I have just recently gotten into Pathfinder in the last couple of months, and am nearing my GM debut after buying the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Adventure path.
I feel that whilst you get your moneys worth and then some with pathfinder products, the initial price of getting into the game isn't cheap, whilst I am very happy with the product I got for the amount invested $160 is still a lot of money.
I personally would like to own the PDF of the Rise of the Runelords Path but the cost of the PDF is $40, worth it if you are buying it cold but I feel it is a little high for someone who already owns and payed $80 for the physical copy.
I think that it would be nice for there to be an option to purchase the PDFs at a discount rate if you could provide proof of purchase for the physical copy. I could read my RotRL path on the bus without carting around a 1kg book.
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They don't do if for 2 reasons:
1) There isn't a good way of verifying the person trying to claim a discount actually bought a book. It's too open to fraud and customer service headaches.
2) Paizo uses the "free PDF" angle as an incentive for people to subscribe. Offering PDFs (free or discounted) to people that buy the physical copy through other sources discourages subscriptions (and Paizo's business model is built around subscriptions).
You can search the forums for other threads where this is discussed, but the above is the reasoning in a nutshell.
-Skeld
it would be utterly impossible for Paizo to determine who bought what dead tree compy from what gaming store, unless it was purchased through Paizo. Having a picture fo you holding the CRB doesn't mean that 1) it is you, or 2) that it is your CRB.
Also..."the initial price of getting into the game isn't cheap". CRB PDF $9.99. One Module PDF $9.99. You're into the game. You have everything you need to play and more. Pick up the Bestiary PDF for $9.99, and you can play for years. I think Paizo has made getting into the game EXTREMELY reasonable.
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...never mind the fact that you can find all of the core rules online for free here:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/
(I find that very handy; it makes bringing new players in easy. I've spent ungodly amounts of money on both Pathfinder hard copies and PDFs, but I can bring in players (who may even just want to try it out) without telling them they have to buy anything.)
I actually have to buy my books from a gaming store, when I bought the core rulebook the site want $63 to ship it to Australia, I would subscribe and get the PDF too if shipping wasn't such a ballbreaker.
I could at least scan my receipt or something to prove I bought the book
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it would be utterly impossible for Paizo to determine who bought what dead tree compy from what gaming store, unless it was purchased through Paizo.
Marvel does this regularly with their comics. They come printed with a unique code which you can use to redeem a digital copy online. (And they can actually tell which retailer the comic was bought from, too, based on the code.) Of course, if you buy a used copy, expect the code to have been used already, but that's the price of buying used stuff.
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Here, Vic Wertz explains why it's important that free PDFs are a subscriber-only perk. Basically, Paizo counts on the reliable monthly income from subscriptions to keep the lights on, as well as to estimate the size of print runs.
If free or discounted PDFs were offered for any physical purchase, many people would drop their subscriptions: If they can purchase the physical product at any time and still get a free PDF, Paizo has fewer sales each month as new product comes out. Why buy an AP until you're ready to run it, if you can get free PDFs whether it's brand new or 6 years old? It would certainly be less strain on my bookshelf.
In addition, they'd also be giving out free or discounted PDFs for purchases which generate less revenue for them, as direct sales from the website make a greater profit than those for which they share profit with a distributor and retailer. When you buy a Paizo product through a subscription, Paizo gets 100% of the sales price; when you buy it from Amazon or at a FLGS, Paizo gets a much smaller percentage. (Vic just posted the discount that retailers get their product for a few weeks ago, if I go find it.) It makes sense for them to offer their perks on the transactions that make them the most money.
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it would be utterly impossible for Paizo to determine who bought what dead tree compy from what gaming store, unless it was purchased through Paizo.Marvel does this regularly with their comics. They come printed with a unique code which you can use to redeem a digital copy online. (And they can actually tell which retailer the comic was bought from, too, based on the code.) Of course, if you buy a used copy, expect the code to have been used already, but that's the price of buying used stuff.
The problem Paizo would have with codes is that there's nothing to stop someone from writing down the code and putting the book back on the shelf. The person that buys that book doesn't find out the code has been redeemed until after they purchase it. Then it becomes a customer service headache for Paizo.
So next you say, "shrinkwrap the book." Then the problem becomes that potential customers can't flip through the book before purchasing it, something Paizo has said they want people to be able to do.
I could at least scan my receipt or something to prove I bought the book
That would require Paizo to devise some process for handling who knows how many receipts. And it's still open to fraud because there's still no good way to verify that you're the person that bought the book, instead of just downloading a picture of a valid receipt and manipulating just enough to fool someone.
-Skeld
As a follow-up, here is Vic's post to which I was referring. They make 100% profit on direct sales from their webstore, 60% on sales anywhere else. Hence, they can afford to offer free PDFs out of that extra 40% and to those who are willing to make a monthly commitment to buy everything in the line as soon as it comes out. Note that they don't offer free PDFs for any direct purchase other than subscriptions; reliable monthly revenue and print run planning are that important to them.
That would require Paizo to devise some process for handling who knows how many receipts. And it's still open to fraud because there's still no good way to verify that you're the person that bought the book, instead of just downloading a picture of a valid receipt and manipulating just enough to fool someone.
-Skeld
Not to mention pretty much every receipt I've ever gotten from a game store was done on a cheap 'adding machine' style register. If I scan a receipt that just says "2@21.99", what two books did I buy?
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Not to mention pretty much every receipt I've ever gotten from a game store was done on a cheap 'adding machine' style register. If I scan a receipt that just says "2@21.99", what two books did I buy?That would require Paizo to devise some process for handling who knows how many receipts. And it's still open to fraud because there's still no good way to verify that you're the person that bought the book, instead of just downloading a picture of a valid receipt and manipulating just enough to fool someone.
-Skeld
this is one of the reasons Diamond is trying to get stores to buy tie inventory and point of sale software... Unfortunately they price it out of most shops budget. .. plus the shop would have to hire people to do inventory of used comics and cards
This is one of the reasons Diamond is trying to get stores to buy tie inventory and point of sale software... Unfortunately they price it out of most shops budget. .. plus the shop would have to hire people to do inventory of used comics and cards
I did this for the local comic book store before I started working at Paizo, creating an interface to Amazon Web Services so pull some data so I could then import it into Diamond—and that was just for non-Diamond books, and at the time the POS software was...problematic. But the shop's inventory was all in the owner's head, on pieces of paper floating around his desk, or just "Eh I know when I need to reorder stuff."
Besides the reduction in value to subscribers, there's also the possible resentment arising from reversing a long-standing arrangement (which has been frequently questioned and retained over the years).
For completeness sake, I went back and bought the PDFs for those products which came out prior to when I began my subscriptions. I did that knowing that paizo had a considered "free PDFs for subscribers only" policy. If they now reverse that position, those of us who acted on what had seemed a firm stance may feel hard done by.
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This is one of the reasons Diamond is trying to get stores to buy tie inventory and point of sale software... Unfortunately they price it out of most shops budget. .. plus the shop would have to hire people to do inventory of used comics and cardsI did this for the local comic book store before I started working at Paizo, creating an interface to Amazon Web Services so pull some data so I could then import it into Diamond—and that was just for non-Diamond books, and at the time the POS software was...problematic. But the shop's inventory was all in the owner's head, on pieces of paper floating around his desk, or just "Eh I know when I need to reorder stuff."
We looked at it, but with 200,000 back issues, many from before comics had bar codes, and over that many magic card singles, we shuttered at the amount of inventory time that would be.
Chief Technical Officer
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...before comics had bar codes...
Even the ones that *do* have bar codes are iffy, depending on your bar code scanner. If you take a look at Dynamite's bar codes for Pathfinder Comics, they're broken into two parts: one that identifies the title, and one that identifies the issue and cover variant. Some bar code readers can only read the first part, which means that every issue and cover for that title *appears* to have the exact same bar code to that scanner.
I didn't think that would happen as up until now whenever I bought a paper version from Paizo, the PDF was always added to my downloads.
The PDF does not normally come free with Paizo book purchases. It comes as part of your subscription.
Actually when you buy physical copies direct from Paizo's website here, you don't automatically get the pdf.
I just bought a paper copy Thornkeep from the Paizo store. I wanted to keep a copy to run from my tablet...and I found to my dismay that I had to buy it again for the pdf.
I didn't think that would happen as up until now whenever I bought a paper version from Paizo, the PDF was always added to my downloads.
What I would appreciate if it all adventures/supplements that offer the pdf when you buy the paper copy would say so...likewise, those that do not should also stipulate this.
Takes the guesswork out of deciding whether or not I have to pay double for a product or not.
What it has done is dampen my enthusiasm for anything else. $20 for 20 pages is okay...$40 stretches my budget a bit too much. I'm going to be cancelling my subscriptions for a while so I can make up the difference.
You've received pdf's of your adventure path books, yes. That's part of the subscriber deal and is clearly spelled out. If you've bought other books directly from Paizo you shouldn't have automatically had them added to your download page (unless otherwise noted on a specific product).
It's important to notice the difference between a subscription and just buying individual books.
What I would appreciate if it all adventures/supplements that offer the pdf when you buy the paper copy would say so...likewise, those that do not should also stipulate this.
Takes the guesswork out of deciding whether or not I have to pay double for a product or not.
The default is that the two are separate products, listed separately for their individual prices.
They make it explicit when both are included by labelling the product a "print/PDF bundle".
The other exception is that if you subscribe to a print product from paizo, you generally receive the PDF for free.
Oh, I see. I haven't seen any product with a free PDF that wasn't labelled as a bundle. I suspect it was a one-off omission. What product gave you the free PDF?
Was it the RotRL Anniversary Edition? I know if you pre-ordered it while maintaining an active AP subscription, you got the free PDF. There's been a few special products with that kind of deal.
I bought the anniversary edition from a store, I figure if someone pays full price for your book, a discount code in a sealed envelope at the back of the book for a cheap PDF isn't too hard
People are saying that cuts into Paizos profits, but it doesn't, at least in my case:
I buy the book at full price (paizo gets payed) then I decide that I am going to buy the PDF; if that PDF is $10 for me I will buy it, (paizo gets payed) but, if it is $40 for a book I already own, it is not worth it to me to pay a total of $120 when I can have the same amount of content for $80, so I don't buy the PDF (paizo does not get payed)
I don't think it even interferes with the subscription, which gives the PDFs away for free. In this case I am asking for a discount.
I think people need to understand this: I am not asking for content for cheap; I am asking for a copy of content I already own at a discount.
I bought the anniversary edition from a store, I figure if someone pays full price for your book, a discount code in a sealed envelope at the back of the book for a cheap PDF isn't too hard
People are saying that cuts into Paizos profits, but it doesn't, at least in my case:
I buy the book at full price (paizo gets payed) then I decide that I am going to buy the PDF; if that PDF is $10 for me I will buy it, (paizo gets payed) but, if it is $40 for a book I already own, it is not worth it to me to pay a total of $120 when I can have the same amount of content for $80, so I don't buy the PDF (paizo does not get payed)
I don't think it even interferes with the subscription, which gives the PDFs away for free. In this case I am asking for a discount.
I think people need to understand this: I am not asking for content for cheap; I am asking for a copy of content I already own at a discount.
It seems clear - you bought one copy and you also want a second copy in a different format. I dont see the distinction between wanting something cheap and wanting it at a discount. Isnt that the same thing? (You dont actually have ownership of the content - that's the copyright holder and they've made various determinations about how they will distribute it. You bought one copy).
.In terms of profitability arguments, none of us are in a position to know. You wont pay full price for the PDF of a product you've bought in print whereas I did (for those things I didnt get via subscription). The only way to know what's profitable is to somehow determine whether sales to people like me will cover the loss of sales to people like you. Even Paizo dont really know that.
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I bought the anniversary edition from a store, I figure if someone pays full price for your book, a discount code in a sealed envelope at the back of the book for a cheap PDF isn't too hard
What's to stop somebody from taking that sealed envelope out of the back of the book without buying it, then downloading the PDF? The guy that does buy that book doesn't get his PDF and complains at Paizo because that isn't fair. Or the booksore is stuck with a book they can't sell of have to sell at a discount and maybe they're less likely to sell the next round of books that come out. Discount codes or coupons would quickly become headache generators.
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What's to stop somebody from taking that sealed envelope out of the back of the book without buying it, then downloading the PDF? The guy that does buy that book doesn't get his PDF and complains at Paizo because that isn't fair. Or the booksore is stuck with a book they can't sell of have to sell at a discount and maybe they're less likely to sell the next round of books that come out. Discount codes or coupons would quickly become headache generators.I bought the anniversary edition from a store, I figure if someone pays full price for your book, a discount code in a sealed envelope at the back of the book for a cheap PDF isn't too hard
Also, eBay.
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I bought the anniversary edition from a store, I figure if someone pays full price for your book, a discount code in a sealed envelope at the back of the book for a cheap PDF isn't too hard.
There is nothing stoping your local store from doing this themselves, if they think a discount Physical+PDF bundle will drive their sales of physical books. They charge you for both, less 10% (for example). They give you the book, then buy the PDF themselves on the Paizo site and gift it to your account.
I still think the best way would be like how MMO's sell game time cards. You buy the card and it has a code you can enter once, with a scratch off. So if it is scratched off don't buy it.So if it's scratched off, who paid for it? Probably the party that could least afford to—the retailer. Essentially, then, it becomes something they have to secure like cash, and while the electronic game retailers might be ready to do that, many stores in our industry probably aren't interested in taking on that additional risk.
Don't forget two other major factors here.
1: Many brick-and-mortar retailers think that PDFs are going to put them out of business. Therefore, they're not going to do anything that helps sell PDFs, even if they get a cut of it.
2: Many brick-and-mortar retailers think that online retailers are going to put them out of business. (Which is pretty much what this whole thread is *about*.) And since Paizo is an online retailer, some of them won't do *anything* that requires—or even encourages—their customers to go to our site.
Now, you know and I know that a good retailer who provides excellent customer service and finds ways of adding value has nothing to fear from PDFs and from online stores, but it's still a big, big issue to many of them, and it *has* to be addressed—one way or another—before this problem is solved.
Shrinkwrapping is not an option, as it deters sales. Similarly, relying on retailers to do additional work is also not going to happen. Sure, there are some stores that could handle it, but there are many that couldn't or wouldn't.
And this isn't just about paizo.com sales versus retail sales, either. People who purchase individual issues through paizo.com don't get a free PDF either. The point is, people who have subscribed have made a commitment to us, and we're rewarding that with the free PDF.
Further, keep in mind that subscribers pay shipping on their copies, and that shipping charge brings the total subscriber cost pretty close to the retail price. For most people, the PDF is the only real incentive, because the discount is a wash with shipping.
This isn't about people who pay retail getting less; this is about people who make an ongoing commitment to us getting more. It's how the business of subscriptions works.
Keep in mind, that there's no practical difference between offering a PDF for free and offering it with a discount. All the same issues apply, except that there will be less people redeeming it.
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But if Paizo decided to throw in a free copy of the PDF when I buy a hardback from them, well, that would certainly be a lot more tempting!
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It'd be a nice incentive to actually buy the physical book from Paizo, too. Usually if I really want a physical book, I wait for Amazon to get it, and buy it for much less. For example, if I wanted a new hardback copy of the APG, I could order it for $39.99 from Paizo, or $26.48 at Amazon. Guess which I'm going to choose? Particularly since Amazon ships way faster.
Searching these message boards for "Amazon delay" will get you many, many threads showing Amazon revising a book's availability date to a month or more after the official Paizo release date. And odds are you'll also get a Paizo employee explaining that the book is not delayed and the "delay" is actually on Amazon's end. And odds are you'll get several other people replying that "this often happens" and "I eventually canceled my Amazon order and just bought it from Paizo."
If you want your book fast, buy it from your FLGS or Paizo.com. If you want your book cheaper (and are willing to wait for it), order it from Amazon.
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But if Paizo decided to throw in a free copy of the PDF when I buy a hardback from them, well, that would certainly be a lot more tempting! Instant access means shipping time is irrelevant; and I just bet that Paizo gets a higher profit margin out of direct sales than they do via any other outlet, since there are no distributors or other middle-men taking a cut.
Lol. That's exactly how a subscription through Paizo works.
-Skeld
But if Paizo decided to throw in a free copy of the PDF when I buy a hardback from them, well, that would certainly be a lot more tempting! Instant access means shipping time is irrelevant; and I just bet that Paizo gets a higher profit margin out of direct sales than they do via any other outlet, since there are no distributors or other middle-men taking a cut.Lol. That's exactly how a subscription through Paizo works.
-Skeld
Admittedly, it's not retroactive. If you weren't playing Pathfinder when the APG came out, for instance, you have no way to get the free PDF by buying the physical book.
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Which is deliberate, as if you could get the free PDF at any time by buying an old book, there isn't much incentive to subscribe to new books to get the free PDFs.
The Sacred Scrolls of Kobol tell us that all of these arguments have happened before, and all of them will happen again...
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Which is deliberate, as if you could get the free PDF at any time by buying an old book, there isn't much incentive to subscribe to new books to get the free PDFs.
The Sacred Scrolls of Kobol tell us that all of these arguments have happened before, and all of them will happen again...
"The Forum of Paizo turns, and Threads come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Thread that gave it birth comes again. In one Thread, called the Third Thread by some, a Thread yet to come, a Thread long past, a post rose in the Subforum of Website Feedback. The wind post not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Forum of Paizo. But it was a beginning."
Mother's milk in a cup! Did you think with the hair on your chest when you wrote that‽
There are, occasionally, legitimate ways to get the PDFs that you missed when they were available via subscription. The most recent way was the bundle of PDFs offered as part of the Goblinworks Kickstarter--which of course cost money too, but was a good way to get a lot of PDFs one might have missed.
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I wish the people that directly order from Paizo could at least get a discount on PDFs of physical books they buy directly at this website when they don't have a subscription. That would seem to be a good compromise in my opinion.
PDFs are discounted (usually) 30% from the cover price. Since you're an AP subscriber, you also get 15% off the PDF price. How much of a discount are you looking for?
-Skeld
I think the reason so many people have a hard time giving up the "but I bought the hardcover, I should get the PDF for a discount" argument is that it makes a lot of sense.
The problem for that argument is that Paizo's current model of using it as a carrot to encourage subscribing makes even more sense, from Paizo's point of view.
What is it, about every 4-6 months or so a major thread along these lines starts up? Hell, I'm pretty darn sure I started one a few years back.
Ideally, it would be nice is if you bought the HB book from Paizo you would get a discount for the PDF version IF you buy both at the same time. They could still have the subscriptions where you'd get the free PDF version. For those who don't have a subscription they could get a discount if they buy both versions at the same time. If they don't buy both at the same time then they would pay full price. Paizo would still have subscriptions with free PDFs as an incentive. They might even make more money off of those who don't have a subscription but have an incentive to buy both at the same time.
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It would be nice.
But I don't blame Paizo for the way they do things, and don't expect them to change.
Also, I would note the OP's concern is specifically about the Rise of the Runelords hardcover, which is kind of a unique bunny on a number of levels:
- It is an anniversary compilation that is fairly one-of-a-kind. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall the Paizo staff saying there wasn't going to be anything more like the RotRL hardcover, at least not regularly.
- The RotRL .pdf is expensive because it is enormous, and is not an RPG line rulebook. It is itself effectively a compilation of .pdfs that bought individually would cost you around $84 (and of course the actual individual RotRL .pdfs are unrevised ones), so from that perspective it's a %50 discount right there from what it should cost ;) .
Most other Paizo products are not quite like the RotRL hardcover -- they are not as long (or expensive) in hardcover, and they are not anywhere near as expensive in .pdf form. It looks like most Paizo .pdfs cost $8-16, which even if you are "forced" to pay for them, are much less expensive than the unique RotRL hardcover.
From the OP's perspective, I get that it is frustrating to have to buy an unusually expensive .pdf for an unusually expensive hardcover. I hope that he realizes, however, this is probably the ONLY time where he is going to be asked to pay that much for the .pdf (or the hardcover, for that matter). The other .pdfs are much more reasonably priced (and of course free or discounted depending on your various subscription options if you've chosen them).
I can also see, given that especially since most of the .pdfs are cheaper (the RPG line .pdfs in particular ARE really discounted in truth--for the page count, you are getting a LOT more than $10 worth), Paizo wouldn't want to discount them any further.
IF ALL THE OP REALLY WANTS, specifically, is the RotRL .pdf, I suggest he takes a different tack since the situation isn't typical to Paizo's products -- given that RotRL is fairly one of a kind and out long ago enough it is not going to be included in any special offers other than the Pathfinder Advantage (the discount you get when you subscribe to the APs) -- that he asks friends/family/etc. for Paizo gift certificates for Christmas/his birthday/whatever he wishes to celebrate that he might get gift certificates for, or alternately put the RotRL .pdf on his wishlist and hope someone gets it for him. At least, if my sense of the situation is true--that the main issue is how much it costs.
It might be nice to have discounts otherwise, sure, but I think given how the .pdfs are usually priced it's otherwise a manageable situation.
Personally, having gone through the financial pain of having been a Superscriber for so long, I have few issues with the way Paizo is handling things.
It's not an easy road, and I get the hairy eyeball from my girlfriend on many occasions. I would be sorely disappointed if the requirements suddenly changed, the floodgates opened, and all those benefits I'd scrimped and saved with great difficulty to have suddently were easily available.
Might make me wonder why I'd bothered :)
One option might be to offer an incentive to maintain a subscription long term. Something like every six months of continuos subscription (not retrospective, just going forward) to a product line you get store credit worth one PDF from that line. That might allow late comers to gradually fill those issues they'd missed (or do so at a discount, anyhow).
If it makes no difference to subscriber numbers, it amounts to a direct loss to paizo. However, it might cause one or two to prolong their subscriptions a little longer and might be an added incentive to begin a subscription for some who feel they've "missed the boat".
I wish the people that directly order from Paizo could at least get a discount on PDFs of physical books they buy directly at this website when they don't have a subscription. That would seem to be a good compromise in my opinion.
There would still be incentive to get a subscription because it would be free and cheaper for those people that get the subscriptions, and there would be an option for the people to still get the PDF at a discount that help Paizo out and buy those physical books from here (and not some place like Amazon where they could get cheaper) but aren't interested in a subscription to a line.
The problem with this plan is that it strongly encourages people to buy their books direct from Paizo, rather than any other distributer (although your friendly local gaming store (FLGS) is the one that matters here). From a purely financial perspective, it would obviously be best for them if everyone bought direct - cutting out the middleman brings in extra revenue that would otherwise be the middleman's cut.
However, the FLGS is a big part of the RPG ecosystem. They provide things you can't get online - physical products you can look through before buying, physical space to get together and play, local community, demos, etc. No one is going to randomly visit Paizo's website and go "Oh, what's this Pathfinder thing? That looks like it might be interesting." But that happens in a FLGS all the time. So part of Paizo's strategy is to keep the FLGSs happy with the company. Which means not undercutting them. See the first post I quoted from Vic about that.
Currently, the only direct advantage to buying from Paizo directly is if you're subscribing. That's something you can't do anywhere else. You can buy the hardcovers subscription-less anywhere, and it doesn't matter - you might get it cheaper in some places, but you're still getting the same product. But once you start offering more with that product in some channels, you're necessarily offering less in others.
It would be nice.
But I don't blame Paizo for the way they do things, and don't expect them to change.
Also, I would note the OP's concern is specifically about the Rise of the Runelords hardcover, which is kind of a unique bunny on a number of levels:
- It is an anniversary compilation that is fairly one-of-a-kind. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall the Paizo staff saying there wasn't going to be anything more like the RotRL hardcover, at least not regularly.
- The RotRL .pdf is expensive because it is enormous, and is not an RPG line rulebook. It is itself effectively a compilation of .pdfs that bought individually would cost you around $84 (and of course the actual individual RotRL .pdfs are unrevised ones), so from that perspective it's a %50 discount right there from what it should cost ;) .
Most other Paizo products are not quite like the RotRL hardcover -- they are not as long (or expensive) in hardcover, and they are not anywhere near as expensive in .pdf form. It looks like most Paizo .pdfs cost $8-16, which even if you are "forced" to pay for them, are much less expensive than the unique RotRL hardcover.
From the OP's perspective, I get that it is frustrating to have to buy an unusually expensive .pdf for an unusually expensive hardcover. I hope that he realizes, however, this is probably the ONLY time where he is going to be asked to pay that much for the .pdf (or the hardcover, for that matter). The other .pdfs are much more reasonably priced (and of course free or discounted depending on your various subscription options if you've chosen them).
I can also see, given that especially since most of the .pdfs are cheaper (the RPG line .pdfs in particular ARE really discounted in truth--for the page count, you are getting a LOT more than $10 worth), Paizo wouldn't want to discount them any further.
IF ALL THE OP REALLY WANTS, specifically, is the RotRL .pdf, I suggest he takes a different tack since the situation isn't typical to Paizo's products --...
I did use Rise of the RuneLords as an example, but it applies to all the products, I love using my tablet as a portable reader that lets me take a library of books around at the fraction of the weight when I'm taking lunch or something, (and ctrl+F is the best tool ever for quick referencing) but I will almost always buy a book instead because I prefer a non-backlit reading surface.
I honestly am used to getting PDFs with nearly all the books I buy, I understand RotRL may be a specific case, but ever $10 is a lot extra to buy something, for all intents and purposes, I already own. especally since I am not rich, I had to pay $10 a week at the store I bought it from for two months to get this.
the truth is $10 feels like a lot more than $5, and if I could get that discount after buying any Paizo product in physical form they would make more profits from this customer, I can assure you of that
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the truth is $10 feels like a lot more than $5, and if I could get that discount after buying any Paizo product in physical form they would make more profits from this customer, I can assure you of that
More from you, maybe... but how much less would they be making from everyone else who is willing to pay the full price?