D&D 4E Support from mainstream booksellers - Ended by 4e?

[TerraDave]

This has happened before.

You will see 4th edition in your not so friendly neighborhood chain bookstore. Like every past edition. (no promises for 5th ed, at least not yet).

 

[Jer]

Other folks have pointed out the biggest thing that will prevent the major chain booksellers from caring about the transition to 4e - returnability. They're going to be able to return unsold books to the distributor, who will turn around and sell them to places that deal in "remaindered" books - some of these will show up on discount tables at Borders, B&N, etc. Others will show up at warehouse stores like Half-Price Books. This goes on all the time right now anyway (a huge shipment of remaindered Dungeon Masters Guide II showed up at all the Half Price Books in town just a couple months ago, for example), so I doubt that the retail booksellers will even notice when their small selection of RPGs undergoes a shift between editions (they didn't seem to notice much 8 years ago when it happened from 2e-3e, for example).

I do want to mention this, though:

What about the FLGS? Their survival DEPENDS that the books that they purchase from the publisher not sit on the shelves and collect dust. I love my FLGS but as I said before I can't see spending my money on an obsolete system.

Yup, FLGS's are going to be in for a bit of a rough ride I suspect. The fact that Wizards is going to be selling some "edition proof" material as 3e rides off into the sunset may help somewhat, but if they have a backstock of 3e PHBs, DMGs and MMs, this may hurt - those are items that are supposed to be saleable year-round, and we're entering a time where for the next 9 months very few people are probably going to be buying them.

The 2e-3e transition isn't the best model for determining the impact of this either - TSR had been bankrupt and bought out by Wizards, very little 2e stuff had been coming down the pike for a while anyway, and the money stream for a lot of FLGSs was collectable card games. It might be more like the 3e-3.5e transition, which I've heard hurt but was followed by a sizable sales bump when 3.5e finally came out. I'm hoping its the latter - I like to see money go to the FLGSs whenever possible.

 

[HellHound]

Few FLGSs stock a LOT of the core rules this late in the sales cycle.

The five or so that I visited in the past 6 months stocked a single set of core rules at a time. That's not a huge killer. The supplemental books are going to be a little rougher since my favourite store still has 3-4 of a large number of the supplements.

 

[TerraDave]

And don't assume that people--out of ignorance--won't continue to buy outdated products. 4thed could help with sales of older books.

 

[Dinkeldog]

And not just out of ignorance. I've gotten some 3.5 stuff because I intend to mine the fluff. I did the same thing with 2E stuff that wasn't going to be supported in 3E.

 

[Pozatronic]

BTW those returned "unsold books" by law are supposed to have the cover ripped off and be "destroyed" in essence so no chance of re-selling them to a secondary market or have a fire sale to recoup the money you lost when the distributor came knocking for the return check.Case

They only take the covers off ("strip") of Mass Market books (the small paperbacks that you always find at supermarket counters) and periodicals/magazines. Hardcovers and quality paperbacks (the more expensive soft covers) get sent back whole cloth. Where do you think a good chunk of those Remainders come from. Although, I've never ever seen a roleplaying book remaindered.
And it's not "by law" that they do that; they only do it to save on shipping prices. 1000 stripped covers weighs a hell of a lot less than 1000 mass market books. Although the rest of the book does get destroyed, which I think is a gigantic shame. You know how many copies of Dungeon and Dragon magazines I've had to destroy. It always hurt a little.

 

[BadMojo]

I'm not sure why you would think that major booksellers would stop carrying DnD books. I was working at a Borders during the change over from second to third edition, and it went off without a hitch. The only people who even noticed there was a change were the small number of role-players who actually worked there; all three of us.

Yeah, I really assumed that the major chains wouldn't even be troubled to notice on a corporate level. A few returned PHb's, etc. seems like a drop in the bucket compared to a couple thousand poor, forgotten copies of "Who Moved my Cheese".

I'd be curious to see, as another poster mentioned, if we start seeing Wizards stuff in Target and Walmart stores. Maybe with the "exclusive" bundles or extra stuff that you see with everything from books to Xbox's and DVDs.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I imagine that in most local bookstores (such as Borders or Barnes & Noble) they will still have 3.5 books sitting on the shelf long after the release of 4.0.

In most cases, it's just another book to order and stock. Unless someone who works there is really paying attention, no one is going to realize a new edition is out.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Chain bookstores don't get "burned" by getting stuck with too many books. They just mark them way down and unload them that way. Worst case scenario, they smack their managers upside the head for ordering too much. But Publisher's Weekly and the like will let all the book industry folks know to choke off reordering 3E stuff before the end. I suspect the next issue will announce it, if it hasn't already happened.

And multinational corporations rarely punish a supplier for changing their products. Profit, not spite, is their motivating factor.

If anything, I'd say 4E is likely to have a higher profile than 3E does currently, since it'll get the big obligatory promotional push.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Where do you think a good chunk of those Remainders come from. Although, I've never ever seen a roleplaying book remaindered.

You have to know where to look. If you've got a Half Price Books in your neighborhood, keep your eye open; WotC material comes through them fairly often. (I remember grabbing a remaindered DMG2 and Heroes of Horror about this time last year for $13 each.)