deimos3428 wrote:Regardless of the precise cost per-copy, it's going to be more expensive to over-produce copies and have them sit in a warehouse for years vs. producing a reasonable number of copies, selling out, and having to do another run.
ExTSR wrote:One point that few recall, however, was the maps.We were having problems with folks illegally copying and sharing. (At one point there were probably more photocopies of OD&D than originals).So the maps were done in a specific shade of blue that was problematic for the photocopiers of that time.
brute wrote:Imagine seeing a Woodie in a used bookstore...
deimos3428 wrote:TSR would have played it conservatively, as the sales weren't known. (For all they knew, the module might have flopped.)
g026r wrote:I seem to recall a story about how when WotC bought TSR, they sent somebody to inventory their warehouse and found boxes of items from the 80s -- unsold and still valued on the books at their original cover prices.
Wandering Monster wrote: Could you imagine stumbling upon *that* treasure trove??? And if that's the case, I'm shocked that the market wasn't suddenly flooded with all that inventory. Unless of course WotC pulped the stuff.. Anybody have any ideas about this??Cheers,JohnHaka Wandering Monster
I toured a warehouse packed from floor to 50 foot ceiling with products valued as though they would soon be sold to a distributor with production stamps stretching back to the late 1980s. I was 10 pages in to a thick green bar report of inventory, calculating the true value of the material in that warehouse when I realized that my last 100 entries had all been "$0"'s.
g026r wrote:The entire piece is interesting and provides insight into the mid-90s state of TSR, for those who haven't seen it before: http://web.archive.org/web/200405300947 ... Buyout.asp
ExTSR wrote:So the maps were done in a specific shade of blue that was problematic for the photocopiers of that time.
Wandering Monster wrote:Hi everyone,Thanks for the link, g026R! Fascinating reading, as you say... But I can't help noting with more than a hint of irony that WotC/Hasbro doesn't seem to have learned from T$R's mistakes. Having successfully brought D&D back from the brink of death and getting a whole new generation of players hooked on it, what are they doing? Why, completely revising the rules from ground up, to the point where they're going to be incompatible with v3.5! Most of the 3.5 players I know have said they're not going to bother with 4th Edition. Having invested so much money into the ultra-expensive 3.5 books and supplements, they're not going to plonk down money to buy what they already have in one form, all over again -- especially not with the price of gas reaching ever-new heights of ridiculousness and our economy going into recession.But that's only what I've observed, and I seem to have drifted off-topic just a wee bit... Cheers,JohnHaka Wandering Monster
Blackmoor wrote:Speaking of 3.5 vs 4.0. Paizo publishing announced that it will still support 3.5 in 2008, other publishers may follow suit.
