Re: [HeroQuest-RPG] Godlearner Book

From: Tim Ellis <tim_at_2EZ4x0EMd5GiK5DwMP9rW29OTuQ0KBEpykggcBNA5wOMoq8EESFTqYFdfo65TLyAiG1eRqlQ>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:42:03 -0000

I'm with Peter and Graham.
I appreciate that Greg and Jeff etc wanted to help Tentacles to raise funds, and providing material that can be auctioned to collectors is one way of doing this.
I also accept, without having seen a copy, that this limited edition book is particularly attractive as a book, and also that it would be expensive/impracticable to mass market in this form.

However

I also note that
1) several people were prepared to pay a premium price for the limited edition Heroquest rulebook, even though the regular edition was alos available
2) a copy of the tentacles pre-release ILH2 has just sold at well over market price, even though the regular edition will be available from "all good games stores"
3) Out of print Gloranthan supplements continue to sell for respectable amounts
4) the "Unfinished works" presumably sold in sufficient quantities that it was worth producing more than one, despite their "low production quality" and their limited availability (ie you can't just wander in to your FLGS and pick a copy up off the shelf)

Which leads me to conclude that collectors and completists would still have been prepared to bid "silly money" for a high-quality, limited edition version of the book even if a "standard" edition existed whether in "unfinished work" format or as a higher quality publication. And thus to suspect that any reduction in income resulting from such collectors and completists deciding to "make do" with the standard edition would be covered by the sales of the standard edition.