drivethrurpg pdfs in print, please?

[koraq]

I just found out that "Historical: War of 3039" is only available in pdf format. I prefer dead trees, and checked if drivethrurpg were selling Catalyst books, they are! But, they have not enabled the POD option.

I'd love to convince someone from Catalyst that it would be a great idea to sell print on demand book from the pdf only line. Pretty please, with sugar on top? Anyone know who to talk to, and how to convince them it's a great idea?

[Kit deSummersville]

Calling it a print copy instead of 'dead tree' would be one place to start. Ask the Line Developers would probably be the best area to start.

[Hersh67]

I PMed him a link he should be able to use.

[Lorcan Nagle]

One thing to remember is that a lot of the PDFs CGL offer did have print runs in the past.  Historical: 3039 was published in 2004, for example.  There's questions as to how cost-effetive it would be to reprint such a book

[Sigma]

Many trees died to bring us this information.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Looking at that, I can imagine there'd be a need to edit the logos - Fanpro and WKGames - at least for the cover, so it's not like they can simply fire up another press with the same plates they already have.  Which means a lot for new development, those things can be - well, were - expensive. 

[Sigma]

I don't see why not to just hunt down a secondhand copy.

You have to do that for other books from that era. JHS 3070, DotJ, Fedcom Civil War, etc.

Some of the really popular stuff was rereleased (TRO's obviously, and they made the DotJ+3070 compilation) but you want a copy of an old novel or most old sourcebooks, you just hunt it down and often for cheaper than new. I paid $5 for my War of 3039 for example vs. a lot more I paid for a brand new copy of Operation Klondike when it came out.

[monty]

Its still available from Ral Partha Europe if thats any use to you.

[Duke]

Amazon still has it (War of 3039) too fyi. $29.99.

Here

[LastChanceCav]

All you need for print on demand is a PDF and the cash to pay for a one off printing. I would understand if Catalyst enabled this for out of print titles that they had the right PDFs available for or products they released in PDF only, but not currently in print titles since this would probably take more of of bite out of print sales than regular PDFs.

Cheers,
LCC

[koraq]

Thanks for the feedback, pointers and links, friends!

[joechummer]

I bought a new copy of H:Wo3039 several months back from amazon for $30.

Then I went to GenCon a few weeks ago, and at one booth I saw that book, Historical: Brush Fires, all of the Field Manuals (except the two Clan ones), the Fanpro House Handbooks (Steiner, Marik, Davion), and a ton of other FASA/Fanpro books all for $5 apiece.

My wallet wept, because I had dropped $30-35 apiece for each of those books less than a year ago to round out the holes in my collection.

At least I was able to buy a $5 copy of HB:HS to replace the $35 one that had a bad binding that started falling apart before I was even 50 pages into the book (and I'm very nice to paperback books...)

If you really want a DTF copy of an out-of-print BT book, unless it's something obscure or hard to find—like the Clan Field Manuals, The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, the merc supplements, etc.—you shouldn't have too much trouble.

[Charlie Tango]

Then I went to GenCon a few weeks ago, and at one booth I saw that book, Historical: Brush Fires, all of the Field Manuals (except the two Clan ones), the Fanpro House Handbooks (Steiner, Marik, Davion), and a ton of other FASA/Fanpro books all for $5 apiece.

Yeah I raided that booth for a friend; he needed Brush Wars and War of 3039.  They were out of FM:Comstar though by the time I had gotten there.

[Kit deSummersville]

I bought a new copy of H:Wo3039 several months back from amazon for $30.

Then I went to GenCon a few weeks ago, and at one booth I saw that book, Historical: Brush Fires, all of the Field Manuals (except the two Clan ones), the Fanpro House Handbooks (Steiner, Marik, Davion), and a ton of other FASA/Fanpro books all for $5 apiece.

My wallet wept, because I had dropped $30-35 apiece for each of those books less than a year ago to round out the holes in my collection.

Be happy you furthered BattleTech rather than a retailer's warehouse space.  ;)

[joechummer]

Be happy you furthered BattleTech rather than a retailer's warehouse space.  ;)

If the books were CGL-branded, I wouldn't have minded paying full price, but since all the ones I got at full price from amazon were were out-of-print FanPro-branded books, their full-price purchase didn't help the current BT torch-holders.