Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

[herald]

Mark Chance said:
Answer these: How much money do I make a month after taxes? How much of that money is dedicated to paying bills, mortgage, insurance, for food, for my children's schooling, et cetera? Of the difference between the two totals, how much gets spent on family activities such as movies or outings to Lake Conroe? Once this total has been accounted for, how much do I have left each month to spend for purely selfish reasons? Now, subtract the amount I spend on comic books each month, and tell me how much money I can put aside for gaming books each month? Quickly now, since you're the expert on my precise financial situation.

Tick, tick, tick, boooooom!

You just blew a hole in your arguement.

You keep making the arguement as a cost per month issue. But making purchaces of gaming books is not a need, it's a want. So you cannot justify budgetary stress when you can make purchaces to go out to "Lake Conroe" or go to the movies, or buy comic books.

I have a wife, two kids and a dog. I buy from two differant FLGS, depending on who has stock the first, and only purchace online when I can't get what I want. I pay my bills, (food, electric, car, house, water + sewer+ garbage, cable, Internet, cell phone, retirement, ect.) And have a little left over at the end of the purchace my game books. But if I can't buy it one pay period, I'll wait and get it another pay period. Or maybe I'll save whatever I have and then buy it next month.

Things get tight, I understand that, but If you have to make a choice between comic books and monthly game choices, you aren't suffering at all.

 

[Mark Chance]

Tick, tick, tick, boooooom!

You just blew a hole in your arguement.

Nope. That explosion was your presumption at believing you have sufficient grounds to judge me and my motives. Go back and answer all of my questions, since you're the expert about my budget.

You can answer them, can't you?

 

[Corinth]

Buying gaming books from legitimate discount outlets is neither a crime nor unsavory. It's savvy shopping.

 

[herald]

Nope. That explosion was your presumption at believing you have sufficient grounds to judge me and my motives. Go back and answer all of my questions, since you're the expert about my budget.

You can answer them, can't you?

Man, you need to get over yourself.

Asking me to tell you what your finances are is simply a straw man arguement. So I'm ofcourse I'm going to ignore it.

Flat out, you seem to have luxuries that you want to indulge in. One being games, the other being comic books.

You have the cash, you just want to get more from it then you would normally get.

I can respect your wants, but face the facts, you can afford to pay the price, you just have to understand that it may take you longer that you want to.

Now, are you telling all of us here that you can't hold on to your money until have enought to buy a game book? If so, that's not the industries fault, that's yours.

 

[herald]

Buying gaming books from legitimate discount outlets is neither a crime nor unsavory. It's savvy shopping.

\

Buying from vendors who deep discount to corner the market is unsavory. The people who do so are not criminals, and I feel that they have no malace to those that it injures.

But Walmart and Amazon know exactly what they are doing. They are merely trying to draw traffic to thier sites with no interest other than it's a new widget to sell. That don't care what it is, they just feel that it will lead you into buying more from them. If the FLGS goes out of business, they will never know, but being a large corporation, if D&D or RPG's in general start getting unpopular again, you can be sure that the vendors will drop it like a hot potato.

 

[mkarol]

As much as I hate to foray into the morass that is this thread… I feel compelled to comment.

Economics is more than just $s and ¢s… and the decision on from where to buy books and accessories needs to be more than a battle of who has the lowest price. Just as we all don't eat raman noodles or Mac and Cheese for dinner, we all make different decisions about what level of service and support we expect from our gaming outlets.

Me? I buy some stuff from my FLGS; mainly pain and mini’s because I need to see and feel these things before I take them home. But my FLGS is 30mins away and I don't get there as often as I would like. I don't get to participate in its events or meet the locals who seem to be there every time I show up. If it were next door to my home (and I didn’t have to work) I’m sure that I too would be there as often as possible and buy everything I could from there.

I buy things on-line; almost exclusively from Amazon.com. With S&H I have even paid _more_ for some things than I would have at FLGS or if I had taken the time to shop around for deals. But time is money, and the $2.39 I could have saved by going to bn.com or buy.com didn’t seem worth it at the time. To those people who feel it’s worth it, great! To those who don’t, fine!

Specialty shops are just that… special; when you need special help, special service, special advice, it is a great tool and one I hope everyone uses. But if those Specialty stores can not turn a proffit, then they wont be there when you need them. So is it worth spending an extra dollar on a book or a line of paints in order to help pay for the upkeep of said specialty? That is a decision we all have to make individually; and for which we will pay the consequences.

 

[Corinth]

Buying from vendors who deep discount to corner the market is unsavory. The people who do so are not criminals, and I feel that they have no malace to those that it injures.

No, buying from such vendors is just capitalism at work. I have no obligation to pay full retail price when I can go to a legitimate discounter and get the same thing at a substantial discount. To intimate to the contrary is absurd.

But Walmart and Amazon know exactly what they are doing. They are merely trying to draw traffic to thier sites with no interest other than it's a new widget to sell. That don't care what it is, they just feel that it will lead you into buying more from them. If the FLGS goes out of business, they will never know, but being a large corporation, if D&D or RPG's in general start getting unpopular again, you can be sure that the vendors will drop it like a hot potato.

Such is life, and capitalism, so if they can offer a better price than the FLGS then the FLGS loses my business. There is no obligation to pay full price for anything, and if I can get it cheaper (or free, or be paid to take it) then I will go for it. The FLGS can make do without my patronage or find a way to woo me back, and that is all there is to it.

 

[Umbran]

Buying from vendors who deep discount to corner the market is unsavory.

Amazon isnt doing it to corner the market. They are doing it in an attempt to stay in business at all.

 

[herald]

No, buying from such vendors is just capitalism at work. I have no obligation to pay full retail price when I can go to a legitimate discounter and get the same thing at a substantial discount. To intimate to the contrary is absurd.

Quoted like someone who doesn't understand capatalism. There are plenty of cases where the government have stepped where businesses undercut smaller venders to corner the market.

Capitalism is not defined as "Survival of the fittist." Capitalism is predicated on the idea of a fair market economy. If someone manipulates the economy, it's not a level playing field.

 

[herald]

Such is life, and capitalism, so if they can offer a better price than the FLGS then the FLGS loses my business. There is no obligation to pay full price for anything, and if I can get it cheaper (or free, or be paid to take it) then I will go for it. The FLGS can make do without my patronage or find a way to woo me back, and that is all there is to it.

One other thing, this is not about obligation. No one has any illusions that you have to buy gaming books at all.

But don't think that what your doing is helping you in the long run.