Books pricing themselves out of reach?

[der_kluge]

True the game store is the big looser in this equation

"loser"

Loosing that seems to be a bad thing for me

"losing"


Repeat after me:
Loose - "not tight"

Lose - "didn't win"

thank you.

 

[Janx]

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

Yes, that's one of those economic S&D principles.

Here's some interesting math:
in 1988, the PH cost $20
I applied a 3% inflation rate, and compounded it annually to calculate it's predicted price in 2005.
The answer?
$33.06


In theory, we're getting a good deal. On the other hand, it it the $30 boundary in 2002, per the formula.

Another side note. High priced books may be the new marketing strategy. It removes excess cash for you to buy competitors products. Let's say Billy has $50.
He sees two books, WotC's Book of Powerful Characters for $30, and Monte's Book of Munchkin Might for $25. If Billy buys into the hype that WotC rules are the most "official and playtested", he'll blow his $30 and not have enough to buy the competition's products. Or look at it another way, with two products out for $15 a piece, and you've got a choice on which to get. If you have less than $30, you'll only choose one. If I set my price to $20 for a hardcover, you may percieve that I have higher quality, and buy my book. Now I've nabbed an additional $5.

There's definitely a reason the book prices are getting higher, and it's not just because of costs. There's a strategy behind it. The question is, is it working?

Mind you, TSR's strategy was to flood the market with tons of products. That failed. The early d20 strategy was the flood the market with tons of products. That failed. So maybe the new strategy is fewer, but bigger books. And raise the price on it. This is usually the marketing debate of volume versus margin. More expensive stuff always sells fewer, so they have to make it up in margins.

Janx

 

[Telas]

My problem's not with the price of the books, it's with the lack of useful material inside them.

I like most of the new feats, I like about 10% of the prestige classes, and I have no use for a great deal of the 3.5 fluff, since I run an old-school Greyhawk campaign.

Frankly, I could probably use the core books, about a hundred additional monsters, and maybe a hundred pages of feats, new uses for skills, and fluff, and be happy for the rest of my gaming days.

And now that they've taken the indexes out of the books, that's insult to injury. I use maybe 20% of the book, and now I can't even look up the parts I do use?

Gimme a break.

Telas

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The price of books is relative.... if you think RPG books are expensive, then consider the cost of textbooks if you are going to college or university. The price of text books is postively obscene in comparison,

Apples and oranges. Textbooks are usually printed in such short printing runs that the cost must be jacked up. And that leads to profs selecting textbooks b/c they have some kind of association with them (either they wrote them or get some kind of kickback). If more universities would just get together and standardize textbooks, the price would fall dramatically. It's been my experience, however, that students increasingly don't buy the books (or do the reading) anyways so it's a moot point.

None of this applies to RPG books, however.

 

[Mystery Man]

Can't buy books at cover price anymore. Walmart is the only option (the cheapest) for me.

Also lately it seems (from WoTC at least) that the page count keeps going down and the price keeps going up.

 

[Darkness]

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

Or, in many places, use public transportation instead.

RPG books are quite a bit more expensive here (i.e., in Austria) as well and there aren't many cheaper online offers either. (Sales tax is like 20% in Austria in any case.)

 

[Mr. Lobo]

So does anyone else get the feeling that the books and market is slowly pricing itself out of casual reach?

Opinions?

For me, WotC's strategy backfired. I got the Core Books when they came out at about $20.00 (US) a pop. I got the FRCS when it came out. I thought it was such an outstanding product that I felt justified in spending the $30.00 (I think?). Lords of Darkness was good too. Soft cover and economical. I thought WoTC was going in a good direction. I was a little dissappointed with some of WoTC's other offerings such as MotP and Dieties and Demigods for the price.

I ended up spoiled rotten.

I know it's not a fair comparison between the Core books and the supporting books and I've read the arguments about the value of RPG books compared with other entertainment and mostly agree.

Bottom line? It's not that I can't afford the books, I just don't want to spend that amount of money for them. So I do without and it's no big deal.

If the prices can somehow be brought back down to $20.00 with the quality of the Core books or FRCS then I'll be back to buying again. It doesn't have to be hardback with pretty pictures. Just well written and engaging.

The three little booklet format for OD&D suits me just fine and mine are in excellent condition still.

 

[KaosDevice]

"loser"
"losing"
Repeat after me:
Loose - "not tight"
Lose - "didn't win"
thank you.

Wow, that's not even a little obnoxious or anything.
..................

Annnnnnnyyyyyway, What I wonder is how much of the price hike (such as it is) that you see in the RPG market is driven by the way WotC prices books. I remember reading an article over on RPG.net about the size of the market share that WotC had in terms of RPG sale, are they the price flagship that other game companies look at in terms of what the market will bear?

 

[Nathal]

The fact that nobody is getting rich writing or selling role-playing books should suggest that nobody is getting ripped off. If anything, a lot of role-playing game publishers go out of business because they aren't making enough money.
.

Hi John! Dave Arneson once said in reference to freelancing..."don't quit your dayjob". That just about sums it up. I've made more money editing and proof reading than I ever have with creative work.

By the way John, would you please email me at thetarythm@aol.com?

~Dan Cross

 

[jgbrowning]

Apples and oranges. Textbooks are usually printed in such short printing runs that the cost must be jacked up.

What's the average print run on a textbook?


joe b.