Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 5357494" data-attributes="member: 19675">Prices all across the market are relevant to all gamers everywhere.Again, its economics with an eye towards the long run.  (Not trying to be a chicken little, just looking at how things could play out.)Amazon can buy in massive quantities, getting them bulk purchase discounts.  Since they use a JIT model, they keep inventory costs to a minimum.  They tend to pass these savings on to the customer.  (These are all good things for them and their customers.)With Amazon's global market penetration, it makes sense for most sellers to have them as an outlet, including RPG companies.  This kind of leverage means they have something approaching monopsony (single purchaser) power- something they get closer to with the closing of each LGS or other B&M store that sells RPGs.  How close they are to a monopsony right now depends upon what % of WotC's (and other gaming companies') sales Amazon actually accounts for- a number I don't know.  Monopsony power means the buyer can dictate an even lower purchase price than would be normal for a retailer of their size.  (That is good for Amazon but bad for their customers in the long run.)According to some game store owners of my acquaintance (and others who post here), Amazon's resultant purchase price is lower than the price they can purchase for, meaning they have to sell it at a higher price.  Sometimes, that means Amazon's sale price is at or below LGS purchase prices- to match Amazon's price, they would not be able to make a profit on the sale. (If true, good for Amazon, bad for LGSs.)As your post implies, a gaming section is one of the things a LGS can offer that Amazon simply doesn't have an answer for.  Its a place to try before you buy.  Its a place to gather without distraction.  Its a place of fellowship.  Its kind of like the stereotypical tavern in which so many FRPG adventures begin.  (This is good for the LGS and the customer.)If an LGS has a gaming section that is not being paid for by a pay to use model, then they have to subsidize it by another method- the LGS has to have a business model for making that space pay its share of the rent.  So far, the typical game store with a "free" gaming space has depended on sales of snacks or higher prices on material sold in the store.  Assuming its the latter method, that will drive the price on the game material even higher. (Good for Amazon, bad for LGSs.)LGSs going under- whether they have a gaming section or not- means Amazon and similar retailers have less competition in that market, and that translates into higher prices to the end gaming consumer in the long run. (This is good for Amazon and bad for the consumer.)The question then becomes one of price elasticity of demand: how much can a retailer with monopsony power in a given market jack up the price without killing off the market.  If RPGs are price inelastic (that is, changes in their price have a relatively small effect on the quantity of the good demanded), they can set the price fairly high and people will continue to buy.  If its high, then there isn't much of an issue- even as a SOLO retailer of the good in question, the price won't be affected much.Now, I can't tell you what the price elasticity of demand for RPG products is, but given some of the anecdotal evidence of people testifying that they were selling off old game product (and other stuff) to buy new when 4Ed came out, its pretty low for at least some of us.Bottom line: if your only deciding factors about where to shop are price and gaming space, you may not be doing yourself any favors in the long run.  If you're good enough to buy product or snacks in a store with a free gaming space, you're OK with the store (and with me), but if you don't, you're passing off the costs of providing and maintaining that space to others who do; you're a drain on the store's bottom line.</blockquote>

Verification