RPG/Amazon Price Rant

[Simon Collins]

Hi

Sorry for the following rant, but just had to get it out of my system.

I just went to buy the 2nd edition of the Babylon 5 RPG and because it is fairly expensive, I decided to check out a few options before I made a decision where to buy it from. I looked at the postage costs pretty carefully, since I live in the Republic of Ireland, and came up with the following (to me) bizarre findings on the total cost of the product + postage:
Direct from Mongoose Publishing - 50 euros
A couple of UK Online RPG Shops - 48 to 50 euros
Amazon.ca - 40 euros
Amazon.co.uk - 36 euros
Amazon.com with expedited shipping - 34 euros
Amazon.com (normal shipping) - 31 euros
Online from Drivethru RPG - 27 euros + printing costs (no idea, but certainly more than 4 euros, and hassleful)

So I bought from amazon.com with expedited shipping (I can wait a couple of weeks, and only a few days longer than getting it from the UK). But it seems very strange to me that expedited shipping costs from the US are about the same as normal shipping costs from the UK to Ireland (about 10 euros).

I'm sure nobody gives a hoot, but at least I got it off my chest!!

 

[Agent Oracle]

We feel your pain brother, but i have to confess, i think a good deal of that variety in pricing may be relative trading valuse of Euros to Dollars, and Ueroes to canadian dollars. The itnernet is really, really bizzare when it comes to international finance, because if you buy through the right means, you can potentially wind up spending 20-25% less than you otherwise would.

FOr instance: Never, ever buy a English DMG from Japan.

 

[dvvega]

I'm in Australia and I've found the same situation with purchasing roleplaying books.

In fact half of the time it is cheaper to order from Amazon with shipping than buying direct in Australia (even though WOTC has direct distribution here).

The biggest savings come in the form of Amazon's "Buy 2 cheaply" deals where you buy the book you want and they recommend another book to go with it which reduces the price overall.

 

[ChristianW]

I pretty much stopped buying products from my local game store because I could get material cheaper online. For example, I went there to purchase some old Dragon magazines. The issues in question had an original cover price of, say, $3. They were a bit worn after 20 years of sitting on the shelves. When I went to pay, the clerk informed me I had to pay current cover price, nearly $6.

I don't think so. I just went home and bought a stack of old issues on EBay for about $2.00 each.

 

[Wraith101]

hey dvvega. If you are in Australia, you should check out milsims www.milsims.com.au. You can usually get at least 10-20% off retail prices and they have massive sales on all the time. This week is 20% off all RPG's, miniatures, magazines, games, computer games etc.

Well worth a look!

 

[dvvega]

I know about milsims and the best time to buy from them is when something is just about to come out.

They run some crazy specials sometimes. However overall I've found Amazon to be cheaper on average.

 

[Hairfoot]

Each time I've phoned Milsims, the staff have been so aggressively rude it's almost art. I go to Amazon on principle.

 

[Wraith101]

Yeah, a lot of people say they are rude. I have never had that problem though. . .odd!

 

[Aus_Snow]

I'm in Australia and I've found the same situation with purchasing roleplaying books.

In fact half of the time it is cheaper to order from Amazon with shipping than buying direct in Australia (even though WOTC has direct distribution here).

Same here.

But as far as Milsims goes, I've had no problem with them at all. Some of their specials are pretty insane too, so I often look there first. YMMV.

 

[WayneLigon]

When I went to pay, the clerk informed me I had to pay current cover price, nearly $6.

I don't think so. I just went home and bought a stack of old issues on EBay for about $2.00 each.

I hope you went back and told the owner what an idiot his clerk was.