Substantial Price Increase | Chessex Dice Raises Their Price
I believe Michael Scott said it best when he said, “STAY #!@#$@# CALM!”. In his case, the office was on fire and quite possibly shooting at him. In our case, Chessex Dice has just announced (effective 2/1/2023) that they have substantially raised the prices on all of their products. In some cases, the price increase is as much as 20% on popular 7-dice sets and 16mm dice sets. Although this news is anything but good, I am not sure it is time to panic. Join me as I unpack what is going on here.
It's been awhile.
As the announcement says, Chessex Dice has not had an across the board price increase since 2011. That is pretty amazing when you consider what the prices on other household stapples looked like ten years ago. One great example is the cost (price) of Netflix… In 2012, you could enjoy everything that Netflix had to offer for only $7.99 a month. Today, that same membership will cost you at least $15.49! Not to mention the rumors that they will start clamping down on password sharing, HARD. So when you consider that the price of a 7-dice set of Borealis dice was $9.99 in 2011, and stayed that same price up until a few weeks ago, you can start to see why things needed to change.
We saw this coming.
A few years ago, Chessex announced their ‘Lab Dice’, in which they would release a limited number of new dice colors. These dice sets carried a higher price of $11.98 (the same price as the standard popular dice by Chessex after the new price change). The reason for the price increase then, was that the Lab Dice sets were produced in smaller runs, which made them more expensive to manufacture. That certainly seems possible here, but I question that logic in this situation, in light of the fact, that since the third wave of Lab Dice, we have received an eighth dice in the pack (a custom d6), and the dice are packed in test tubes. Although the test tubes have been met with some fan criticism, I think the overall product has been very exciting and I love the custom d6’s.
A sign of good things to come.
Chessex has been infinitely more active in the last few years than they were, say, 6 years ago. Creating new products, like their revitalized mini dice or their lab dice (discussed above), I believe this trend is almost sure to continue and flourish with the influx of inflation necessitated cash. We have seen the Amazon Market Place flooded with dice sets from unknown venders with varying effect. Although some of these sets are pretty cool, often they do not match the quality or vibrance of Chessex Dice (I am team Chessex obviously). What’s important to note is that as you shop these pages, so many of these dice sets are well in excess of the $9.99 price tag that Chessex has carried for so long. Take a look for yourself.
Cool? Yes. More than $9.99? Yes.
Everything is fine.
Look, no one likes price increases. But, as a consumer, we know our favorite gaming products are not spellbound to stay the same price forever. If we expect Chessex to grow and adapt to the ever changing dungeons and dragons dice market, we should also expect their prices to change with it. Chessex has long catered to the needs of its tabletop gamers. I firmly believe that they will continue to do this with future releases and product development. BrycesDice is proud to offer Chessex dice. In fact, they were one of my first stocked products, and we will continue to offer their products for the foreseeable future.
Officers Note: BrycesDice will not change the price of Chessex dice immediately. The prices will only increase as I restock individual items. So yea…. Order now!
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