[Rant] Over 100 Euros for a novel ? Why are (A)D&D Eberron books so expensive ?

Hello, everyone,

returning to DDO, I've found me wanting to read more about this setting.

However, I just can't use Amazon.com , because they insist on using credit cards. and i still refuse using one.
So, I do the most natural choice : Using the Amazon outlet that's using my own language : Amazon.de

Now … okay, this setting - Eberron - is ten years old now, roughly. Or even older.
Prices might have increased a little bit.

But … over 100 Euros for a novel ? Seriously ?

Is it really THAT bad ? Not only that one isn't able to get novels at the once-regular price anymore, but also that the prices have gone so much vastly over-the-top ?

Examples :

https://www.amazon.de/Dragon-Below-E…ateway&sr=8-84

https://www.amazon.de/Claws-Tiger-Eb…ateway&sr=8-80

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…&condition=new

https://www.amazon.de/Queen-Stone-Th…ateway&sr=8-38

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…&condition=new

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…&condition=new


Even additions to the campain setting are expensive :

https://www.amazon.de/Dragons-Eberro…ateway&sr=8-94

https://www.amazon.de/Adventurers-Eb…ateway&sr=8-30


Well, I won't pay 40 Euros for a novel, not 50, not 30. Greed is seemingly a very strong force.

Alrik

I just googled for the first link, one you link at for 165 euros, and my results were 37 new and used from 4.99 dollars & checking the listings most were under a tenner. No idea what you're doing here.

I take it you are not willing to buy a used book from Amazon marketplace, Alrik?

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…condition=used

Or even new…

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…&condition=new

More expensive, but not as bad as what you found. Maybe you need to refine your search words.

Or save yourself the trouble and get the kindle version…

This result is from amazon.de:

https://www.amazon.de/Binding-Stone-…bassingthwaite

10 gebraucht ab EUR 0,01
6 neu ab EUR 35,89

The 1 cent offer with 5 € shipping is borderline fraud though.

That does seem fairly excessive for those books, in my opinion.

There is no reason to insist on amazon when something is obviously overpriced.
In these cases first check bookdepository.com for normal price (sadly they don't have The Dragon Below for example, no surprise, most of those stuff was milking d&d fans with mediocrity thus won't get any kind of reprint). Failing that, ebay is your best option.
Next time, buy the book when it's released, not 15 years after.

Seriously though, why do you want the paper copy of a text book in this century? It's not comic nor is a manual in color! So buy yourself a nice e-ink tablet and:

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
Or save yourself the trouble and get the kindle version…

Interesting find, Alrik! Well, all those outrageous prices that you have linked to seem to come from third-party sellers based in the U.S., not Amazon itself. Of course, they are free to set their own prices, but in some cases, they seem to exhibit a slight overoptimism that is hardly justified by the law of supply and demand.

As a matter of fact, I find one of the books Alrik linked to listed for over 700 Euros, plus 34 Euros shipping from Illinois to Germany. In fact, that vendor is offering quite a lot of German books. A copy of Michael Ende's classic "Die unendliche Geschichte" (which is easily obtainable in Germany and most likely still in print) sells (or probably doesn't) for… wait for it…

three thousand eight hundred and thirty Euros and fifty-six Cents.

Plus shipping, which you probably won't mind that much if you are willing to pay nearly 4.000 Euros for a book published 30 years ago. Even if that vendor was importing books to the U.S. by flying to Germany and back personally for each individual copy, it's hard for me to understand how that price comes about.

Perhaps it's Trump's tariffs…?

Just searched amazon.com in private browsing mode. Found the vendor, and indeed tons of books priced around 100 USD (which might be sort of understandable for out-of-print imported books), but not that one paperback at 4000 euros…

Personally, I don't buy used books anymore. That's a decision I had made a while ago.
CDs, yes, but not books.

And yes, I can buy used books for an extremely cheap price - but almost 40-50 Euros for a new one ?

If I use this converter https://www.oanda.com/lang/de/currency/converter/ I get about 53 Dollars right now for the 48 Euros new from here : https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…&condition=new

On Amazon Marketplace, there are sellers offering vastly overpriced things. It's almost as of they forgot to do a comma there, and did a point instead.
I've seen that with other things as well, and it's always rare, out of print things.

Example from the world of CDS :

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…condition=used

https://www.amazon.de/Collection-Mik…=music&sr=1-60

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listi…163889&sr=1-14

These are rare among collectors - and some sellers know that.


As a result, I'm going to pay a visit to the RPG shops I know, and look around there.

Another possibility would be the RPC "Role Play Convention", there are usually a lot of shops there, although their number has become smaller over the time,
but something very weird has happened there : Someone transferred the link to some kind of comic fair instead. I have no clue what has happened there. www.rpc-germany.de

I had great luck.

I was able to get the Ebberron setting book with even a 10 Euro price rebate.
I was able to get 4 Ebberron novels at the original price and in NEW condition in an RPG shop today. (I don't go often to that town that's why it took me so long although I knew them to be there from the last time I had been there.)

I've seen weird prices around, too. Paperbacks for this Jack Chalker classic range from $1.50 to $124.00 right now: https://smile.amazon.com/Soul-Rider-…gateway&sr=8-9

Old video games can do this, too. FF7 for somewhere between $12 and $184: https://smile.amazon.com/Final-Fanta…MR2EHMWD81J8ZW

The really worst thing is imho that people on conventions and elsewhere use these madman prices for selling their own stuff.

Two or three weekends ago I was talking to someone selling an old Ebberron Player's Handbook. He was actually looking at the internet at how much it costs now.
The price he assumed was 10 Euros above the original price - but I also guess 30-40 Euros still lower than the price I have seen on Amazon Germany.

Then, we were talking about these prices - and the influence of the internet about them.

The worst thing - and that's a thing that REALLY worries me ! - is that everyone is behaving like following a pack leader - and the pack leader is in this case the personcharging the highest price for a book on the internet !
I mean, there is not even rational thinking involved anymore. Everybody *believes* ( not "thinks" but "believes" ! ) that this highest possible price some madman just invented out of the blue is a regular, well thought-out plan to follow. So to say.

I just don't understand this human behaviour. Everybody believes that this highest price is absolutely feasible. No-one discusses whether this highest price actually makes sense. Nobody rationally discusses whether this insanely high price could actually be the invention of a madman or a psychopath trying to feed on others.

Nobody is questioning anymore HOW these highest possible prices actually came to be !

Everybody is just following a madman and his invented prices. As if he was some glorious pack leader.

In the end, I was not buying that book. I told him to use ebay or some other place to perhaps get a better price than I was going to pay, because he was wanting to get his costs of selling at the convention covered.

At the same convention, I got the Ebberron setting book elsewhere new and unused (still shrinkwrapped) with a 10 Euro rebate.

<shrug> That's fine. If they believe it's worth that much but I believe it isn't, then I'm not buying. If they actually posted one of their books for sale at that price just so they could give their customers a "big discount," that's still fine with me.

I don't care what something is "really" worth. I care what it's worth TO ME. A huge mansion is worth less than my humble abode because, if I were to live in the mansion, I would only use maybe 4 rooms but I would still have to dust the whole fraggin' thing.

(Yeah, I would still trade my house for a mansion, but only because I could immediately sell the mansion to some sucker, buy my own house back, and come out ahead.)

That's a lot even for a rare hardback. Perhaps try Barnes & Nobles, or the equivalent?