Physical copies have been expensive. The costs have only gone up. I didn't bother with a physical copy of my last publication. The cost of proofs for originals and updates isn't worth it on a small scale.
Paizo is able to access discounts from their scale, but they also have to handle distribution and accommodate markup. I don't know how they're able to do it in this industry. I'm happy to send them my money to support P2, and I wish them all the success. I'm fortunate enough to be old and able to afford it, but I understand everyone has to make decisions about how to invest their resources. If you like the hobby, recognize that it's a high cost, low margin industry. Even if you only purchase pdfs, that's a great way to support Paizo. If you go for books, know that they're not making more off of them, and it's a lot more work to produce.
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Physical copies have been expensive. The costs have only gone up. I didn't bother with a physical copy of my last publication. The cost of proofs for originals and updates isn't worth it on a small scale.
Paizo is able to access discounts from their scale, but they also have to handle distribution and accommodate markup. I don't know how they're able to do it in this industry. I'm happy to send them my money to support P2, and I wish them all the success. I'm fortunate enough to be old and able to afford it, but I understand everyone has to make decisions about how to invest their resources. If you like the hobby, recognize that it's a high cost, low margin industry. Even if you only purchase pdfs, that's a great way to support Paizo. If you go for books, know that they're not making more off of them, and it's a lot more work to produce.
Personally, I think I'm done with print books. The only RPG products worth buying in print anymore are things like pawns, GM screens, etc. Everything else just works better (for me) in PDF. Not only have tablets have gotten so reasonable that using them is actually more cost effective than buying books, but PDFs have other benefits. The latest Errata, portability, search-ability, (frequently a) discount on related VTT assets, etc.
On PDFs: I am a long time customer, and admittedly have had a love/hate relationship with Paizo over the years (they make great stuff, but also some really bone-headed mistakes, like $9 for a PFS scenario -- wtf?). But one thing I can't fault them for is that they have stood by PDFs since the beginning, and have not once tried to move (legal) access to their content behind a monthly subscription. As far as I'm concerned, that alone warrants both praise and continued patronage.
</soapbox>
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Paizo's expenses have very likely risen quite a bit in the last few years. There really isn't much room for reducing expenses either. They likely were already using the cheapest print shop that produces acceptable quality, for instance.
Let's not forget that their staff just recently unionized. Improved working conditions don't reduce costs. We haven't seen a bunch of terminations, so payroll is likely on the rise.
I vaguely think I saw something about them eliminating the office and being down to warehouse space, but even if that did happen, that's a drop in the bucket.
I'm sure the changes in product lines and frequency is about all they can do for "efficiency".
I've never had the impression that Paizo has been raking in undeserved YPMs (yachts-per-month). They're not gouging, I'm confident. That doesn't make products more affordable to more people, but ultimately these are the dollars required to a} pay the wonderful people who make the products and b} actually print and ship the products.
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I've never had the impression that Paizo has been raking in undeserved YPMs (yachts-per-month). They're not gouging, I'm confident. That doesn't make products more affordable to more people, but ultimately these are the dollars required to a} pay the wonderful people who make the products and b} actually print and ship the products.
Agreed. In fact, I don't feel like anyone here really believes that Paizo is price gouging (and really, it's not really possible to price gouge on a discretionary good, meaning the term doesn't really apply to Paizo in any event). To me it seemed more like a general complaint aimed at groceries, rent, etc.
Now if Erik Mona starts giving Taylor Swift a run for her money as far as private jet usage goes, then something might be up. ;-)
Edit: "Yachts-per-month" was pretty great.
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Kroger just admitted in anti-trust proceedings to using its market share and pandemic inflationary fears to increase the prices of certain grocery items faster than the rate of inflation, while using said inflationary fears as cover (i.e. price gouging). Just thought that was kind of interesting since apparently that never happens in the real world.