RPGNow Minimum Credit Card Purchase Amount

While I don't disagree with your points, I do find it mildly amusing that Dana managed to find someone who can piss people off as easily as he can, unintentionally of course..
 

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You do list some very valid points, Mr. Sinclair. Some of the factors you listed, I was aware of; some I was not. However, I think I may have given off the wrong impression. I cannot presume to tell Alternate Reality Publishing how to do business (thought I might make a few suggestions). Also, as a responsible and informed PDF customer, I should be aware of the times when a price raise is due to rising cost, and when it is arbitary. Here is a quote from one of my earlier posts:
Roudi said:
Seriously though, I don't think the issue is the raise in the minimum purchase amount. I think it's a bad sign when publishers raises the prices of their products to accomodate it.
My issue isn't with price hikes in general, but with my perception that many vendors were raising their prices on RPGNow simply because they were given a convenient excuse to do so. I may have been wrong, but factors seemed coincidental and little evidence has, until now, been given to the contrary.

The point is that vendors may have legitimate reasons to raise their prices at this time. If they do, then I retract my issue with them.

Now, this is also from an earlier post, and probably what started our little qualm:
Roudi said:
Personally I don't see why you & Dana felt it necessary to raise your prices at all.
As it states, I was ignorant at the time of any good reason why ARP products should increase in price. My ignorance was helped along by an assumption, gleaned from a previous post of yours:
D_Sinclair said:
Here at ARP, we went a different route, upping the price of a number of $1 items to $1.40 or more.
My impression at the time was that ARP had raised the prices of some PDFs because of the minimum purchase increase. If I am wrong about this, than I am truly sorry.

My big fear is that PDFs lose one of the key advantages that makes them so attractive - cheap price. When I see prices go up, I'd like to think it's a reflection of rising costs or increased quality. Otherwise, vendors are just looking to increase profit margin - not something I can fault anyone for, especially in this business. Still, if PDFs increase in price for arbitrary reasons and no one keeps it in check, then vendors begin to lose customers. It's probably an irrational fear, as I'd like to think most PDF publishers are smart enough not to drive away customers by needlessly driving up prices. Still, it's a fear that was evoked by the price hikes surrounding the minimum checkout increase.

Also, it might be naive of me to say so, but I'd rather see publishers deal with the minimum purchase increase through better marketing efforts. Cross-marketing the near-$5 products with the cheaper $1-$2 products as a means to overcome the minimum checkout would, in my opinion, be a better way to deal with the increase than simply raising prices. Of course, if there is a legitimate reason to raise prices anyways, then there's no issue with raising them. Still, I would like to see better marketing efforts from the majority of publishers.

Oh, as for "ignorance" - perhaps the wrong word to have used. When I say you are "ignorant" of how MODERNIZED is run, I mean simply that you aren't involved in its operation. Also you assumed that a few factors were not present in MODERNIZED's operation when they are. I did not mean ignorance as an insult, but simply a statement that you did not have all the facts. The invitation to discuss it privately, like men of business, is still open to you if you are interested.
 
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PDF prices have been way too low for way too long IMO. The recent changes within the pdf market itself (the arrival of DTRPG and the re-evaluation of costs that this has brought with it), along with the changes in the d20 market itself (which make up the core of the pdf market) mean that the pdf market was probably ready for a small hike in prices.
 

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