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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 1778472" data-attributes="member: 18280">This is just a quick note, but I hope you do realize that the "skyrocketing price of hardcovers" is due, in part, to online business?In the old days, the publisher would place a solicitation and, from that solicitation, determine how much stock to produce.  So all those FLGSs out there predetermined, to an extent, the size of a printing run, as well as decisions like cost, paper, ink, etc.Leap ahead to today.  An online restailer doesn't necessarily have to keep a storefront, so his costs go way down, increasing his ability to offer discounts.  You would think that this would limit his risks sufficiently.  But recently some very large retailers have forced publishers into the position of undertaking all of the risks involved.  The publisher sends the retailer goods at significant discount, which, if they don't sell, can be returned to the publisher at the publisher's cost.The publisher now has to maintain her profitability, and try to limit her risks.  She does this by making the first printing plates permanent ones, so that she can make smaller print runs of the product, and continue to make those print runs as needed.  This limits her risks, but increases her costs.  The 100% return guarantee increases her risks.  The higher discount for larger volume exposure (which has to be given even if sales are marginal) increases her cost.In order to live long and prosper, she has to increase the cost of her product.This trend then continues ad infinitum ad nauseum, and the cost of the books skyrockets.And it isn't just RPG stuff and books.  Businesspeople have learned that we, as human beings, don't think ahead very far.  We don't tend to see these things as interconnected.I want to buy product X.  Product X costs $50, but a local bulk store can sell it to me for $30.  The actual cost of the product to the smaller retailer is about $27.50, including shipping.  This might seem to be a lot of mark-up, but it is actually not that much.  In generally, you want to sell a product for twice what you paid for it if you want to stay in business.  Otherwise, the costs of maintaining the selling location, plus trying to survive, will run you into the ground.So, how does that bulk place survive?Same as the online retailer.  Some places go so far as to make the producer responsible for stocking and shelving products in their store, store displays, and an agreement to pay the superstore if the product does not sell as well as expected.  They make very little off each item sold, but they accept almost no liability and they pay their employees something far below a living wage.So, now the producers of those products are in the same boat as publishers.  How do they reduce their costs and liabilities?  Well, one of the easiest ways is to cut corners in production.  Another is reducing wagers of employees, or the number of employees, or both.  In real world terms, not including a regular cost of living increase for employees is a simple method of lowering effective pay without seeming to do so.The kicker is that, as wages are reduced in an industry, Corporation Z, which does not deal with bulk supplier, can and probably will reduce its prices to "industry standard".  This also affects wages in other industries....and as wages lower across the board, the need to save the extra couple of dollars becomes crucial.  Suddenly, even if you were supporting local retailers before, your money lands in the pockets of the people who helped insure that the prices would go up, squeezed your FLGS out of being able to offer a real discount (which has become a lot rarer these days), and helped to lower your spending cash overall.Nothing you can do about it, my friends.  This is simply the direction in which we are moving.RC</blockquote>

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