importing Diaspora Phoenix to CANADA

[kafka47]

I guess an official post is in order...how many other Canadians want to pull together to offset the high postage rates and buy Diaspora Phoenix cooperatively?

Reply using the board and we can make private arrangements over the board.

As for me, I could buy at least 2 volumes...


Unless, Hunter, you have worked out something with USPS?

 

[kaladorn]

eh?
Drop me an email (tomb at stargrunt dot ca)

 

[kafka47]

only the two of...surely there are more Canadians on the Board...kaladorn if this continues, it will not be worth it and I will have to rely on my FGLS even though it is in Calgary...

 

[Wayne]

Well count me in as well.

The only game store here in Victoria only carries GURPS Traveller items, if he carries any Traveller items at all.

Find myself ordering direct from suppler (FFE and QLI) , The Traveller Trader , e-bay , or finding some way to talk the wife in to a road trip to 'cowtown' in order to shop at the Sentry Box

.

 

[Michael Taylor]

Your lucky. I don't know of any shop in all of tiny little New Zealand that carries any Traveller products at all.
So I order direct from QLI. Got to keep Hunter and Martin in the custom they are accustomed to.

 

[kafka47]

Well, I would have thought there was more than 3 TNE fans in Canada, eh?

As for NZ, Australia has a larger Traveller market. What is the tarriff barrier between NZ and Australia.

In Canada, we OFTEN have to pay 7$ in customs processing fees, the GST (national sales tax --thanks NZ for inspiring that) and a 10-15% mark-up.

So, you can see why I am trying to rally support. Naturally, business are immune to the above taxes but individuals...

 

[Slink182]

Personally, I would love to see a PDF version made available for online purchase & download. Charge a bit less, but at least then we who DON'T live in the States can get a quality product at a reasonable price. Either that, or I'll drive into the States to purchase the book.

(For the record, I'm in S.Ontario, and absolutely detest the customs "handling fee", the GST, the currency conversion, and occasional markup. To make matters worse, often the only option to order into Canada is via a courier service such as UPS, which hits us up for an additional $35-50 processing fee. If mail-order stores offered REASONABLE rates that are on par with the USPS, and/or had a USPS shipping option, that would make purchasing items directly from them more appealing.)

 

[clementk]

Diaspora Phoenix e-book form

Which is why I'm not buying the printed form. I already printed out a copy and the new version doesn't seem to add enough for the price to justify buying the book again*. I haven't finished reading it yet so there's no burning desire to preorder the printed version just to see a sequel.

Casey

* regardless that I live in the US

 

[kafka47]

Alas, I did buy the electronic PDF version and that is what makes me crave the Deadtree version even more.

I am hoping that Sentry Box does get their act in order and I can make a purchase but so far I haven't got any reply. But, then again my Hotmail filters can block them, as they do sometimes.

 

[Evo Plurion]

Count me in:

kehoej1 at rogers dot com

 

[kafka47]

ATT'N HUNTER!

Any chance that you will be releasing a small batch through your Canadian distributor Lion Rampant?

Canadians have shown an interest but we don't want to pay the high postage rates and FGLS don't want to buy directly.

BTW, do we have a release date for this item?

 

[Ben W Bell]

It's a shame I didn't think of this earlier, but since I ordered all for all our UK readers I could have ordered some for Canada and posted them when I am over end of July/beginning of August. Mind you we don't know if it would be out by then. Sorry.

 

[Malenfant]

You mean Curious Comics? Ask them to order what you're after - you should find that they should be happy to do so.

Assuming we're talking about a decent game store (which Curious is), they generally won't have a certain product on the shelves because they don't perceive a demand for it - and if you don't ask them you want something, they won't know there's a demand and order it (they're not psychic, you know ), so it won't end up on the shelves. I've asked them to order stuff in several times and they've always been very good about it.

They should be able to order T20 stuff in though - the only problem is that I think they only use one distributor (I forget the name) and if they don't have it then they'll have trouble getting it in. But ask them anyway, give them the full details (name of product, publisher, and an ISBN number if necessary) and they should at least have a look for it.

 

[Vargas]

Maybe some Americans will trade copies of Phoenix in exchange for perscription drugs?

 

[kafka47]

Hunter,

Before engaging in the silliness...have you contacted your distribution net for this item.

And now let the silliness begin...

Well, pretty soon, if the Liberals get their way...we will not only be giving Americans prescription drugs.

So if anyone wants drugs, take our generics but I won't settle for a photocopy of Phoenix.

 

[Malenfant]

You mean Curious Comics? Ask them to order what you're after - you should find that they should be happy to do so.

Having said that, I just tried to order the Gateway book from them, and they couldn't get it - they use New Century Distribution to get their RPG stuff, and T20 books are currently (unless Hunter changes anything) distributed via Lion Rampant.

Curious do have Lion Rampant as a backup, but it costs them a lot more in postage (since they're based in Ontario, and NCD is based in Vancouver) and I think they need to get a big enough order to make it worth asking them for stuff - which means you can place an order but it won't arrive til they get enough to send it off and it gets back to them. So it sounds like they can theoretically get T20 stuff, but in practise it's not likely to happen.

 

[Wayne]

So how many of us on the Island need to order for it to be worth there time.

 

[Malenfant]

No point being pissed about it, it's just how the industry works. If the shop can get most of what people are interested in then they don't need to go to the expense of ordering stuff from another distributor (particularly one where the postage cost is more, which means Curious' profit margin is less).

For all I know, T20 is the only thing that they'd ever need to get that is only available from Lion Rampant. If they need to have $200-300 worth of orders before they can send it off (usually distributors have an minimum order that needs to be placed), then it'll take about 4-7 T20 corebooks to fill up that minimum order. So if you're dead keen on it, persuade lots of people to order T20 from them at the same time. But I don't think there are that many people around here who'd be interested in it (don't look at me, I've already got a copy at home and I just got the Gateway book from NobleKnight - while Curious can order it in from LR, I'm not willing to wait however long it takes for the minimum order to fill up).

At the end of the day, you're the customer, you're the one with the desire for the book. How you get the book is up to you (so long as it's legal), but regardless of what people in this industry try to tell you, you actually have no obligation whatsoever to "support your FLGS" if they don't have what you're after. It'd be OK if they could even order it in a timely manner, but in this case they can't, so you have to go elsewhere for it. So you have to jump a few more hoops to get the book, but at least it means you get a copy rather than getting more grumpy about how your local store can't get it in

.

 

[hunter]

Originally posted by Wolfman:
So how many of us on the Island need to order for it to be worth there time. :nonono:

All of our products are carried by Esdevium Games in the UK.

Diaspora Phoenix, because it is being done Print On Demand, will not be available through distribution channels, but Martin will be receiving a shipment from me and will be reshipping DP out to folks in the UK that want copies.

Hunter

 

[kafka47]

Well, Print On Demand is a good thing if it serves the customers in the same way that a game store does...what most of us on this list object to is the incredible high rates for postage for what amounts to a Trade Paperback.

Now this is not Hunter & co. problem but it would be nicer if some were leaked through regular distribution channels so as to bring the cost down.