Do the prices of the DVDs stop you from buying everything you want?

simple as that...

trying to ascertain if people are being "locked out by price" or not

Yes for sure...

I'm french and I'm interested by your work but the prices of the DVD are too expensive for me.

So I limit myself to watching your youtube videos...

If they were a little bit cheaper, I would purchase some of them.


Thank you for your work.

for what it's worth, i have always thought the prices were really quite
reasonible. that i don't always have it to buy is purely a factor of my
unusuall circumstance and nothing more. some people will say they want
a product, but then not follow through. it might just be the nature of
business end politics. if people say they want a product for cheaper, hold
them to it and offer one a month at a locked on rate. if you're up front
enough to put your money back in people's pockets, make sure people
are also accountible to their requests and have them become regular
customers. otherwise, i think it's a set up. you want your stuff out there, because
it's exceptional, but you also want to remind people that you know it's
exceptional. it ain't netflix, it'll save someone's arse if coupled with training
and encorporating what is on the tapes.

i've been using what's on the tapes and three of my guys used it affectively.
your info, [in my case] my translation and teaching, their training. all connected to the process. giving it
away ins't appropriate.

my guru used to teach for free--it had the reverse affect. his 'disciples' encouraged him
to keep a modest but respectible rate so it was clearly something special to savor, because
what you have to work for to attain becomes valuable within societies associations over
such things. calvin klein would be shite were it not for the price tag, and your cutting edge
info might be misunderstood as other products similarly priced.

my humble opinion. from a broke guy, who you'd expect to say otherwise--for what it's worth

no man, but i bought the sas fighting dvd.

that was it for me. and maby for more buyers.

nothing new there.

But stupid , i know, because your dvds you did your own, can have very nice new info for me, so maby i have to try it again.

but i would rather pay more to come to a training get together, its for me more practical, you cannot learn much from a dvd.

and the thing is, on you tube is soooo much to find.

like russ, i never payed my guru, and later the wrestling and boxing trainig was 12 euro for one month, 4 days a week.

only the bjj is 35 euro now.. i dont like to pay that much, but okay, they are good, and i can learn. jiujitsu.

just win the ufc, and make a dvd again
they would sell.

but for the beginners theres a lot of nice info in your dvds, and you should maby keep the price, but dont make to long dvd s on the net, only short demos. so if they want to see more, they have to pay

interesting feedback

the only way it could be cheaper is if it was made downloadable or streaming videos- would people still pay for that if they dont get to actually HAVE the DVD in their sticky mitt I wonder?

here is one from an email I just got, hadnt thought of it myself

Quote :

How about a payment plan option on the buy everything plan? 100 dollars per month or something

thats not a bad idea

Actually I am suprised at how well priced the dvds are, and considering whats on them, i think its very fair.I would charge more actually If I might suggest Richie, not a good idea to sell on credit!!! I know you want be okay with everybody but you have a buisness to run and making money is no sin, I think you are offering great products( though the quality of the dvds could be better) and services for a very good price.

To be honest this far i've found the DVD's to be very reasonable, it's only due to personal financial circumstances that I havn't bought more.

If you could provide downloadable content at a reasonable price, then yes i would buy it.

I am 34. I have almost all of my video media stored on hard drive & watch it through the television. At least amongst my circle of friends, I am not unusual. i have been keeping & watching movies & other in this way for 5 years. All my music CDs are ripped & played via the pc. A DVD is just a medium. Mediums change.

Would they be downloadable or only streamed? Would they be in a propriatory format? Would they be time stamped? So you cannot view the content after a set period?

I dont think your material is overpriced & HMV isnt a good comparison as i am sure the DVD's you mentioned are sold as loss leaders.

I would have to second blakops.

Downloadable media would be great.

DVDs I have purchased from SFS in the past, I have pretty much always ripped them to my Hard Disk.

Its just much more convient and the kids can't quite manage to destroy them as easily

Hi all
I have bought quite a few of richie's dvd's due to the fact that for now the dvd's is all I have… I am not a wealthy guy who's money grows on trees but I value the information on them and I surf a lot in the net and in comparison the prices of the dvd's is more than fair .

I have a "day" job, my income does not come from teaching sd, richie's income does. I had a discussion with my sifu on this topic, I started training a beginners group and refused to get money for it. I'm not an altruist but I thought " well here's a guy who dedicates his life exploring the realm of fighting ' it's because of his life search I poses a large portion of my fighting knowledge. That knowledge is his financial guaranty so he should make a dissent living out of it…" for me it's the same with Richie, I don't know him/you that well but from my impression of him he doesn't seem like the guy who's in it for the millions it provides, so I trust him that he just want to make a dissent living and his prices are accordingly. Buying his dvd's is my way of guarantying that more will come….

I say that with all due respect for peoples financial abilities and decisions… we all have different hierarchy of needs and where we put buying dvd's in that hierarchy. But when Richie put's a price he can't relate to every one of those different hierarchies he should balance his needs with the relative ability of his customers his value of his work and the average market price. From what I have seen he does just that....

nironi7 wrote:

Hi all
I have bought quite a few of richie's dvd's due to the fact that for now the dvd's is all I have… I am not a wealthy guy who's money grows on trees but I value the information on them and I surf a lot in the net and in comparison the prices of the dvd's is more than fair .

I have a "day" job, my income does not come from teaching sd, richie's income does. I had a discussion with my sifu on this topic, I started training a beginners group and refused to get money for it. I'm not an altruist but I thought " well here's a guy who dedicates his life exploring the realm of fighting ' it's because of his life search I poses a large portion of my fighting knowledge. That knowledge is his financial guaranty so he should make a dissent living out of it…" for me it's the same with Richie, I don't know him/you that well but from my impression of him he doesn't seem like the guy who's in it for the millions it provides, so I trust him that he just want to make a dissent living and his prices are accordingly. Buying his dvd's is my way of guarantying that more will come….

I say that with all due respect for peoples financial abilities and decisions… we all have different hierarchy of needs and where we put buying dvd's in that hierarchy. But when Richie put's a price he can't relate to every one of those different hierarchies he should balance his needs with the relative ability of his customers his value of his work and the average market price. From what I have seen he does just that....

Just thought I'd say I really like this post. I like it when people share the love. Group hug anyone?

Back on topic.... the content of your material is top notch. Everybody can't help but acknowledge that you've dedicated yourself to the subject. But (and it's not a negative but) your production value is obviously kept low. It's no secret that you're filming in someones (your's I'd imagine) house in most videos and that you're not hiring out studios for every DVD. So all these factors combined...

You're prices are perfect, I'd say. You've called it just right.

Personal financial reasons also keep me from purchasing more frequently but I feel the prices are reasonable.

Your dvd's are incredibly informative. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I prefer having your stuff in dvd format. If you ever made it available via online media, I would very likely burn it on to a disc.

**I remember many moons ago, i "had" to have these BJJ tapes(yes tapes) from, lets say, a very well known school....These were among the first (if not THE first) tapes on bjj in North America. I dished out *cough cough* dollars and these 5 tapes were all short in length...showed only a few moves..and with little editing the instructors on the tapes took their dear sweet very SLOW time to reshow the same technique over and over...what a rip off...Why do I mention this? I dunno..I ramble sometimes...By the way, *A few months after that purchase I recieved a glossy "fashion" brochure with their baseball caps , toques, totebags, womens wear all with the schools logo...


If you ever prominentley start selling t shirts, keychains, totebags etc with your logo on them, like the company I allude to above, I might privatley feel you sold out, LoL but as long as you keep that passion burning for Realistic training and teaching I will purchase your stuff as I am able to, in whichever format you make them in.

awesome feedback so far thanks very much guys, gives me a lot to think about

Rich,

I have paid out a fair amount money for both DVD's and hands on training through the years, but I have never balked at your prices for the quality of your material. I have little frame of reference on how the prices stack up in the European market being as I haven't visited in going on 25 years, but here in the states your stuff is a high value product.


Keep safe and train hard/smart, Mark H

Hey Richie (and others),
Personally I don't buy because there is already so much out there for free.. legal or otherwise. I follow your free material and use the ideas to supplement my regular training. That's enough for me. So even though I think the material is worth it I would not buy. The prices are reasonable, but free is cheaper and imo you get a long way between irl training at a gym and watching free stuff. Still i value your material so here's my input.

So I would suggest a different approach altogether. I would suggest sponsoring (adds on the website, adds on the dvd's, using material with clear labels on them etc. You could supplement this with a donate button on the website. I would not mind watching you with some brand name on the background.

Of course you could configure this any way you would like. You could make the advanced classes payed, limit yourself to sponsors you actually approve of (rather than McDonalds sponsoring a sport-event), limit exposure etc. You could use adds on the website in ways of your own liking and so forth. I would suggest to talking to professional marketing expert to make a sound strategie.

Another consideration for you: what happens if someone would upload your material? Before you know it 90% of the people would download everything for free. I'm, but I would. Then where would you be? Make it so free downloads benefit you (and your sponsors).

This is the digital age and I love the quik spreading of information for the betterment of humankind. I hope this helps, let me know what you think.

candid... helpful

thankyou

No.

I can tell you right off the bat I want a handful of your DVD's... Beta 8, solo drills etc etc... there's a lot in your psychology vault I'm interested in too...

The only thing that's been preventing me has been finances. I've had to undertake a career change, going back to school, and a move across the country. That coupled with a previous student loan that needed to be paid before I got a new one and some old debt... well I've been broke for a bit. I haven't bought any one else's DVD's, let alone signed up for a class of any sort since the move. Haven't had the money and time, but honestly, at this point I'm considering getting my own group together and training around your stuff Richie. I mentioned it before and I'm still planning on it, it's just taking me time to get there.

There's a lot of RBSD material out there, but I think your stuff honestly, is the best I've seen. I'm not just saying that because I enjoy the conversation on your message board There's also a lot of material out there that is a fair bit more pricey than yours, and even if it was the same price I'd prefer your stuff over their based on what I've seen as far as content.

I think having a download option for things would be great too. I'd probably still want to get the DVD's themselves, but I can also see having it on the comp is useful. That being said I could also simply rip the DVD. I probably would anyways. I don't think you'd really have to worry about being pirated on file sharing sites etc since that generally happens with things like movies and music. Not to say someone wouldn't but in this community I think it's less likely out of respect for you.

cheers and keep up the good work. I think you're stuff is priced just right.

I got most if not all of the stuff. Prices haven't been an issue and generally isn't. If I see something I want I can always come up with some way to rationalize the expenditure. Then again my only expenses apart from rent and food are a couple gym memberships.

On the face of it, I like the streaming and download approach. Definitely most practical. The only problem - I don't know what is causing it - is that 90% of all streaming I try freeze after a few moments. The download hits a spot and won't progress further. Refreshing doesn't help and if downloading through downloadhelper, in which pausing and resuming the download sometimes works, unless it is a direct file link it doesn't work. Only youtube seems to be consistantly immune to causing this problem with me.

I am also old fashioned and enjoy having hard-copies around.