The Rusty Dragon Inn is Open for Business!

Hooray!!! Looking forward to this set.

Troublemaker! Here I am, nicely waiting for my new subscription set from Paizo/WizKids and you go and add a cool blue bed. Now I have to go and ask customer service to change my order. I don't know what's worse. Cool new minis or .... Oh never mind. just take my gold.

P.S. Of course, it's now after business hours Pasific time :-(

I have just seen that all 6 dressing pieces, both goblins, the bartender and the Quivering Cube are unavailable.
Did they already sell out?
If so: unreal.

The blue bed repaint is $8 and the red bed was $9, that's cool.

I have been told by my retailer that wizkids europe will release this set in february so i will have to wait for my case and bar.

Happy new year and congratulations for set #10.
Here's to the next 10!

I'm very disappointed that the singles sales started -- and some sold out -- before those of us that pre-ordered cases received them. What do we do if don't get a complete set because "collation is not guaranteed"? We've must wait until our cases come, since we don't know what we'll need, while others are free to buy.

That sucks about the single sales, I just got a bunch for Christmas, won't be able to do that anymore. The singles aftermarket isn't that good.

I'm very disappointed that the singles sales started -- and some sold out -- before those of us that pre-ordered cases received them. What do we do if don't get a complete set because "collation is not guaranteed"? We've must wait until our cases come, since we don't know what we'll need, while others are free to buy.

I understand your frustration.

But that is not paizos fault but wizkids because they ship to retailers and the paizo warehouse at the same time apparently.

What i noticed a lot recently is that wizkids attitude about such things seems to be indifferent.
They know their products will be bought no matter what.

Maybe the release being in the first week of the new year wasn't so ideal too.

The thing i would do:
Buy an extra blue bed from paizo and an extra of each wagon from miniature marketplace or trollandtoad because one can use more than one of those.
Then wait for the case and get a complete or near complete set.

In the 3 times that i bought an entire case one set was complete and the other two were missing one large rare each.

Well, the blog does say:

We MAY restock singles during January

But, yeah, I'm not going to be real happy if I'm unable to get a full set because Paizo sold out of singles before shipping to subscribers.

As a subscriber, I get a lot of duplicate figures I don't need in order to be assured of getting a complete set; in the case of human-collator error, I've known I can pick up from Paizo what might be missing when my case arrives.

If the benefit of being a subscriber (getting a complete set) goes away, I'll likely get rid of the drawback of being a subscriber (getting extra minis I don't want/need) and become one of the singles-buyers who snaps them up before the subscriber cases ship. If you can't beat them, join them.

The part I don't get about all this is that it's usually cheaper to grab singles of most Pathfinder minis on the secondary market than it is on the Paizo website (especially if you're willing to be patient). Unless you are determined to buy your Pathfinder minis only from Paizo directly, I'm not sure I understand the problem.

I don't want to pile on, but I share a disappointment in this new strategy for managing singles inventory. This change feels like I'm potentially going to be punished for subscribing through Paizo and buying my singles minis here rather than preordering from sites who can get it to me quicker.

FWIW, the old "ship as soon as the minis are available" option would mitigate this somewhat, since presumably I would have got my case around the time of street date.

I can imagine all kinds of logistical reasons for not stocking so many singles. However, given the limitations in your subscription process is the reason we won't get them until well after street date, I'd have preferred you also delay singles sales until after all subscription sets have shipped.

The part I don't get about all this is that it's usually cheaper to grab singles of most Pathfinder minis on the secondary market than it is on the Paizo website (especially if you're willing to be patient). Unless you are determined to buy your Pathfinder minis only from Paizo directly, I'm not sure I understand the problem.

For me, I don't like my credit card details flying around the internet (so I don't want to buy elsewhere if I can avoid it at all). Cost isn't the issue for me.

The part I don't get about all this is that it's usually cheaper to grab singles of most Pathfinder minis on the secondary market than it is on the Paizo website (especially if you're willing to be patient). Unless you are determined to buy your Pathfinder minis only from Paizo directly, I'm not sure I understand the problem.

CoolStuffinc has the cube listed @ 25$, silver dragon @ 29$.

The Half-elf bard is sold out too.
That makes 11 out of 51/53 minis that are sold out 2 days after they are available.

I'm hoping the beds aren't being held to the same one-month limit. I'd better check my finances... :(

I'm going to wait until I get my case - in a couple months, at the earliest - to pass my final judgment, but this new singles approach makes me really anxious. If my case is bad, or if I didn't get enough of something, I can no longer turn to Paizo for help.

I'll repeat my suggestion from another thread for consideration - please consider trying to keep stock until the release of the next set, or (at the very least) the halfway point. As it is, if I don't get one of the ultra-popular items in my case, I don't know what I'll do. (Probably spend $50 on the black market that I'd rather spend here.)

The 11 sold out minis are all RARES.

7 rares are left (9 if you count the 2 replacement minis).

The blue bed repaint mitigates the number down to 10 sold out minis.

I would buy the bed if i would live in the USA.

Couple things.

1) The singles for this set are moving fast. That is strong encouragement to bust some more cases. So in a strange way, the faster these things disappear, the more likely we are to restock them. I understand the subscriber concerns, which is even more encouragement for us to dive back into the cases. I hear you.

2) We'll sell the promo beds until we run out, even if that is longer than a month.

got to wonder:
Are you opening actual cases to get the singles?
Or are you getting singles in appropriate numbers equal to x cases from Wizkids?

This is the first set I actually want one of every single.

I'm very disappointed that the singles sales started -- and some sold out -- before those of us that pre-ordered cases received them. What do we do if don't get a complete set because "collation is not guaranteed"? We've must wait until our cases come, since we don't know what we'll need, while others are free to buy.

Maybe speculators snatching up the rares for inflated resale?

got to wonder:

Are you opening actual cases to get the singles?
Or are you getting singles in appropriate numbers equal to x cases from Wizkids?

This is the first set I actually want one of every single.

They open cases, which is part of the reasoning behind limiting the number of singles they stock - more stock means more staff time devoted to opening and sorting cases.

DropBearHunter wrote:

got to wonder:

Are you opening actual cases to get the singles?
Or are you getting singles in appropriate numbers equal to x cases from Wizkids?

This is the first set I actually want one of every single.

They open cases, which is part of the reasoning behind limiting the number of singles they stock - more stock means more staff time devoted to opening and sorting cases.

It also means sitting on a lot of the poor-selling items indefinitely (or disposing of them some other way under the new paradigm), as well as the loss of the opened cases for case/booster sales.

1) The singles for this set are moving fast. That is strong encouragement to bust some more cases. So in a strange way, the faster these things disappear, the more likely we are to restock them. I understand the subscriber concerns, which is even more encouragement for us to dive back into the cases. I hear you.

Thanks, Erik. I appreciate there's a lot of conflicting issues. Fingers crossed you find a solution that works for you and for us.

Despite my whinging above, it must be said that my need for singles has been pretty insignificant throughout the run - the collation record has been very good so far, so if that keeps up there isn't really an issue. :)

Singles prices here are quite competitive for a battles subscriber, after the discount they come out cheaper than most other places I've seen them.

For me the problems not knowing what I'll get in my case, or the quality of the miniatures (they tend to fluctuate a bit), so I find myself buying singles based on what I expect in a case. That's worked out well except the last case where I got duplicate bricks. If paizo only hold them for a month that means I need to gamble on what I'll get when my sub finally arrives in the merry old land of oz..err Aus.

Hopefully the speed with which the dungeon dressing items sold out will be a convincing argument that these type items should continue to be included in sets, perhaps even in uncommon quantity in the future.

I was lucky enough to get some extras from other sites since by the time I found out they were for sale here they were already gone. I even picked up a second case incentive, as there were so many good pieces in it.

And, I'm really looking forward to finding out about the next set. I'm hoping maybe it huge friendly!

That is strong encouragement to bust some more cases. So in a strange way, the faster these things disappear, the more likely we are to restock them. I understand the subscriber concerns, which is even more encouragement for us to dive back into the cases. I hear you.

Thank you Erik. This was my first time pre-ordering a case, and it coincided with Paizo's change in single sales. It seemed that my expensive experiment wasn't going to pay off.

It also means sitting on a lot of the poor-selling items indefinitely (or disposing of them some other way under the new paradigm), as well as the loss of the opened cases for case/booster sales.

I'll bet that there's some model that can be derived from previous sales, and if Paizo got singles for sale rather than opening cases there'd be less unsold. My first guess would be to skew the number bought for single sales by rarity: more rare, fewer commons. But I could be wrong; Paizo has the data from the previous sets and know their business costs better than I can.

Kalindlara wrote:

It also means sitting on a lot of the poor-selling items indefinitely (or disposing of them some other way under the new paradigm), as well as the loss of the opened cases for case/booster sales.

I'll bet that there's some model that can be derived from previous sales, and if Paizo got singles for sale rather than opening cases there'd be less unsold. My first guess would be to skew the number bought for single sales by rarity: more rare, fewer commons. But I could be wrong; Paizo has the data from the previous sets and know their business costs better than I can.

Very reasonable - I'm sure that direct purchase is something they've considered during the lifetime of Pathfinder Battles.

As long as they're opening cases, of course, their singles stock will reflect case distribution and customer demand. The repaint dungeon dressing seems to be an attempt to meet the latter. ^_^

I’m also disappointed with this model. Sure, it’s exciting that so many people want these but the frenzy to get the hot singles quickly, before they are imprisoned in the "Unavailable" tab, but this also seems to drive up the price. For example, the barrels, crates, and the Quivering Cube are hot items (sold out) and – is it just me - the price is high. I still have not purchased the Bubbling Cauldron from Dungeons Deep nor would I for $9.00. At other retailers that are often less expensive they’re following the same demand-based pattern. Prices for this release seem high everywhere...if you can get them at all.

It was not long ago that I started buying Pathfinder minis. I’m learning that when I feel this type of push-to-buy my response is not to spend but keep my money. I’m buying less of these with every release. My wish list items have grown to the point that I now ignore it.

Despite my whinging above, it must be said that my need for singles has been pretty insignificant throughout the run - the collation record has been very good so far, so if that keeps up there isn't really an issue. :)

This is true. There has been only one time I've bought a single to make up for a deficiency in my case.

The flip side is that one-per-case minis are also the singles that are going to sell out fastest, as Paizo opens cases. Commons should be readily available but won't be ones subscribers are looking for because of collation error.

Reaper has a nice cube.

Barrels will require some painting skills and materials (brush, primer, medium brown acrylic, black acrylic, and a bit of water to create the black wash for the barrel.)

Hopefully the speed with which the dungeon dressing items sold out will be a convincing argument that these type items should continue to be included in sets, perhaps even in uncommon quantity in the future.

I hope not. I'd rather it be seen as evidence that they can be safely split off into their own product line.

I'm already missing out on a handful of potential monsters by having to subsidise dungeon dressing pieces, I'd rather not miss out on even more.

Reaper has a nice cube.

And if I can offer my own humble G-cube version....

It's not hollow, so you can't put minis inside it, but it's got some heft and is pretty durable.

We MAY restock singles during January, but after that the entire set will be removed from singles sales indefinitely.

Having ordered my case & premium through another retailer (much cheaper) I acknowledge I am perhaps less entitled to complain about this than those who ordered theirs though Paizo, especially Battles subscribers.

However, I'm disappointed by the prospect that singles may have sold out before I even know what's in my case -- which I've been told will ship "next week." As of this writing, 20% of the singles in the set are already unavailable from Paizo. (I gather from posts upthread that this could change, and will keep an eye on it.)

I'm also a little surprised and put off by the pricing of some of the simpler figures, given that they're far more useful in multiples: $8 for a bed or table, $6 for a crate or barrel? When more complex and multicolored creatures from the same set run $3.50-$4.50? Doesn't seem right, even with the size of the barrels.

I've been lucky enough to have gotten at least one of every figure in every Battles set I've bought so far, and perhaps that will happen again here, but I'll want more than one Cart, Large Cart, and Draft Horse and can't know yet whether I'll get even one of each, much less two -- and it seems likely I'd want additional tables and beds, but cannot yet guess how many I'll receive.

BTW, the picture above looks to include two Rusty Dragon Inn: Bar case premium, which I believe is the only way to get more than 4 barstools...are there chairs in another set, or will patrons at my extra tables need to stand?

For the next set, please consider making singles available for purchase after subscriptions have been received.

@Damon. Prices on those items are probably due to rarity.

Here are my numbers for my case. (BTW, what mini is 45/45? Is there one? Dungeon/bar dressing not numbered)

1 super box with Feiya and King Irovetti in it.
1 cart, wagon, bed, barrel.
2 tables, crate

The following are numbered by set number on mini. Rares are high numbers in set.

5 x mini no. 7 and 8
4 x mini no. 2, 4, 6, 9-12, 21, 27, 30 and 32
3 x mini no. 1, 3, 5, 13-20, 25, 26, 28, 29 and 31
2 x mini no. 22-24 and 34* (note, this box contained a bag with two of same figure in the same small bag. As its a rare, I think it was a packing error.)
1 x mini no. 33, 35-44.

@Damon. Prices on those items are probably due to rarity.

You're probably right, but crates and barrels don't seem like things that should be Rare. One would certainly hope they'd greatly outnumber, say, owlbears and frost giant ice magi, both of which are Uncommon; or bunyips (Common).

Here are my numbers for my case. (BTW, what mini is 45/45? Is there one? Dungeon/bar dressing not numbered)

This suggests 045 is the bar.

I really like Kalindlara's idea that you keep singles for a set fully stocked until the next set goes live, and then switch to stocking the new set. Also, don't put singles for sell until enough time has passed for most subscribers to get their case and see what singles they need. When you switch to stocking a new set, if you are stuck with a bunch of common unwanted minis from the previous set, hand them out to loyal customers at Origins, Gen Con, etc. when you pass out the wooden gaming tokens or buttons, if that's too big of a financial hit, sell them dirt cheap at production cost in loose bins at the Paizo booth, loose bins are a favorite of many at Gen Con and they would be even more popular coming straight from Paizo at discount. I know I'm highly critical about stuff in these messages (only because I care), but in real life I'm always telling my gaming friends all of my personal stories about Paizo's unbeatable customer service. In the past you have done amazing things to keep picky, grouchy, whiny, sometimes unreasonable customers like me happy. Let's not lose that second to none customer care and start making bad choices like this... PLEASE! :)

I really like Kalindlara's idea that you keep singles for a set fully stocked until the next set goes live, and then switch to stocking the new set.

That just doesn't make (dollars and) sense. If there is one or two particularly popular minis, you'd be opening up a whole new case every time one was ordered. You're adding over a hundred minis to your inventory to sell a dozen really sought after minis.

Also, don't put singles for sell until enough time has passed for most subscribers to get their case and see what singles they need.

Absolutely! This is something they should do. It's a difference of a week or so.

Also, don't put singles for sell until enough time has passed for most subscribers to get their case and see what singles they need.

No way! I want my singles to ship with my case incentive so I can combine shipping. Unless there is an option to ship the case first and the incentive and rest later.

It's a difference of a week or so.

My pre-order is still in "processing". On Thursday I got a billing notice for my AP subscription and Iconics #4. That said it was expected to ship in 1-7 business days, and take 4-8 business days in transit.

Assuming the case order is similar, if they bill me for my pre-ordered case on Monday, it'll take 5-15 business days before I get it, that's 15 January to 29 January. The Singles went on sale on 8 January. It's not "a week or so", but "two weeks or so".

Duncan7291 posted the contents of his case, so it seems that it takes over a week for Paizo to send out the preorders (fastest times).

If the benefit of being a subscriber (getting a complete set) goes away, I'll likely get rid of the drawback of being a subscriber (getting extra minis I don't want/need) and become one of the singles-buyers who snaps them up before the subscriber cases ship. If you can't beat them, join them.

I was a single-buyer and I decided to gamble on pre-ordering a case to get a complete set. I'll wait until I get my case to see if my gamble paid off.

Important clarification: I didn't mean fully stocked (for the very good reason Swiftbrook points out).

Just generally available would be nice. ^_^

Since the set peices are theoretically supposed to represent furniture in the Rusty Dragon Inn, I'd love to see a good mini scale flip map of the Sandpoint fixture to put them on. I know, i can always make my own, but it's not the same.

Since the set peices are theoretically supposed to represent furniture in the Rusty Dragon Inn, I'd love to see a good mini scale flip map of the Sandpoint fixture to put them on. I know, i can always make my own, but it's not the same.

There is hope (and/or rumors) that the new Bigger Tavern Flip-Mat coming out next month will be the Rusty Dragon Inn. There is still no preview of it.

... Here are my numbers for my case. (BTW, what mini is 45/45? Is there one? Dungeon/bar dressing not numbered)

1 super box with Feiya and King Irovetti in it.
1 cart, wagon, bed, barrel.
2 tables, crate ...

Glad to see the table may be one of the more common pieces.

TL; DR Best set to date, but I think delaying singles sales especially for subscribers is silly.

This is my first case subscription order. I'm pretty disappointed so far, given that it hasn't even shipped and a good portion of the singles are gone.

If I don't get a full set in my case, this will probably be my last subscription as well. The benefits of the subscription, like bigger discounts on singles, aren't very valuable if Paizo isn't going to stock the singles.

Duncan7291 wrote:

... Here are my numbers for my case. (BTW, what mini is 45/45? Is there one? Dungeon/bar dressing not numbered)

1 super box with Feiya and King Irovetti in it.
1 cart, wagon, bed, barrel.
2 tables, crate ...

Glad to see the table may be one of the more common pieces.

Yeah, the table seems pretty common to me. I've opened three of them out of a case and a few random packs.

got to wonder:

Are you opening actual cases to get the singles?
Or are you getting singles in appropriate numbers equal to x cases from Wizkids?

This is the first set I actually want one of every single.

We are opening cases.

Erik, have yall thought about a dungeon dressing mini set along same lines of undead and goblin packs?

** spoiler omitted **

TL; DR Best set to date, but I think delaying singles sales especially for subscribers is silly.

I don't think it's silly since there doesn't seem to be any fear that they won't sell - the issue is that Paizo is going to run out of stock. Hence, lost sales from non-subscribers who pick up singles here (like you) will be recouped a week or two later and it won't cost anything other than what I presume would be a trivial hit to cashflow.

The issue of how much things should be biased towards subscribers is another matter. However, that seems par for the course as far as Paizo's business model goes. One of the key benefits of being a case subscriber is a discount to singles purchases - that has unquestionably been eroded via this new change.

Perhaps Paizo feel things were previously too skewed towards meeting subscribers' needs and that this is a reasonable adjustment. It is nonetheless an adjustment and I don't think it's right to label challenging it (or suggesting alternatives) as silly.

DropBearHunter wrote:

got to wonder:

Are you opening actual cases to get the singles?
Or are you getting singles in appropriate numbers equal to x cases from Wizkids?

This is the first set I actually want one of every single.

We are opening cases.

Hello Eric.

With the 6 dungeon dressing pieces from this series selling out even faster than the 5 from the last one i think you have proven to everyone that this part of the line is highly popular.

While i can understand that a decision to produce an additional seperate line of these or boxed sets has not yet been made and will likely take some more time i have a question regarding the next set.

Is the number of minis and set list for the next set (#11) already fixed and how many dungeon dressing pieces will it contain?

I can understand if you answer that in next weeks blog.

Thx again for making a miniature line possible that people love and are so excited for. Even sometimes bad looking minis or great minis that are sold out fast are much better than NONE produced at all. I personally want to thank you and everyone involved in the Pathfinder Battles line for 10 series of minis and the excitement they gave me and my players. Here is to the next 10.

I prefer to go through Paizo to get singles, but if I have to wait an extra week or two for subscribers to get their product, then deal with a rush of people all trying to get limited quantities of the rare minis that people will tend to need to fill out their sets, I'd just save myself the hassle and purchase elsewhere, and end up cutting Paizo out of my minis purchases altogether.

The thing is, the bar dressing minis are all in high demand and are rare, and the worst problem is that customers want *multiple* copies of each bar dressing. There will be no single to purchase the rare bar dressings you are missing anywhere, or to get multiple copies yourself (unless you want to pay $40-50 in the aftermarket).

The real problem is that the bar dressings should have been uncommon, not rare. Stuff like Frost Giant Mage, Bugbear Tyrant, Flesh Golem, and some of the ghouls should have been rare.

The price of the single rares are also too low, at $6-8, especially if you are breaking open cases to get them.

Might need to do another set where some of these minis are revisited, they seem popular.