I understand that RPGNow is a legitimate dealer that sells legal pdfs. It seems to me that the older 1st and 2nd edition D&D stuff is a good deal at around $5 per product, assuming the scans are decent quality. I'm a bit puzzled at the prices of the more modern d20 pdfs however.

I'll use Monster Manual 3 as an example, since it was the first thing I clicked on. RPGNow charges $34.95 for the download. I can purchase the actual book from amazon.com for $23.07 and get free shipping if I buy one more item and go over $25.

I guess I don't understand the reasoning of charging more for a pdf than the price of the actual physical product.

Doug:

You are absolutely right.

One would think that RPGNow and DriveThruRPG would want to make sales and get money.

They apparently don't.  The prices for their PDF's are generally about double what they should be...and possibly triple.  In many cases, the RPGNow price is the same as the Ebay price, saving the buyer only shipping.  For instance, Goodman's Belly of the Great Beast, the price on RPGNow is $8.99...only a marginal value over the Ebay store prices.  The same module is almost double that price on DriveThruRPG.

RPGNow recently had a buy-one-get-one "sale" which they built up for a month beforehand.

When the sale came, it was a very very small number of specific items offered as "new bundles."  I very politely let RPGNow know that this was surprising and disappointing.

From what they tell me, I suspect that selllers like RPGNow have their hands tied by publishers who feel that they cannot let their products go for cheap.  It is possible that active gamers are less likely to want the hard copy if they already have a PDF.  I don't know if they have considered the value of a line of their products actually in the public eye as opposed to not stocked at your friendly local game store.

I think that there is a perception in some publishers' minds that a PDF is at least 90% of the value of a hard copy.  For me, the value is about 10-20% of the hard copy value.  I suspect a lot of people share my view.

Some PDF files are in a legitimate price range.  The limited supply of Judges Guild products on DriveThruRPG is a good example of value.

It is not what I want, but I suspect that the high price of PDF files is part of what has driven the illegal availability of free game PDF's currently ready for download on the internet...sort of the same mistake the record companies made.

Mark  

Course the good PDFs to buy are the ones you can copy text or do word searches in. Not some piss poor 'scan to pdf file' job.

ShaneG.

The thing to keep in mind is that it is easy to sell a book when you are done with it, or if it sucks. Books have residual value, unlike PDF's. You COULD sell a purchased PDF, but you'd probably be lucky to find a buyer.