind up paying a LOT to fill our shelves in January, when we have a BIG drop-off in sales with which to pay for it. Obviously, the sales in December actually cover the task of paying for it, but it always makes December's sales-to-expenses look great, and January's look terrible.

That is fascinating.

 

[Parmandur]

I can tell you WHY there doesn't appear to be much of a Sales bump in December: These are WotC's numbers, so it's sales TO stores, not sales AT stores. We generally have to stock up in late November (and maybe a bit in early December) but we can't generally get too much product in the 2nd half of December, because a lot of the distributors are closed for the holidays. Then we sell all our product during that time, and we can't get replacements until January.

Which sucks somewhat, because we wind up paying a LOT to fill our shelves in January, when we have a BIG drop-off in sales with which to pay for it. Obviously, the sales in December actually cover the task of paying for it, but it always makes December's sales-to-expenses look great, and January's look terrible.

So, these numbers don't necessarily reflect what got sold or customer interest...just what stores felt would sell?

Do you have any recollections or easy-to-hand data on these did for you?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

So, these numbers don't necessarily reflect what got sold or customer interest...just what stores felt would sell?

No, I mean those numbers reflect how much of the product WotC sold to the market in December. The reason they don't get a bigger bump in that month, is that practically nothing moves from that end for at least one week of the month, and more likely two. So you're looking at, very likely, how many copies WotC moved in the first two (maybe three) weeks of the month. Because of that, not showing a DIP in December means that they're moving very swiftly. Does that make sense? I never know if I'm explaining it well.

Do you have any recollections or easy-to-hand data on these did for you?

Sunless Citadel? No, I'm afraid that I didn't keep records from that far back. At least not anywhere that I can pinpoint. (I've occasionally discovered an old file on a computer or a pile of papers in an odd spot that show me further back than I expect. It's always pretty interesting to take a look at, if not really all that important to today's market).