D&D General D&D Book Prices Are Going Up

WotC announced today that D&D books will be increasing in price this year.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants will be $59.99 as a preorder and $69.99 thereafter. These will apparently come as physical and digital bundles, so you won’t need to buy the D&D Beyond version separately.

This space is dedicated to communicating clearly and transparently with our players- even when the topic isn’t particularly fun. Since the release of the 2014 D&D core rulebooks, we’ve kept book prices stable. Unfortunately, with the cost of goods and shipping continually increasing, we’ve finally had to make the decision to increase the price of our new release print books. We're committed to creating high-quality products that deliver great value to our players and must increase our prices to accomplish that.

This will go into effect starting with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and new releases after Glory of the Giants. Digital pricing is unaffected by this MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) increase, as digital products don’t need to be printed or shipped. The increase also doesn’t impact backlist titles. While we can’t promise that there will never be a change to the prices of digital products and backlist titles, we have no plans to increase either.

Players who purchase the Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants digital-physical bundle through Dungeons & Dragons store can get the bundle for $59.95 for the entire preorder window, which is consistent with our current digital-physical bundle pricing. After the preorder window closes, digital-physical bundle prices will go to $69.95.

 

[Oofta]

It's called "inflation" which has impacted the cost of materials and manufacturing. Not particularly surprising.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's called "inflation" which has impacted the cost of materials and manufacturing. Not particularly surprising.

Not surprising, but disappointing.

They wouldn't have to do it if there wasn't the vast precedence of Amazon and elsewhere that NEVER SELL THINGS FOR MSRP (and likely get a vast discount off of it).

So really, we FLGSs wind up the only ones stuck with MSRP, as we can't really make our margins without it. Meanwhile, in spite of the books printing $60+ on them (and our price being based on it), they'll be sold for ~$40 most of the time. Heck, sometimes Amazon sells the books for less than what we PAY for them from our distributors.

MSRP is something of a farce these days, which is why it's so darn high.

 

[Magus Darkwind]

So, is the book just $10 more (And then $20 more for the digital-physical bundle) ? That's fair considering inflation. The article only talks about the digital-physical bundles which is why I ask.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's called "inflation" which has impacted the cost of materials and manufacturing. Not particularly surprising.

Still, a 40% increase is pretty big. Be curious to see how that affects sales ultimately.

 

[jayoungr]

So, is the book just $10 more (And then $20 more for the digital-physical bundle) ?

"Just"?

 

[Micah Sweet]

"Just"?

Also I think that's wrong. The book is $60 as part of the bundle, but the actual MSRP is $70.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Still, a 40% increase is pretty big. Be curious to see how that affects sales ultimately.

It will probably do what it's designed to do - force more people who hold out for print copies to finally switch to digital.

 

[Zaukrie]

Very fair given shipping and paper costs right now.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Also I think that's wrong. The book is $60 as part of the bundle, but the actual MSRP is $70.

SEVENTY. Oh my. I'm a Canadian with a FLGS. That's like $95-100. From $65. That's HUGE.