Pathfinder Playtest Preorder Update

Was Amazon in charge of general distribution to game stores too? Reportedly, playtest copies haven't arrived in the UK yet, only arriving at the European distributor, Asmodee, on Wednesday. Doomsday Dawn and the flip mats are supposedly still sitting on pallets in New York as well.

This is really, really frustrating.

It's irksome that Amazon messed up orders via Paizo, but not orders via Amazon. Different departments, different issues. Sure sure. Still feels wrong. But that's okay, feelings are allowed to be wrong.

$15 store credit is bitterly amusing in one aspect: it's the cost of a soft-cover before shipping. So you actually have to spend ~4$ to use it. Which is great if you were planning on getting something through Paizo anyway. I honestly probably wasn't going to buy another Paizo product until PF2.
Not that Paizo doesn't do great work, but it feels like any RPG-line, player companion, or campaign setting book will be chock full of options that will be irrelevant when PF2 releases. Plus I'm already waist deep in an AP, so I don't need to make any purchases there for some time.

If nothing else, the playtest shipping fiasco will be a nice discount on the PF2 core rule book in a year.

I'm honestly grateful for the way Paizo is handling the situation.
I'm just mad and venting.

Thanks for being a generally great company, Paizo.

>_<

This is really, really frustrating.

It's irksome that Amazon messed up orders via Paizo, but not orders via Amazon. Different departments, different issues.

Thanks for being a generally great company, Paizo.

>_<

It's not just Paizo pre-orders. I ordered from Amazon directly and just looked at my delivery. Mine won't be here until the 7th.

Ectar wrote:

This is really, really frustrating.

It's irksome that Amazon messed up orders via Paizo, but not orders via Amazon. Different departments, different issues.

Thanks for being a generally great company, Paizo.

>_<

It's not just Paizo pre-orders. I ordered from Amazon directly and just looked at my delivery. Mine won't be here until the 7th.

I ordered mine through Amazon and it shipped yesterday (arrived today).

I've seen similar in other forum posts.

To my knowledge there was a strike among Amazon workers due to the poor working conditions of the company, I could see that affecting why things have been delayed. That being said if that is the case, the workers should still not be blamed even as others may be frustrated as they are simply fighting for their rights.

But either way, I hope everybody gets their physical books soon.

Whilst I completely agree that Paizo customer service is excellent and that this problem is being managed as best it can be given the company entered into an arrangement with a third party, somebody definitely dropped the ball here.

I am very very disappointed not to be receiving the hard copy books as expected, not least because I paid $26 in shipping and had I ordered directly through Amazon I would have had free shipping through Prime and, by the looks of it, got the books today or tomorrow.

My biggest question is why this problem only came to light yesterday? If Amazon shipped no orders on 30 or 31 July then that would clearly affect whether people would get their books on time. Surely there should have been some earlier monitoring, particularly for international customers like me (I'm in the UK) whose orders needed to ship earlier to meet the 2 August date.

It would also be good to know how / whether I can find out when I might expect my books. It does not show as an Amazon order on my Amazon account and there is no way to track it through Paizo so I am very much in the dark about what sort of timeframe I am looking at for receiving products I have already paid for. For a package that cost over $100 dollars total, that is not a very satisfactory situation to be in at all.

Once again, Paizo customer service is usually excellent but this is a big screw up and not a good way to start the Playtest.

I'm disappointed to not be getting the physical book for the weekend like I hoped but glad to see Paizo on the case and the $15 is appreciated.

I do hope that Amazon gives back a bit of the shipping cost as well though, as like mentioned by others I ordered via Paizo to make sure I got something and UK shipping is harsh.

Vic I noticed in the orders your checked you didn't list the UK, are you able to check any UK orders to give us a rough ETA? As the EU countries listed have a few days difference in them.

Thanks for all the work resolving this, I hope you have a wonderful launch day regardless of these issues.

I'm disappointed to not be getting the physical book for the weekend like I hoped but glad to see Paizo on the case and the $15 is appreciated.

I do hope that Amazon gives back a bit of the shipping cost as well though, as like mentioned by others I ordered via Paizo to make sure I got something and UK shipping is harsh.

Vic I noticed in the orders your checked you didn't list the UK, are you able to check any UK orders to give us a rough ETA? As the EU countries listed have a few days difference in them.

Thanks for all the work resolving this, I hope you have a wonderful launch day regardless of these issues.

I would think it would be similar to Italy, given both are in Europe.

being in Italy, and having ordered at the beginning of June, from amazon, the manuals are the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook (English) Hard Cover - Special Edition that the flexible cover - these will come only on 23. get 15 dollars is a nice gesture but with shipping costs are not a big advantage for those who, like me, live on the other side.
P.S.I hope cmq to be able to have at least the pdf to be able to test the game to all my players (being many)

*hoists the black flag*

*shivers himself some timbers*
*drinks all the rum so it's gone*
COMMENCING PIRRRRRATE RAID ON NEARBY AMAZON DISTRIBUTION CENTRE

*stows aboard to join the raid*

FWIW, I ordered on amazon.de (I live in Germany), and they say that the delivery will ship on Aug. 14, and will arrive at Aug. 17. I had, of course, hoped that it would be faster, but oh well...

The email i recieved in regard to my order very clearly states items have already shipped, a shipped date - 13th July and a package number.

Seriously though, you guys at Paizo are being great about this (I certainly wouldn't have expected $15 credit as recompense for a screw up that wasn't even your fault) and while this is unfortunate I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on. We can survive. I'm in Australia, and I'm not complaining so ya'll should feel bad if you're giving Paizo grief since most of you are getting your books earlier than me.

Just go ahead and flip the switch for the PDF's early... That will make me happy...

Of course - I didn't order a physical copy - but earlier PDF would STILL make me happy.

Other businesses would avoid disclosing specifics, and just manage the problem with as little information provided as possible. Instead, Paizo's being forthright and upfront about the issues, that a world class vendor encountered issues, and thus impacted Paizo is unfortunate. Their response is wholly appropriate and I can only see this as a positive outcome from an disappointing situation.

Sure there will be people who are going to complain, some will compliment, others won't even realize there's an issue. But good on the crew over at Paizo for taking this issue head-on and keeping people abreast with the information, even when it's a difficult thing to hear.

I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on.

Yeah well, if the amazon doesn't somehow speed up the things Im not cool with it, one week aint that bad I admit that, but when the delivery time is stated to be 9 to 36 days meaning it can be september before I get my book, that really is pushing it.

Seriously though, you guys at Paizo are being great about this (I certainly wouldn't have expected $15 credit as recompense for a screw up that wasn't even your fault) and while this is unfortunate I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on. We can survive. I'm in Australia, and I'm not complaining so ya'll should feel bad if you're giving Paizo grief since most of you are getting your books earlier than me.

I’m also in Australia. I’m not convinced our books are even going to make it. As far as I can remember/work out, Amazon US were still shipping to Australia when they entered into their arrangement with Paizo. Since July 1 that is no longer the case - if you’re an Australian, you can’t buy anything from Amazon in the US any more. I’m bracing myself for a “due to circumstances beyond our control...” email.

For now I’m disappointed. In twelve months (when Paizo sell me the real thing for pretty much half price after subscriber discount plus fifteen dollars in credit) I’m sure I won’t even remember these few weeks of missing out..

ohokwy. wrote:

I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on.

Yeah well, if the amazon doesn't somehow speed up the things Im not cool with it, one week aint that bad I admit that, but when the delivery time is stated to be 9 to 36 days meaning it can be september before I get my book, that really is pushing it.

One week to One month is quite a difference

Fair, although the estimates Vic posted suggest it (hopefully) won't take that long. Regardless, the fault lies with Amazon.

ohokwy. wrote:

Seriously though, you guys at Paizo are being great about this (I certainly wouldn't have expected $15 credit as recompense for a screw up that wasn't even your fault) and while this is unfortunate I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on. We can survive. I'm in Australia, and I'm not complaining so ya'll should feel bad if you're giving Paizo grief since most of you are getting your books earlier than me.

I’m also in Australia. I’m not convinced our books are even going to make it. As far as I can remember/work out, Amazon US were still shipping to Australia when they entered into their arrangement with Paizo. Since July 1 that is no longer the case - if you’re an Australian, you can’t buy anything from Amazon in the US any more. I’m bracing myself for a “due to circumstances beyond our control...” email.

For now I’m disappointed. In twelve months (when Paizo sell me the real thing for pretty much half price after subscriber discount plus fifteen dollars in credit) I’m sure I won’t even remember these few weeks of missing out..

Okay I hadn't realised this. That sucks for us, I guess. Thanks for letting me know.

Steve Geddes wrote:

ohokwy. wrote:

Seriously though, you guys at Paizo are being great about this (I certainly wouldn't have expected $15 credit as recompense for a screw up that wasn't even your fault) and while this is unfortunate I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on. We can survive. I'm in Australia, and I'm not complaining so ya'll should feel bad if you're giving Paizo grief since most of you are getting your books earlier than me.

I’m also in Australia. I’m not convinced our books are even going to make it. As far as I can remember/work out, Amazon US were still shipping to Australia when they entered into their arrangement with Paizo. Since July 1 that is no longer the case - if you’re an Australian, you can’t buy anything from Amazon in the US any more. I’m bracing myself for a “due to circumstances beyond our control...” email.

For now I’m disappointed. In twelve months (when Paizo sell me the real thing for pretty much half price after subscriber discount plus fifteen dollars in credit) I’m sure I won’t even remember these few weeks of missing out..

Okay I hadn't realised this. That sucks for us, I guess. Thanks for letting me know.

I’m just being gloomy and pessimistic at this stage. I haven’t heard anything official.

It may well be that because we bought from Paizo (who took responsibility for GST compliance) Amazon are happy to ship it to us. I’m certainly hoping that’s the case.

ohokwy. wrote:

Seriously though, you guys at Paizo are being great about this (I certainly wouldn't have expected $15 credit as recompense for a screw up that wasn't even your fault) and while this is unfortunate I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on. We can survive. I'm in Australia, and I'm not complaining so ya'll should feel bad if you're giving Paizo grief since most of you are getting your books earlier than me.

I’m also in Australia. I’m not convinced our books are even going to make it. As far as I can remember/work out, Amazon US were still shipping to Australia when they entered into their arrangement with Paizo. Since July 1 that is no longer the case - if you’re an Australian, you can’t buy anything from Amazon in the US any more. I’m bracing myself for a “due to circumstances beyond our control...” email.

For now I’m disappointed. In twelve months (when Paizo sell me the real thing for pretty much half price after subscriber discount plus fifteen dollars in credit) I’m sure I won’t even remember these few weeks of missing out..

Yeah thats what i posted about earlier Steve, im curious as to whether Paizo have any news on this front.

As for the wait, eh, im in Australia were always among the last so im not too concerned as long as it does actually arrive. Ill have the free pdf until then.

It may well be that because we bought from Paizo (who took responsibility for GST compliance) Amazon are happy to ship it to us. I’m certainly hoping that’s the case.

I'm hoping the 'different departments' thing at Amazon works out in our favour this time.

Firstly, I'm moderately annoyed that these aren't shipping yet. I appreciate the efforts Paizo are making.

What I find particularly galling is I ordered direct from Paizo because I didn't trust Amazon not to screw it up. They made a right pig's ear of the Startinder release. Some people who ordered from Amazon had to wait for the second printing because they over sold their preorders. There isn't going to be a second printing of this.

Now I find that in spite of avoiding them, they've still managed to dick me about. The only physical product I didn't order direct (the maps) is apparently still sitting on a dock in New York. Frustrating. I'm visiting a city 100 miles away to pick up those maps and made a trip out if it.

At this point I'd make a joke about Paizo refunding my hotel bill, but some people are actually that unreasonable.

Yours grumpily a slightly annoyed UK resident sitting in a Dublin hotel.

ohokwy. wrote:

I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on.

Yeah well, if the amazon doesn't somehow speed up the things Im not cool with it, one week aint that bad I admit that, but when the delivery time is stated to be 9 to 36 days meaning it can be september before I get my book, that really is pushing it.

One week to One month is quite a difference

Completely agree with this. Checking back to my "about to ship" email that I received on 13 July, it did quote 9 to 36 business days delivery time. If my order hasn't shipped then is this still going to be the timeframe? Given I have no better information to go on specifically about my order then that's a fair assumption to make.

We were assured within the last week / two weeks that the aim was for everyone (including international customers - I specifically asked) to receive the Playtest hard copy products on, or very close to, 2 August.

If it's now 9 to 36 business days from 2 August then that is not what I pre-ordered hard copies for.

Firstly, I'm moderately annoyed that these aren't shipping yet. I appreciate the efforts Paizo are making.

What I find particularly galling is I ordered direct from Paizo because I didn't trust Amazon not to screw it up. They made a right pig's ear of the Startinder release. Some people who ordered from Amazon had to wait for the second printing because they over sold their preorders. There isn't going to be a second printing of this.

Now I find that in spite of avoiding them, they've still managed to dick me about. The only physical product I didn't order direct (the maps) is apparently still sitting on a dock in New York. Frustrating. I'm visiting a city 100 miles away to pick up those maps and made a trip out if it.

At this point I'd make a joke about Paizo refunding my hotel bill, but some people are actually that unreasonable.

Yours grumpily a slightly annoyed UK resident sitting in a Dublin hotel.

Ah, the things you do for Pathfinder :)

Because I have no patience and a little disposable income, I ordered another copy from a local online retailer in NZ (Mighty Ape), so should get a copy on Saturday. Ah well, I guess the spare copy will be useful to lend to my players, when it arrives in 11-40 business days.

Not complaining at Paizo, I appreciate it's beyond their control, just grumbling pointlessly into the void of the internet...

ohokwy. wrote:

Steve Geddes wrote:

ohokwy. wrote:

Seriously though, you guys at Paizo are being great about this (I certainly wouldn't have expected $15 credit as recompense for a screw up that wasn't even your fault) and while this is unfortunate I'm mostly just annoyed at all the people who (apparently) can't want another week after waiting several months. Come on. We can survive. I'm in Australia, and I'm not complaining so ya'll should feel bad if you're giving Paizo grief since most of you are getting your books earlier than me.

I’m also in Australia. I’m not convinced our books are even going to make it. As far as I can remember/work out, Amazon US were still shipping to Australia when they entered into their arrangement with Paizo. Since July 1 that is no longer the case - if you’re an Australian, you can’t buy anything from Amazon in the US any more. I’m bracing myself for a “due to circumstances beyond our control...” email.

For now I’m disappointed. In twelve months (when Paizo sell me the real thing for pretty much half price after subscriber discount plus fifteen dollars in credit) I’m sure I won’t even remember these few weeks of missing out..

Okay I hadn't realised this. That sucks for us, I guess. Thanks for letting me know.

I’m just being gloomy and pessimistic at this stage. I haven’t heard anything official.

It may well be that because we bought from Paizo (who took responsibility for GST compliance) Amazon are happy to ship it to us. I’m certainly hoping that’s the case.

Yeah there's still hope, I suppose. Fingers crossed.

I can understand all of your frustration & hope all of you get your books asap.

Amazon is a real piece of work, certainly not as capable as the great Paizo warehouse team.

I'd personally like to thank Vic Wertz for being as polite and professional as humanly possible.

Even though i ordered through my local FLG store, which received all playtest products last week and started selling them one hour ago here in Germany, i feel with all of you and hope that you'll at least get your pdf's today! :-)

Man I ordered through Amazon instead of through here I doubt I'll get that $15. That being said I cannot thank you for your transparency in this situation because that is most important to me when it comes to incident response. Even though it says I'm waiting until the 13th for my books I still can't wait to give it a go. I'm buying these before I buy the physical copies of the 1e books (pdfs just aren't working out for me anymore).

My only doubt is how in hell did Jeff Bezis become the richest man in the world, with such a s&!*ty company.

6 orders. Like, six books. I mean, I know people who sell stuff in ebay who has better track than that

While I certainly understand the frustration (I'm in the same boat) ... please calm down, follks. Paizo is doing everything they can here. They thought that Amazon would be able to deliver more timely than they, themselves, would be and made a business decision that they thought would be in the best interests of THE CUSTOMERS. Shipping through Amazon is likely costing them more.

People make the best decisions they can based on the information they have at the time. Sometimes, you do everything right, and still don't make the right call. When that happens, you 'fess up and do what you can to make it right.

Paizo has done exactly that: Let everyone know what happened and why, try to get Amazon to waive their shipping fees, and are offering a $15 credit to boot.

Aside from building a time machine, I don't know what else they can do. And I'm also willing to wager that Paizo won't be using Amazon fulfillment ever again.

And this is happening during GenCon, when half their staff is out of the office.

So...thank-you, Paizo, for doing everything possible to fix a bad situation.

The email i recieved in regard to my order very clearly states items have already shipped, a shipped date - 13th July and a package number.

I got an email on the 13th of July which says

"A package containing 4 items from Paizo Order #4781370 is about to ship from Amazon Main Warehouse via Amazon Standard Delivery, estimated 12 to 20 business days in transit."

If that's the one you're referring to, my understanding was that they were more an artefact of Paizo's software processing our information and preparing to send it off to Amazon (I also have a package number, but I think it's fictitious).

My copy is out for delivery, I ordered mine directly through Amazon.

Not sure why the orders placed here got delayed, since they're being fulfilled by Amazon, but I hope everyone gets their copy ASAP.

At least the PDF's will be available soon!

Ordered this on a whim mostly, was hoping to get it on time to discuss it with my group as we handle VtM 5E, without having to use my tablet. But eh, what can you do?

I really can't grasp the complaints directed at Paizo however, because honestly speaking, all they can do is exactly the same thing but to Amazon. They're handling this perfectly well and professionally, so I respect that.

Amazon however, deserves plenty of derision and should be offering shipping refunds to everyone, especially overseas customers with the time they have to wait.

So I'll be selfish and ask if one of the earlier deliveries were mine? Vic stated they were Canadian ones, and I preordered pretty early on. Of course I'll know in ~8 hours or so when I get home, but thought I'd give it a try asking :P

Despite having ordered the manuals of the playtest in more formats and at the end of May, these will arrive before 22/23
August.... I hope at least that the pdf is available today, to be able to "browse", or think there will be problems too for one?

for the rest, obviously to blame leads to nothing. But the reimbursement that paizo wants to offer is also for those who ordered in amazon?

One big question: How is this going to affect the playtest feedback schedule? As it was, that schedule was *extremely* tight, and now it's getting even more crunched particularly for our European friends...

I think it's affecting all paizo products on amazon my 1e core rulebook was supposed to come in today and I haven't even gotten an email that its been shipped.

Ectar wrote:

This is really, really frustrating.

It's irksome that Amazon messed up orders via Paizo, but not orders via Amazon. Different departments, different issues.

Thanks for being a generally great company, Paizo.

>_<

It's not just Paizo pre-orders. I ordered from Amazon directly and just looked at my delivery. Mine won't be here until the 7th.

I live in England but pre-ordered through Amazon U.S. since it was going to be distributing them anyway, (and was slightly cheaper overall). The Playtest Rulebook and Flip-Mat only started the shipping process today, with an estimate of 14th August; the Doomsday Dawn Adventure Path has not been shipped yet and is estimated for 15th-22nd August. It really does look to be an issue with Amazon's own scheduling overall, not necessarily a prioritization of its customers over Paizo's - after all, why disregard a whole slew of orders from a company, endangering a further chunk of guaranteed sales by losing them as a seller/'customer'? I have been watching my orders like a hawk, the estimates that appeared for me a week ago were fairly telling that my items were going to be weeks late. Hence I will join in with saying that it is a shame for Paizo to be receiving the brunt of the negativity, (when I have an admittedly shaky feeling that someone at Amazon knew that there was an issue or simply did not do the necessary follow-up work). Has anyone had problems with other orders? Maybe it is wider than just Playtest orders.

EDIT :

I think it's affecting all paizo products on amazon my 1e core rulebook was supposed to come in today and I haven't even gotten an email that its been shipped.

Ask and you shall receive! xD

Also, thanks to everyone for letting us know it's an issue with Amazon generally, not Paizo preorders through Amazon.

Also, thanks to everyone for letting us know it's an issue with Amazon generally, not Paizo preorders through Amazon.

FWIW, it’s not an issue with all Amazon orders, mine is out for delivery now.

Firstly, I'm moderately annoyed that these aren't shipping yet. I appreciate the efforts Paizo are making.

Why would you order anything from a company 6,000 miles away? The customs and postage alone will be enormous. Don't you have a gaming store anywhere even remotely near you?

Ampersandrew wrote:

Firstly, I'm moderately annoyed that these aren't shipping yet. I appreciate the efforts Paizo are making.

Why would you order anything from a company 6,000 miles away? The customs and postage alone will be enormous. Don't you have a gaming store anywhere even remotely near you?

For me, buying books from my FLGS (in Australia) is on par with buying through Paizo, cost wise.

This delay doesn't impact preorders placed with retailers; most of them should have already received their products for release tomorrow.

This statement may not exactly be true. My local retailer is not getting their shipment now until tomorrow and wont have it available for sale until tomorrow night or Sat. They told me their distributor is having issues getting the product. Not sure it is related to Paizo/Amazon thing or not.

Ampersandrew wrote:

Firstly, I'm moderately annoyed that these aren't shipping yet. I appreciate the efforts Paizo are making.

Why would you order anything from a company 6,000 miles away? The customs and postage alone will be enormous. Don't you have a gaming store anywhere even remotely near you?

I didn't even know at the start that ordering through a gaming story was a possibility and when I finally took notice (which was after I already put in my order with Paizo) didn't expect them to get all their stock so early that they would deliver faster than Paizo through Amazon.

Ampersandrew wrote:

Firstly, I'm moderately annoyed that these aren't shipping yet. I appreciate the efforts Paizo are making.

Why would you order anything from a company 6,000 miles away? The customs and postage alone will be enormous. Don't you have a gaming store anywhere even remotely near you?

Postage costs to the UK are typically around 2/3 of the cover price from Paizo (pure anecdote there, I’ve never crunched the numbers, but that’s the ballpark on the price I see on my shipping notices).

I personally happily pay that premium for a few reasons:

1) Free PDF with subscriptions
2) Supporting the publisher not Amazon
3) Gaming store? In the UK?! The petrol cost alone for getting to a gaming store is way too close to that postage cost. Sure, I could use Games Lore (and I do!) or Leisure Games and get it delivered but they’re tied into their own distribution networks and I can’t guarantee getting something like the playtest book anywhere near release time even from them.

Yeah, it’s not ideal to buy from a company 6000 miles from home, but I’ve never had bad service from Paizo, and I know what to expect.

For me, buying books from my FLGS (in Australia) is on par with buying through Paizo, cost wise.

Ouch! My "local" gaming store is 90 miles (140 km) away (not even remotely local by UK standards), but I know from experience that ordering from Paizo takes a long time to arrive and and would cost more than the softback playtest book does in delivery fees.

I feel bad people (including myself) won't get them on the release date, but I do feel like Paizo is trying to overcommunicate and be transparent by alerting us and even having Vic answer our comments/questions.

Things will still be downloadable for free, which is great. Companies don't have to do that, let alone even run a playtest. They're offering at least $15 back if not more based on Amazon's handling, so it may be more or full refunds of shipping. And in the realm of things... there are far bigger issues in the world. I'm not saying people can't complain; that's their right (thankfully), but let's keep it respectful and with perspective. I'm confident Paizo will handle it the best they can. Heck, they sent us brand new Starfinder books after all the glue issues were reported.

I feel bad for the tech, marketing, operations, etc. people working at Paizo and GenCon who are likely having terse conversations with Amazon, feeling frustrated after all their planning, or trying to handle GenCon doors opening while this impact to what was likely a many months in the making plan is reviewed. That sort of giant deployment to be thrown off by something you contractually planned with another company (a giant company that should be capable of handling this) is so frustrating.

I think considering the timeline of the playtest is wise. Remember, developers need that feedback ASAP to be working toward our Gen Con release next year! And here shortly, the PDFs will be moving!

In order to help Paizo track, we may want to come up with a way to report what day we got our materials? Can help with a postmortem too I imagine.

Why would you order anything from a company 6,000 miles away? The customs and postage alone will be enormous. Don't you have a gaming store anywhere even remotely near you?

That's easy:

1) Even with UPS shipping costs to Germany and import tax, books I get from Paizo are cheaper for me than buying them here in a store.
2) I use UPS, so the shipment is usually here in less than a week, and that means about a week earlier than in the store.
3) This way I get free PDFs for everything, which I find essential.
4)The Gaming Store here may be L but could improve on the F.