What is the right price for D&D books?

[mmadsen]

Is WotC charging too much for their books?

If you ask the customer, is the price too high?, the answer is unsurprisingly, yes, but that's true for any product.

Now, would they sell a lot more product at a lower price? I seriously doubt it.

Are the books too big?

Generally, yes, I think the books are far too big and far to wordy, especially for bringing new players into the game. An encyclopedic tome of magic spells or monsters works as a standalone reference book to pore over, but the core rules should be short, but full of evocative examples.

Are the production values too high?

People love to claim that they don't care about full-color art and other production values, but the people selling the books know better.

Is hardcover good bad or indifferent?

Gaming books get handled a lot more than regular books. Hardcover makes sense for core books.