Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

[jaerdaph]

Who's with me?

Nothing personal, but not me.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I think rulebooks are getting waaaay to expensive. There's a difference between inflation and price gouging.

I have a theory. If a bunch of gamers refuse to pay full price for d20 rulebooks, the lack of demand will force prices to fall because of the amount of supply.

Is this a good idea?

Who's with me?

Uh, no.

RPG's are a HOBBY, an option, not a necessity.

Really, if it's to expensive for you even through discounted means then it's time for you to find a cheaper hobby. For the amount of enjoyment that I've gotten from the books I'd say the price paid was more than worth it. If it's not for you then it's probably time to move on...

 

[Xeriar]

That's a large part. There's also the fact that (in the sciences, at least), you're paying for the doctorate that allows the person to write the book. The author could have been doing grant-money research rather than write, so they must be compensated.

Still mostly goes to the distributor and school store :-/

For higher level textbooks, there's also the expectation that you'll buy one copy of the text, and use it for life. In order to make it profitable enough to keep it around, the price must be high.

This is true even for mid-level courses like differential equations. Think I'm gonna remember how to do a nasty spring equation? HA!

 

[TalonComics]

I'm not going to post my long comments about what massive discounting can and will do to the gaming market but I will say refusing to buy only from places like Amazon and Wal Mart will eventually kill it.

~D

 

[Dark Eternal]

Against my better judgement, I'm going to comment.

1) Ulrick - just a presumption, but I would deign to say that you probably haven't really closely compared the ratio of your RPG material cost/personal use value to the cost/value ratio of any other entertainments that you enjoy. Unless you either buy far more RPG material than you actually need or spend virtually no money on whatever else you enjoy, I think you'd find that gaming is an exceedingly cost-effective form of entertainment, compared to most other hobbies or passtimes.

2) Everyone who is happily supporting the gaming industry - whether you are one of the people who provides your hard work and ideas for very little financial recomensation, or one of those who shells out a significant percentage of your hard-earned money to buy the books for your gaming hobby, I'd like to add my name to all those others who sincerely thank you for your support. Ten years ago, it really looked like the Dungeons and Dragons hobby was on its last legs - and now its more popular and supported then ever! We could never have enjoyed the game today as much as we do without your support, and I - among many others - am quite grateful.

 

[Mark]

Everyone who is happily supporting the gaming industry - whether you are one of the people who provides your hard work and ideas for very little financial recomensation, or one of those who shells out a significant percentage of your hard-earned money to buy the books for your gaming hobby, I'd like to add my name to all those others who sincerely thank you for your support. Ten years ago, it really looked like the Dungeons and Dragons hobby was on its last legs - and now its more popular and supported then ever! We could never have enjoyed the game today as much as we do without your support, and I - among many others - am quite grateful.

Hear, hear! Well said!

 

[jaerdaph]

Against my better judgement, I'm going to comment.

1) Ulrick - just a presumption, but I would deign to say that you probably haven't really closely compared the ratio of your RPG material cost/personal use value to the cost/value ratio of any other entertainments that you enjoy. Unless you either buy far more RPG material than you actually need or spend virtually no money on whatever else you enjoy, I think you'd find that gaming is an exceedingly cost-effective form of entertainment, compared to most other hobbies or passtimes.

I agree - "more bang for your entertainment buck" is the best argument from a consumer point of view in support of current hardcover prices being fair.

In Manhattan, movies are $10 bucks a pop, and matinee prices are so hard to find that they are effectively nonexistent. If I see 4 movies each an average of an hour and a half long, that's $40 for 6 hours of entertainment. I spent over $40 on d20 Modern (bought it on the first day of release from my FLGS AND paid NYS/NYC taxes on it too), but I have gotten far more than six hours of entertainment out of it. Far more, and still counting.

 

[Arnwyn]

Virtually everyone does a simple cost/benefit analysis of a product before they buy. "Does this product contain enough game material that I will use in my game to justify the listed price?".

If yes, they buy. If no, they don't. If you don't like the prices of some products, then your personal cost/benefit analysis shows that the material inside is not valuable enough to justify the price - absolutely a legitimate point of view.

Everyone does this, and the market will balance itself out.

 

[ced1106]

Re: -

Just stop buying books by impulse. You really don't need many of them anyway.

I have a simple requisite: Can only buy a book if I know I'll use it! Of course, the definition of "use" is often a slippery slope, lol.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Ulrick]

This thread was inspired by me going to a local hobby store seeing $40 books and seeing $30 books that didn't have much content in them.

Then I go to amazon.com and despite 30% discount, the books are almost out of what I'm willing to pay.

Yeah. I've heard the following arguments:

---
"Well, you can get hours and hours of entertainment out of a gaming product so its worth the price."

I can't argue against this in the case of the core rule books. These are worth the money spent. But its all these other books that I'm annoyed at.

How many hours of entertainment have you gotten out of Dieties and Demigods? The arms and equipment guide? Or any other book produced by a 3rd party publisher that isn't a module?

How often do DMs allow all that d20 stuff in their games? How many of you have bought something only to have your DM say, "No, you can't use that."

---
"Try PDFs."

Now PDFs are fantastic. I should be checking more of those out.

---

"But if a bunch of gamers don't buy books then companies will go out of business and the hobby will die!"

So what if companies go under because people refuse to pay full price for RPG books! Some will survive, some won't.

Those that survive will have developed a way to produce the product cheaper. Those that thrive will have it cheaper but at the same quality or even better.

The hobby would not die, only the companies that fail to adapt.

In the end, you, the gamer, would benefit.

At this point--It's too big. And besides, say for instance, it does die, according to the 1st argument gamers will still be getting hours and hours of enternment out of their books.

---

"Inflation and the economy."

The inflation rate is an average, an average which is the sum of many many variables.

I don't put much stock in averages like that.

But I do know that the average gaming book is priced too high.

Also, my argument mentioned nothing about the so called "terrible economy." Please stay on topic.

---

"Support the gaming industry/hobby/FLGS!"

Why should we when they charge too much for books? My local gaming store doesn't offer discounts. Heck, although the enworld online store offers discounts you still have to buy a lot to make up for shipping. That's not a deal.

--

"Businesses are out to make money."

I've heard this before too--especially with 3.5 coming out.

Yet I believe that businesses shouldn't be in business just to make money.

Screwing your clients with high prices. over isn't good business.

--

"If you don't like the prices of rulebooks, then don't buy them!"

I won't, but perhaps I'll take a step further to ask others not to either.