Cost of D&D Editions, then and now

[Zardnaar]

This was explained by @delericho in the OP: "Prices are for the second printing onwards".

That tells us that the inflation-adjusted price of PF has dropped since 2009. It doesn't have any bearing on what the inflation-adjusted price was in 2009.

Well if you can buy the core books of PF for $90 vs $150 for D&DN thats not a great deal. The $60 at launch deal ($81 now) probably helped catapult early momentum for 3rd ed so being cheap helps.

 

[delericho]

Well if you can buy the core books of PF for $90 vs $150 for D&DN thats not a great deal.

Yeah, the PF price for comparison was a tricky one, since it's the only one from my comparison that's still in print (since I omitted Essentials). I'll leave it to you to draw any conclusions from that you wish.

The $60 at launch deal ($81 now) probably helped catapult early momentum for 3rd ed so being cheap helps.

This is definitely true. IMO, WotC did an exceptionally smart thing in offering that first printing of 3.0e steep discount - back then they were the new custodians, nobody knew what to expect from "the Magic guys", and there was a serious risk of them being rejected outright. But the discount cut through an awful lot of that (because at $20 even a sceptic might be persuaded to take the risk). And, of course, there was the OGL, and their exceptionally good relationship with Eric Noah's site, which also helped a great deal.

 

[Morrus]

3.0 was $60 in 2000. How come it is $122 adjusted for inflation which has not doubled in 14 years?.$81 adjusted for inflation (MM and DMG were $20?) PHB from 1989 comes in at 37 compared to $50. If the PHB price tag s accurate it is the most expensive D&D in about 30+ years. Pathfinder core book is still $50 base price and that is DMG+PHB. PFRPG+Bestiary is $40 so the complete PF is $90 in 2014.

No idea. It's just the stats from the first post in a graphical format.

 

[Dungeoneer]

Wow, I knew that the original D&D books were considered pricey at the time but I had no idea they topped out at over $100 adjusted for inflation!

Anyway, as far as the new PHB goes, I'm with those who are concerned that sticker shock will discourage impulse buys. Yes, starter set, etc., etc., but unless they go out of their way to make the starter set extremely attractive people usually prefer a complete book of rules so they can get an idea of the system. I just think they are going to discourage anyone who hasn't already made up their mind that to invest in 5.0.

 

[Blackbrrd]

You could buy a 4e boxed set (PHB/DMG/MM) from amazon for 67$ for something like 2-3 years after launch. I do note that you have used the retail price, but how relevant is that price? For any buyers, the lowest price you can regularily get an item for, is what's relevant in my opinion. I am assuming that people shop around a little, but I might be mistaken?

 

[Morrus]

You could buy a 4e boxed set (PHB/DMG/MM) from amazon for 67$ for something like 2-3 years after launch. I do note that you have used the retail price, but how relevant is that price? For any buyers, the lowest price you can regularily get an item for, is what's relevant in my opinion. I am assuming that people shop around a little, but I might be mistaken?

You can buy 1E rulebooks for a couple of dollars on eBay, 40 years after launch. Here's a 3E PHB for £11. I think the only sensible way to approach it is to use MSRP on the launch date. Otherwise the discussion just becomes very silly very quickly.

In the long run, it doesn't matter. All that matters is whether a given book is attractive enough to a given buyer to persuade them to buy it for the price shown. Stats like this are interesting, but they're not going to make any difference when someone's in the store looking at the book.

 

[Blackbrrd]

You can buy 1E rulebooks for a couple of dollars on eBay, 40 years after launch. Here's a 3E PHB for £11. I think the only sensible way to approach it is to use MSRP on the launch date. Otherwise the discussion just becomes very silly very quickly.

In the long run, it doesn't matter. All that matters is whether a given book is attractive enough to a given buyer to persuade them to buy it for the price shown. Stats like this are interesting, but they're not going to make any difference when someone's in the store looking at the book.

You are referring to used book prices. I was talking about widely available new books. MSRP isn't really interesting when you can buy the items at nearly half the price for the whole "shelf life" of the book. I am betting 5e will have the same pricing scheme. A high MSRP that you won't ever have to pay.

In Norway you wouldn't even be allowed to refer to a rebate compared to the MSRP, except if they actually had actual sales of the books at full price within the last month, something I don't think amazon ever had.

My point is that the MSRP is going to be uninteresting, what will be interesting is the actual price the book will sell for (when new, not used). In other words the "rebated" price of 38$ is probably a lot closer to the real price of the 5e PHB, and the price point it would be interesting to see if people found too expensive or not.

I do find the price information about previous edition interesting though, mostly because in NOK, the prices are about the same due to a devaluation of the dollar compared to NOK, while the wages in NOK in the last 15 years have gone up 2x. In other words, The relative cost has gone down by around 50%...

 

[Morrus]

In Norway you wouldn't even be allowed to refer to a rebate compared to the MSRP, except if they actually had actual sales of the books at full price within the last month, something I don't think amazon ever had.

I don't really know what that means, but I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to refer to anything I want!

My point is that the MSRP is going to be uninteresting, what will be interesting is the actual price the book will sell for (when new, not used). In other words the "rebated" price of 38$ is probably a lot closer to the real price of the 5e PHB, and the price point it would be interesting to see if people found too expensive or not.

I'd agree with that -- I don't think many people will be paying MSRP for it. Especially on Amazon.

 

[Blackbrrd]

I don't really know what that means, but I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to refer to anything I want!

Ah lol

"You" in this instance would be a retailer like Amazon (or rather, their Norwegian counterpart).

 

[pedr]

I think the assertion is that a seller can't refer to a higher price than the price it is offering unless it has actually sold the item at a higher price previously.

That is similar to a UK law, but we only restrict words like "was" or "sale price" rather than preventing a seller from saying "the manufacturer lists the price as x but we are offering it for y".