ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
dcas said:
Printing costs are often the biggest expense for a book.
Tell me about the 1E AD&D DMG
- Thread starter Ringan
- Start date
Printing costs are often the biggest expense for a book.
cybertalus
First Post
There was also the cost of lost sales of the 2nd Edition core books.dcas said:
dcas
First Post
cybertalus said:
Well, who knows how many of the 1e buyers would have bought 2e books anyway? or how many of them might have bought it eventually after all?
There were at least two printings (16th and 17th) of the 1e PHB after the 2e PHB was released. Surely not even TSR would have made the same mistake twice?
But I don't mean to get into a debate. Sorry if I've come off as smarmy and all-knowing.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
dcas said:
Maybe so, but in the case of the thread's subject, the 1e DMG, that's not the case.
dcas
First Post
My point was that as far as RPG core books are concerned, it's cheaper to reprint than it is to develop a whole new version. So if there are sufficient numbers still interested in an earlier edition, then there's no reason not to sell it to them.ColonelHardisson said:
I don't think TSR had any intention of supporting both product lines, though, as they did with AD&D and BECMI D&D.
Henry
Autoexreginated
TSR did several things that financially speaking didn't make sense in the early to mid 90's. To reprint the 1E books when demand was so high meant that TSR was competing with itself; the 1E DMG and PHB and MM were competing with the 2E versions of same. When the one company is producing two products to the same market, they're wasting money.
Of course, it also could have told TSR something else entirely if the 1e versions were consistently outselling the 2E...
Of course, it also could have told TSR something else entirely if the 1e versions were consistently outselling the 2E...
dcas
First Post
Not necessarily since there's no guarantee that those still buying the 1e books would buy the 2e books anyway, and no guarantee that they might not buy the 2e books later on in any case.Henry said:
TSR did lots of silly things but I don't think this was necessarily one of them. If they had continued to support 1e in Dragon and Dungeon, then I might agree.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
dcas said:
My point is that printing costs may be prohibitively high to justify a reprint. There is some interest, but there's no telling how much. Print runs are more expensive per unit the smaller they are, so they wouldn't want to bother with it if they can't be assured that they won't have a warehouse of books sitting around. Even a small print run with an absolute guarantee that it would sell out may not have enough of a profit margin to be worthwhile to them. Plus, they'd be competing with tons of the older books that are sitting at game and book shops - I know I've seen them at various such places all across the country.
dcas
First Post
Well, in the case of TSR and the 1e books, there was a way to tell how much -- the orders for the books being placed by the distributors. It might have gone something like this:ColonelHardisson said:
TSR Staffer #1: "Hmmm, here's an order for 10,000 PHBs. How do we fill it? That's a good chunk of change, even for a massive operation like ours."
TSR Staffer #2: "I know, let's have another print run of 10,000!"
TSR Staffer #1: "Good show!"
I am not suggesting that the current RPG market is ripe for just such a reprint, btw.TSR Staffer #2: "I know, let's have another print run of 10,000!"
TSR Staffer #1: "Good show!"
