RG price

[rossi46]

Will the coverprice of an issue of RG go up with the VAT increase?

[SirClive]

As far as I am aware magazines are exempt from VAT.

[rossi46]

I was vaguely aware of that, but I'm imagining that the overall cost of producing the mag will rise along with everything else. I'm tempted to try the digital version via my iPod touch to try to reduce my own monthly outgoings, but would probably continue to get the paper version if it stays the same price.

[FatTrucker]

Can't see it being significant anyway TBH. An extra 2.5% of the mag price is pennies. Its high priced items that will see wallet effecting changes.

[SirClive]

I was vaguely aware of that, but I'm imagining that the overall cost of producing the mag will rise along with everything else.

I would expect that the major cost apart from labour is the printing and that is the exempt bit. I would be very disappointed if it did rise tbh.

[paranoid marvin]

VAT effects the cost of everything though indirectly , so although there's no VAT on the sale of the mag itself , the profit margin will be lower. Having said that , the price of RG remained unaffected when VAT was LOWERED....
Anyway , the price of things can't stay the same indeinately. sooner or later the price will be affected. When launched Crash was 75p - in May '89 it was £1.25, an increase of more than 75%

[Dunjohn]

VAT effects the cost of everything though indirectly , so although there's no VAT on the sale of the mag itself , the profit margin will be lower. Having said that , the price of RG remained unaffected when VAT was LOWERED....
Anyway , the price of things can't stay the same indeinately. sooner or later the price will be affected. When launched Crash was 75p - in May '89 it was £1.25, an increase of more than 75%

Maybe I'm not awake yet but isn't that 66.7%?

[paranoid marvin]

Maths was never my strong-point But even with a 50% increase , if RG had taken a similar increase it would cost about a tenner.

[Megamixer]

Can't see it being significant anyway TBH. An extra 2.5% of the mag price is pennies. Its high priced items that will see wallet effecting changes.

...and to people spending that big money to notice the difference, the increase should be negligible for their level of spending. This VAT increase is a bugger but I don't think it's going to hit as bad as people are saying.

[knight_beat]

I recall there was real concern that computing magazines wouldn't survive a VAT increase in the mid 80s. Commodore User ran several advertorials encouraging people to write to their MPs about it. Magazines were excluded from the price rise in the end.

[FatTrucker]

Also worth mentioning that VAT was actually reduced by the same margin (to 15%) at the end of 2008 in a pointless attempt by Labour to encourage spending and pretty much no-one noticed because generally 2.5% on VAT in either direction is pretty much f**k all when balanced against the pathetically large, overtly profiteering percentage rises in domestic fuel, public transport, food shopping and most other big expense areas. When your monthly bill for filling up the car, or buying food or heating your house, or getting a train/bus to work, increase by up to £50 each, an average of £25 a month divided amongst everything you spend your money on in total, is f**k all in comparison really.

Everyone's going loopy over VAT when we should be starting with the cost of food, travel and electric/gas all of which have risen well above inflation every single year for no viable reason, and the companies in receipt of that money post new record profits year on year while still spinning the lie that charges are rising in line with their costs....and people just let them do it.

[CraigGrannell]

Despite all that, I'll be amazed if RG sees out 2010 with the same cover price. It's been the same price since Imagine took over, which is pretty astonishing when you think about it. Mind you, keeping the mag under the 'magic fiver' for as long as possible is wise, since when a lot of other mags went from £5 to £6, sales dropped.

[Bland_Boy]

We pay 14.95 here in oz. It recently changed over the last 3 or so issues from 13.95.

14.95 is quite expensive for a magazine. Wish we had a UK-equivalent price.

edit1: currency converter tells me 5 pound is equivelant to 7.74au dollars.

so we're getting charged twice the price to have it sent to oz and put on shelves?
surely the cost to send it ain't that big.

***k just looked at delivery charges for Amazon UK, 1 book = 8.73 pounds to deliver to Australia.
that's like 10 bucks or so AU.
but surely RG is getting a much better deal on their shipping-rates than this?

Is it the newsagencies to blame for the high-ish price of RG, or the shipping-rates for this type of thing?
And even after the high-price of shipping, many copies I've inspected arrive damaged in some way.
It's hard to find an almost-unblemished copy of the magazine.

[Antiriad2097]

Coincidentally, I mentioned RG to a colleague today and he reckoned it was very expensive at only a fiver!

Find me another mag at that price with as much original, relevant and interesting written content - most of them are full of pictures.

[Bland_Boy]

Coincidentally, I mentioned RG to a colleague today and he reckoned it was very expensive at only a fiver!

Find me another mag at that price with as much original, relevant and interesting written content - most of them are full of pictures.

i hope he understands that people who buy this magazine religiously, find the content to be of such value as to treat the magazines they own with great respect.
Not like magazines on current videogames like Miccrosoft or Nintendo mags, which with each passing moment are more and more the likely to be thrown
across the room to other people. or just plain thrown out.