Hello,

This is the first time I'm posting here, so if I do something wrong please let me know. Okay, so I was looking to pick up some Encyclopedia Magica books after hearing about just how much magic items are in these 4 little volumes. I went to ebay, amazon, kijiji, you name it, I went to it. these are priced so very, VERY high for a complete and usable set. Then as I was searching for a local place that might possibly have them for far cheaper (which, surprise, they don't lol) came across Drive Thru RPG. I went they have a sale now going on and the bundle is 20 bucks. I went to purchase but something seemed rather off about it. Even though the site claimed Wizards produced it, it seemed like if Wizards was willing to hand over PDF copies of it for sale, why would they not print them off into four volumes for people to pick up, or even one big tome? So I asked the company about who ACTUALLY gave them the PDFs: was it Wizards themselves or was it someone who scanned their original copies and added them to the drive thru somehow? They said Wizards published it so I thought, alright no issue then, I'll grab them seeing as they they are somewhat legit. But...then as I was searching a bit more (I love me a physical book over PDF and always will) in the vain hope for some physical copies and came across an article stating that Drive Thru RPG had at one time had this thing called a scan-A-thon or something, where they were giving people money for high quality scans of really old DnD stuff. So now I'm conflicted again. My main issue is just the quality and if this place operates with at least the smallest bit of legality. I don't want to pay for the bundle only to realize the person that scanned it missed a page or something, or went and edited stuff out or in. I don't know how all this works really and what sites I can trust outside of Beyond...so I have really refrained from buying anything digital if I can help it. If anyone could give me some advice here, I would greatly appreciate it.

EDIT: Thank you everyone for alleviating my fears, I will pick them up while they are on sale. Again, all of your help has been greatly appreciated!

Do you play in 2e or do you just want inspiration for magic items in a 5e setting? 

See, this is two-sided for me. My dad has the original books, and I have 5E. I want to be able to use these books for original DnD as well as bring some of his favorites to 5E when he is a player for me. I know they are 2nd edition, but I want them to either directly bring them over to 5E (with some tweaking if I have to of course) or have them be something that can be used in the Original when my dad DMs. So I guess the answer would be yes and no? I thought just putting that would be confusing lol.

Edit: So that's why I was asking about picking them up on Drive Thru, I want to be sure that there is at least some quality control and even the smallest bit of legality, you know?

So firstly, occasionally WotC do sell stuff via DriveThruRPG even for 5e. Usually smaller things like Domains of Delight, that has only just come to DDB (for the majority of its life, its only been available in PDF). They also sell older edition materials (which is what  Encyclopaedia Magica seems to be) as PDFs there. The vendor says they're Wizards and has stuff for Roll20 etc.

I don't see any reason to think they're not on the level.

To be fair, I had never heard of them up until this point, and I'm always skeptical when it comes to websites like this. Had bad past experiences with a sketchy website, so now I'm leery about it. It's the only reason I asked really. Thank you for the response, I appreciate it.

If the question is about drive thru rpg, I’ve been buying stuff there for years and never had a problem. I can’t speak to the specific product, however.

DriveThruRPG has been around for a fairly long time at this point and established a good reputation as a place to buy gaming PDFs and Print-On-Demand books.

If you are concerned about trust, Wizards’ relationship with DriveThruRPG is strong enough that Wizards has actively touted that relationship in court proceedings.  It is one of their go-to places for releasing old content, ensuring both that players have access to the content and Wizards continues to actively use any trademarks contained in that content. 

As for why Wizards does not publish in hardcover, making books is expensive -  not only do you have to produce them, which costs paper, factory time, man hours, etc., but they also take up physical space when you store them, which also costs money.  These are products which do not sell in as high volumes as current products, so the return on investment is low for the amount of resources you put in.

Comparably, digital content does not have the same production and storage costs, and, while there are some databasing costs, DriveThruRPG pays those. Wizards just has to license the content they already own—DriveThruRPG pays all the costs and does all the website work, players get access to things that are not in print, and Wizards gets free money and Intellectual Property protections.  It’s a great deal for all involved.

Quote from O_Castitatis_Lilium28 >>

To be fair, I had never heard of them up until this point, and I'm always skeptical when it comes to websites like this. Had bad past experiences with a sketchy website, so now I'm leery about it. It's the only reason I asked really. Thank you for the response, I appreciate it.

 That's fair. I recently bought from Free League and Modiphius, and they'd both changed their method of tracking the order to a new app (the same one) at the same time...I was freaking until the books turned up. I understand the feeling.

DriveThru seems absolutely fine. Free League do their free PDFs through that site and don't seem to have problems. I've mostly gotten free or PAYW stuff through there, although I did buy Strider Mode for TOR on there. Never had an issue. Never heard of anything bad either. Obviously, I can't speak for every single instance and every site and business has their screw up moments, but DriveThru seems fine.

I saw the first three volumes of Encyclopedia Magica going second hand for the equivalent of around 40 USD each at my local Mandarake only earlier this year. The fourth was at another branch where it was going for the same amount.

I am still kicking myself for not having picked them up.

I will add that Wizards of the Coast do do print-on-demand softcovers and hardcovers via DriveThruRPG/OneBookShelf for a lot of old out-of-print TSR books. Just not all. It's hard to tell how arbitrary it is whether something will be made available print-on-demand—or just as a PDF. Why those Encyclopedia Magica books aren't available print-on-demand is anyone's guess.

Noted is that the old Planescape boxed set books used to be available print-on-demand as one big book. It is now no longer available except as a PDF. Possibly because its availability in print might have meant some competition for the upcoming release of Planescape books for the current edition.

I agree, making books these days is expensive, and something as large as the Encyclopedias would be rather expensive to make. Like I said in another post, I'm hesitant when it comes to digital things because of a past bad experience. That and I had never heard of the website before so that only added to it. Thank you for the information and help, I will be making my purchase.

Some people may think "Drive Thru" implies "Fly by Night", that's an understandable but incorrect assumption.  Drive Thru as a subsidiary of the merger of One Bookshelf and Roll20 is a very legitimate outfit.  

The WotC/TSR material DriveThru produces is actually licensed by WotC.  A lot of bad actors pretend not to know this as way to push back against claims of piracy or push back against take down notices.  

One caveat.  Drive Thru Reprints of legacy editions of WotC/TSR D&D do vary in quality as they're all largely based on PDF scans, especially the further you go back to the days where digital publishing wasn't a thing so there are no "master files" to work with (and it becomes a sort of archaeology through optical character recognition exercise).  The reviews of old D&D content on Drive Thru will often discuss the PDF quality, sometimes the PDFs improve over time.  I don't know if customers get updates to their digital libraries if versions improves.  

Another thing, if you buy a boxed set physically, you'll end up with the boxed set's content as one book, with no table of contents telling you where books begin and end.  You'll have to place tabs in the book yourself.  My own experience is varied, mostly old Planescape stuff.  Some have been problematic, others I'd have to tag and annotate heavily to make useful at table or during prep work.  But I've come to be very trusting of the reviewer community on Drivethru so everything I've picked up, I was aware of what I was getting into.

I got the Elemental Evil Player's Companion softcover printed and shipped through drivethrurpg (less than $17 including tax and shipping). I wanted to make sure I had a copy in print in case its ever removed from dndbeyond for whatever reason.

Quote from Mairondil >>

I got the Elemental Evil Player's Companion softcover printed and shipped through drivethrurpg (less than $17 including tax and shipping). I wanted to make sure I had a copy in print in case its ever removed from dndbeyond for whatever reason.

 Though all the spells in it were reprinted in Xanathar's Guide To Everything and all the non-Genasi races were reprinted in Volo's Guide To Monsters (with much better versions of the Genasi appearing in MMM).