Like others around here, I preordered the Core book (plus screen) from Miniature Market, back on 5/24. I thought as an exercise in "Hey! Why the the hell do you have the book and not me!", I thought we could share shipping updates and order statuses.

Me? Still on the "preorder processing" stage - and I'd wager that I wont see any forward progress until the 1st at least.

I live within driving distance of Miniature Market and have also preordered a copy of the book. I'll most likely pick it up the first day it's listed as "in stock" or "available," so I can let you know as soon as they have it, at least.

I pre-ordered mine from my FLGS. Might be a good comparison. Sadly the Distrubutor for the game store would have to send it via parcel before they got it

I was going to pre-order from my FLGS, but the discount online is just too great to pass up....have not ordered on-line yet either tho. Do I get it release day from the game store for $60 + tax? or order online for $41.37 + shipping and wait about a week to get it?

hmmmm

I guess I'm lucky - my FLGS generally sells the books for just a hint more than what Mini Market sells them for - 23 for JoY versus 19. So once you figure in the shipping (or that I have to buy a hundred bucks worth of product), buying local winds up costing me about the same amount as MM. Plus the shipping time is more or less the same - so core books aside, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other.

what is FLGS? and what is minimarket? i live in boise idaho so our neighborhood gamestores are all about games (no relation to the one on the east coast) phoenix fire, ABU games and a couple others. pretty sure im going to try and order F&D from amazon.

FLGS = Friendly Local Game Store

Miniature Market = one of the sellers that a great many people around here buy from (along with Cool Stuff INC) with good prices.

The reason why it is discounted at minimarket? wholesale price below retail

Great way to kill off brick and motor stores, and places people can play

The reason why it is discounted at minimarket? wholesale price below retail

Great way to kill off brick and motor stores, and places people can play

And? Miniature Market is a brick and mortar store. I shop there in person. They employ people locally. Their customer service people are physically located in their store. It just so happens that they also sell online. The fact of the matter is, standard MSRP markup is 50% on most items in this industry, and not everyone can afford to pay it.

It hardly seems right to condemn the actions of people that are acting in their own best interests. If the "traditional" game store method wants to survive, then they're going to have to adapt and find a niche that allows them to justify charging so much more money than their competitors. The other game store that I shop at (where I tend to spend far more money than Miniature Market anyway) does it by providing outstanding customer service, holding regular events, and occasionally having competitive sales. They have a diversity of product (though not necessarily as expansive or specialized as Miniature Market) that allows them to cater to a slightly wider audience.

More often than not, though, if I want to get my hands on a new product like the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook, Miniature Market is going to have that book up to a week or more before the (more?) "local" game stores in my area. The fact that they do all of the warehousing themselves also means that when I buy my book, it's not been handled by as many people and typically doesn't have as much shelf wear or damage from use. (Preorders notwithstanding.) If a customer can pay 30% less money for a copy of a book that is almost guaranteed to never have been casually leafed through by someone with Cheeto dust on their fingers, what do you think is the logical, rational choice for that customer?

I buy two copies of my FFG Star Wars RPG products anyway, so I usually get my main copy from "my" FLGS, and secondary copy from Miniature Market. I wasn't always in a financial position to do that, though. For me, at least, Miniature Market's prices used to be the difference between buying an item and going without, and I preferred going through them over Amazon since they were local.

I can't speak about this miniature market you southerners keep going on about. But here in Ontario, Canada I buy most of my gaming products from Meeplemart. Prices are usually 5-10 cheaper than everywhere else and they have a huge 'brick and mortar' store. Even have huge gaming tables.

Now considering every store in Canada MUST go through Lion Rampant Imports for FFG Canadian distribution, they (Meeplemart) are selling their products for less profit than anyone else i've seen. So saying an online distributor is killing brick and mortar stores is not true. The brick and mortar stores have to change with the times.

I also live near Miniature Market, and I have made more than a couple trips over there to pick up books, because it IS local. Is it necessarily a FLGS? No, you can't game there, it's not really a place to hang out and look around at much, but it is a local business and it saves ME a lot of money. With a wife and 2 kids who take priority of where my money goes, the little bit I have to myself needs to be spent wisely.

I spent close to a thousand dollars at my FLGS over a couple years on D&D products, volunteering to DM their Encounters D&D program for 2 years, and they all seem pretty **** snobbish, they all ask what my name is everytime I buy something (been shopping there for 4 years or so now), so they don't seem to care too much about their customers. I'm not worried about supporting them if they have nothing to offer me. I have asked about X-Wing or SW card events, and they have done nothing as far as I know. So I will take the 30 minute drive to save 33% of the cover price Wednesday when this book is released.

The War Store now lists the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook in stock.

Ordered from MM, but haven't heard anything yet.

Personally, I hate the whole support Brick & Mortar FLGS movement. My nearest game store is 40 minutes away, and they are total A-Holes. In fact, every game store I have visited has been a bunch of smelly, highly opinionated jerks with way overpriced stock.

I'm glad I can press a button and have my book.

If anyone get's it early, I would love to see the Table of Contents, specifically the list of ships for both the Alliance and Empire.

Ordered from MM, but haven't heard anything yet.

I called them today to ask if they had an expected arrival date for the book. They said no, but to expect it within the week. If their past performance is any indicator, they'll probably have it sometime Wednesday.

My copy shipped today from CSI. I don't know if MM has it yet but it is in-stock at Cool Stuff.

Bah! I hate you so much!

i think i'll have to have CSI hook me up with F&D next time. MM has had me clicking the refresh button and checking my email way too much today.

Bah! I hate you so much!

your avatar is too perfect combined with this, Desslok.

i think i'll have to have CSI hook me up with F&D next time. MM has had me clicking the refresh button and checking my email way too much today.

Glad I'm not the only one wearing out my refresh button. What's worse is that when it ships I know I will have to wait two weeks for it to get to South Africa.

The reason why it is discounted at minimarket? wholesale price below retail

Great way to kill off brick and motor stores, and places people can play

And? Miniature Market is a brick and mortar store. I shop there in person. They employ people locally. Their customer service people are physically located in their store. It just so happens that they also sell online. The fact of the matter is, standard MSRP markup is 50% on most items in this industry, and not everyone can afford to pay it.

Actually, to be technical, markup is about 100% in this industry. Markup is the percent at which the seller “marks up” the price from where they acquired the product from. But for ease of mental math, everyone refers to the profit margin or discount from MSRP, which would be about 50% in this industry. If I had to guess, the distributors are selling the product around $30 so the retailers can sell at MSRP of $60.

About 15 years ago I worked for a game distributor. (If you ever want to know how much “fun” it is to sling pallets of Mage Knight, MtG, or D&D in a non-climate controlled warehouse.) IIRC, the best rate most products were sold at was 47% discount from MSRP. Different game companies sell at different percentages. For example, Games Workshop held to tighter margins between MSRP and what the distributor could sell it at. I want to say they were around a 36% discount from MSRP, but I don’t really recall. My assumption is they held the tight margins to reduce competition for their own stores and online sales.

Pricing comes down to how good the contracts are between the game producer and the distributor and then between the distributor and the retailer. While we're at it, before people get upset because 100% markup sounds like a lot, a good rule of thumb is about a 100% markup at each step for just about everything you buy, not just games. It’s not that companies are greedy, it’s that there are costs in running a business. Rent, power, employees, ect. It all costs money.

Online shopping has always been cheaper, for everything. My guess would be it’s a combination of trying to make the costs seem competitive before paying shipping and not having to man a retail store. Granted, Min Market still is a retail store but either their store front employees are packing orders in their down time or they employ warehouse guys to pick and pack orders. There is a cost efficiency to be earned by shipping orders as opposed to a guy just standing at the register waiting for a customer to walk in. Each product shipped makes money while which minute spent idle spends money. That cost efficiency is passed on down to the customer when it comes to pricing product for online sale.

Out of curiosity, does Min Market charge the same in store as online? Several stores don’t have the same pricing. For example, Target.com is cheaper than in the store. (Or at least was when I worked there.) For Target it was because of the reasons above. They had to be competitive with online prices and warehouse employees are a good bang for the buck, and then the shipping and handling fees were slapped on after the subtotal, so most people didn’t notice.

Yes, the prices are the same in person. They have a couple computers set up there that you can do your online "shopping", place your order, and a few minutes later a guy from the back brings out your stuff with the "online" discount. And they just moved into a bigger, much nicer building recently, so they are still doing good, even with their deep discounts.

Actually, to be technical, markup is about 100% in this industry. Markup is the percent at which the seller “marks up” the price from where they acquired the product from. But for ease of mental math, everyone refers to the profit margin or discount from MSRP, which would be about 50% in this industry. If I had to guess, the distributors are selling the product around $30 so the retailers can sell at MSRP of $60.

Ah, that was my mistake. Thank you for pointing that out.

Yes, the prices are the same in person. They have a couple computers set up there that you can do your online "shopping", place your order, and a few minutes later a guy from the back brings out your stuff with the "online" discount. And they just moved into a bigger, much nicer building recently, so they are still doing good, even with their deep discounts.

That, and they also have a pretty big selection of dent-and-ding board games and RPG books that aren't available online. Every now and then a "slightly damaged" copy of an Edge of the Empire or Pathfinder book will make it in there. I got a special edition reprint of the First Edition D&D Player's Guide once for $10 because it had a barely-noticeable dent on the top of the cover.

Looks like my order went from preorder to pending event.

Still won't plan on seeing this until next week.

I swung by Miniature Market today and spoke with someone while picking up another item. The rumor (and I'll emphasize rumor) is that they'll have it in stock tomorrow, (Thursday, 3 July 2014) but that the date is not set in stone.