D&D (2024) Hobby Store Exclusive (Special Cover) PHB Pre-Orders Cancelled

[Dire Bare]

Sure. That's the flipside of the passion that I mentioned. Overreaction of the Fanbase has always been an issue - but you can't tell me that it's not utterly exacerbated (and taken advantage of in order to monetize it) by YouTubers.

YouTube and social media at large, yeah. Takes that existing human tendency for toxicity and makes it real easy to engage in. And feeds on it, amping it up.

We are living in the darkest timeline. Sigh.

 

[GreyLord]

Correct! Something has happened that has resulted in the APAC (Asia-Pacific, including Australia and NZ) market not receiving a full allocation of the alt-cover 2024 PHBs, but we don't know what that was - it could have been a manufacturing defect like with the Book of Many Things cards, or it could be that the container the bulk of them were in has sunk to the bottom of the sea.

The real issue here is that a number of Australian and NZ FLGSes have reported that WotC has told them they won't be printing more to make up for the shortfall. While WotC hasn't said anything publicly, it would seem they are communicating with local FLGSes.

This seems to be coming from one distributor in the region from what I've seen. That distributor has also been selling the alternative covers online (which I'm not so certain they were allowed to do). (which led to my own speculation of them not receiving as many covers, enough to cover preorders in store, but not sell online...but what do you know...they covered pre-orders online from what I can tell...not sure what ramifications that has on the stores that had orders with them).

The full allottment wasn't expected to get there until a few weeks from now from what I heard, so it's kind of weird hearing some of these messages. Stores WERE allowed to sell them as soon as they got the alternative covers, regardless of what the listed release dates are....

But it seems odd that the delay of the alternative covers were expected (originally on October 24th at the earliest, extending later for other areas, then with better news moved up to several weeks earlier as per their dates listed) and so many are now conclusively stating that they have arrived and got their orders cancelled.

There is no clear messaging on this.

PS: I am not going to list it here (as I don't really feel sites should be selling the alternative covers for online sales), but I just went to an AU site which apparently still has the alternative cover PHB's for sale. I don't think they are or should be allowed to sell them online...but there you go. They also had the DMG and MM up for pre-order....

To be clear, these are the alternative covers. They list that the release date is 11/10 on those sites. Not all the sites have the alternative covers listed though, only a few of them, and most who do have the alternative covers for sale list it as sold out. These were au sites, which are different from .com or other sites.

I didn't find any online retailers selling it in New Zealand. I found a hobby shop or two with preorders for the MM and DMG though (.nz addresses). (I also found something of interest where I found something of games made by Kiwis and such...didn't know NZ had such a vibrant gaming scene!)

While looking I found one US site (I think, as it's a .com, and their address is US) that was actually selling these things for $27.95, which....

Something seems so wrong about this so early in the game...that's what you sell when you have a glut of these things I'd imagine...why are they selling these for basically warehouse prices???

PPS: ANOTHER trend I noticed while looking at the .au sites that have the PHB for sale, with the Normal cover...it appears that many of THOSE are actually selling out right now as well. Some have limited quantities apparently of the Normal PHB for pre-order. I saw some listing that they only have a few left for pre-order, and a few that say that the NORMAL cover PHB preorder is already sold out. If this is TRULY an issue that was with the Alternative covers...I would hazard a guess that it may also cross the line to the Normal covers as well, which would mean a distinct lower amount of availability than those who want it in NZ AUS, and Oceania.

SO...heads up...just in case. If you even WANT the PHB soon, you may want to see about the availability of the PHB in general (not just the alternative cover, the normal cover) as it LOOKS like from .au sites online, that those are being sold out fast for preorders from what I just looked up tonight. That said, I looked it up on Amazon.com.au and they do NOT have any warnings of a shortage there, so it may just be the hobby shops?

I AM jealous though. Another book popped up on the Amazon.com.au site...the AD&D 2e PHB on KINDLE!!! I want it on kindle...but it's not available outside of AU from what I can tell.

 

[mamba]

I'd often agree agree - but I don't think there's really been time for even that at the moment.

we learned about this recently, I would expect WotC to have known longer. If you are only shipping 5-10% of what was ordered due to production issues, that is not something you should find out about on the day it leaves the warehouse to be sent out to the distributors

 

[Imaro]

we learned about this recently, I would expect WotC to have known longer. If you are only shipping 5-10% of what was ordered due to production issues, that is not something you should find out about on the day it leaves the warehouse to be sent out to the distributors

Of course this is assuming the information we've been given by this distributor is correct... and we don't know that it is.

 

[mamba]

Of course this is assuming the information we've been given by this distributor is correct... and we don't know that it is.

do you have a reason to believe that it isn’t? I see no reason why the distributor would be lying, and if they were I would expect WotC to address that

 

[Oofta]

do you have a reason to believe that it isn’t? I see no reason why the distributor would be lying, and if they were I would expect WotC to address that

The fact that according to @GreyLord (correct me if I misunderstood!) they're selling the alternate covers online?

We just don't know. The distributor could be holding onto them as collectors items to sell later. Or there's other issues like they weren't supposed to sell them online so WotC isn't sending them any more books. Or a shipment sank to the bottom of the sea and setting everything up to reprint the special covers would take months. Or [insert other theories here because, once again, we just don't know].

 

[Imaro]

do you have a reason to believe that it isn’t? I see no reason why the distributor would be lying, and if they were I would expect WotC to address that

1. The distributor seems to be selling the alt-cover PHB's online even though they claim to not be able to fulfill their retail orders.

2. To the best of my knowledge this is only happening with one distributor in one area.

3. Haven't seen an EnWorld news story, or any real coverage of it outside of a few forum posts (which makes me feel there just isn't enough info yet).

4. Just to be clear I am not saying the distributor is lying... I am saying we don't have enough information to declare what should or shouldn't be done at this point.


Also... right now WotC is dealing with the Paypal snafu that resulted in many of their direct customers not receiving their physical PHB's so this may not even be on their radar, whether the distributor is lying or not... however the fact that they are handling this other issue in a timely fashion does seem to point to the fact that they are trying to do what's in their power to make sure the 2024 release is successful.

Edit: From what I've seen they are giving anyone whose order was cancelled due to Paypal payment a coupon for future purchases along with sending their books out at the discounted price.

 

[Hussar]

I am saying we don't have enough information to declare what should or shouldn't be done at this point.

No, no, you are doing this wrong.

Anything negative about WotC needs zero corroboration. It must be automatically assumed to be true and that conviction must be iron clad and never questioned. Any contrary opinions or calls for more information before forming these iron clad, carved in stone must be repeatedly challenged.

 

[mamba]

The fact that according to @GreyLord (correct me if I misunderstood!) they're selling the alternate covers online?

it does not appear to be limited to one store though

The rest of the theories are more grasping at straws than even theories

I agree we do not know, but that doesn’t mean the odds are that the distributor is lying

Between ‘something went wrong with the print run’ and ‘WotC is lying to several distributors or colluding with them in order for one store that also sells online to get almost no books’, I find the first one much more plausible.

 

[Oofta]

it does not appear to be limited to one store though

Is it? Do you have a source for that? Because all I know about this comes from the OP.

The rest of the theories are more grasping at straws than even theories

I agree we do not know, but that doesn’t mean the odds are that the distributor is lying

Between ‘something went wrong with the print run’ and ‘WotC is lying to several distributors or colluding with them in order for one store that also sells online to get almost no books’, I find the first one much more plausible.

We don't know what's going on. What we do know is that it can take months to set up a print run for a book like this. Which could easily interfere with the print run for the DMG. It was also stated in this thread that the books that had been printed were faulty and couldn't be used.

All we have is speculation. We don't know what is being communicated to the store owners. I make no conclusions one way or another.