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My switch-over subscription from my old DUNGEON/DRAGON magazines issues ends next Pathfinder issue, and I want to continue to subscribe (FANTASTIC product, btw!!!!), but I was hoping for a standard magazine style subscription purchase. Is there any way to just get a 12-24 month subscription instead of being charged month to month?
Bill Sinclair
Director of Sales
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Stan's suggestion is a good one.
Pre-paid yearly subscriptions come with inherent risks and costs which can be easily absorbed when it's for a product that is as inexpensive to produce as a magazine. However the Pathfinder products are all books, which are full color on high-quality paper, and much more costly to produce. For this reason we cannot absorb the risks and costs, and therefore we cannot offer prepaid yearly, or even six-month, subscriptions.
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Stan's suggestion is a good one.
Pre-paid yearly subscriptions come with inherent risks and costs which can be easily absorbed when it's for a product that is as inexpensive to produce as a magazine. However the Pathfinder products are all books, which are full color on high-quality paper, and much more costly to produce. For this reason we cannot absorb the risks and costs, and therefore we cannot offer prepaid yearly, or even six-month, subscriptions.
Well, I might not like the answer, but I can understand the reasoning behind it. Will you inform us before the cost goes up?
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Obviously you have a lot of good reasons to avoid the prepaid subscription model.
When I buy a prepaid subscription I 'lock in' the price, and if it changes, you are the one who loses out. Rather than agreeing to provide us with a number of issues, can you revisit the idea of 'money on account'?
Rather than put $3000 on a prepaid Visa to cover all my Paizo purchases for the year, I'd rather be able to give you the money. I'm sure you'd get more use out of it, and it saves me the step of stopping at a merchant that sells them, and also helps me avoid other fees.
If I have $3000 on account, rather than bill my credit card, you can hit the 'pre-paid' money first. So, with a Pathfinder Module, the AP, maybe a couple of Planet Stories, you would hit $80 on that $3000, leaving me a balance of $2120 to cover next month's order.
I personally don't carry a balance on my credit card. When paid off, I hate putting charges on them that I don't need to. I'd hate even more to put it on my bank card and have to make sure to balance the check book. Anyways, it is something I really hope you can implement.
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Rather than put $3000 on a prepaid Visa to cover all my Paizo purchases for the year, I'd rather be able to give you the money. I'm sure you'd get more use out of it, and it saves me the step of stopping at a merchant that sells them, and also helps me avoid other fees.
I liked this at first, but the more I think about it, the less it seems like a good idea.
First of all, how many users are really going to load up their Paizo account with $3k once a year? Would the average user want to cash flow that much money? If you can't cash flow it, you could charge it against a credit card, but you'd ending up paying that off over several months at whatever interest rate your card has. I'm sure most people could find other things they needed money for today, rather than sitting at Paizo waiting to pay off an order 6 or 12 months from now.
Secondly, I doubt Paizo would be able to use the money right away. They'd probably have to put the money in some kind of escrot account in case you decided 3 months later that you needed your money back for something more important. Heaven forbid the Pathfinder price goes up and a whole bunch of people cancel subscriptions ... that would be alot of money Paizo would have to fork back out (paying it back out of an escrot account wouldn't be a big deal, financially, just alot of paperwork).
Personally, I'd just end up putting $50 each month or whatever I needed into such an account. The only thing that would do is increase the amount of transferring money around that I had to do. It would defeat the purpose of being "quicker and easier." My personal feeling is that most people would operate this way.
Just some random thoughts. I don't mean to poo-poo your idea; I just don't think it'd be worth the work to implement.
-Skeld
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It would defeat the purpose of being "quicker and easier." My personal feeling is that most people would operate this way.Just some random thoughts. I don't mean to poo-poo your idea; I just don't think it'd be worth the work to implement.
-Skeld
The times when I would have free cash to put into the account - May and November (three pay checks in those months), March (annual bonus).
When you buy a McDonalds gift card, you can't redeem it for cash. So they don't have to give me my money back when I pay them for it. They just have to give me that value in product. If I decide that there is nothing that I want to buy from them, I certainly shouldn't have paid that much in advance. However, the way things are, I'm relatively certain that I can spend money like that in the next few years. And really, whether it is $3k now or $200 now, it works the same way - not having to constantly pay off a charge on my credit card that makes my budgeting harder.
I want to use my credit cards for important things. My Paizo purchases are not important things. So far I've been able to do buy these things on credit, and pay my credit card off. If I have to carry a balance on my credit card, I will not be allowed to charge anything on them (this is how my wife and I make our money work for us). So, if six months from now I need a washer, dryer and refrigerator, but I don't have the money, I'll carry a balance for a couple months (unless I can get a 0% financing offer). That will mean I'll have to cancel my Paizo subscriptions.
That is not what I want.
Allowing me to buy a Paizo gift card when I'm flush means Paizo is guaranteed to get the sale at some future date. Under the current system they are guaranteed to not get the sale at some future point - just a question of when life happens.
Today I am expecting an order from Noble Knight games to be delivered (they advertised in Kobold Quarterly) and they have a lot of out of print and slightly used gaming books. My order is $886.
I know Paizo does the best it can for all their customers. Making it easy for the 5% that buy the most isn't a bad idea. "I'm not asking for an Admiral's Club or gift rewards, just an easy way for me to 'plan ahead' for some lean months where the recurring credit-card payment won't work for me.
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I understand where you're coming from and sounds like it would work for you fine. I would imagine that the number of people, like yourself, that would really benefit from something like this versus those that wouldn't probably outstrip the cost of implementation.
OTOH, giftcards might be nice.
[threadjack]
At the core, I think you and I just have differnet financial philosophies. For example, I don't use credit cards. Or even have one. Debit cards have made them obsolete. In my expereince, the only thing you can do with a credit card that you can't (technically) do with a debit card is acrue debt. Outside of my mortgage, I don't borrow money. Not for cars or washing machines or anything else. I can't imagine a situation whre I'd put any significant amount of money into some type of illiquid account for purchasing non-necessities. That's just crazy talk.
Finanacially, I guess I'm wierd. Indebtedness in our culture (strictly speaking USA here, although it might apply elsewhere) is out of control. I read the other day that 2007 was the first year since the great depression that Americans had a negative savings rate, which means the average American spent more than they earned. An economy can't sustain that for very long. The curernt "credit crunch" is an outgrowth of all that. With soaring home equity, banks leant money to consumers who couldn't pay it back. Consumers signed up to mortgages and HELOCs with terms they didn't understand. Now, alot of that has come home to roost with plenty of blame to go around.
[/threadjack]
To each their own.
-Skeld
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Chief Technical Officer
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...giftcards might be nice.
They've been on the to-do list for a while, but they never quite get to the top of the list before something more important jumps ahead of them. But one day, likely in the months leading up to the holiday shopping season in some year or other, we will have gift cards.
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At the core, I think you and I just have differnet financial philosophies. For example, I don't use credit cards.
Ah, you see, the thing about credit cards (besides the inherent danger) is that if you don't carry a balance, they cost nothing. And the cards I have are reward cards. So, when I use my credit card for my everyday purchases, I get Amazon.com gift certificates (from Visa) or straight cash (from Discover Card).
I put my regular purchases on the credit card, and pay it off with my checking account, so I am paid to use the cards.
Which is a good thing. I buy most of my DVDs from the 'extra money' I get for spending my money on my card first. Of course, the merchants pay a fee when I use the card, but very few of them seem to mind...
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Ah, you see, the thing about credit cards (besides the inherent danger) is that if you don't carry a balance, they cost nothing. ..... so I am paid to use the cards.
Hmmm. If I were more cynical, I would probably point out that credit card companies have poured millions upon millions of $'s into behavioral research and market research over the years to analyze consumer spending trends, how consumers react to different stimuli, and what consumers will put up with versus what they won't. I would also probably go so far as to say that they probably know more about your (not necessarily you as an individual, but you as in a consumer that carries no month-to-month balance, pays for X Y & Z with his card, and is interested is this award over that one) spending habits and tendencies than you do. Then there's also the point about the terms and conditions of your credit card agreements in which you've probably given up alot of legal rights for the convenience of using their product. Then there's the universal default clause in the agreement which basically says they can do anything they want to the terms of the agreement anytime they like...
But I'm not that cynical. I'm sure you've got them right where you want them. ;)
Interesting topic though. Thanks for you point of view and willingness to share it. Sorry for coming off snarky; it's how I keep myself entertained.
-Skeld
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...giftcards might be nice.They've been on the to-do list for a while, but they never quite get to the top of the list before something more important jumps ahead of them. But one day, likely in the months leading up to the holiday shopping season in some year or other, we will have gift cards.
Cool. Have those knocked out by October and I'll be able to tell my friends what to get me. :)
-Skeld
On the subject of gift cards I'd certainly make use of them. I've reached the age now where my children and my fellow gamers' children have started playing D&D. A gift card is a good way to let them choose the direction of their own gaming as well as a credit for future expenditure.
I should add that, as I'm in England and the dollar is weak at the moment, I may actually save myself a lot of money by stocking up on gift cards for later when the dollar is stronger.