Ptolus at Amazon?

[Vocenoctum]

My observation is that the publisher will get less. That will be the gross sales amount as well! Which means that is the money generated before the cost of publishing the book and doing business is factored in.

I think the other part that is missing from the Online Retailer discussion is that the discount allows for higher retail prices. As prices have gone up, more people will buy at a discount. If a book is priced at $40 that used to be $30, but I can get it on Amazon or Buy.com for $26, I'm fine. The bookmaker is also better off, because he's getting 40% of $40 instead of 40% of $30. Most of the time, the booktrade is paying distributor pricing.

You have people buying discount because of the higher price, compared to people that simply wouldn't pay the higher price at all if they didn't get a discount.

This of course hurts the LGS, but since I stopped going to mine because of their suckage anyway, I don't care. WotC used to delay Bookstore releases to the end of the month, giving LGS a nice lead, time wise. They don't anymore, and I think that's because appeasing a section of your market that is increasingly irrelevant doesn't really make good business sense. If folks want to embrace their LGS for emotional reasons, more power to you, but that doesn't make the rest of us bad.


In regards to Ptolus specifically, the contract could have been adjusted to provide for less of a discount. Obviously it's not bound by the same deal anyway, given they're not selling it to the Booktrade at all (directly). I personally believe it has as much to do with not pissing off those that pre-ordered months ago, as much as LGS stuff. Having someone give you $120 (or $10 a month) forever ago, then seeing they could have waited and gotten it for $75, might shake even the Monte Fans resolve.

Also, Amazon does buy stuff from the game trade sometimes, these cost them more and they don't discount them much, if at all. In addition, Amazon might ask for longer terms, but at least (IMO) you're pretty likely to get it at that 180 day mark. From what I've read on the distributors, that 90 days is more of a "guideline to be ignored"... quite often.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I think the problem the detractors have here isn't that they don't want to have Ptolus - they want it cheaper than what the producer considers to be a "fair price".

You have folks that want a discount.

You have folks that need a discount.

You also have folks that are quite a distance from a LGS and it's not worth the trouble to drive (assuming car) to it.

You also have the folks that simply like having a book delivered to their home.

For pricing, at the LGS I pay retail +6% (tax)+ gas ($5+). Even if Amazon did the same retail price, it'd still be $12 cheaper, and delivered right to my door.

(FWIW, this is all abstract, since I'm not buying Ptolus because I don't want it.

 

[Jaws]

Plus it still doesn't change the fact that every pre-order WW/Monte sells is a nail in the coffin of LGS livelihood. At least that is what "they" keep guilt tripping us about.

Monte is asking the same thing as Necromancer Games.

Another thought, if his whole thing is to support the LGS', etc... why is he selling pre-orders straight to the public? That is the main reason/excuse so many of the 3rd parties give for not selling straight to us. Even Bill and Clark asked us to buy from our respective LGS' if we didn't buy a RA:R pre-order for that very reason.

Right now I am ticked off enough that I think I will no longer buy any pre-orders from Monte and WW, except for Necromancer. They aren't looking like huge hypocrits to me right now. Or greedy.

Peace and smiles

j.

 

[Land Outcast]

Ptolus (International Payment in Full Option) with Shipping
Stock #: 16114
(preorder terms) $134.99

*sigh*

 

[Siobharek]

Monte is asking the same thing as Necromancer Games.



Peace and smiles

j.

The remarks you quote fail to take into acount the fact that Ptolus could also be preordered through the FLGS . Just sayin' ...

 

[BSF]

I think you missed my point. I fully agree that the book distributors would very most likely told them to stuff it. Honestly, for a book distributor, Ptolus is nothing. But in the gaming community, Ptolus is.. Well, probably medium-sized. So the ability to truly say "Well, we offered to have them distribute it the same way the hobby distributor do." would have meant something, in the gaming community. Instead we have "We didn't want the book distributors to have it, because it would have screwed over the LGS", which quite a few people view as a weak, at best, argument.

Arguably, simply making the offer, for reasons you stated, would have been an hassle, and maybe not worth it.

In that case, saying that they tried to have Amazon sell at a less-discounted, or undiscounted price would have just brought a whole different type of complaining. Including assertions of price fixing and trying to screw over the folks that can't afford it. It is a no-win situation.

 

[Barak]

I think the problem the detractors have here isn't that they don't want to have Ptolus - they want it cheaper than what the producer considers to be a "fair price".

That is the silliest thing I have ever heard. Assuming (and I understand that this assumption is, somewhat, in contention) that the producer gets the same amount of money for each book sold, why would the producer care if the end customer pays "full price" or gets it at a reduced price, or even for free? Are you saying that if I open a Game Store on the day of Ptolus's release and give a free copy to the first 20 customers, that would somehow upset Monte?

 

[Talgian]

Ptolus ranking at Amazon.com

Yesterday(Sunday July 2): #202,443 in Books
Today (Monday July 3): #66,261 in Books

I think all he did was get more people to go order at Amazon.com.

Monte made his post about Amazon on June 6th. I don't think a comment made on what is really an obscure message board would have a noticeable impact on Amazon sales a month later.

 

[Barak]

In that case, saying that they tried to have Amazon sell at a less-discounted, or undiscounted price would have just brought a whole different type of complaining. Including assertions of price fixing and trying to screw over the folks that can't afford it. It is a no-win situation.

You never worked in the PR field, eh?

What you -do- say is "hey, we offered them the same deal the LGS' distributors get. They turned us down. What can we do?"

You -don't- say "We made sure book distributors didn't get a shot at this book."

 

[Jaws]

The remarks you quote fail to take into acount the fact that Ptolus could also be preordered through the FLGS . Just sayin' ...

You saw my post on page 2, right?


Peace and smiles

j.