RPGs webstores. How does it work?

[aramis erak]

It's not because I personally want the products cheaper. It's because there's a lack of offer in canadian-friendly stores. It's difficult for us to source books at an appropriate price, canadian. If it was just from me, I'd just do a few hours of overtime and buy the products.

You're unlikely, especially in this current sociopolitical situation twixt the US and Canada, to be able to offer US made items at a reasonable cost if they come from US publishers printing in the US. Likewise, smaller overseas publishers may wind up priced uncompetitively high.

That said, some historical situations...
Games Workshop (UK) in the 1970's and early 80's, found a way to reduce costs on D&D, AD&D, T&T, Traveller, RuneQuest, and a few others... They were licensed to locally print copies. In the case of Traveller, the only change being the company contact information, and that they never got to release the 2nd edtion of Classic Traveller (the 1981 rules). At the time, this resulted in avoiding the import taxes and having a fairly competitive pricing.

Similarly, a few Italian and French publishers printed English language editions of AD&D for the European market.

Current interesting situations:
Mongoose Publishing has a US warehouse. They usually ship direct to both the US and UK from the printer to reduce the number of shipping steps.

Modiphius likewise has a US warehouse (and, IIRC, a European one) to avoid VAT in and out of the UK.
Free League made a deal with Modiphius to use them as a shipping warehouse for Free League's products, too. This deal is interestingly one of the reasons that Modiphius' forums have Free League's games topics.

Some thoughts:
There is potential to emulate the success of early GW... but the current sociopolitical, especially taxation, regime may not be long-term, and so, building upon it may not be long-term viable, even tho' in the short term, it certainly looks viable.

Likewise, printing isn't cheap, and needs warehousing space.

Another consideration is whether the Canadian Market really can support another business as other than a hobby level for small press titles.

 

[Thondor]

Another consideration is whether the Canadian Market really can support another business as other than a hobby level for small press titles.

My experience running a Canadian RPG distributor and online retailer RIGHT now, says we punch well above our weight. Both in terms of designers, and in terms of demand.
I suppose one could argue that most RPG businesses are basically at the hobby level mind you, it depends on what you mean by that!

 

[aramis erak]

My experience running a Canadian RPG distributor and online retailer RIGHT now, says we punch well above our weight. Both in terms of designers, and in terms of demand.
I suppose one could argue that most RPG businesses are basically at the hobby level mind you, it depends on what you mean by that!

Non-hobby: the owner doesn't need a day job other than the shop.