Atlas Games: Top 10 of 2002

It's that time of year again! Here are our top sellers from the year just ended... After the first time in memory that Lunch Money was bumped out of its top spots (by D20 stuff in 2001), it has pimp slapped the competition and reasserted its place as Butt-Kicking Princess of the Atlas Playground. Even in a year of sharply declining D20 unit sales, though, the open game titles that were new releases dominated the charts.

Atlas Games
Top Ten Sellers of 2002

*Indicates a product released in 2002

By Units Sold

1. Lunch Money
2. Once Upon A Time
3. Occult Lore* (D20)
4. Seven Strongholds* (D20)
5. Backdrops* (D20)
6. Seven Cities* (D20)
7. Nyambe: African Adventures* (D20)
8. The Ebon Mirror* (D20)
9. Unknown Armies 2nd Edition*
10. Unhallowed Halls* (D20)

By Dollar Sales

1. Lunch Money
2. Occult Lore* (D20)
3. Once Upon A Time
4. Nyambe: African Adventures* (D20)
5. Unknown Armies 2nd Edition*
6. Seven Strongholds* (D20)
7. Seven Cities* (D20)
8. The Ebon Mirror* (D20)
9. Blood and Sand* (Ars Magica)
10. Unhallowed Halls* (D20)

[quozl]

Thank you for the information! Any chance you could give the Top 10 by profit?

Originally posted by quozl
Thank you for the information! Any chance you could give the Top 10 by profit?

In theory I could. However, it's a LOT more effort, and the end result is less meaningful than the two lists above, which are easily done.

For example, suppose I print 10,000 of Book #1 and 2,000 of Book #2, and then I sell 2,000 of each. The books are otherwise identical. Let's say I spend $10,000 on writing and artwork for both, and the printing bill is $1 per copy for #1 (because I'm printing so many) but $2 per copy for #2, and the revenue for both is $10 per copy (just to keep things simple).

For #1, we add $10,000 (writing & artwork) + $10,000 (printing) to get a total cost of $20,000, or $2 per unit. Thus each unit sold generates $8 profit (revenue $10 minus cost of goods $2), and by selling 2000 copies I've made a profit of $16,000.

For #2, we add $10,000 (writing & artwork) + $4,000 (printing) to get a total cost of $14,000...but dividing by 2000 units means $7 per unit. Thus each unit sold generates $3 profit, and by selling all 2,000 I have made a profit of $6,000.

The result is that #1 is FAR more profitable than #2, yes?

Here's the hitch. #1 is more profitable on paper...but it's not generated any free cash flow. I invested $20,000 cash, and I have gotten back $20,000 in return. All my profit is still tied up in inventory. And the way RPG books sell, after these 2000 sold, I may never sell the rest (or at least not enough to generate more than the costs of warehousing and sales). Meanwhile, I'm actually cash flow negative, because I have to pay taxes on the profit, even though I may have no money in the bank!

#2 is far less profitable, strictly speaking, but it's actually a healthier product for a business. I invested $14,000, got back $20,000 -- and the profit of $6,000 is actual cash in the bank.

When someone assures me that a given product is profitable, I always look upon the claim with skepticism. Plenty of companies have driven themselves into the ground while producing a stream of "profitable" products, because they focused on profitability at the expense of cash flow.