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TheThan
2014-10-04, 06:26 PM
I was doing some internet shopping today for an older RPG setting (D20) book I had heard about, I wanted to check it out because the magic system sounded like the sort of system I would like to use. The book is out of print. However I found that the publisher has PDF copies out for purchase, which is nice I don’t mind digital books. They wanted 17 dollars for it… a digital copy. I checked other sites, and the ones that have it are charging about the same price.

Personally I think that was a WAY much for a digital copy. If it was a hardcopy I wouldn’t mind shelling out that much for it, but we’re talking about something that’s actually intangible. It lives inside your computer, a big box that does magical things. (It’s also much easier to lose that data, than it is to lose your physical book).

The kicker is that I’m not even sure I want this book, I’d like to skim through the thing before I buy, can’t really do that though. I’ll have to hit up the local used book store, maybe I’ll get lucky and find a copy and can look at. (i just realized i didn't check Amazon or Ebay... call me stupid).

So my question to you is: how much are you willing to pay for legitimate digital copies of RGP books?

KillianHawkeye
2014-10-04, 09:38 PM
I don't really see much point in digital books. A PDF isn't much use at the gaming table unless I want to bring my laptop to games (and I don't).

I guess if it's your only option, but I'd much prefer an actual physical book. But if it IS your only option, then I don't see why it would be worth less than the physical book. I mean, how much does the paper and whatnot actually add to the price? You're really paying for the information inside the book either way. And losing information on your computer isn't as easy as it sounds if you know even the first thing about backing up your data (and any computer files that you actually paid for should definitely be on the short list of files you actually take the trouble to back up).

The not being able to flip through and get a preview of the book's contents is an issue, true, but it's the same as buying anything over the Internet. Doesn't matter that it's a PDF rather than a physical book, either there are excerpts available or there aren't.

Sorry for not throwing out a specific dollar amount. I've just never bought a PDF for anything. Heck, I've barely ever ordered ANY gaming books online, just a couple that I couldn't find and that I felt were important enough to want a physical copy at the game table (i.e., D&D 3.5 Spell Compendium).

NichG
2014-10-04, 11:09 PM
I generally prefer digital to physical books. I feel pretty much exactly the opposite about it than TheThan - I can make backups of digital files, but I can't make a backup of a physical object; I can always take digital files with me wherever I go, but I can't always carry or transport a lot of physical books; etc.

That said, I'm also pretty cheap when it comes to gaming materials. I bought a ton of 2ed D&D PDFs (Planescape and Darksun mostly) back when they were still being sold on Paizo for about $5 each, and considered that a very good deal. $17 doesn't sound unreasonable to me, but it depends on how much content the thing has. If its for some thin 40 page thing, I'd say no, but if its for something along the lines of one of the 3.5 splatbooks I'd say that's a reasonable deal.

TheThan
2014-10-05, 11:49 AM
With a hard copy they have to buy the paper, the binding, the ink, print the book (and maintain their printing presses), and then ship their books to their destinations. So I can see why hard copies cost as much as they do, there’s a lot more overhead.

But with a digital copy, you don’t have that, it’s “just” a download. Its intangible data stored in a computer. Plus because this book is out of print, the makers already made the majority of the money they were going to make off of it. People like me are coming along after the fact. So in my mind, digital books should be marked down from hard copies because of the smaller overhead.

I have a tablet so the digital copy is not much of an issue. Tablets tend to work well (get the bigger 10 inch ones), however they don’t multitask well (well, at least mine doesn’t) and depending on the quality of the PDF, may be a bit time consuming to navigate. But the table takes up less room than a laptop and is easier to get out of the way as well.

tomandtish
2014-10-05, 05:09 PM
With a hard copy they have to buy the paper, the binding, the ink, print the book (and maintain their printing presses), and then ship their books to their destinations. So I can see why hard copies cost as much as they do, there’s a lot more overhead.

But with a digital copy, you don’t have that, it’s “just” a download. Its intangible data stored in a computer. Plus because this book is out of print, the makers already made the majority of the money they were going to make off of it. People like me are coming along after the fact. So in my mind, digital books should be marked down from hard copies because of the smaller overhead.

I have a tablet so the digital copy is not much of an issue. Tablets tend to work well (get the bigger 10 inch ones), however they don’t multitask well (well, at least mine doesn’t) and depending on the quality of the PDF, may be a bit time consuming to navigate. But the table takes up less room than a laptop and is easier to get out of the way as well.

But the overhead actually isn't that much less than the paper book itself. I did a lot of looking into this in the past and pretty much all the sources I found say the same (http://michaelhyatt.com/why-do-ebooks-cost-so-much.html) thing (http://ireaderreview.com/2009/05/03/book-cost-analysis-cost-of-physical-book-publishing/): the costs of printing the physical copy of the book are only about 10-12% of the cost of the book, and some of that gets countered by making sure the e-format is set up correctly.

After that the same supply and demand factors are at work. What's the demand for the book? How much of each sale has to go to the author? The publishing company? Agents? The company selling the product only gets what is left, so they'll set their profit accordingly. If the book didn't make a lot of money up front, they may lower the price to see what they get, but they can also leave the price high to get higher value on the few copies they do sell. it's a delicate balance and I'm glad i don't have to figure it out.

With digital books the concept of "out of print" may become a thing of the past. But scarcety can still be an issue. If the company that is selling your book is the only one that sells it (legally anyway), then they'll set whatever price works best for their profit strategy.

TheThan
2014-10-05, 07:31 PM
I’m not saying companies shouldn’t earn a profit, far be it. for all I know, this book retails for a fair bit more and is marked down.

But really, I’m simply considering that I prefer to make wise and informed decisions when I purchase things. I prefer to pay a reasonable price for what I’m getting. I’m not quite certain if the amount I mentioned is a reasonable price.

JusticeZero
2014-10-06, 05:17 AM
The price you listed is a completely reasonable price; it's pretty similar to other ebooks. I happily cough up more than that for electronic format trade papers that are required for research on a regular basis.

NichG
2014-10-06, 05:33 AM
Thats maybe not the best comparison I think. Per-paper prices for research articles are ridiculously through the roof given that a huge chunk of them will end up not even being at all useful, and also given that most researchers will usually put their papers on an open-access site like arXiv or Citeseer for free anyhow.

JusticeZero
2014-10-06, 06:07 AM
I'm not talking about journal articles, i'm talking stuff like Foucault's Discipline and Punish and so on that I have to be conversant in.