New D&D Spinner Rack

[Catavarie]

The Barnes and Noble in my area had a spinner along with a full shelf of other RPG books from other companies but they have recently removed the spinner and all of the other RPG books. I guess this would backup the claim that RPG sales are down or maybe it was a local decision by the manager.

check with an employee at your local B&N, I know that is some places they have placed all the RPG books behind the front counter to help prevent theft of the product, which is apparently rampant in some parts of the country.

 

[Hussar]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hussar
If the books aren't in the stores at all, then no one can buy them.


That's clearly not true. I've been special ordering books that they'd never stock from bookstores since...well, practically since I had an allowance. Amazon's been making a profit since...what...2003? You can't really make fun of their business plan anymore.

& I'm still finding myself special ordering through the brick & mortars since running "the tightest ship in the shipping business" these days appearantly means you don't have to bother with...you know...delivering packages. (>_<)

Sorry, I was unclear. If the books are not at the bookstore, then you cannot sell them at the bookstore. I see losing the retail space as a bad thing. Online purchases are great for those of us who are already in the hobby, but, I highly doubt someone is going to be slouching through Amazon and buy the Core 3 on a whim.

 

[Kem]

The B&N that I work at has about 2 shelves of WotC, and 1 Shelf of "Other" books.

Other Being White Wolf, some Shadowrun, GURPS and some others.

Each B&N stocks what sells at their location. So mine has a pile of Mage Books, and a pile of D&D books (as both of those sell rather well for us).

And we have at least 1 gaming group that plays at our store.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

If the books aren't in the stores at all, then no one can buy them.

That's clearly not true. I've been special ordering books that they'd never stock from bookstores since...well, practically since I had an allowance. Amazon's been making a profit since...what...2003? You can't really make fun of their business plan anymore.

But to special order a book, you need to know it exists, and online it is harder to get you to impulse buy something else related to it. Amazon uses their "People who bought this also purchased..." but that still only gives you maybe four choices with a thumbnail picture. With this rack, you go looking for one of the D&D books, see it on the rack along with several others in their full-sized, real life goodness, waiting to be picked up and leafed through, and hopefully bought (or you go home and order it from Amazon.com for 30% less ).

 

[Jeysie]

Plus, the sticker price for even the core D&D books being well over $100 at retail, it's an expensive hobby to boot.

Actually, the core books are really cheap in terms of money spent per hour of entertainment. I mean, D&D overlaps the demographic that'll drop $60 on the latest computer games. D&D's core books can give you years of play opportunities in as many combinations as your brain can cook up... yet even the really big RPGs only offer you about 100 hours of play time through the same story.

And I can think of more than a few other hobbies where $100 is a drop in the bucket for costs - many sports, for instance. Factor in that a group can share one set of RP books if need be, and the price seems far less outrageous.

Peace & Luv, Liz

 

[mcrow]

While I think that RPG sales have slipped a little, I think that almost all of that slippage is through traditional gaming stores.

I think online retailers and big box stores, who don't order through gaming distributors, are selling more an more each year taking sales away from birck and mortar gaming stores.

So it's a two pronged attack on game stores, online stores selling games cheaper than they can and on top of that, a down turn in the market.

PDF sales are not large enough yet to cause retailers a problem.

 

[Glyfair]

While I think that RPG sales have slipped a little, I think that almost all of that slippage is through traditional gaming stores.

I think that is wishful thinking from the "the internet is where it is at" crowd. I believe it was Erik Mona (I won't swear it was him), who recently commented about looking at some significant companies sales numbers. The numbers were so low that they would have been thinking about going out of business a few years ago.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think that is wishful thinking from the "the internet is where it is at" crowd. I believe it was Erik Mona (I won't swear it was him), who recently commented about looking at some significant companies sales numbers. The numbers were so low that they would have been thinking about going out of business a few years ago.

Are you removing Amazon from the equation here? If so, why?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Actually, the core books are really cheap in terms of money spent per hour of entertainment.

But there's still a high initial barrier to entry. If you're trying to convince someone who's never played an RPG that they want to play D&D, the wallet quite often goes right back in the pocket when you tell them the price for the three core books.

And I can think of more than a few other hobbies where $100 is a drop in the bucket for costs - many sports, for instance.

Most of which have cheap ways to get introduced to the hobby, such as learning them in school or cheap rentals of equipment.

 

[Glyfair]

Are you removing Amazon from the equation here? If so, why?

Whoever it was that made the comment was talking about publishers. If the publisher is only selling 1/3 of the copies he would be selling a few years ago then it doesn't matter whether those copies were sold through Amazon, hobby stores or book chains. Total sales are the indication of the hobby's health.

(It's not showing up on my search of Erik's post, but it was someone with his sort of connection to the industry).