A Question About WotC's d20 PDF's [Archive] - Wizards Community

A Question About WotC's d20 PDF's [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
DoveArrow
07-17-07, 06:36 PM Why is it that, even though Wizards has eliminated the cost of publishing, shipping, and distributing their product by going digital, their PDF versions still cost as much as a printed copy? I find this particularly perplexing when you consider the fact that a printed copy can be bought on Amazon for even less than a PDF version.

Seriously, if anyone has an answer to this question, I'd like to hear it, because it just seems counterintuitive to me that you would charge the same, if not more, when you consider the fact that a PDF version of a book is a lot less convenient than having a printed copy of the same book.
Azezel
07-17-07, 06:47 PM Because people will pay that much.

Just a few days ago there was a thread on this very board in which the poster was thanking WotC for the chance to pay an aditional $40 for an Electronic Eberron.

It's one of those 'A fool and his money' things...
penchant
07-17-07, 07:05 PM I disagree. The reason in because of the established system of patronage through the publishing conglomerates.

The cost of a book is built on the fact that every time it passes through a set of hands it doubles in cost. The retailer you buy it from at full price (Assume you did) only paid half the cover at cost. The distributer who sold it to him only paid about a quarter of cover price, and so on. WotC only makes a very small percentage of the cover price and depends on LOTS of books being sold.

If they then offer the same books available at 1/4 of the price online, they are obviously undercutting the very people that helped them to distribute their books to begin with. having done so, their publishers and distributers will drop them and the game shop owners will find other products to sell and promote.

WotC WANTS to offer you the PDF's at a good price, but they cannot or risk losing everything.
Kouk
07-17-07, 07:31 PM For a very few people, electronic versions are actually more useful. Those with light laptops that keep all their information on it and always bring it to the table and such.

Most people would look at the price of the online books and scoff, and I don't think these full prices do anything to dissuade people from trying to download the books for free for what amounts to a less useful product (most of us don't drag laptops with us everywhere).

I believe they would sell more copies if they actually reduced the cost, and people would still buy the books anyway for the sheer usefulness of having it in print.

Their marketing strategy seems to work on the assumption that people will either buy the books OR the .pdf for some reason, while in reality (from my experience) people will buy the book, but wouldn't pay the full price for an intangible .pdf, and might "borrow" the books in electronic format from others who did buy them (or scanned their own books).

I feel they would sell many more books overall if they made the .pdf s cheaper. People could buy the book electronically to see if it was something they wanted, and if it was they would most likely purchase a "real" printed book so they could utilize the material at a gaming table and easily be able to flip back and forth between the pages.

But nobody listens to me.

By the way, I am not advocating people download the books illegally, I am advocating that WotC makes their digital books much cheaper to actually reduce the number of people downloading the books illegally.
Seeker95
07-17-07, 08:02 PM Why charge "full price" for a PDF?

Because a full price PDF is significantly cheaper than a print copy when you:
Are a GI stationed overseas.
Live in a country outside the US.

Because a full price PDF is significantly more convenient than a print copy when you:
Travel frequently with little luggage capacity.
Use your laptop for everything.
Tekumel
07-19-07, 10:48 PM Not to mention a full price PDF is MORE PROFITABLE.

Think about it...

(The following is grossly oversimplified, and I admit this from the beginning).

1. Writers write the book.
2. Editors take a nap, wake up suddenly, and pass the book off as "final" without looking at it.
3. It goes to layout for the formatting, addition of artwork, etc.
4. Master gets sent to the printer.
5. Printed books are sent to a distributor.
6. Distributor tacks on its markup and sells it to your FLGS.
7. FLGS adds on their markup, and sells it to you.

In a PDF format, it looks more like this:

1. Writers write the book.
2. Editors take a nap, wake up suddenly, and pass the book off as "final" without looking at it.
3. It goes to layout for the formatting, addition of artwork, etc.
4. Master gets formatted into a PDF.
5. Master PDF gets sold to DrivethruRPG (most likely at a higher price than to paper distributors, so that Wizards gets a bigger cut).
6. DrivethruRPG sells it to you, at roughly the same price your FLGS would sell you a shiny new book.

In the end, WotC & DrivethruRPG are going to make more profit each than WotC, the distributor, and your FLGS are per sale by cutting out the distribution process, shipping, etc.

Because a full price PDF is significantly cheaper than a print copy when you:
Are a GI stationed overseas.

This is true, and NOT true. If you take into account that Time = Money, then YES, it's cheaper for a GI stationed in a location where he is forced to use APO/FPO.

However, in actual dollar cost, in my experience it was the same. APO/FPO mail (at least while I was in the Middle East, I'm not sure about other international duty stations) was only charged shipping to the California shipping center where it was collected to be sent overseas.

That is, if I ordered a book from Amazon while I was in Iraq, I paid shipping as if I was sitting in California. The government collected the mail there, and would pack as much of it as possible into cargo flights headed over anyway, and essentially paid the shipping from CA to Iraq. Yes, it means that 5-8 day shipping becomes 3-6 weeks, but it's still the same dollar amount as a domestic order.
Seeker95
07-20-07, 08:40 AM APO/FPO mail (at least while I was in the Middle East, I'm not sure about other international duty stations) was only charged shipping to the California shipping center where it was collected to be sent overseas.I am very pleased to learn of this. Does it apply to peace-time posts as well? (Like if my father were still stationed in Augsburg, Germany instead of retired stateside?)
Kamin_Majere
07-20-07, 10:24 AM I disagree. The reason in because of the established system of patronage through the publishing conglomerates.

The cost of a book is built on the fact that every time it passes through a set of hands it doubles in cost. The retailer you buy it from at full price (Assume you did) only paid half the cover at cost. The distributer who sold it to him only paid about a quarter of cover price, and so on. WotC only makes a very small percentage of the cover price and depends on LOTS of books being sold.

If they then offer the same books available at 1/4 of the price online, they are obviously undercutting the very people that helped them to distribute their books to begin with. having done so, their publishers and distributers will drop them and the game shop owners will find other products to sell and promote.

WotC WANTS to offer you the PDF's at a good price, but they cannot or risk losing everything.

Thats simply not true. If you get a book from WotC directly as a LGS you pay about 45-55 precent of the cover price (according to when you buy it and if its a new vs old product) and then you sell it at MSRP you get 55-45 precent in a profit to hopefully keep the store going.

The distributers generally pay the same for the book (though the larger ones can generally get a bit of a dicsount averaging 5% or so) and if you get the book from a distributer you end up paying 55-65 precent of the price and then sell it at MSRP and only get 45-35 precent of the profit to hopefully keep the store going.

WotC will generally make the same on a book no matter who they sell it to before distribution to the public. Its the end guy that makes more or less profit according to where they get it from.

Thats generally the same for all Hobby companies. Games Workshop has pretty much the exact same policy. Expect instead of PDF files they have "offical" GW stores. And even though they sell only GW products (which are given to the store by GW itself and thus "should" cost 55% of what the Retail price is) they still charge full MSRP even though it costs them nothing really to stock the store.
penchant
07-20-07, 02:34 PM Thats simply not true. If you get a book from WotC directly as a LGS you pay about 45-55 precent of the cover price (according to when you buy it and if its a new vs old product) and then you sell it at MSRP you get 55-45 precent in a profit to hopefully keep the store going.

The distributers generally pay the same for the book (though the larger ones can generally get a bit of a dicsount averaging 5% or so) and if you get the book from a distributer you end up paying 55-65 precent of the price and then sell it at MSRP and only get 45-35 precent of the profit to hopefully keep the store going.

WotC will generally make the same on a book no matter who they sell it to before distribution to the public. Its the end guy that makes more or less profit according to where they get it from.

Thats generally the same for all Hobby companies. Games Workshop has pretty much the exact same policy. Expect instead of PDF files they have "offical" GW stores. And even though they sell only GW products (which are given to the store by GW itself and thus "should" cost 55% of what the Retail price is) they still charge full MSRP even though it costs them nothing really to stock the store.

Generally what you are saying is generally what I am saying. I know the wholesale on the books are around 50% of cover (and 45% to 55% is around that figure). Now I am only guessing about what the distributor pays since I am not one so that may be what you are disagreeing with. But my point had little to do with the distributor, but with the publisher and keeping them happy. If you disagree with that point, then say so since that was what my statement was all about.
Kamin_Majere
07-20-07, 03:34 PM I was mostly refering to your bit about WotC selling to some for 1/4 price. They sell to everyone at pretty much the same price (with in 5 to 10 precent of each other)

They get the same 45-55 precent from all of the books reguardless of the outsource.

And in my weird round about way i was saying why WotC sold PDF's at the same price (well at least why most retailers do)

Even though it costs them nothing, if they make it too much more attractive than the books then those sales will slump.

In my Games workshop example. Most of GW's profit comes from distribution to LGS's even though they make 100% of retail in their own stores vs the 55% they make in LGS's, because they cant(dont want to) afford to open thousands and thousands of LGS's to get the business. Hobby stores provide the income and the "offical store" just kinda are there to take over if a market is good enough or to promote the name.

If WotC PDF's started undercutting the LGS's then most of their profit would suffer as its the stores that buy their books and thus generate the profit.

But its a weird business relationship and this probably is not the place to discuss it, so i'm just going to appoligize if i misunderstood you.
Cheers mate
penchant
07-20-07, 05:58 PM Ok, well we agree in principle then.

It just rubs me the wrong way when people immediately start shouting about how unfair it is, and how greedy they are to charge such a price. This is capitalism, and when you offer a product you charge the price you want. If it is too much you sell less and don't succeed. Then you drop your prices (which is what happened, at least in short term), but must keep other market interests in mind (like your partners and suppliers) so that you don't profit off the losses of others you need to stay in business.
devinmdp
07-20-07, 07:22 PM Why charge "full price" for a PDF?

Because a full price PDF is significantly cheaper than a print copy when you:
Are a GI stationed overseas.
Live in a country outside the US.

Because a full price PDF is significantly more convenient than a print copy when you:
Travel frequently with little luggage capacity.
Use your laptop for everything.

A full price pdf is more expensive when Bit Torrent exists. Let's be realistic here.

Devin
Edymnion
07-20-07, 08:04 PM A full price pdf is more expensive when Bit Torrent exists. Let's be realistic here.Of course, thats the other edge of the sword. Downloading the books illegally would not be such an issue if the companies weren't charging full hardcopy price for the PDFs.
Tekumel
07-20-07, 10:36 PM I am very pleased to learn of this. Does it apply to peace-time posts as well? (Like if my father were still stationed in Augsburg, Germany instead of retired stateside?)

I can't say for sure. The only times I was overseas was in the Middle East.

A full price pdf is more expensive when Bit Torrent exists. Let's be realistic here.

Devin

Eh...y'know, BitTorrent will get you books...but the majority of the copies you see there aren't really worth downloading. The scans are crap, there's no indexing/searching/bookmarking like a real PDF...if you REALLY want a book, and are willing to deal with the consequences, I suppose it works (Obviously, not recommended due to that whole legality thig). Like I said before though, I'd gladly buy a PDF, if it was just a surcharge tacked onto the book itself.
penchant
07-21-07, 08:01 AM The books should come with licences for the PDF version. When you buy the book you tear out the card, go online and DL the PDF with the code. I agree whole heartedly. The 3.0 books came with a disk! It had the "demo version" of the software they never delivered on. I would pay a couple dollars more if evey book came with a disk with the PDF verson of the book and related Character sheets, news adverts etc. Or the same price for a free DL.
DigitalMage
07-23-07, 10:41 AM Because people will pay that much.

Just a few days ago there was a thread on this very board in which the poster was thanking WotC for the chance to pay an aditional $40 for an Electronic Eberron.

It's one of those 'A fool and his money' things...
Apparently I am that "fool". But yes, some people will pay that much and for the Eberron Campaign Setting book I was willing to pay full price - why? Because I struggle to get access to my hardcopy and so buying the PDF allowed me to gain access to the Eberron setting again and start plotting scenarios for it. Without the PDF I wasn't able to do this.

Yes, I would have liked it cheaper (and if I had waited a few days I could have got it in the sale!) but I weighed up the cost and the benefits and for me the cost was worth it - not just in monetary terms but also the opportunity cost (i.e. by buying Eberron at $40 was I missing out on the opportunity to buy something else I wanted? For me, I am fairly well off so the answer was no).

Do I believe WOTC will make more sales and probably more money on their PDFs by reducing the price? Yes.

Do I think WOTC are behind the times in thinking that customers will buy either hardcopy or PDF (when many buy both) and therefore charge full price so as not to undercut the physical stores? Yes

Personally Eberron was the one WOTC book I really wanted in PDF - I don't plan to buy any more WOTC D&D books in PDF or hardcopy (I have the 3 core, Eberron, FR & LGG and that is all I desire) so paying full price for one book isn't so bad.

Other companies seem to see things differently from WOTC and price their PDFs accordingly. I bought RuneQuest and RuneQuest Companion in a Buy One Get One Free sale in PDF format for only about �9 for both - this has then encouraged me to spend a further �12 on the Glorantha PDF and I will likely spend �55 buying them all in hardcopy as well as I generally like what I see.

I have also just bought New Gods of Mankind: New God's handbook in PDF for a fiver having only stumbled upon it and checked out the previews. If I like it I will undoubtedly buy the hardcopy and then the PDF and hardcopy of the GM book coming out as well.

This shows that lower priced PDFs can actually generate hardcopy sales and draw people into new game lines - the cheap PDF allowing for more of an impulse buy and allowing people to look at the game before commiting to buy the full price hardcopy.

It seems however that WOTC are happy just to get the much fewer sales by those people happy to pay full price. And to be honest, that is their perogative, they don't need to sell loads of PDFs to remain profitable.
DougyJ
07-25-07, 08:30 PM one of my buddy's buddies converts his own books in to PDF. So I get all my books from "that guy" I have one Hard copy book and that is Complete Adventurer... Sadly had I waited i Could have gotten that too...
Edymnion
07-25-07, 09:26 PM The 3.0 books came with a disk! It had the "demo version" of the software they never delivered on.Yes they did, it was eTools.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DoveArrow 07-17-07, 06:36 PM	Why is it that, even though Wizards has eliminated the cost of publishing, shipping, and distributing their product by going digital, their PDF versions still cost as much as a printed copy? I find this particularly perplexing when you consider the fact that a printed copy can be bought on Amazon for even less than a PDF version. Seriously, if anyone has an answer to this question, I'd like to hear it, because it just seems counterintuitive to me that you would charge the same, if not more, when you consider the fact that a PDF version of a book is a lot less convenient than having a printed copy of the same book.
Azezel 07-17-07, 06:47 PM	Because people will pay that much. Just a few days ago there was a thread on this very board in which the poster was thanking WotC for the chance to pay an aditional $40 for an Electronic Eberron. It's one of those 'A fool and his money' things...
penchant 07-17-07, 07:05 PM	I disagree. The reason in because of the established system of patronage through the publishing conglomerates. The cost of a book is built on the fact that every time it passes through a set of hands it doubles in cost. The retailer you buy it from at full price (Assume you did) only paid half the cover at cost. The distributer who sold it to him only paid about a quarter of cover price, and so on. WotC only makes a very small percentage of the cover price and depends on LOTS of books being sold. If they then offer the same books available at 1/4 of the price online, they are obviously undercutting the very people that helped them to distribute their books to begin with. having done so, their publishers and distributers will drop them and the game shop owners will find other products to sell and promote. WotC WANTS to offer you the PDF's at a good price, but they cannot or risk losing everything.
Kouk 07-17-07, 07:31 PM	For a very few people, electronic versions are actually more useful. Those with light laptops that keep all their information on it and always bring it to the table and such. Most people would look at the price of the online books and scoff, and I don't think these full prices do anything to dissuade people from trying to download the books for free for what amounts to a less useful product (most of us don't drag laptops with us everywhere). I believe they would sell more copies if they actually reduced the cost, and people would still buy the books anyway for the sheer usefulness of having it in print. Their marketing strategy seems to work on the assumption that people will either buy the books OR the .pdf for some reason, while in reality (from my experience) people will buy the book, but wouldn't pay the full price for an intangible .pdf, and might "borrow" the books in electronic format from others who did buy them (or scanned their own books). I feel they would sell many more books overall if they made the .pdf s cheaper. People could buy the book electronically to see if it was something they wanted, and if it was they would most likely purchase a "real" printed book so they could utilize the material at a gaming table and easily be able to flip back and forth between the pages. But nobody listens to me. By the way, I am not advocating people download the books illegally, I am advocating that WotC makes their digital books much cheaper to actually reduce the number of people downloading the books illegally.
Seeker95 07-17-07, 08:02 PM	Why charge "full price" for a PDF? Because a full price PDF is significantly cheaper than a print copy when you: Are a GI stationed overseas. Live in a country outside the US. Because a full price PDF is significantly more convenient than a print copy when you: Travel frequently with little luggage capacity. Use your laptop for everything.
Tekumel 07-19-07, 10:48 PM	Not to mention a full price PDF is MORE PROFITABLE. Think about it... (The following is grossly oversimplified, and I admit this from the beginning). 1. Writers write the book. 2. Editors take a nap, wake up suddenly, and pass the book off as "final" without looking at it. 3. It goes to layout for the formatting, addition of artwork, etc. 4. Master gets sent to the printer. 5. Printed books are sent to a distributor. 6. Distributor tacks on its markup and sells it to your FLGS. 7. FLGS adds on their markup, and sells it to you. In a PDF format, it looks more like this: 1. Writers write the book. 2. Editors take a nap, wake up suddenly, and pass the book off as "final" without looking at it. 3. It goes to layout for the formatting, addition of artwork, etc. 4. Master gets formatted into a PDF. 5. Master PDF gets sold to DrivethruRPG (most likely at a higher price than to paper distributors, so that Wizards gets a bigger cut). 6. DrivethruRPG sells it to you, at roughly the same price your FLGS would sell you a shiny new book. In the end, WotC & DrivethruRPG are going to make more profit each than WotC, the distributor, and your FLGS are per sale by cutting out the distribution process, shipping, etc. Because a full price PDF is significantly cheaper than a print copy when you: Are a GI stationed overseas. This is true, and NOT true. If you take into account that Time = Money, then YES, it's cheaper for a GI stationed in a location where he is forced to use APO/FPO. However, in actual dollar cost, in my experience it was the same. APO/FPO mail (at least while I was in the Middle East, I'm not sure about other international duty stations) was only charged shipping to the California shipping center where it was collected to be sent overseas. That is, if I ordered a book from Amazon while I was in Iraq, I paid shipping as if I was sitting in California. The government collected the mail there, and would pack as much of it as possible into cargo flights headed over anyway, and essentially paid the shipping from CA to Iraq. Yes, it means that 5-8 day shipping becomes 3-6 weeks, but it's still the same dollar amount as a domestic order.
Seeker95 07-20-07, 08:40 AM	APO/FPO mail (at least while I was in the Middle East, I'm not sure about other international duty stations) was only charged shipping to the California shipping center where it was collected to be sent overseas.I am very pleased to learn of this. Does it apply to peace-time posts as well? (Like if my father were still stationed in Augsburg, Germany instead of retired stateside?)
Kamin_Majere 07-20-07, 10:24 AM	I disagree. The reason in because of the established system of patronage through the publishing conglomerates. The cost of a book is built on the fact that every time it passes through a set of hands it doubles in cost. The retailer you buy it from at full price (Assume you did) only paid half the cover at cost. The distributer who sold it to him only paid about a quarter of cover price, and so on. WotC only makes a very small percentage of the cover price and depends on LOTS of books being sold. If they then offer the same books available at 1/4 of the price online, they are obviously undercutting the very people that helped them to distribute their books to begin with. having done so, their publishers and distributers will drop them and the game shop owners will find other products to sell and promote. WotC WANTS to offer you the PDF's at a good price, but they cannot or risk losing everything. Thats simply not true. If you get a book from WotC directly as a LGS you pay about 45-55 precent of the cover price (according to when you buy it and if its a new vs old product) and then you sell it at MSRP you get 55-45 precent in a profit to hopefully keep the store going. The distributers generally pay the same for the book (though the larger ones can generally get a bit of a dicsount averaging 5% or so) and if you get the book from a distributer you end up paying 55-65 precent of the price and then sell it at MSRP and only get 45-35 precent of the profit to hopefully keep the store going. WotC will generally make the same on a book no matter who they sell it to before distribution to the public. Its the end guy that makes more or less profit according to where they get it from. Thats generally the same for all Hobby companies. Games Workshop has pretty much the exact same policy. Expect instead of PDF files they have "offical" GW stores. And even though they sell only GW products (which are given to the store by GW itself and thus "should" cost 55% of what the Retail price is) they still charge full MSRP even though it costs them nothing really to stock the store.
penchant 07-20-07, 02:34 PM	Thats simply not true. If you get a book from WotC directly as a LGS you pay about 45-55 precent of the cover price (according to when you buy it and if its a new vs old product) and then you sell it at MSRP you get 55-45 precent in a profit to hopefully keep the store going. The distributers generally pay the same for the book (though the larger ones can generally get a bit of a dicsount averaging 5% or so) and if you get the book from a distributer you end up paying 55-65 precent of the price and then sell it at MSRP and only get 45-35 precent of the profit to hopefully keep the store going. WotC will generally make the same on a book no matter who they sell it to before distribution to the public. Its the end guy that makes more or less profit according to where they get it from. Thats generally the same for all Hobby companies. Games Workshop has pretty much the exact same policy. Expect instead of PDF files they have "offical" GW stores. And even though they sell only GW products (which are given to the store by GW itself and thus "should" cost 55% of what the Retail price is) they still charge full MSRP even though it costs them nothing really to stock the store. Generally what you are saying is generally what I am saying. I know the wholesale on the books are around 50% of cover (and 45% to 55% is around that figure). Now I am only guessing about what the distributor pays since I am not one so that may be what you are disagreeing with. But my point had little to do with the distributor, but with the publisher and keeping them happy. If you disagree with that point, then say so since that was what my statement was all about.
Kamin_Majere 07-20-07, 03:34 PM	I was mostly refering to your bit about WotC selling to some for 1/4 price. They sell to everyone at pretty much the same price (with in 5 to 10 precent of each other) They get the same 45-55 precent from all of the books reguardless of the outsource. And in my weird round about way i was saying why WotC sold PDF's at the same price (well at least why most retailers do) Even though it costs them nothing, if they make it too much more attractive than the books then those sales will slump. In my Games workshop example. Most of GW's profit comes from distribution to LGS's even though they make 100% of retail in their own stores vs the 55% they make in LGS's, because they cant(dont want to) afford to open thousands and thousands of LGS's to get the business. Hobby stores provide the income and the "offical store" just kinda are there to take over if a market is good enough or to promote the name. If WotC PDF's started undercutting the LGS's then most of their profit would suffer as its the stores that buy their books and thus generate the profit. But its a weird business relationship and this probably is not the place to discuss it, so i'm just going to appoligize if i misunderstood you. Cheers mate
penchant 07-20-07, 05:58 PM	Ok, well we agree in principle then. It just rubs me the wrong way when people immediately start shouting about how unfair it is, and how greedy they are to charge such a price. This is capitalism, and when you offer a product you charge the price you want. If it is too much you sell less and don't succeed. Then you drop your prices (which is what happened, at least in short term), but must keep other market interests in mind (like your partners and suppliers) so that you don't profit off the losses of others you need to stay in business.
devinmdp 07-20-07, 07:22 PM	Why charge "full price" for a PDF? Because a full price PDF is significantly cheaper than a print copy when you: Are a GI stationed overseas. Live in a country outside the US. Because a full price PDF is significantly more convenient than a print copy when you: Travel frequently with little luggage capacity. Use your laptop for everything. A full price pdf is more expensive when Bit Torrent exists. Let's be realistic here. Devin
Edymnion 07-20-07, 08:04 PM	A full price pdf is more expensive when Bit Torrent exists. Let's be realistic here.Of course, thats the other edge of the sword. Downloading the books illegally would not be such an issue if the companies weren't charging full hardcopy price for the PDFs.
Tekumel 07-20-07, 10:36 PM	I am very pleased to learn of this. Does it apply to peace-time posts as well? (Like if my father were still stationed in Augsburg, Germany instead of retired stateside?) I can't say for sure. The only times I was overseas was in the Middle East. A full price pdf is more expensive when Bit Torrent exists. Let's be realistic here. Devin Eh...y'know, BitTorrent will get you books...but the majority of the copies you see there aren't really worth downloading. The scans are crap, there's no indexing/searching/bookmarking like a real PDF...if you REALLY want a book, and are willing to deal with the consequences, I suppose it works (Obviously, not recommended due to that whole legality thig). Like I said before though, I'd gladly buy a PDF, if it was just a surcharge tacked onto the book itself.
penchant 07-21-07, 08:01 AM	The books should come with licences for the PDF version. When you buy the book you tear out the card, go online and DL the PDF with the code. I agree whole heartedly. The 3.0 books came with a disk! It had the "demo version" of the software they never delivered on. I would pay a couple dollars more if evey book came with a disk with the PDF verson of the book and related Character sheets, news adverts etc. Or the same price for a free DL.
DigitalMage 07-23-07, 10:41 AM	Because people will pay that much. Just a few days ago there was a thread on this very board in which the poster was thanking WotC for the chance to pay an aditional $40 for an Electronic Eberron. It's one of those 'A fool and his money' things... Apparently I am that "fool". But yes, some people will pay that much and for the Eberron Campaign Setting book I was willing to pay full price - why? Because I struggle to get access to my hardcopy and so buying the PDF allowed me to gain access to the Eberron setting again and start plotting scenarios for it. Without the PDF I wasn't able to do this. Yes, I would have liked it cheaper (and if I had waited a few days I could have got it in the sale!) but I weighed up the cost and the benefits and for me the cost was worth it - not just in monetary terms but also the opportunity cost (i.e. by buying Eberron at $40 was I missing out on the opportunity to buy something else I wanted? For me, I am fairly well off so the answer was no). Do I believe WOTC will make more sales and probably more money on their PDFs by reducing the price? Yes. Do I think WOTC are behind the times in thinking that customers will buy either hardcopy or PDF (when many buy both) and therefore charge full price so as not to undercut the physical stores? Yes Personally Eberron was the one WOTC book I really wanted in PDF - I don't plan to buy any more WOTC D&D books in PDF or hardcopy (I have the 3 core, Eberron, FR & LGG and that is all I desire) so paying full price for one book isn't so bad. Other companies seem to see things differently from WOTC and price their PDFs accordingly. I bought RuneQuest and RuneQuest Companion in a Buy One Get One Free sale in PDF format for only about �9 for both - this has then encouraged me to spend a further �12 on the Glorantha PDF and I will likely spend �55 buying them all in hardcopy as well as I generally like what I see. I have also just bought New Gods of Mankind: New God's handbook in PDF for a fiver having only stumbled upon it and checked out the previews. If I like it I will undoubtedly buy the hardcopy and then the PDF and hardcopy of the GM book coming out as well. This shows that lower priced PDFs can actually generate hardcopy sales and draw people into new game lines - the cheap PDF allowing for more of an impulse buy and allowing people to look at the game before commiting to buy the full price hardcopy. It seems however that WOTC are happy just to get the much fewer sales by those people happy to pay full price. And to be honest, that is their perogative, they don't need to sell loads of PDFs to remain profitable.
DougyJ 07-25-07, 08:30 PM	one of my buddy's buddies converts his own books in to PDF. So I get all my books from "that guy" I have one Hard copy book and that is Complete Adventurer... Sadly had I waited i Could have gotten that too...
Edymnion 07-25-07, 09:26 PM	The 3.0 books came with a disk! It had the "demo version" of the software they never delivered on.Yes they did, it was eTools.