RPGNow Minimum Credit Card Purchase Amount

[jaerdaph]

Quick question - what's the new minimum purchase amount to use your credit card at RPGNow? I know it used to be $5, but I can't seem to find the new minimum there, including the FAQ.

Thanks

 

[Roudi]

Last I heard, that minimum was raised to $6.40. That applies to all purchases, PayPal or credit card.

 

[HellHound]

Yes, 6.40 is the new minimum purchase

 

[jaerdaph]

Thanks

 

[Vanuslux]

There goes a lot of my impulse buys. Ultimately I'll probably still spend just as much total (once I start getting paychecks again...two months being unemployed sucks), but I'll be sticking to the larger, more expensive PDFs and generally ignoring smaller ones.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I just throw everything into my wishlist. Then, when I find a "must-have" item, I always have stuff to make the minimum. The bit that I don't like is how many PDFs suddenly jumped up in price to $6.40.

 

[Vanuslux]

I just throw everything into my wishlist. Then, when I find a "must-have" item, I always have stuff to make the minimum. The bit that I don't like is how many PDFs suddenly jumped up in price to $6.40.

Yeah, that's a rather unfortunate but expected side effect. Come to think of it, that might actually cause me to spend a lot less over all...there's a lot that I'd pay $5 for that I wouldn't pay $6.40 for. That $1.40 is a price hike of over 25% and that percentage adds up when you make as many PDF purchases as I do.

 

[mythusmage]

Well then, I guess the only thing to do is to make sure there's enough in your product to make it worth the $6.40 US.

 

[Suldulin]

is there a reason for the min purchase hike, or any reason why it can't be lowered?

 

[jmucchiello]

is there a reason for the min purchase hike, or any reason why it can't be lowered?

RPGNow has to pay a flat fee for each transaction to the credit card processing company (or PayPal). Since RPGNow only gets 25% of the sale, that percentage can quickly eat their profits. The real problem though is that apparently there are a lot of people who will buy a number of PDFs as individual transactions. So suppose that fee is 50 cents. Well at $5 minimum, $1 goes to RPGNow, half of which goes to CC processing. If that buyer had made a single transaction of say $20, RPGNow get $4 and only 50 cents goes to CC processing. I think part of the reason to raise the price was to get buyers more use to putting more than one item in their basket before hitting purchase.

Can it be lowered? Well, RPGNow has three employees, an advertising budget, bandwidth and hosting fees. I doubt it. These costs likely go up every year.

Note: I picked 50 cents out of thin air. I don't actually know what the fee is.