RPG/Amazon Price Rant

[delericho]

So I bought from amazon.com with expedited shipping (I can wait a couple of weeks, and only a few days longer than getting it from the UK). But it seems very strange to me that expedited shipping costs from the US are about the same as normal shipping costs from the UK to Ireland (about 10 euros).

It's to do with the relatively weak dollar at the moment.

I found much the same thing a year ago, when I moved to a town with no (good) LGS. After looking at the options, I decided that the best way to shop would be to place a fairly large order with Amazon.com every couple of months and get all the books I wanted at once. As long as I don't want things right away, that would suit me fine.

I've since moved back, so once again have a good FLGS, so am back to supporting them.

 

[Hussar]

As I live in Japan, buying books from Amazon.co.jp is pretty much the ONLY way I can get gaming material. Shipping from stateside is just insane.

 

[Agent Oracle]

As I live in Japan, buying books from Amazon.co.jp is pretty much the ONLY way I can get gaming material. Shipping from stateside is just insane.

Sorry Hussar, it's just that when i was playing the "let's see how much they cost" game, i found a japanese gaming site ofering the DMG for a few thousand yet. now, I know that the individual yen has cash value comporable to a penny, so i plugged it into a converter, and found that they wanted $60 for a DMG. Hence my "don't buy it from Japan" statement.

 

[Tetsubo]

While I live in the US I buy most of my gaming books online as well. With Amazon's free shipping option (over $25 in books and shipping is free) and their two-recommended-together option it just makes sense. I still visit my local gaming stores but mostly to look for used and off-priced books. The other nice thing about Amazon is that I can mix gaming and non-gaming books in the same order. When I want to buy non-gaming books...

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I would like to add to the chorus of people saying that they find the MilSims staff to be rude over the phone. I have ordered from them on about 10 occasions. Out of those times I would say that there has been 1 occasion that the guy on the phone didn't treat me like I was wasting his valuable time and provided helpful information.

As a result I now buy things through either my LGS or online through Noble Knight Games. My LGS is ok but there prices are very expensive. I get the odd roleplaying book, novel, dice or Dungeon magazine through them but most of my purchases are now from Noble Knight Games.

Compared to MilSims, Aaron (the NKG owner) is extremely polite and helpful, quick to answer any questions and provides top-rate service in general. The prices compared to MilSims are also much, much cheaper as long as you don't mind waiting longer for it to travel from the US (you can airmail things but it can get expensive).

Now the only time I get anything from MilSims is when something I want is on a Crazy Special. Sometimes the savings on those can be up to (and over) 60% of the recommended price. If I can save that much money I am willing to put up with the rude/non-existant service. Otherwise I go elsewhere.

I don't order from Amazon online because I find that they don't carry a lot of RPG books that aren't put out by WotC or a couple of the other big names. If I want a particular book that isn't so mainstream then I have to get it elsewhere. This starts getting messy quickly so I will stick with NKG while they continue to keep me happy. I imagine this will be for a fair while yet.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Andor]

I'm a firm believer in supporting the FLGS, but I'm currently experiencing a crisis of conscience. I'm damm near broke, and I can get two books from amazon with free shipping for only a few bucks more than the price of a single book at retail prices. When you add in that the only decent store hereabouts is 1 hour of time and $3 in gas away and amazon gets to be damm tempting.

 

[arwink]

I've never had a problem with Milsims, but my interaction with them has primarily been via e-mail and online booking forms. Very rarely have I had any reason to speak to them in person.

These days I primarily order through them because of the lack of human interaction. Most of the game stores in Brisbane tend to be irritatingly friendly, when all I really want is to be left alone and shop in peace.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm a firm believer in supporting the FLGS, but I'm currently experiencing a crisis of conscience. I'm damm near broke, and I can get two books from amazon with free shipping for only a few bucks more than the price of a single book at retail prices. When you add in that the only decent store hereabouts is 1 hour of time and $3 in gas away and amazon gets to be damm tempting.

Since I have gotten married and built a large house (with accompanying large mortgage) I have started to bow to the almightly dollar. If I buy books from my FLGS I can only get about half to two-thirds of the books that I could by ordering online from overseas, even after factoring in shipping costs.

This dollar difference is just to big for me to ignore and, as a result, a large percentage (dollarwise) of my purchases are now online. As an economist by trade I know what the likely outcome of this is, especially if everyone else where I live starts doing the same. At the same time though, I question whether or not it is my responsibility to try and keep the FLGS alive.

(As a side note, when I spoke to one of the owners about how things were going a couple of weeks ago she told me that they were still doing very well. The only thing that was becoming an issue was that her and her husband (the other owner) were getting on a bit (they're both 60+) and their children were telling them that they should sell the business and retire. If that happened then who knows what might happen to it.)

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I've never had a problem with Milsims, but my interaction with them has primarily been via e-mail and online booking forms. Very rarely have I had any reason to speak to them in person.

These days I primarily order through them because of the lack of human interaction. Most of the game stores in Brisbane tend to be irritatingly friendly, when all I really want is to be left alone and shop in peace.

I normally phone them because quite often they don't have the book I'm after in stock. When this happens they backorder the book(s) and send it out to you once they do get it back in. Sometimes it can be a couple of weeks, sometimes it can be months before they get more stock. And you don't know how long you have to wait until your backorder just turns up in the post one day. If they don't have it there and then I'd rather get it somewhere else than play the "Super Mystery Lucky Dip Waiting Game"!

P.S. A couple of times I was not even told when I ordered over the phone that an item was not in stock. I only found out when only half my order rocked up in the post with the rest put on backorder. Now I always ask specifically if they have that product in stock.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Aaron L]

I dont have an LGS, let alone an FLGS. I buy everything online.