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Those of you who have had time to look at the latest Osprey Catalogue (for January-June 2022) that Osprey has just placed on its website may have noticed some interesting price innovations - otherwise known as price increases.  Combat, Combat Aircraft, Duel, Elite, Fortress, Raid and Weapon will all cost more next year.  I’m not sure yet about X-Planes as the sole X-Planes title is not due to be published until the second half of 2022.

There was a time that Osprey used to engage in public relations with its loyal customers and advise them ahead of time of such price rises and discuss the reasons for them.  Those times seem to have gone.  Nevertheless, publishers should remember that they are not the only ones feeling the pinch financially and that customers do not have bottomless pockets.

There is one exception - the price for the revamped Essential Histories will be lower than for the originals (use of newer technology?).  The price increase for Fortress is probably not surprising given the last title in this series was published in 2018.  And as a closing thought, who decided on the short code for the Dogfight series (DOG)?  Are they somehow clairvoyant?

The following shows the new 2022 prices (with the current prices in brackets) for the various Osprey series:

Air Campaign (ACM) £14.99 (£14.99)
Campaign (CAM) £15.99 (£15.99)
Combat (CBT) £14.99 (£13.99)
Combat Aircraft (COM) £15.99 (£14.99)
Dogfight (DOG) £13.99 (N.A.)
Duel (DUE) £14.99 (£13.99)
Elite (ELI) £13.99 (£12.99)
Essential Histories (ESS) £11.99 (£14.99)
Fortress (FOR) £13.99 (£11.99)
Men at Arms (MAA) £11.99 (£11.99)
New Vanguard (NVG) £11.99 (£11.99)
Raid (RAID) £14.99 (£13.99)
Weapon (WPN) £14.99 (£13.99)
X-Planes (XPL) £? (£13.99).

Posted on: 30/10/2021 03:09:56

Thank you for warning us about this KenA, almost inevitable with the current problems and extra expenses for all businesses.

The thing is, I will bet that even with these price rises I am pretty sure that Osprey will continue to run 3 or 4 sales each year when they slash 30-40% off the prices of nearly all their books. Surely this indicates that they are over-priced to begin with?

Posted on: 30/10/2021 16:35:19

Thanks for the update KenA. I agree with Paintybeard that it probably inevitable considering the problems, pretty much worldwide that businesses are facing.

I think the times osprey conversed with their customers was probably before the bloomsbury takeover.

I think the whole essential histories is all a bit strange. It still seems odd to me to republish titles in a new format.  The first two revised titles don't have a page count, so it's difficult to asatain how much new material there is. I'll be keeping my powder dry for the moment as I really like this series and would definitely buy new titles, just not sure about "the updated" ones.

I'm not sure I get Paintybeard's point that because they have sales during the year it means they were over priced to begin with, virtually every retailer has sales at sometime during the year.

Talking of sales, fingers crossed osprey stick to the usual black Friday one!

Posted on: 06/11/2021 18:29:18