Michael Snyder 601's page

Thanks, Vic Wertz, that makes sense.

I guess the combination of seeing "available now...ships from warehouse in 1-5 days" on the Paizo website with my FLGS guy saying "my distributor got it last week but isn't allowed to ship it until next week, and I can't sell it until Thursday" got me confused (I was thinking that if the website says "available now" then maybe my store got it in). That, and the fact that someone from Paizo told me a couple of months ago that the game could show up early after asking about the July 18th date that was posted next to the August 1st date on the Paizo website (My specific question was about the actual day the game might arrive, and the answer was basically between 18th and the first).

Just FYI, not every company does it this way. Catalyst Games Labs, for example, posted that their Shadowrun starter set might arrive a little early for some retail stores, which it in fact did with my FLGS (just by one day). And even with Paizo, apparently, I could have ordered it through the store and pay extra for shipping and get it before the August first release date. So even Paizo isn't completely consistent with the "everyone gets it the same day for fairness" policy (which is fine, it seems about impossible to make sure everyone actually gets their shipment on the same day).

Anyway, it is what it is. I guess I didn't really need to go to Gencon anyway. I'll just swing by the FLGS and have a quiet evening of reading the rules and making characters with some friends. Very excited about the new edition!

It's one thing to pay for expedited shipping, its another for Paizo to call their distributors and tell them not to ship them until next week and to tell their retailers not to sale until even a later date.

That is a good point about the PDF. And I did not know that people who ordered from their site are already getting their books. That makes it all the more frustrating that those who try to support our FLGS are being forced to wait (again, from what I understand, distributers were literally told not to ship the books until next week).

I just got off the phone with my store manager and he also pointed out his frustration at the fact that he has customers who will now buy the game at Gencon instead of his store, despite offering a 15% discount. And I agree, why not make the PDF available? It just doesn't make any sense.

So, I found out that even though distributors got the pathfinder 2nd books last week, and they could have been on the shelves this week, Paizo instead decided that no one can sell them until August 1st. My question is why? Why artificially hold back the release of your flagship game until the first day of GenCon? If it had been released this week I could have studied up in preparation for GenCon. Now, not only can I not do that, but I feel torn between going to GenCon or skipping Gencon so that I can delve into the new Pathfinder during launch week. Either skip the release week of pathfinder for GenCon or skip GenCon in order to participate in the launch week of a very anticipated game (and no, I am not buying the books at GenCon, as I am a big supporter of my local game store).

It is not a big deal if that just happens to be how the dates fall, but why on earth would you restrict your distributors and retailers from selling early if possible? I feel rather disgusted by this policy, so please help me understand the logic behind it, help me understand why making me choose between enjoying GenCon or the launch week of your game is a good idea.

Thank you in advance.