Pathfinder 1E Is this supporting Paizo???

[IronWolf]

I don't understand what the big deal is. It's 34% off. The Core Rulebook is 37% off. The Bestiaries, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, and GameMaster's Guide, are all also 34% off. Amazon doing discounts like that is nothing new... That's how I've bought my RPG books for years. I remember when 3E first came out, the books were $19.99, and I think I got them off Amazon for $13.99 or something like that. Long story short: Amazon usually has great deals.

Oh yeah - we all know Amazon has nice prices. I think in this case though, think about how much is in the Beginner Box - dice, flip mat, pawns, two full color heavily illustrated books and pre-gen character sheets that are also full color at a normal retail price of $35. That is a lot of stuff in one box for an already reasonable price. Paizo has to recoup developer, design and layout costs on top of that.

So when one slashes the price down 34% on what appears to have been an already pretty low price it grabs ones attention a little more than seeing the $40 and $50 rulebooks with similar discounts, simply because one would have expected the margins on the Beginner Box to be much slimmer than the rulebooks. (Pure speculation of course, I have no idea what the Paizo margins are)

 

[Holy Bovine]

Well, I'm all in with the beginner's box. I saw it for pre-order on Amazon for soemthing like $23.09, so I just pre-ordered two of them. They are supposedly going to be delivered nigh the end of November (just in time for the Thanksgiving RPG fests?).

I can't believe they are that cheap though. Is Paizo making money from that sale or is Amazon just using their power to force Paizo to offer it that cheaply?

Not to sound cold - but why should I care? If paizo is stupid enough to sell their own product at a loss (and I don't think they are) why would it be my business to make sure they are making money? Should I pay top $ just to make sure paizo gets their 'cut'? How ridiculous!

 

[IronWolf]

Not to sound cold - but why should I care? If paizo is stupid enough to sell their own product at a loss (and I don't think they are) why would it be my business to make sure they are making money? Should I pay top $ just to make sure paizo gets their 'cut'? How ridiculous!

Well - like you said, Paizo isn't selling product at a loss. That just doesn't make sense for niche hobbies as the idea of loss leaders doesn't really play out like it does for places like grocery stores and such.

But if one likes what Paizo puts out it certainly isn't unreasonable for someone to want to support the quality material with their dollars. Consider it sort of like tipping your server, if you get good service you might be inclined to give them a bit more money because you found their service of value.

Definitely not your business to make sure they are making money. But if I really like or expect to like one of Paizo's products I might be inclined to buy straight from them to throw a little more money their way so that we can expect to see more quality product in the future.

 

[Qik]

From what I understand, Amazon tends to take the hit on these things in an attempt to place themselves in a favorable position. I can't remember the specifics, but I read an article a year or so ago about them selling certain products at a loss in order to increase their share of that market going forward; since they're such a behemoth, making a sizable profit in other areas, they can afford to adopt such a strategy.

Now, whether that strategy is applicable to the world of tabletop gaming, I'm not so sure. But at least we benefit from their blanket application of the above strategy.

 

[IronWolf]

From what I understand, Amazon tends to take the hit on these things in an attempt to place themselves in a favorable position. I can't remember the specifics, but I read an article a year or so ago about them selling certain products at a loss in order to increase their share of that market going forward; since they're such a behemoth, making a sizable profit in other areas, they can afford to adopt such a strategy.

Now, whether that strategy is applicable to the world of tabletop gaming, I'm not so sure. But at least we benefit from their blanket application of the above strategy.

That could make more sense. While I doubt Paizo is in the position to try loss-leader tactics. Amazon certainly is in a position to do so.

And I agree - I am happy to benefit!

 

[thundershot]

Oh yeah - we all know Amazon has nice prices. I think in this case though, think about how much is in the Beginner Box - dice, flip mat, pawns, two full color heavily illustrated books and pre-gen character sheets that are also full color at a normal retail price of $35. That is a lot of stuff in one box for an already reasonable price. Paizo has to recoup developer, design and layout costs on top of that.

So when one slashes the price down 34% on what appears to have been an already pretty low price it grabs ones attention a little more than seeing the $40 and $50 rulebooks with similar discounts, simply because one would have expected the margins on the Beginner Box to be much slimmer than the rulebooks. (Pure speculation of course, I have no idea what the Paizo margins are)

Ah, okay. I guess I was reading the thread too literally. :lol

I guess you could look at it this way: A lot of the costs for development were probably nixed because they were doing a simpler version of some of the core rules. The bulk of the development has already been done. So basically it was mostly editing, layout, and goodies.

At least that's my guess... I don't have it.

 

[Erik Mona]

We have no power over Amazon's prices, and Amazon pays our distributor based on the list price, so it doesn't matter to us in terms of how much money we get from the purchase.

Our advice is to buy it from the place that makes most sense for you.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing

 

[Samurai]

We have no power over Amazon's prices, and Amazon pays our distributor based on the list price, so it doesn't matter to us in terms of how much money we get from the purchase.

Our advice is to buy it from the place that makes most sense for you.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing

Exactly... Amazon pays the same amount to the distributor whether they sell it for full price or 1/3 off. Similarly, a FLGS pays the same amount to the distributor no matter how much they sell it for (and many FLGS have discount plans). Those discounts come entirely out of Amazon's or the FLGS's share of the profits... If they paid 40% of MSRP and sell it for 66% of MSRP instead of 100%, they have cut their own share from 60% down to 26%, but if they are then able to sell many more copies they might well come out ahead. Considering all the places that offer some kind of discount, I think if Amazon tried to sell it at 100% of MSRP they wouldn't sell very many copies, but by deeply discounting it, it becomes much more of an impulse "wow, that's a great price, I'll grab it" buy.

 

[gamerprinter]

Its the same for any publisher product. Any one of my Kaidan (Curse of the Golden Spear) adventures sell for $19.95 MSRP, but Amazon sells the same product for $15.59, though I've seen it for as little as $13.85.

As long as I get my normal cut in profits, I don't really care what price a distributor sells it for.