It probably won't make you feel any better, but tbe shipping to Canada is also pretty high. High enough that we also lose out big time if we subscribe
I'll second this. If you live in Europe, I don't see any reason to subsribe. The discount doesn't come close to offsetting the shipping fees. I don't know how much it costs to ship to other continents, but I guess anything else than north America, isn't big enough as a market to justify distribution centers.
I hear you on that one. Last Paizo parcel to me was $109.25 (USD) worth of product and $37.50 (USD) worth of freight and then an extra $20.00 (CDN) for UPS to deliver it to me. It's starting to get hard justifying the expense.
$212.00 Canadian Pesos total, $70.00 of it for shipping.
Why would someone go to a store to buy a card/code to go home and order something online, when they can just order it online to begin with and avoid the trip?
Why would someone go to a store to buy a card/code to go home and order something online, when they can just order it online to begin with and avoid the trip?Those who can not get credit cards, those who don't want to use credit cards, etc...
Both are valid reasons. However, setting up a formal system of cards/codes will cost at least something, and may be too bothersome considering the expected returns.
An informal system might work in these cases. Set up a Paizo account. Go to the FLGS and ask them nicely to set up a Paizo account. Pay them an agreed sum in cold, hard cash to purchase you a PDF as a gift option. That would also take care of the personalization issues. Or you could ask a friend to do the same.
The problem with the informal system is that some stores might not want to do this for bookkeeping reasons, or because it could collide with some obscure laws or consumer rights. I don't know; I have never asked. Small shops can be flexible with nonstandard requests, but midsize businesses have some really arcane bureaucratic knots that usually resolve into "I can't, accounting/my supervisor would yell at me".
For the record, I haven't purchased any Paizo PDFs. Dead tree interface FTW. Some day I'll fold and get the out-of-print stuff I want. But not yet. For me PDFs are the last resort.
Hmm, maybe paizo doesn't know how to do it, or isn't sure how to do it, in this case I apologize.
And I apologize, but you should just say so if it is the case.
Uh I think they have explained well why they can't and won't do it. I generally trust that people in charge and wanting to make money off something have considered the angles with actual data moreso than random consumers.
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Having worked in a bookstore for many many years, several of those as the inventory manager, I feel comfortable saying that the number of FLGS that want to deal with this sort of thing is probably very small.
Claim codes for anything are a nightmare to deal with. If it's something inside a book or magazine you can expect half of them to be stolen or copied and used long before a legitimate consumer buys the book or magazine. The people who did buy it are going to come back very angry and you will lose more product having to pull the claim codes out of the good ones. Even if you can send the bad ones back for credit, you've just spent some of your limited, available space being storage for things you can't sell rather than things you can. Keeping them behind the register also has a whole set of problems.
If it requires someone to sign up for something, like creating an account on a website, explaining it every time a customer makes a purchase adds up to a lot of payroll hours. So does the time spent when customers have trouble doing it and come back or call, and many of them are not going to accept being told they need to contact the company that maintains the website. Returns/refunds are going to be problematic for the store for the same reason. Many of those customers are going to go to the store to do it, not to Paizo. They will either have to be redirected to Paizo, which they will not like, or they will have to be helped in the store. That means the store is going to have to maintain more paperwork to make sure Paizo knows who should no longer have access to what (more payroll hours).
There is very little benefit to participating in something like this to most stores, and the costs may even outweigh the benefits.
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Aaand if you're in Europe, where consumer protection law is most of the time few light years ahead of 'Murica, any notion of selling a product that involves direct contact with an American company (as opposed to its domestic or EU-wide distributor) is a no-starter for any store whose owner has more than a passing knowledge of law (and they usually do).
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PDFs are wonderful, and 99% of what I own. I have a core book rattling around my bookshelf somewhere but everything else in my embarrassingly vast collection of Paizo stuff is PDF.
I would probably jump on a subscription in a heartbeat depending on how they set it up. But I don't expect to ever see one and that's just fine.
My cost-to-game is already much lower than those who use physical texts. Lucky me. :) How much lower can it get? I dunno, but I don't think the PDFs are overpriced as they are by any stretch - so why reduce further? I'm not greedy - I know Paizo needs to make a profit to keep churning out the content I love.
So yeah, consider this a vote against subscriptions and I suspect I'm the target audience (bought lots, but not all).
I think Vic's statement holds pretty true.
I know if they offered PDF only subscriptions, it may be tempting. It would be especially a no brainer if it were cheaper than print by a good margin.
However, currently, it could be tempting simply because my shelf space is starting to get a little low.
Pathfinder takes up and entire shelf and a half of mine thus far (not including novels). Of course, almost one shelf is simply APs and Modules (APs from #1 of Runelords to the last one they shipped to me!).
I had to remove the BB and some other non-essential third party stuff and put them on top of my shelf already, and I'm trying to figure out how to make more room for the new APs that are coming my way.
That means a PDF only subscription could be tempting. However, that plays directly into what Vic talked about in how a PDF subscription could bite directly into their print sales, and it's their print sales which rely on numbers to keep Paizo afloat.
So, I think everything Vic said is still valid today.
Claim codes you have to buy directly, just plain grabbing the card without paying is useless.Having worked in a bookstore for many many years, several of those as the inventory manager, I feel comfortable saying that the number of FLGS that want to deal with this sort of thing is probably very small.
Claim codes for anything are a nightmare to deal with. If it's something inside a book or magazine you can expect half of them to be stolen or copied and used long before a legitimate consumer buys the book or magazine. The people who did buy it are going to come back very angry and you will lose more product having to pull the claim codes out of the good ones. Even if you can send the bad ones back for credit, you've just spent some of your limited, available space being storage for things you can't sell rather than things you can. Keeping them behind the register also has a whole set of problems.
If it requires someone to sign up for something, like creating an account on a website, explaining it every time a customer makes a purchase adds up to a lot of payroll hours. So does the time spent when customers have trouble doing it and come back or call, and many of them are not going to accept being told they need to contact the company that maintains the website. Returns/refunds are going to be problematic for the store for the same reason. Many of those customers are going to go to the store to do it, not to Paizo. They will either have to be redirected to Paizo, which they will not like, or they will have to be helped in the store. That means the store is going to have to maintain more paperwork to make sure Paizo knows who should no longer have access to what (more payroll hours).
There is very little benefit to participating in something like this to most stores, and the costs may even outweigh the benefits.
Plus, I think most cards are not activated off the shelf. They have a code, but that code has to be activated upon purchase.
If someone simply steals the card, the code won't do anything.
At least that's how I understand it works for the boatload of cards that are out there now like this for companies such as Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Playstation...etc...etc...etc.
They seem profitable enough that I see these cards at many retailers.
This is the method I actually prefer to utilize. I'd love it if Paizo had something like that in place where I can use cash to buy a card with a code to use to purchase stuff on their site. I do it with other companies like...the aforementioned Amazon, Google Play, Playstation, etc.
There might also be ecological reasons for only buying pdfs and thus, for wanting pdf only subscriptions.
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Plus, I think most cards are not activated off the shelf. They have a code, but that code has to be activated...
Which requires the store to buy a multi-thousand dollar interface I believe 2-3K for a 2 register license last time I looked it up, plus doesn't work with the credit card readers that most FLGSs have. So you'd be providing business to Gamestop, but not the local stores who are the target.
I'll second this. If you live in Europe, I don't see any reason to subsribe. The discount doesn't come close to offsetting the shipping fees.I live in Europe. The main options for an AP installment for me are:
***Numbers snipped***
Personally, I've felt the subscription worth it.
Same here - although I'm in the UK so the numbers are in £.