Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.
- Thread starter Ulrick
- Start date
This may have been stated before, I'm not sure (I don't have the Con to wade through, word for word, the five previous pages of borderline vitriol)...
Only buying books through discounters (Amazon, buy.com, etc.) doesn't have much impact on the publishers. Just because the outfit you're buying a book from offers a discount doesn't mean they're buying it from the publisher at any greater a discount than the publisher offers to their other accounts.
(Issues of mega-volume purchasing notwithstanding.)
Discounters make less money per unit sold than do "traditional" retailers, but they make up for that - or so they hope - by selling more units.
In the end, buying books from a discounter doesn't really impact the publishers bottom line...and it won't force them to lower the price of their books. The publisher makes the same amount of money on a $30 book if it's sold for $30 or if it's sold for $20. Even if a book is sold for less than the "store" paid for it, the publisher STILL makes the same amount of money.
Where the FLGS takes a real smack in the nose is on the issue of returnability. I'm not at all certain what kinda deal Amazon has worked out, but most brick and mortar book stores (Barnes and Chernobyl, Borders, etc.) can return unsold copies of a book. I don't know of too many game distributors that offer a return policy on unsold merchandise.
Only buying books through discounters (Amazon, buy.com, etc.) doesn't have much impact on the publishers. Just because the outfit you're buying a book from offers a discount doesn't mean they're buying it from the publisher at any greater a discount than the publisher offers to their other accounts.
(Issues of mega-volume purchasing notwithstanding.)
Discounters make less money per unit sold than do "traditional" retailers, but they make up for that - or so they hope - by selling more units.
In the end, buying books from a discounter doesn't really impact the publishers bottom line...and it won't force them to lower the price of their books. The publisher makes the same amount of money on a $30 book if it's sold for $30 or if it's sold for $20. Even if a book is sold for less than the "store" paid for it, the publisher STILL makes the same amount of money.
Where the FLGS takes a real smack in the nose is on the issue of returnability. I'm not at all certain what kinda deal Amazon has worked out, but most brick and mortar book stores (Barnes and Chernobyl, Borders, etc.) can return unsold copies of a book. I don't know of too many game distributors that offer a return policy on unsold merchandise.
I was talking about this to someone tonight and they posed the same idea as Churchill. The publisher still makes the same amount of money. I think it may have in small part due to the lack of a theft problem (i.e., loss prevention), but I am sure someone will try to fill us in on what really happens.
Sincerely,
Mike
Sincerely,
Mike
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