Since D&D Beyond is now owned by Hasboro, I am still trying to see why the cost of digital releases of the books has not dropped in price. In the past I understood that the site had to pay licensing fees to Hasboro for the rights to deliver the books to its customers and they needed to markup their fees paid to make money and pay their workers for creating this place. But now, this falls under Hasboro and I am still trying to figure out why a digital release is still going for the same price and sometimes higher than the original physical release. Look at the new Dragonlance release coming. I preordered it through Amazon Canada for $39.97 before tax and free shipping. On the site here it is listed at $29.99 USD which is just over $40 Canadian with the exchange. I literally purchased a physical release which will get delivered to me for cheaper than the digital release. Not only that, why does this site not have the option to select the currency of your country and pay in that as well without having to pay exchange rate fees charged by your payment choice (credit card, 3rd party payment processor, or whatever) which then adds a secondary fee on top of your purchase.
Even with the 20% off on the majority of books on sale for black Friday, they are on the most part coming in about a 1/3 off the physical pricing (based on Canadian pricing) from like Amazon. Those not all books are at the 1/3 off amount compared to their physical releases. Curse of Strahd on Amazon is almost the same as DNDBeyond which that lists it at $26.74 after exchange minus payment processors exchange rate fee.
Remove the currency locking and offer the customer to be able to pay in their own currency and not worry about this exchange fee that is hidden/worked into the exchange rate. Also, take a closer look at the pricing of the digital goods. I understand that it takes time, creativity, and testing (generally) to create the content that is published in whatever format you purchase it in. But if printing costs and global shortages in paper and other printing materials are driving up the costs of physical releases how is it that digital releases are almost in lock step of being the same price of a physical release? Yes I am ranting to a degree, but there are a lot of things to make this more compatible to your consumers by reducing barriers to hidden cost/fees that get added into purchasing in a single fixed currency. Many site offer their customers to pay in their national currency because of the volatility of currency exchange rates and maybe price according to the region. Pretty sure there are international players in parts of the world like Eastern Europe, India, and parts of Asia that play this great game and would like to have the ability to purchase books in their own currency and language.
Just a note - being owned by WotC doesn't necessarily translate to cheaper books. Both companies still need to make a profit, and nothing has changed about that. Also pricing in a market isn't set by cost of production, it's set by how much customers are willing to pay. Costs provide a floor - a minimum price - since they aren't going to sell at a loss, but the prices are dictated by what people will pay for the object. If we agreed that you'd sell me a drink and I agreed to pay £5 for it, would you really just charge £3? DDB is the same. People pay the prices they charge, they're not going to lower it just for funsies.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Since D&D Beyond is now owned by Hasboro, I am still trying to see why the cost of digital releases of the books has not dropped in price. In the past I understood that the site had to pay licensing fees to Hasboro for the rights to deliver the books to its customers and they needed to markup their fees paid to make money and pay their workers for creating this place. But now, this falls under Hasboro and I am still trying to figure out why a digital release is still going for the same price and sometimes higher than the original physical release. Look at the new Dragonlance release coming. I preordered it through Amazon Canada for $39.97 before tax and free shipping. On the site here it is listed at $29.99 USD which is just over $40 Canadian with the exchange. I literally purchased a physical release which will get delivered to me for cheaper than the digital release. Not only that, why does this site not have the option to select the currency of your country and pay in that as well without having to pay exchange rate fees charged by your payment choice (credit card, 3rd party payment processor, or whatever) which then adds a secondary fee on top of your purchase.
Even with the 20% off on the majority of books on sale for black Friday, they are on the most part coming in about a 1/3 off the physical pricing (based on Canadian pricing) from like Amazon. Those not all books are at the 1/3 off amount compared to their physical releases. Curse of Strahd on Amazon is almost the same as DNDBeyond which that lists it at $26.74 after exchange minus payment processors exchange rate fee.
Remove the currency locking and offer the customer to be able to pay in their own currency and not worry about this exchange fee that is hidden/worked into the exchange rate. Also, take a closer look at the pricing of the digital goods. I understand that it takes time, creativity, and testing (generally) to create the content that is published in whatever format you purchase it in. But if printing costs and global shortages in paper and other printing materials are driving up the costs of physical releases how is it that digital releases are almost in lock step of being the same price of a physical release? Yes I am ranting to a degree, but there are a lot of things to make this more compatible to your consumers by reducing barriers to hidden cost/fees that get added into purchasing in a single fixed currency. Many site offer their customers to pay in their national currency because of the volatility of currency exchange rates and maybe price according to the region. Pretty sure there are international players in parts of the world like Eastern Europe, India, and parts of Asia that play this great game and would like to have the ability to purchase books in their own currency and language.
Just a note - being owned by WotC doesn't necessarily translate to cheaper books. Both companies still need to make a profit, and nothing has changed about that. Also pricing in a market isn't set by cost of production, it's set by how much customers are willing to pay. Costs provide a floor - a minimum price - since they aren't going to sell at a loss, but the prices are dictated by what people will pay for the object. If we agreed that you'd sell me a drink and I agreed to pay £5 for it, would you really just charge £3? DDB is the same. People pay the prices they charge, they're not going to lower it just for funsies.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.