How much would you pay for a PDF?

[Psion]

I am pleased to see that many of the titles at DrivethruRPG are now available in much more customer friendly than DRM "Watermark" format. Which means for the first time that I will consider paying real money for their products.

However, it makes it more annoying than ever that some PDFs were priced as if they were print products. Some publishers justify this by the additional capabilities of PDFs, despite drawbacks in portability and tangibility and the fact that we, as customers, realize they don't have to sink as much into print run costs or warehousing.

So what do you think? It is worth paying full printed price for a PDF product?

 

[Crothian]

No, I don't. Thirty or forty dollars for a PDf just seems really really high even if it happens to be a really nice 400 pager. I think less then 50% cover price is about the highest I'd fo.

What additioanl capabilities are publishers using to justify the prices?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Agreed, I love PDFs, but there is no way that I am paying full print price for one, I am going to need to print it in order to use it, which adds to the time and the price. For gaming at the table I need the material printed.

On the other hand I can print only the parts that I need, and copy & paste to my documents, which is groovy. And having the PDF on my computer makes it very convenient for referencing while writing. Just not enough of a convenience to make it worth full print prices...

The Auld Grump

 

[BWP]

What additioanl capabilities are publishers using to justify the prices?

I'm guessing that would be the additional capability of the customer being the one paying for ink and paper to print the thing out.

I know there are people who run everything electronically and don't need to print anything out -- and more power to them. I, however, am not one of those people, and if the company wants to charge me full price for something I would need to print out any way, I'll just buy the thing in printed form in the first place and be done with it.

 

[Psion]

What additioanl capabilities are publishers using to justify the prices?

Oh, you know: copy-n-paste, searchability, bookmarks (though consider where the term comes from ), lack of bookshelf space/can put it on a laptop or CD.

 

[A'koss]

I'd never, ever pay full printed price for a PDF - no matter how good it was. I always look at it from the perspective of the cost involved in printing it out myself and putting it some kind of binder...

25-50% of the printed price I'd pay for, but the closer you get to 50%, the more scrutiny I place on the purchase.

 

[nopantsyet]

25-50%

I would pay 50%.
I would not expect to pay as little as 25%.
But I would not pay 75%.

Additional capabilities do not equate to added value. Value is a market perception, and no matter how they spin it, it's going to take a lot more for electronic books to have the same perceived value as print. You wonder if some of these people know anything about business at all. Two words: gross margin. If you don't understand that, you don't deserve my money.

And at this point, I've got such a deep library, both print and PDF, that I don't need anything more. Any publisher who wants my money is fighting on pure value proposition. How easily can I be parted with my money? Ten bucks pretty easily. Fifteen if it's "name brand." Thirty, not so easily. Over thirty, well let's just say nobody's going to make their 30-day numbers off me at those prices.

 

[Crothian]

Oh, you know: copy-n-paste, searchability, bookmarks (though consider where the term comes from ), lack of bookshelf space/can put it on a laptop or CD.

The things they use to justify the price are the same things that I require in a PDF. IF it isn't there, I don't want it. To me these are not extras, but requirements.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

If a publisher were to tell me I should pay full price b/c of added versatility, I'd laugh in their face and ask them where is my discount for the publisher not having to have all the overhead required to have the product printed, packaged, shipped, etc. Oh right, there is none...

Do they really think we're that gullible?

 

[dren]

I'd like to pay no more than 50% of the print price...but depending upon the goodies inside, I would probably pay up to 75%. Anything past this and I can't justify it.