Books pricing themselves out of reach?

[Waylander the Slayer]

PDF's, PDF's, for the casual, every day buyer - did i mention PDF's?

 

[Mr. Lobo]

I think the bigger problem is that too many role-players are, frankly, cheap. This hobby is too small for a publisher to price books the way people seem to think they should be priced.

Yep that's me. Just call me Frankly. Frankly Cheap.

But, are there really enough of us Frankly Cheap guys now that have that big of an effect? (On the top dogs in the industry that is. I can imagine that we have an effect on smaller companies) Someone must be buying those books. When will we know if this higher cost-hardcover-book strategy (if that is what it is) is a success?

 

[Sir Elton]

In six months?

RPGs are luxury items.

 

[Tetsubo]

Lately I have been buying all my gaming books on-line at a discount. I haven't paid full price for a gaming book in months. I don't plan on changing that any time soon.

 

[Tetsubo]

PDF's, PDF's, for the casual, every day buyer - did i mention PDF's?

What if you don't like PDF's? I want my gaming books in dead tree versions. If a book isn't going to see print, I'm not interested.

 

[kenobi65]

Did they state that at the release of the books? If they did I totally missed it - and I worked at a WotC retail store at the time. There was no mention in our store circle of that strategy.

Interesting. Yes, it was announced to be that way from the start; they didn't make a secret of it (though, they also didn't exactly trumpet it from the highest tower, either).

 

[diaglo]

That said, my price break is $20. I got hooked on the 'Complete' line with CW at 60% off at Amazon. Still didn't pay more than $20 each for the rest.

i don't have the bucks for them either. as i will just be putting them on a shelf and not using them. so my cut off is even lower. i wait for a deal. or get it on ebay. or a buy a friend's used copy. anything not to pay retail. nothing is worth retail. nothing in rpgs has ever been worth retail.

i still think i paid too much for my OD&D boxed set. edit: and i am the biggest fan you will evar find when it comes to OD&D.

 

[twofalls]

Then there are folks such as myself. I'm not rich, but my wife (Katy) and I do okay (70K range combined). I collect rpg books and enjoy sitting in my game room on one of my couches with a brand spanking new book wafting up that lovely new ink smell at me. I find it a comfort to look over to my game shelves bursting with 27 years of rpgs. I've used maybe 10% of the material I've purchased, but I still enjoy it. And I prefer the solid feel of hardbacks regardless of the price point increase.

Katy and I don't take big vacations, but we support our hobbies lavishly (hers being beads), and we do things for our children that most any middle class family does I suppose. So it's all a matter of what's important to you. I do look for deals however.

For example, when 3.0 first came out Sword & Sorcery managed to push out their Creature Collection before the Monster Manual was released. It wasn't a fabulous book, but it sparked a very mild curiosity in me regarding their Scarred Lands setting. I didn't buy the books previously becasue I didn't figure I'd ever use them, but lo and behold, if you look on thier web page catalog, much of the Scarred Lands material is being blown out at a 60% discount. I just spent a little over $100 to purchase 4 hardcover and 6 softcover books. Not a bad deal. Hope its a fun setting to read up on.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I'm not going to mention names or point fingers, but I've definitely seen an upward trend on this. Its really crazy if you ask me. I don't mind the occasional $50 price tag, but when I see a b&w book that I know costs less then $2 to produce priced at around $40 I find it more then annoying. I use to buy with reckless abandon, but I've been really stingy as of late. Books that I see way overpriced I just don't buy. Even ones that are fairly priced I have a tough time buying anymore which is weird for me cuz I'm usually the guy that buys anything. Must be a sign of the times.

 

[Voadam]

The last four print rpg books I bought new were 60% off at amazon.

I go for used and pdfs now outside of that level of discounting unless I'm using up a gift certificate.