Price of Books too high?

[Mark Chance]

Careful with that "worth" word. A product is "worth" what people will pay for it.

Hear, hear!

Not that I'm saying RPG books are overpriced as a rule, but many people seem to forget the above very basic rule of economics. It applies everywhere.

Back when I wasted time playing EverQuest, I had more than exchange with people sniveling no one would pay X pp for item Y.

"But X pp is item Y's price!" some people would shout.

"Not if no one will pay it," I'd reasonably reply.

Worth is also a relative concept, as astralpwka's wife is hip to. One man's trash is another's treasure, and vice versa. Especially when it comes to luxury items like game books.

The bottom line in economics is, of course, the bottom line. The bottom line in the recurring "Are RPG books overpriced?" is this: If you can't or don't want to afford them, don't buy them.

 

[trancejeremy]

On a related note, I think RPG books are getting too heavy. The other day, Traveller 20 fell on my head, and it almost knocked me out.

 

[ProfAnime]

On a related note, I think RPG books are getting too heavy. The other day, Traveller 20 fell on my head, and it almost knocked me out.

Well I can certainly agree on the weight issue, considering I just had to drag my huge library of RPG materials down two flights of stairs to the basement since my wife decided she did not want them cluttering up the bedroom anymore.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Most WoTC products, including their new 3.5 ones, are large (320 pages), in full color, have great art, and I haven't had any problems with the binding.

Worth the price to me.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Well I can certainly agree on the weight issue, considering I just had to drag my huge library of RPG materials down two flights of stairs to the basement since my wife decided she did not want them cluttering up the bedroom anymore.

oh no...

MojoGM and I keep our library in the living room since the shelves in the bedroom are too cluttered with KODT's and Dragon and Dungeon mags...

 

[Psion]

The bottom line in economics is, of course, the bottom line. The bottom line in the recurring "Are RPG books overpriced?" is this: If you can't or don't want to afford them, don't buy them.

Pretty much. I think you can most fairly say that something is overpriced when you want something, could afford it, but don't buy it. BESM d20 comes to mind in my case. I want it, but just couldn't justify that price.

 

[Reprisal]

Personally, my RPG hobby has been the cheapest of all the ones I am and have been involved in... taking such things as Magic: The Gathering Online, various Comic addictions, and a strange compulsion to actually buy my music, tabletop RPG products are somewhere near the bottom in terms of leisure products that I buy. If prices were to go up, I might be a bit less careless with my purchases, but I don't think my level of financial support would drop all that significantly.

I suppose my financial conditions and/or my spending priorities are different from others, but if prices went up, I wouldn't be up in arms at all...

For the economists among us, the elasticity of my demand for RPG products is rather inelastic, which is probably a good thing for my favourite developers,

- Rep.

 

[MerricB]

Pretty much. I think you can most fairly say that something is overpriced when you want something, could afford it, but don't buy it. BESM d20 comes to mind in my case. I want it, but just couldn't justify that price.

Overpriced also is so dependent on the financial status of the person doing the buying.

To an university student, about any RPG game is overpriced; to someone who has a job - and not many other hobbies - they're quite cheap.

Cheers!

 

[S'mon]

I haven't forgotten that. The came out over here at £12.99 which was nice. I was working in a game shop at the time afor the next couple years, and as soon as the price went up sales dropped away. Now with the 3.5 release being as expensive as it is, the shop is having trouble selling the new books.

The new price (£20/$30) is high enough that I've only bought the 3.5 PHB so far, not the DMG & MM. At least for the UK market I think WoTC would have been smarter to price the 3.5 release around £16 (£15.99) rather than £20 or so, ie they are priced somewhere above their general market worth IMO.

 

[Henrix]

I certainly don't think WotC's books are overpriced with all the work that has gone into them.

A lot of the RPG industry survives more on will than money.If you think that opening a game store or otherwise getting into the industry is a shortcut to getting a good salary, think again.

Here is, by the way, John Nephew's (Atlas Games) take on RPG pricing, in this thread on RPG.net boards.