Help me estimate the number of copies produced. • Collecting General • The Acaeum

The Acaeum Forums • Collecting General

Help me estimate the number of copies produced.
	Page 1 of 1

Author

The Collector's Trove
Prolific Collector
Acaeum Donor

Posts: 763
Joined: Feb 05, 2003
Last Visit: Nov 13, 2023

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 4:08 pm

Howdy Folks,

Have a bit of a bizarre task, I need to accomplish by Wednesday night. I need to come up with estimates on the number of copies printed and pricing of the following products. I've given my estimates, please share your data or thoughts on the matter:

Blackmoor $5.00    50,000 copies
Monster Manual 1977 $9.95 342,000 copies
U3 Danger at Dunwater $7.00 100,000 copies
Monster Compendium 1989    $19.95 600,000 copies
Monstrous Manual 1995    $29.95 300,000 copies
Monstrous Manual 1997    $29.95 150,000 copies
Monstrous Arcana: Sea Devils 1997 $19.95 20,000 copies
Monstrous Arcana: Evil Tide (9542) 1997    $9.95 15,000 copies
Monstrous Arcana: Night of the Shark (9550) 1997 $9.95 15,000 copies
Monstrous Arcana: Sea of Blood (9560) 1997 $13.95 15,000 copies
Monster Manual 1999 $19.95 750,000 copies
Monster Manual 2004 $19.95 150,000 copies

Futures Bright,

Paul

The Collector's Trove The online auction house that features the collections of game designers and artists.

darkseraphim
Prolific Collector
Valuation Board

Posts: 681
Joined: Oct 13, 2003
Last Visit: Aug 16, 2023
Location: Denver, CO

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:30 pm

Talk to Ralf, he helped me out with his contact when I was attempting to gauge print runs of module series. I will warn you that the information is kept near and dear to a company's chest; the little I was able to glean was from the silver anniversary book and the shreds of Ryan's comments from closing up the TSR accounting books. Most of the evidence is circumstantial - when you hear of a small company (JG, Chaosium, etc.) crowing about selling 10,000 copies and saying that's almost as much as the big guys, you know that TSR (the gorilla) likely sold more of its same-era competing products. I can't find the thread with my module print run estimates where we had this conversation - it may have been deleted.

FoulFoot
Site Admin

Posts: 2238
Joined: Oct 19, 2002
Last Visit: Dec 10, 2023
Location: Honolulu, HI

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 6:45 pm

The only deleted threads are posts in the Classifieds forum older than 90 days. Everything else is here... somewhere.

Foul

bbarsh
Long-Winded Collector
Acaeum Donor

Posts: 3865
Joined: Feb 21, 2004
Last Visit: Jul 20, 2023
Location: Milford, Michigan

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 8:37 pm

80k of U3. That seems unusual. How far off is that from a standard module in the same time period?

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

FoulFoot
Site Admin

Posts: 2238
Joined: Oct 19, 2002
Last Visit: Dec 10, 2023
Location: Honolulu, HI

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 9:51 pm

Confirmed number of copies available?

darkseraphim
Prolific Collector
Valuation Board

Posts: 681
Joined: Oct 13, 2003
Last Visit: Aug 16, 2023
Location: Denver, CO

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:22 pm

Perfect! Thanks for digging, FoulFoot. I think my estimates are still too high though :lol:

The Collector's Trove
Prolific Collector
Acaeum Donor

Posts: 763
Joined: Feb 05, 2003
Last Visit: Nov 13, 2023

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:25 am

Howdy All,

But really, how many Monster Manuals were produced? Here is how I esitmated based on the Harold Johnson interview:

1st 10,000
2nd 20,000
3rd 24,000
4th 24,000
5th 24,000
6th 24,000
7th 24,000
8th 24,000
9th 24,000
10th 24,000
11th 24,000
12th 24,000
13th 24,000
14th 24,000
15th 24,000

That's 342,000. Any idea about the print runs for the 3e and 3.5e Monster Manuals?

Futures Bright,

Paul

The Collector's Trove The online auction house that features the collections of game designers and artists.

grodog
Grandstanding Collector

Posts: 5805
Joined: Nov 16, 2002
Last Visit: Dec 10, 2023
Location: Wichita, KS, USA

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:29 am

IIRC Paul, the 3.0 books were printed in the range of hundreds of thousands of copies---that's part of why they were supposedly able to keep the price down to $20 for the first year or three that the books were around. This was discussed pretty heavily on ENWorld, by folks at WotC like Ryan Dancey, Anthony Valterra, etc., but I don't recall any definitive lists of figures ever being made available.

Allan Grohe ([email protected])
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

darkseraphim
Prolific Collector
Valuation Board

Posts: 681
Joined: Oct 13, 2003
Last Visit: Aug 16, 2023
Location: Denver, CO

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:27 pm

3.0 actually went over a million copies for the core trinity. I can't say how far over, though.

404

The Collector's Trove
Prolific Collector
Acaeum Donor

Posts: 763
Joined: Feb 05, 2003
Last Visit: Nov 13, 2023

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:33 pm

Howdy,

darkseraphim wrote:3.0 actually went over a million copies for the core trinity. I can't say how far over, though.

404

So does that mean 333,333 Monster Manuals, 333,333 DMG's, and 333,333 PH's?

Futures Bright,

Paul

The Collector's Trove The online auction house that features the collections of game designers and artists.

darkseraphim
Prolific Collector
Valuation Board

Posts: 681
Joined: Oct 13, 2003
Last Visit: Aug 16, 2023
Location: Denver, CO

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:54 pm

We're never going to know. You're looking for openness and common sense from TSR / WotC accounting departments.

I would have to guess that the PHB has a larger print run. Maybe 450,000 PHBs and 275,000 of each of the others. Then keep in mind that there were a million books in print in 2001, so maybe up those by 20%? That way you do get to 330,000, but only if you accept more PHBs than MMs.

The Acaeum Forums • Collecting General

Page 1 of 1