Books pricing themselves out of reach?

[JamesDJarvis]

A new copy of Empire of the Petal Throne was something like $25 in 1977. So, that's my benchmark. If I think that I'll get as much enjoyment out of a (say) $50 gaming book as I've gotten out of that EPT box set, then I'll pay it. Otherwise? No.

$25.00 in 1977 is the equivalent of $78.92 in 2005.

 

[woodelf]

Will, if we would have hit our break even point we would have been making more then $8 per copy which we are really close to right now.

Maybe i'm just confused, but aren't you making $0 per copy until you hit the break-even point, by definition? I mean, isn't the definition of a break-even point the point where you've made back all your costs, and then *everything* after that point is profit--so, $12/ea, if you're getting that from your distributors?

 

[woodelf]

If people can't afford new books, there are plenty of second-hand stores around that sell books for a fraction of what they cost new.

There are also libraries.

Though, in my experience, neither of these is a particularly good option for RPGs. Very few libraries seem to stock them at all (and, in those i've asked about it, it's because they go missing so fast it's pointless). And while there is a used-RPG market, eBay has driven prices up to where the savings are considerably less than they used to be, and it's not like most other book genres. For most fiction, and a significant fraction of non-fiction, even relatively rare books, i can go on alibris or abebooks at any time and find a copy for half cover price or less. For RPGs, that's only likely for D&D and WoD books, and maybe Palladium. For anything else, you might have to really search to find a used copy, even of a fairly popular book.

 

[woodelf]

Won't people always pay as little for something as they can legally get it?

Depends on how short-sighted and/or narrow-minded they are. It is frequently not in your best interests to get something for the lowest possible price, because of the consequences. It is frequently not in the future's best interests to get something for the lowest possible price. I try not to buy things at prices that are only possible by cheating the producers or gutting the community.

 

[woodelf]

I see it in both RPG books and Paperbacks. When the $ Cdn. is low, the price of books goes up. When the $ Cdn. is high, prices -don't- go down. I hate it.

That sort of thing seems to be happening more and more, in lots of areas. I notice that when oil prices go up, gas prices go up (even though the oil in the pumps came out of the ground how many months previous?). When oil prices go down, gas prices never go down nearly as much, if at all (at which point, the gas companies point out that it's because this gas came out of the ground months previous, when oil prices were high).

It's a pain, if D&D books were $30 Cdn., I would probably spend substantially more money on them than I have so far.

Did you mean to say that? That is, are you saying that at $50 you'd buy 3 books (total cost: $150), but at $30 you wouldn't just buy 5, you'd buy 6 (total cost: $180)? Or do you just mean you'd have roughly the same value of books, which would mean more books?

 

[woodelf]

While that may be true, college textbook tend to be used by students for a semester and at the completion of the course, they'd rather sell it back to recoup some money. It would be rare to keep them, especially with the cost of a different textbook for a different course.

Interesting. Everybody i know still has a pretty good-sized pile of college textbooks, years later. I know my philosophy was to try my damnedest not to take courses i wasn't interested in. And if i'm interested in the topic, that means i want to read about it, so i still own every college textbook i ever bought, except for 3 novels that i couldn't stand. Oh, and my favorite calc book, because i took that at a different school that rented, rather than selling.

 

[woodelf]

I have to chip in my $.02 and say I don't buy hardcover novels anymore either. They're just too expensive, especially when I know they'll be out in paperback for 1/4 of the price a few months later. I can understand an RPG book selling for $30-40, but a hardcover novel that I may read once or twice?!? C'mon...

That's what libraries are for. If i'm gonna buy a novel, it'll be (1) paperback and (2) used. Only books i buy are ones that i'll read multiple times and/or reference somewhat regularly. Needless to say, my fiction collection fits on a couple shelves, while my nonfiction collection takes up a couple shelving units. Not much fiction is worth reading more than once, at least so long as there's other good fiction out there i could be reading.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Depends on how short-sighted and/or narrow-minded they are. It is frequently not in your best interests to get something for the lowest possible price, because of the consequences. It is frequently not in the future's best interests to get something for the lowest possible price. I try not to buy things at prices that are only possible by cheating the producers or gutting the community.

Unfortuneately, that's EXACTLY what capitalism is all about - getting the best possible price. And to think consumers are going to pay more to avoid a "potential" longrun fallout is being naive...

 

[Turjan]

And while there is a used-RPG market, eBay has driven prices up to where the savings are considerably less than they used to be, and it's not like most other book genres. For most fiction, and a significant fraction of non-fiction, even relatively rare books, i can go on alibris or abebooks at any time and find a copy for half cover price or less. For RPGs, that's only likely for D&D and WoD books, and maybe Palladium. For anything else, you might have to really search to find a used copy, even of a fairly popular book.

Taken at face value, this observation contradicts the statement made in the title of this thread. If even the prices of used RPG stuff go up, this means that people are happy to pay higher prices for RPG books. However, I think most d20 books sell pretty cheap on ebay.

 

[Mark]

Depends on how short-sighted and/or narrow-minded they are. It is frequently not in your best interests to get something for the lowest possible price, because of the consequences. It is frequently not in the future's best interests to get something for the lowest possible price. I try not to buy things at prices that are only possible by cheating the producers or gutting the community.

What a ridiculous statement.

Your problem is that you make a number of assumptions that aren't necessarily the case. First, you assume that the lowest possible price will cheat the producers or gut the community. Second, you assume that the "something" in question isn't inclusive of maintaining the producers or the community. If the "something" that someone is after is "a low cost book but requires it be from a bookstore in order to support them" that doesn't prevent them from shopping around from a number of bookstores to find the lowest price.

The short-sighted and/or narrow-minded view is in how you read the statement, not in the statement itself.