Preorder, cancel, preorder, cancel etc

[Wulf Ratbane]

The trouble is that people cannot always recognise their interests.

That's true. I think that people who are motivated only by the cheapest price are overlooking the value of the local game store.

But that's an entirely different issue than whining that the system is not "Fair" or that there are pricing shenanigans going on.

 

[el-remmen]

If my FLGS were actually "F" in the slightest and were a little more "L" I might pick up the books there, but as it is not, and I do not particularly enjoy interactiing with most of my strange fellow gamers (at least not those that I have had the displeasure of smelling and/or having to tell to leave me the heck alone after following me around the store obsessively telling me about their human-sized halfling with boots of striding and leaping when I have spent time there) - online ordering is how I go.

I have pre-ordered the 4E books even though at this point I am not planning on playing it.

 

[Mercule]

If my FLGS were actually "F" in the slightest and were a little more "L" I might pick up the books there, but as it is not, and I do not particularly enjoy interactiing with most of my strange fellow gamers (at least not those that I have had the displeasure of smelling and/or having to tell to leave me the heck alone after following me around the store obsessively telling me about their human-sized halfling with boots of striding and leaping when I have spent time there) - online ordering is how I go.

There is much truth to this. When I was in college and the FLGS was both F and L, I spent my money there, even though I knew I could get stuff cheaper elsewhere. Heck, if I happen to be passing through when I'm contemplating a purchase, I'll still stop in and pick it up from them.

Where I live now, though, Barnes & Noble has a better selection, better atmosphere, and better customer service. I'm quite certain that, should I care to, they'd let me run a Game Day type event there, too -- and that might actually get some people involved who didn't show up knowing in advance what was happening. The only thing my LGS has to offer is great prices on minis (better than I've found on-line, anywhere) and a few oddball board games. They may be great for CCGs, too, but I... I'm not the target audience, so wouldn't know.

If I had a FLGS that provided me with something more than books on a cold wire shelf and the chance to meet smelly people, I'd have no problem spending a couple more bucks there. Since they don't, my decision-making comes down to figuring out how to get the most out of my gaming buck. At Amazon, I can get three books for less than the cost of two at the LGS. And I do so at no opportunity cost, because I don't count some theoretic cost to not dropping an additional 50% of my cash into a store that is only visited by "the choir", as it were.

 

[shocklee]

Change in Tone

Well, I'm going to change the tone of the discussion.

I canceled my pre-order of 4th edition books from Amazon after I read the story about the change in the license. While I can see why WOTC is trying to switch players away from 3.5 to 4.0, I'm not happy with the changes that are killing all of the electronic character generation tools and trying to stop publication of alternate player's handbooks and D20-based games that use alternate character generation rules.

My gaming group has already voted to stick with the 3.5 rules and look at the Pathfinder RPG rules as they come out.

 

[Mercule]

I canceled my pre-order of 4th edition books from Amazon after I read the story about the change in the license.

WotC was the first (and the only major) game company to try such an open license. They found it didn't do what they wanted it to do for them. So, they are scaling back to a somewhat less open license, but one that is infinitely more open than any other major publisher out there.

Actually, they're probably still more open than Malhavoc ever was (I've seen them noted, multiple times, as providing the bare minimum compliance to the OGL/STL), so I hope you're avoiding all the Arcana Evolved/Unearthed products, too.

 

[Seule]

I've preordered from my LGS. It's a new store, and I'd like to see them survive to cultivate a client base. Heck, I figure with a little encouragement, they might even start stocking actual gaming books beyond one shelf!
I usually get stuff from online retailers, but I'm willing to give this new game store a shot, and see what kind of value they can deliver, if they can survive long enough.

--Penn (Guelph, Ontario)

 

[Ghaerdon Fain]

I have a pre-order w/amazon and I think I may buy a PHB from one of our local stores for my wife. I don't understand the people who are ordering and cxling multiple times. If you have a pre-order, may as well leave it up till much closer to release and decide then

Great post and I'm with you SSq.

I pre-ordered and cancelled twice as well; maily because I thought of my local store. I've kept my current amazon.ca order for the 3 cores for the past 3 weeks now, but I may cancel my KotS and just take the 1h15min ride to my "local" game store. That trip will cost me 3/4 of a tank of gas... $35-40 with todays gas prices: smart?

If you're in a city then fine, support the local store, but if in a rural area, the choice I think is made, unless you simply can't wait.

For KotS, I think I can wait; especially now that I have seen the Character Sheets. But for the PHB, I think I'm going to be spending the gas, time and extra 20-40% markup just to have a weekend of reading.

For me the release date is key. I am more willing to buy from Amazon for a Tuesday release because I will get it no later than Friday. But with a Friday release date, I don't want to wait until Wednesday of the next week, therefore I am far more willing just to spend the extra cash. For retailers and Wizards, this is a good thing to keep in mind.

 

[Serensius]

Man, I envy you. I'd gladly pay what you do to get the books earlier, but, because I live in Norway, the books go for such a high price that I simply can't afford buying them at my local (local as in, 40 mins train ride [which would cost about 20$ as well]) game store. Amazon sells the books for approximately 60$, plus maybe 20$ in shipping. The store wants 350 NOK for each book, which amounts to about 70$, or a total of 210 dollars (1050 NOK) for the core set. So I have the choice of either waiting close to a week, or paying almost triple. Bah :|

 

[MyISPHatesENWorld]

I can't see any reason to preorder. I'll just go to a store the day it is released, grab a copy, read it, and then decide. There are at least 30 places that will have it, and most of those will have a lot. It isn't like 1980 when the hobbyshop only got one or two copies at a time and the distributer only delivered once a month (at best).

EDIT:

Man, I envy you. I'd gladly pay what you do to get the books earlier, but, because I live in Norway, the books go for such a high price that I simply can't afford buying them at my local (local as in, 40 mins train ride [which would cost about 20$ as well]) game store. Amazon sells the books for approximately 60$, plus maybe 20$ in shipping. The store wants 350 NOK for each book, which amounts to about 70$, or a total of 210 dollars (1050 NOK) for the core set. So I have the choice of either waiting close to a week, or paying almost triple. Bah :|

Just wanted to say this wasn't a back-handed slap about Norway or something (your post wasn't up when I started mine). Truth be told, I'd rather be in your situation (which I kind of used to be, sans the Amazon option), than have multiple malls, shopping centers and crap sprawling all over the place.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

It's not fishy, it's normal. It's a product of the "3-Tier" distribution system: publisher, distributor, retailer.

This isn't new since the advent of online retailers, either. The owner of the local hobby store (there were no FLGSs at the time, D&D was sold at toy and hobby stores) complained about the lower price a larger store charged for the books so the kids who played in his store didn't buy the books from him, but instead went to the other store. The other store could charge less because they were the regional distributor from whom the local store owner bought his books.