Effects of tariffs on game sales (e.g. US/Canada shipments) (No Politics!)

[Morrus]

To approach this from a different angle, the word within the party (I am a long-serving campaign worker, manager, and PAC-server) is that as far as Canada is concerned, the tariff is a leverage chip, probably for greater border cooperation in terms of fentanyl and illegals.

I have also heard that it may be to help a prospective Conservative candidate when replacing Castro Jr comes around, although I don't know enough about Canadian politics to know if that is credible.

But nearly everything being done on the foreign stage right now is for dramatic effect and future deal-making.

What the hell is this doing here? At what point did you think talking about political parties was exempt from the "no politics" rule? Time to leave the thread.

 

[Morrus]

Tread carefully, friend. OP made it clear they didn't want this to turn into a political debate.

While we can agree that there should be 0 cross-border fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration (I'll add to that illegal weapons smuggling which goes south to north), fact is that only 1% of fentanyl/illegal migrants entering the US do so from Canada... so the US response is wildly disproportionate to the magnitude of the problem originating here.

If anything, the efforts to "help" a prospective Conservative candidate (Pierre Poilievre) replace Trudeau is arguably doing the former as much harm as good.

EDIT: Meanwhile, the regimes in Russia and Iran, etc,, are laughing, laughing, laughing...

You, too. You even acknowledged that politics weren't appropriate before plowing in.

 

[Morrus]

Looks like if that was a thought it is backfiring as the Conservatives have started to lose support and the Liberals are regaining support. The Conservative leader had not been doing a good job being vocal in defence of Canada and he is being seen as MIA by some.

And another. Let me repeat: no politics. I think we're very clear about that.

 

[Morrus]

Why? PDFs are unaffected, and while I'm no fan of D&D, Pathfinder, or Canadians, its hard to see why gamers would abandon the hobby because of a tariff. You guys have faced tariffs before.

No fan of Canadians? Really? With this being your 13th warning, and the fact that you clearly intend to ignore us, you're taking a week off the boards while we talk about your future here.

 

[Bohandas]

I hate to be a doomsayer, but I think we are in deep, deep trouble.

As far as I can gather (and I've been looking into this as a Canadian retailer of Comics and Games):

Anything PRINT in NA is in for a very tough time. If I am informed correctly, the USA cannot produce print product in colour (in any real quantity) without going to Canada or China. They have facilities to print B&W paperback books, but not the kind of quality that we expect of RPGs, or even comics.

And what little they CAN print of quality full-colour books, they need access to Canadian or Mexican pulp & paper. (I've heard mixed reports from none to only one producer of paper in the continental US). No matter how true my information is, it seems clear that their ability to do so will be limited, and expensive.

In Canada, we are faced with the likelihood that we will be struck TWICE with tariffs on Game and Comic products. Possibly more times. Not just because they are often printed here, sent to the 'states, and then sent back to us, but because they are US products that are made using Canadian resources. The publishers will be charged more to manufacture them, which will result in increased MSRPs, and then we will be tariffed on them as US goods when they come into Canada. AND our economy is likely to collapse, which will kill our dollar, so the exchange will also raise prices.

We are pretty seriously in trouble.

BUT... to answer the OP's question: The MM is already in warehouses. It's "safe". You shouldn't have to worry about that book. Worry about everything that isn't actually printed yet. That stuff might never even happen.

We're in for some troubling times.

With luck maybe it'll spur the publishers to leave the US entirely and do the whole thing in Canada. It seems like running things out of the US is suboptimal for them even without the tariffs

 

[Bohandas]

Last week I shored up my strategic reserves of Canadian maple syrup in anticipation of having to get through the rest of the year. I'm sad to say that things are going to get much worse before they get better as I expect tariffs to be slapped on the EU. At least here in the United States, we're going to be paying more for games and related products very, very soon. Buckle up, it's going to be rough for the next few years.

We're going to be paying more for everything.

 

[Bohandas]

I buy lots of minis…I am wondering about how much this will hit prices since I know a lot of them are made in china.

I mean I am getting fleeced so bad already…don’t know how much I will notice…but I also wonder how long it will be in place vs be used as a bargaining tactic. We shall see.

But now more then ever we need games and toys damn it!

What if you got a 3d printer? Then they wouldn't be coming from anywhere and you would have comparatively litte worry about the tariffs as long as there was still at least one untariffed country making the polymer spools

 

[iPwnedMSCS]

What if you got a 3d printer? Then they wouldn't be coming from anywhere and you would have comparatively litte worry about the tariffs as long as there was still at least one untariffed country making the polymer spools

The overwhelming majority of the resins and filaments come from China.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I admit that my time is pretty tight…I don’t have as much time to paint as I would like. Mostly grabbing prepainted…10% is not much but assume it’s not 1:1…

Gaming stuff has never been cheap and has been rising. This does not help!

 

[Belen]

Huh. I guess we'll have to wait and see, then. I'll have to assume that those who told me otherwise are either uninformed, or were making it sound like it was something that was "impossible" when it's something that is "difficult" (at least for what they want to do).

In the very least, I hope that you're right.

Most likely they do not consider it because it is more expensive to print in the US or they just are not aware of the printers who specialize in different fields. The US has a lot of print capacity but certain shops specialize in the type of content they produce.