Books pricing themselves out of reach?

[Storm Raven]

I think the costs will slowly drive out/ disenfranchise the younger people who would join the hoby except for the high price.

Younger people, in general, have more disposable income than older people. Which is why most companies are agressively marketing their products to tweens, teens and college age people. I make a lot more money now than I did when I was 19, but I also have a mortgage, and kids to feed, and so on, and that eats up the bulk of my income.

 

[howandwhy99]

i pay on avg. $30 per weekend for my gaming. on snacks, gas, and drinks.

Given my own appetite, I know I should be pitching in for part of that. Of course we all bring food and more, but the cost of banquets of late could be shared.


EDIT: on topic. Yes, the current books are out of my price range. People stare at me funny at my FLGS (which doubles as a comics shoppe), if I buy new D20 books at full price. I've been collecting what backlogged books from 2000-03 I can use outside d20 and am buying them at 70-90% off SRP. There is no incentive for me to pick up newly released books. Maybe if they are short runs and likely to hold their value if resold (i.e. lost city of barakus). Even then tho, waiting gives a significant discount. Plus, I have never bought a badly edited book I was looking forward to getting. Conan & C&C fall in this category.

 

[IronWolf]

$30 is my price point for books. I don't really think much at the price level. Of course I almost never pay full price for a book as you can usually get up to 30% off at Amazon and numerous other sites. So I guess you could really say I am comfortable with $20 or so after discount.

Now that is not to say I won't buy a book more expensive than that. I will consider, think about how much it is worth to the game I am running or intend to run and go from there. If I feel it is worth the price I will probably step up and pay it.

 

[diaglo]

Given my own appetite, I know I should be pitching in for part of that. Of course we all bring food and more, but the cost of banquets of late could be shared.

i figure others pay too. gas, mass transit, parking, rental cars, food, drinks, and so on.

i consider it money well spent for a 6 hour session of fun.

i can't say the same about most of the books i've bought lately. price is going up. and my use of them is plummetting.

 

[howandwhy99]

i can't say the same about most of the books i've bought lately. price is going up. and my use of them is plummetting.

Like I mentioned earlier, I have almost all the 3E and 3.5E adventures released 3rd party and otherwise. Back-statting to OD&D has GOT to be easier than the other way around. I can offer suggestions if you or joe are interested.

 

[Sleepy Voiced]

The rising price in RPG books (admittedly fairly modest in comparison to other products) has forced me to drastically reduce my purchases. Now, I can handle that. It is a game I like, and I can certainly play it with the dozens of books I have for decades to come. My concern is for the people who make their living off of these products. Clearly no one in the RPG industry is getting rich off of their books, especially the FLGSs of the world. Many of us have turned to big discounters to get our books as they get more expensive. This means the books still get purchased, and the creators still get paid, but the cost is that the FLGS is cut out. I know a lot of people don't have access to a decent games shop, and the internet discounters make sense for them. I buy (bought, that is) a lot of my books from amazon, but there is a great games shop fairly close to where I live. As someone who worked for a small bookstore for several years I understand how difficult it is to compete with the internet. So now my plan is for every book I buy online, the next one I get at my FLGS. I can't afford to get them all there, but they certainly deserve my business more than amazon. I would hate to see another FLGS disappear.

 

[der_kluge]

I think a book's price should be a reflection of the value I get from it. WLD seems like a good price, because you could conceivable get a lot of value from it. YMMV


But some things are wacky. My friend was looking for the first Freeport module a while back, and he couldn't find them. We found one on eBay for over $100.

Someone is selling Death in Freeport there now for $37.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/of...-display_1//103-8955183-2831850?condition=all

 

[ShadowDenizen]

I buy (bought, that is) a lot of my books from amazon, but there is a great games shop fairly close to where I live. As someone who worked for a small bookstore for several years I understand how difficult it is to compete with the internet. So now my plan is for every book I buy online, the next one I get at my FLGS. I can't afford to get them all there, but they certainly deserve my business more than amazon. I would hate to see another FLGS disappear.

Ditto.
My FLGS (www.dangerplanetgames.com) is a great place to buy, and a cool place to hang out, and I toss them my business whenever I can, even going so far as to special-order from them stuff they wouldn't normally stock. (I play not only RPG's, but a few CCG's and a whole bunch of board-games.)

I do however, go through Amazon (or other online sellers) for larger/more-expensive purchases, such as WLD, the "Shackled City" book from Paizo (assuming I can find it online when it comes out!!), etc.

 

[KaosDevice]

True the game store is the big looser in this equation...which sucks, because ideally a FLGS is much more then just where you buy the books but also hub for the gamer community at large. Loosing that seems to be a bad thing for me, so I try when I can to actually buy the book from the FLGS when I can scrape together the extra few bucks. :\

 

[GentleGiant]

You should try and move to Europe for a while, then you learn to appreciate that expenditure .

No kidding!
I think it's so funny when Americans get up in arms about a slight increase in e.g. gasoline prices... guess what, it's about 3-4 times as expensive over here. Learn to deal with it
Regarding RPG books, consider this:
The dollar today is at 5.57 Danish Kroner (Crowns). But let's just for arguments sake say that it's at 6 Danish Kroner, which is more in line with former currency convertions.
Guess what, RPG books over here are generally sold at a conversion price of $1 = 10 Danish Kroner (instead of the $1 = 6 Danish Kroner).
And you think YOU have to dole out a lot of money for your books? Plueeze :\
"But why don't you just buy them off of e.g. Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de?" - well, if they even have the books, you still have to pay VAT at 22% to get the books into the country. So really no money saved there.