The Price Of Premium Memberships
Awhile ago, Groundspeak has sent out survey requests to many of it’s members. The survey contained a lot of generic questions about the website, geocaching in general, and many other topics that I suspect they wanted feedback on. One of the questions on the survey was whether or not you would pay a higher cost for a premium membership. Some folks are reporting they were asked if they would pay $39.99/yr for a membership. The survey I filled out asked if I would pay $31.99.
There was a thread on the ACGA forums that was discussing the possibility that a price increase may be on the horizon. It seems that the hot topic is that Groundspeak has said they would never charge you more than the $30/yr for a premium membership. I believe it was Pa that gave the excerpt from the benefits of a premium membership that indicates you would never be charged more than the original amount you were charged as long as you continued to renew your membership.
I thought this would make for an interesting discussion about whether or not an increase to the premium membership fees would affect your desire to continue to renew, or even obtain a premium membership if you don’t already have one.
To my knowledge (and please feel free to correct me if this is wrong), the $30 fee has never gone up in the entire time that premium memberships have been around. I’m not sure when premium memberships became available but I’m thinking it was in the early years. Perhaps not 10 years ago but pretty close. Is it that out of the ordinary to see a price increase on a service over the course of almost 10 years?
What are your thoughts on the possible price increase? Would it deter you from getting a new membership? Do you think they are justified in upping the cost to fit the times? Would you continue to support them despite the increase? What are your thoughts?
I`d certainly wait it out, I`m sure they are looking at better map alternatives.
But at the end of the day, semantics and promises aside, and given the realities of inflation and outside factors, yes, I’d pay a few bucks more.
Not knowing profitetc, I cant say if justified. But if you ask I f I would pay more and if it is worth the price, I certainly would say yes
A price increase would royally tick me off. This is coming at the same time that my map options have been reduced? When membership has been increasing without a corresponding increase in costs?
Would I pay more? I’m really not sure. I’m already on the fence on the value I get for a premium membership. I don’t think it’s worth $30, let alone more. I would probably stop paying.
How could you verify the user stats for your new Challenge Caches if you were not a premium member? 😛
I agree with some of HT’s points. I better clarify….I wouldn’t object to a small increase, providing that Groundspeak gets at the very least, the old maps back.
I think when I filled out mine, I brought up the idea of a “super premium” or something, 2 levels, the one now for the current level at the current price, and, say for an additional 10 a year, double the number of pocket queries included. As many know, I am slightly insane with my database, so that is something I’d be willing to pay extra for. The whole google maps thing hasn’t been an issues for me as I like to use my own mapping software anyway, but I can’t blame groundspeak for dropping it… with many people complaining already about the price, to keep google would have cost (in my inderstanding) a *lot* more to groundspeak, and those prices would have been passed on to the people already complaining about pay $2.50 a month.
Time to put everything into perspective,
Back in the day, I played hockey in a beer league for many years. Today, $30.00 would get me 2 games of the 45 game schedule. Have you ever tried joining the gym? A little pilates or aerobics to go along with that gym membership? $30.00 may get you into the door. Heck, go to Starbucks and order a moccachino latte frappe with a hint of mint and they will probably charge you 7 or 8 bucks. I spent $40.00 at the restaurant last Sunday and we all know where that ended up Monday morning. How often we open our wallets and spend 10 or 20 dollars on insignificant stuff and never ever think twice. $30.00 a year has allowed me to hike the Dobson trail, to bike sections of the Confederation trail, to walk the rails to trails between Salisbury and Hillsborough, to explore incredible places that had it not been for Geocaching I would have never gone. $30.00 a year has given me the ability to hoard plastic containers and decorate them with camo tape, the ability to create nice cache pages, using HTML, the determination to work my brain endlessly trying to solve Micro Logic only to scam the answers from someone else. Heck, if they can put a man on the moon, Belladan can put a dog in Scoudouc. I guess what I’m trying to say is, YES, if Groundspeak increases the cost of their premium membership, I will pay. It’s a small price for the amount of enjoyment I get.
Garmin GPS Map 62S $350.00
Groundspeak Premium Membership $30, $40, $50, $?
Gas to Travel to Geocaches $I Don’t Dare Guess
Geocoins and Travel Bugs $50.00-$100.00
Caching Supplies and Swagg $0.00-$100.00
Tow Truck to Get me out of the Ditch $50.00 (happened last week)
Getting to Hang Out with Great People
Who Share a Common Interest $PRICELESS
Just my 2 cents
Perfectly summed up.
I would pay more… do I have a limit? Probably in the $45-50 per year range… but that is just me.
I get year round enjoyment out of Geocaching so $39.99 (possible new price) over 12 months is $3.33 /month… drink 2.75 less coffees in a month from Tims and you have it paid for!
Couldn’t agree with Belladan more, pretty much sums up my thoughts on it all. I fully expect GC with continue to make changes with it’s mapping capabilities as well as other areas, they need to just to keep up with the times. This site is a huge cost to them in itself and you have the choice to pay or not, I like the google view to gauge the terrain but have adapted and will continue to do so
What I can get for free, I get for free and the quality may be questionable. If I can get it on sale, I do and then I get to choose the quality. If I want what I want, then I pay for it and the quality.
The $30.00 is really minimal. We aren’t caching everyday nor even every week, but we do like having it there for when we want it. Cachers who are just starting out or feel unable to justify the membership fees are not left out, they can still cache as much as they want. There is no caste or clique, I have no idea who has a membership or who doesn’t. It is a very personal choice to pay or not.
Quite by coincidence our membership needs renewed on Mr CD’s birthday, it always fits and is the right size and colour.
Nice, Belladan. And here’s another bit of math…
Annual membership: $30
Days that I go caching annually: Maybe 100 days.
Cost per outing: Thirty Cents.
Cost to take my family to the movies, one movie night: $60.
This is our hobby, our lifestyle really. We don’t drink (much), smoke, play other sports, collect anything or regularly spend money on other non-essentials. Our kids are grown and out of the house. Any traveling we do, it usually done to geocache or, at the very least, turned into a geocaching trip somehow. We love it. We love the hiking, the hunt, the events, the wonderful people we’ve met. Geocaching is what we do (except when work gets in the way!). The cost of $30.00 per year is minimal for what we get out of it. We would happily pay more.
The issue of the changes in the maps has some merit but that’s not Groundspeak’s fault and I feel we need to give them some time to hear what their customers are saying and come up with some better options for us. In the meantime, if I, a complete non-techie, can download Firefox and the script to bring the Google maps back in 3 minutes then anyone can. A temporary fix, perhaps, but a fix none the less.
Like anything in life, it is what you make of it. The joy of geocaching is that everyone may play the way they wish. Like Mrs. CD said above, it’s all about choices. Ours is to pay and help support this great way of life we love. 🙂
What a great bunch of responses. Well said all.
Geocaching is life changing. Try to explain that to a muggle and they would not understand, but all of us know how true it is.
I think 4 tiers might be the best option,
I’m thinking of something like:
Free $0.00
Find all non premium caches
Hide traditional caches only
own or trade TBs
premium: $30
4 queries on a given day
max 16 per week
500 caches per query
KML access
medium photo size
Permission to place Earthcaches, letterbox, and multi caches
Host events
Premium Plus: $37.50
All of Premium
6 queries per day,
2000 caches per query,
2 finds queries per week,
total of 44 queries per week,
KML access,
Phone app access
Permission to hide puzzles and challenges
large photo size
Super Premium: $45.00
all of Premium Plus
priority posting of caches
priority query returns posting
8 queries per day (58 per week),
permission to post virtual “ghost” caches and location-less counting standard caches
These are just ideas
This IMHO addresses some issues and adds value to each higher class
I go through phases.
When I’m heavily into caching, I wouldn’t go without a premium membership.
When I’m not heavily into caching, I don’t need it. But at current pricing, I just let it auto renew on my VISA or whatever.
If they raised the price noticeably, I might think twice. Thing is, I’m an iPhone cacher and don’t use PQ’s very much – mostly when I’m going on a special caching trip (ie Ice Walk or the Labyrinth cache) and don’t want to be caught out of cell tower range with no caches on my app.
I suppose I could easily ignore a 20 to 30% increase in price.