If you buy your hard copy books from D&D directly they give you a copy, they don't allow hobby shops to do that. I wonder how much long hobby shops will support D&D once this becomes common knowledge for customers like you and I?
Most likely you'd have to pull your books apart and put them in a toploader type scanner and you could generate your own PDF's. If you search for scanning pdf's from books you can get some suggestions on how to make your own PDF's. The books D&D provides are glue backed so if you used them for a while, you'll start getting some separation, so its not as if they will last so doing a scanned PDF version of your books might be a better idea for longer term.
There's nothing inadvisable to making your PDF's from the books you bought. It gives you a digital copy. I've already had two D&D 5E books get page dropping from separation from binding from use and I scanned the book into PDF with no issues with OCR so they are now searchable. If you want a PDF copy of your books that you paid for, its a way of doing it.
The only way now to get the digital copy is to buy your hard books from the Wizards store.
Understand, creating your own private pdf is one hint, loading onto a WOtC proprietary site is something else. The reality is that no you can’t add your digitized copies of hardcover books to your account here. If you want both then sadly you have to pay for both copies.
There are frequently sales and discounted bundles for the digital versions, so if you're looking to recreate your collection online cheaply, it may be worth waiting for one of those. Though we don't know in advance when they'll be, US holidays like Easter*, Memorial Day or the 4th of July might be good times to check back.
*Yes I know, Easter isn't just american, but the other two are
If you buy your hard copy books from D&D directly they give you a copy, they don't allow hobby shops to do that. I wonder how much long hobby shops will support D&D once this becomes common knowledge for customers like you and I?
Most likely you'd have to pull your books apart and put them in a toploader type scanner and you could generate your own PDF's. If you search for scanning pdf's from books you can get some suggestions on how to make your own PDF's. I used to do this with my college papers to keep them on my PC. By the way, if you need help with homework, there is a cool service - you can see more here, there are excellent writers who helped me with my history assignment. The books D&D provides are glue backed so if you used them for a while, you'll start getting some separation, so its not as if they will last so doing a scanned PDF version of your books might be a better idea for longer term.
I understand your situation, I was also once interested in this question. The best option is to buy digital versions on sale, as the user wrote in the post above.
I own a large number of the DnD books hardcopy. Can they be brought into DnD Beyond somehow?
I apologize, I'm new to the site and haven't found any information on this anywhere I've looked yet.
If you buy your hard copy books from D&D directly they give you a copy, they don't allow hobby shops to do that. I wonder how much long hobby shops will support D&D once this becomes common knowledge for customers like you and I?
Most likely you'd have to pull your books apart and put them in a toploader type scanner and you could generate your own PDF's. If you search for scanning pdf's from books you can get some suggestions on how to make your own PDF's. The books D&D provides are glue backed so if you used them for a while, you'll start getting some separation, so its not as if they will last so doing a scanned PDF version of your books might be a better idea for longer term.
before you in-advisably start pulling your own books apart, refer to this handy thread:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/96069-hardcover-books-d-d-beyond-and-you-faq?comment=1
There's nothing inadvisable to making your PDF's from the books you bought. It gives you a digital copy. I've already had two D&D 5E books get page dropping from separation from binding from use and I scanned the book into PDF with no issues with OCR so they are now searchable. If you want a PDF copy of your books that you paid for, its a way of doing it.
The only way now to get the digital copy is to buy your hard books from the Wizards store.
Understand, creating your own private pdf is one hint, loading onto a WOtC proprietary site is something else. The reality is that no you can’t add your digitized copies of hardcover books to your account here. If you want both then sadly you have to pay for both copies.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
So previously purchased books cannot be imported. Disappointing but not surprising in retrospect.
Thanks for the replies all.
There are frequently sales and discounted bundles for the digital versions, so if you're looking to recreate your collection online cheaply, it may be worth waiting for one of those. Though we don't know in advance when they'll be, US holidays like Easter*, Memorial Day or the 4th of July might be good times to check back.
*Yes I know, Easter isn't just american, but the other two are
I understand your situation, I was also once interested in this question. The best option is to buy digital versions on sale, as the user wrote in the post above.
As predicted, there's a sale coming up: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1473-coming-soon-get-up-to-40-off-d-d-essentials-for-a