Sold my 3rd Ed crap

[Billy_Buttcheese]

It's a glorious day! I finally, finally, managed to finally sell my 3.0 books. I've had them for sale for ~2 years and could never even get a nibble. I always assumed it's because they were 1st Ed 3.0 copies and everyone only wants 3.5 stuff. But I listed a huge lot that included all 3 original core books and also Deities & Demigods as well as a couple splat books and finally found someone gullible enough to pony up the dough for the set. I took a pretty big loss (~$100) but it was worth it when the buyer paid right away. Now I have room on my shelf for some real AD&D stuff. Now the only 3 Ed items I have are the DCCs from Goodman Games which I will happily convert.

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

Congrats!

You're lucky it sold even for that much. Even the 3.5 stuff, I see tons of it at the used book stores. Just tons and tons. Most of it looks unused or at worst lightly used. The entire D&D section is 3E, 3.5E and Pathfinder crap.

[JadedDM]

Yeah, most everyone just buys the .pdfs nowadays.

[garhkal]

Congrats!

You're lucky it sold even for that much. Even the 3.5 stuff, I see tons of it at the used book stores. Just tons and tons. Most of it looks unused or at worst lightly used. The entire D&D section is 3E, 3.5E and Pathfinder crap.

Heck my local library USED to have a section for RPGs.. AND ALL I used to ever see there, were 3.0/3,5 and some pathfinder stuff.. Now days. Nothing..

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

I don't know why anyone would buy PDFs nowadays, when virtually every product ever made can be found in PDF format for free online.

[JadedDM]

Because they aren't criminals?

Because they want to support the company that makes the products they love?

Because there's no guarantee that pirated pdfs won't also contain viruses or malware?

[garhkal]

And some just prefer the Tactile sensation of OWNING a physical book, vs having a PDF.

[Billy_Buttcheese]

Congrats!

You're lucky it sold even for that much. Even the 3.5 stuff, I see tons of it at the used book stores. Just tons and tons. Most of it looks unused or at worst lightly used. The entire D&D section is 3E, 3.5E and Pathfinder crap.

To be fair though, that might be because everyone snaps up all the classic stuff to sell online for a tidy profit. The local comic store that I frequent used to have a pretty large used game section. (I think they were taking it in trade for comics and newer gaming stuff). Over the course of the last 2-3 years all the 1st/2nd Ed stuff has disappeared, and most of it was in pretty rough shape. Thus leaving only the dregs that are the newer editions....

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

I honestly don't think that's the case. When there was 1E/2E stuff, most of it was clearly used, and it would be hit or miss. They might have a handful of items at best. When the 3E+ crap came out, the shelves were (and remain) flooded with a constant influx of 3E+ material. I've never seen an edition prior to 3E, where there was such a huge amount of aftermarket, used crap on the shelves.

I also don't think it's the case that people were buying up the old stuff to sell on ebay. I mean, some might have. But it seems to me that either the stuff I'd find was in too poor a shape to really get a decent price online, or it was in better shape but at a good price that people like me would buy to add to the collection (I'd prefer to pay $5 and have a copy of a rare, vintage module in great shape than to sell it on ebay for a lousy $10 or $20 profit, only to then have to pay 2-4 times as much to replace the copy I bought for $5 and then sold on ebay for $20.

[Billy_Buttcheese]

You make a valid argument, Hal. But according to the very nice sales associate I spoke with, there was a gentleman that came in once about a year ago that bought essentially all of the classic stuff in one fell swoop. He made an offer to the store's owner for the lot and walked out with quite a haul. I'm thinking it was someone like Intelligator, Guido the Gypsy, or Noble Knight, who actually make a living selling this stuff on the internet, not just some local schmuck that was trying an experiment to see if he could turn a decent profit on one or two semi-valuable copies, like you alluded to. In any event, they no longer have any classic stuff, just 3.x thru 5 Ed-mostly 4th, and buttloads of it. Pretty much like you also pointed out, almost new or barely used and priced for pennies on the $. I often wonder if that might be because WoTC flooded the market with it to make it seem like they were selling more than they actually were. Speaking of which, isn't version 6.0 just about ready to hit the sales floor? I mean, 5th has been out for what, almost 3 years now, right?

[JadedDM]

Speaking of which, isn't version 6.0 just about ready to hit the sales floor? I mean, 5th has been out for what, almost 3 years now, right?

Four years, but that's highly unlikely. Fifth Edition is still going very strong, they are still releasing new material for it and are still announcing new material for the next couple of years. WotC likely won't announce 6E until sales start to fall considerably. I don't know when that will be, but not anytime soon.

[Billy_Buttcheese]

JadedDM, you might be right but I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that 6 Ed is already written or mostly so and any new editions they propose will almost certainly be advertised and sold as "5th Ed compatible", unlike 3rd & 4th which were essentially stand alone editions. Or possibly a 5.5 Edition like 3rd. In any case, another cash cow waiting to be milked.

[JadedDM]

That seems really unlikely to me. In order for 6E to be 'already written or mostly so' means they would have had to started working on it when 5E was still in production. I doubt even WotC has the resources to work on two new editions concurrently, especially since 4E was such a financial blow to them.

[Billy_Buttcheese]

Hal, didn't you at some point in the recent past, post the timeline of version releases for D&D?

I seem to recall:
1st Edition 1978-1989ish - 11 years
2nd Ed 89-98 - 9 years
etc.
I can't recall the rest of the exact dates but I seem to remember 3.X had a pretty long run, too. Like 7+ years. And then 4th was like 2 years? Now Jaded says 4 years for 5th. I have heard sales for 5th edition have been decent but Pathfinder still exceeds it by quite a wide margin. We'll never know exact numbers because companies won't release those numbers to the public, but probably do to their stockholders. If there's one thing most companies learn when they have their asses handed to them, it's to not sit back on their laurels and assume robust sales of a current product are going to keep them afloat in perpetuity. I just read on Wiki that Paizo has begun playtesting on their new Pathfinder version, and plan on a release sometime next year. Not certain how true this is since it's Wiki but 10 years sure makes sense. And you can bet Wizards has their spies in place to be on the playtesting team, just as Paizo probably did with Wizards versions. A return to a more classical feel seems to be the theme and you can bet Paizo has taken notice of 5 Ed sales and will attempt to incorporate at least some of those 'classic' elements in their new version, while still keeping it skill based.

[JadedDM]

It was:

Original 1974-1977 (3 years)
1st Edition 1977-1989 (12 years)
2nd Edition 1989-1995 (6 years)
3rd Edition 2000-2008 (8 years)
4th Edition 2008-2010 (2 years)
5th Edition 2014-2018 (4 years and counting, with planned material for the rest of this year and 2019, at least)

And yes, Paizo is releasing 2nd Edition Pathfinder (I was the one to break that news in this forum, in fact). First Edition Pathfinder was released about 8 years ago. I suspect the reason is because they made their fame after siphoning away most of the D&D fanbase after 4th Edition did so poorly. But 5th Edition has won back most of those fans, and more, and now I figure Pathfinder is the one in decline, sales-wise. So they are doing what they have to in order to stay relevant.