RPGNow Minimum Credit Card Purchase Amount

[Roudi]

Well, Mr. Sinclair, I think you've demonstrated enough ignorance over the operation of MODERNIZED to preclude further discussion of the matter. Let me just say that your assumption over the operation of a "free fanzine" doesn't apply to the way MODERNIZED is being run. The specifics are not to be discussed here.

You do make a valid point about the stock market analogy, and you have at least justified your reasons for raising your prices, so I will concede that to you. Just note that a a few posters in this thread have already voiced their dissatsifaction over publishers who haved raised their prices. I'm sure they are not the only ones. Despite the cheap price, a 40 cent raise on a dollar is a 40% price hike. Besides, in the choice between a single $1.40 PDF, or two $1.00 PDFs both ARP and RPGNow benefit from a customer choosing two $1.00 products. If customers are willing to spend an additional 40 cents for an ARP product, as you claim, don't you think they'd be willing to pay an additional $1.00 for an additional product instead?

 

[FoolishFrost]

I, personally, price my products at what I think their value should be, regardless of the minimal pricing standard. I figure that a 5-10 page PDF should be around $1.33. That gives me about $1 income from each sold. I'm happy with $1 per unit with a short PDF.

My larger PDFs (50 to 70 pages) are priced at $6.95 because that seemed to be the apparent rate for a PDF book of the kind. Overall, I price so that I am setup with about the same income as I would from print. This means I try to pass on the estimated printing costs as a reduced price.

Course, printing costs go up and down, but I'm only trying to get in the ballpark...

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I highly doubt RPGNow intended the minimum purchase amount hike as a cue for publishers to re-evaluate the value of their products.

In fact, James DID admonish PDF publishers to re-evaluate our prices when he raised the minimum checkout.

I've been thinking about adjusting my prices of smaller titles so they are factors of $6.40, so it is easier for consumers to hit the minimum checkout without going over.

In the Spring, a revised version of ther Book of Broken Dreams will be released with a new chapter on group dynamics. This added material will raise the price of the Book from $5 to $7. That price change has nothing to do with the minimum checkout price.

 

[Roudi]

In fact, James DID admonish PDF publishers to re-evaluate our prices when he raised the minimum checkout.

Hmm.

What reasons did he give? I'd be interested to know more.

 

[D_Sinclair]

Well, Mr. Sinclair, I think you've demonstrated enough ignorance over the operation of MODERNIZED to preclude further discussion of the matter. Let me just say that your assumption over the operation of a "free fanzine" doesn't apply to the way MODERNIZED is being run. The specifics are not to be discussed here.

Allow me to put it this way. I'd be very surprised if the production of MODERNIZED involved any of the following:

Rejecting impressive art submissions because the artist's rate puts the project too far over budget.

Have to edit the daylights out of text because the page count is too long for the plans for a printed edition, or to minimize pad an author used to bloat his word count to a ridiculous level in an effort to try to pad his eventual paycheck.

Built a schedule for sales events over the next year.

Have monthly meetings to discuss sales trends, pricing adjustments, rescheduling and reprioritizing upcvoming projects, and the like, all based around the fiscal state of both the individual product lines and the company.

And if MODERNIZED production does involve any of those, or any other financially-based decision-making, I'd be very interested to learn exactly how you people managed to back yourselves into that sort of corner.

 

[Roudi]

I've already stated, the details are not to be discussed here. If you want to learn more, e-mail me at MODERNIZED@intrepidheroes.com or visit our IRC chat room on Psionics.net, #modernized.

Otherwise, drop it. This thread is a discussion of RPGNow and the publishers who use it.

 

[Nifft]

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

Hey Roudi,

Your animated sig picture is way too distracting, and I've had to block your posts.

Please let me know when you get a normal, non-animated sig, and I'll unblock you.

Sorry, -- N

 

[Bloodstone Press]

What reasons did he give? I'd be interested to know more.

It was in a conversation on the RPGnow boards. That thread has already expired. I can't remember if he gave a clear reason, and I don't want to speak for him here. But, I think part of his reason is that he may feel some PDFs are priced too low.

Whatever his reason, I'm sure he had the best intentions.

 

[Roudi]

Bloodstone Press - Hmm. Well, I'm sure he had a valid point.

Nifft - Sorry my sig bothers you. If you go into your ENWorld Account and head to Options, you'll see checkbox toggling Display Signatures. If you want to just disable signatures, instead of just blocking my posts, that might be an option.

I'll get around to changing that sig once the next issue is out. Unless, of course, anyone would be gracious to produce one themselves. I'd certainly appreciate a banner made by someone else.

 

[D_Sinclair]

I've already stated, the details are not to be discussed here. If you want to learn more, e-mail me at MODERNIZED@intrepidheroes.com or visit our IRC chat room on Psionics.net, #modernized.

Otherwise, drop it. This thread is a discussion of RPGNow and the publishers who use it.

The thread was about RPGNow's minimum checkout hike, and it rapidly evolved into a discussion regarding vendor response to that, namely in the form of price increases.

Every step of the way, you have insisted on attempting to harangue vendors for the price increases, right down to attempting to debunk justifications without serious consideration, right down to offering little more than innuendo regarding MODERNIZED operations as a free fanzine, all in the name of suiting your adopted role of non-vendor pundit trying to illustrate that vendors are wrong for choosing to raise their prices.

The vendors have every right to price their products as they see fit, including taking into consideration the minimum checkout amount allowed with any particular retail outlet, since so many initial pricing decisions involved the original $5 checkout minimum to begin with. However, on the flipside of that, while you and other customers are quite welcome to tell us you are unhappy with our choices, you don't have any grounds upon which to tell us our decisions are unjustified. Just as you think I'm ignorant of how freebie fanzines operate and how the standard business model for that is supposed to apply to MODERNIZED, I get the feeling you too bear some ignorance as well, regarding the day-to-day fiscal decision-making involved in a for-profit enterprise. After all, you insist on assuming that the price increases were due to the increased checkout minimum and nothing else.

Want to know another strong factor in all price increases recently, rather than just the ones to $6.40? The vendor reimbursement minimum was raised recently too. Now vendors have to wait until they total $50 in reimbursement from the last check to get a check any given month, double what it was just a few months ago. Or how about this? RPGnow just increased the percentage of its cut in sales by 5%. Prices went up for that, in order to maintain per-unit profitability. Then there's all the price increases that occurred due to many vendors now doing nonexclusive business with DrivethruRPG now. With DTRPG taking 35%, many vendors raised their prices across the board in order to maintain the same profitability per unit at DTRPG that they had at RPGnow. Then there's the new setup fee for new publishers at RPGnow, and many of the new publishers want to recover that expense as quickly as possible. And that's just the fiscal factors of doing business with an online vendor and RPGnow in particular. It doesn't take into account the increasing costs of running an office, necessary equipment and software purchases, or any other offline fiscal influence on the revenue stream.

See, Roudi, all things you never considered and probably didn't even know about. Perhaps in the future, you won't sling the insult of accusing others of ignorance quite so lightly.