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Ah, thanks. I should have assumed that the internets know what time zone I am in.@ So the PDF is available at 2AM... Is that 2AM Eastern or Pacific?
I'm on the East coast, and over here it says 3, so I assume it's already calibrated to your location.
What, you don't have yours yet? *Continues reading his* ;)
What, you don't have yours yet? *Continues reading his* ;)Ah, thanks. I should have assumed that the internets know what time zone I am in.@ So the PDF is available at 2AM... Is that 2AM Eastern or Pacific?
I'm on the East coast, and over here it says 3, so I assume it's already calibrated to your location.
You, sir, are an evil person.
What, you don't have yours yet? *Continues reading his* ;)Ah, thanks. I should have assumed that the internets know what time zone I am in.@ So the PDF is available at 2AM... Is that 2AM Eastern or Pacific?
I'm on the East coast, and over here it says 3, so I assume it's already calibrated to your location.
You, sir, are an evil person.
Come on guys be nice.
What you guys haven't finished reading yours yet? Sheesh what's taking so long. Mine is already up on the shelf. :)
I decided to read Bestiary 2 cover-to-cover and it got me behind; right now I'm 2/3 through Rule of Fear and 1/3 through Worldwound Gambit. And I've spent a lot of time leafing through UM.
Chief Technical Officer
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So, tomorrow (Wed, May 18) is the street release date.
How does that translate into when I will see the book in places like retail book stores etc?
I have the book preordered at Barnes and Noble.com but it says the book is scheduled to ship June 6th!!!!
In theory, stores are good to go with selling the book from 18th.
However, B&N take Paizo books not from Paizo directly, but from Diamond/Alliance. And the date when they actually start to hand them out ... tends to vary, especially with big chains for whom this is book number 457302389, as opposed to LGS where it's a Big Thing.
Actually, B&N sometimes orders from Ingram, who orders from Diamond, who orders from us...
I know this has been slapped around a bit on the boards, but could someone explain to me why UM had an original date on Amazon of the 18th, but has jumped to July 12th?! I'm just wondering ...
I know this has been slapped around a bit on the boards, but could someone explain to me why UM had an original date on Amazon of the 18th, but has jumped to July 12th?! I'm just wondering ...
See Vic's post above? Amazon goes through similar channels. Happens with every release.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I know this has been slapped around a bit on the boards, but could someone explain to me why UM had an original date on Amazon of the 18th, but has jumped to July 12th?! I'm just wondering ...
Amazon just plain makes up their own release dates for our stuff, and as far as I can see, the dates they make up appear to have very little relationship to the date that they actually expect to have product, expect to ship product, or actually ship product.
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I know this has been slapped around a bit on the boards, but could someone explain to me why UM had an original date on Amazon of the 18th, but has jumped to July 12th?! I'm just wondering ...Amazon just plain makes up their own release dates for our stuff, and as far as I can see, the dates they make up appear to have very little relationship to the date that they actually expect to have product, expect to ship product, or actually ship product.
Sometimes I get the idea that a chimpanzee is in charge of RPG books at Amazon, and he just randomly sets the dates.
Versatile Channeler. Wow.
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Sometimes I get the idea that a chimpanzee is in charge of RPG books at Amazon, and he just randomly sets the dates.I know this has been slapped around a bit on the boards, but could someone explain to me why UM had an original date on Amazon of the 18th, but has jumped to July 12th?! I'm just wondering ...Amazon just plain makes up their own release dates for our stuff, and as far as I can see, the dates they make up appear to have very little relationship to the date that they actually expect to have product, expect to ship product, or actually ship product.
It might be more intelligent them it seems, they know how many copies they have ordered from Paizo, so maybe when the release date changes from X to X + 2 months that they have sold their entire initial order and need to reorder. So anyone who ordered before the change will still get their copy on or near the release date they thought, new people won't be bamboozled by an unfulfillabley early release date. They probably just need a better way to communicate to those who have ordered that their own release date hasn't changed.
Or am I too optimistic about their intelligence?
I know this has been slapped around a bit on the boards, but could someone explain to me why UM had an original date on Amazon of the 18th, but has jumped to July 12th?! I'm just wondering ...Amazon just plain makes up their own release dates for our stuff, and as far as I can see, the dates they make up appear to have very little relationship to the date that they actually expect to have product, expect to ship product, or actually ship product.
So I just got off the phone with Amazon's Customer Service ... talk about rude and condescending. Apparently, it's all on Paizo's end about releasing the book, and when I confronted them with the fact that the book's been released, all I got was "Well, you obviously know more about this than I do" ... 'cause that'll keep customers happy, right? ;) I even asked them why a big store like Amazon can't keep up with some of the smaller stores like say, FRP Games ... again all I got was a bit of attitude. So I'm definitely inclined to believe Vic when it comes to them making up dates ... in fact, I believe they use a dart board ;)
I think Bestiary 3 will be announced at PaizoCon next month, on schedule for a December release... IIRC, it was the exact same pattern last year for Bestiary 2.Um... after UC, there's the Pathfinder RPG Basic Box (?) due out in the Autumn, but have no idea what's due to be released after that. I'm sure they'll hint or explicitly say at Paizocon and/or Gencon.
BTW, the Basic Box is heavy so if you live outside the USA you might want to cancel after getting the UC!
Originally Bestiary II was suppose to be out in October I thought....or maybe that was the first Bestiary that got pushed back so far. I know the first one was suppose to be out In September when I was at Gencon 09' thinking that isn't that far away...then it got pushed back as well.
Trying to stay on schedule can be a pain sometimes, while announcing more awesome sauce to be released!
Sean
I think I got my copy of Bestiary 2 in October last year but stuff like that I preorder.
Just bought the PDF today. Although I haven't had time to fully digest it, I must say that I am a bit disappointed in two things I was looking for in the book:
The most obvious and absolute of the book's failures to my expectations the "alternative oracle curses" which is in the product description. Did I miss something? I don't see any new curses in the book. I was really looking forward to some new options since I really enjoy the oracle class.
The other thing that disappointed me was the alchemist options. I really like the concept of the Alchemist and plan to play one in my next game, but I never really liked the mutagen ability. Just don't see any alchemist I make really needing the physical stat increases at the cost of his mental stats. So I was hoping for a bunch of archetypes that would replace the mutagen with something more to my liking. But we only got one. And what replaces the mutagen is the cognatogen discovery becoming the mindchemist default. That's fine, I guess, but I'd still never use it because I don't like that you have to deal with the ability damage. Also, one of the mindchemist's abilities replaces poison use which is also replaced by abilities in a number of other archetypes including chirurgeon, which I will be taking for my character since I will most likely end up being the healer, so I won't be able to have both. Hopefully the alchemist will have some better archetypes in Ultimate Combat, like one more focused on bombs.
Anyway, like I said, those were just two things that really stood out since I was looking for them right away. I hope to find a lot more worthwhile things in the book the deeper I dig.
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Woohoo! I just received a mail confirming that my copy has arrived at my FLGS! I can't believe it... how in the name of Sweet Asmodeus did it ship that quickly? I did pre-order it months ago, but still, we're talking about Scandinavia here; usually I've got all the books 2-4 weeks later than you guys.
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Just picked up my copy from my FLGS and I just wanted to pop in here to thank all of the fine folks at Paizo for knocking another one out of the park! I love nearly everything here, particularly the Qingong Monk, Cloistered Cleric, and everything for Inquisitors.
Oh! Not to mention the opportunity to play as a Blue Oyster Cult song. "This sword here at my side don't act the way it should..."
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I just got mine from my FLGS, and I'm curious - am I the only misprint so far? I've got everything fine up to pg 192, and then it prints 162 to 192 a second time before jumping to pg 225. I basically miss out on the entire spells chapter up to the letter 'I'.
I love the book otherwise, but I jumped online to see if there was anything else like this and haven't seen anything so far.
I just got mine from my FLGS, and I'm curious - am I the only misprint so far? I've got everything fine up to pg 192, and then it prints 162 to 192 a second time before jumping to pg 225. I basically miss out on the entire spells chapter up to the letter 'I'.
I love the book otherwise, but I jumped online to see if there was anything else like this and haven't seen anything so far.
Try exchanging your copy at your FLGS for a new one (so they can return it to their distributor for credit). If you have any issues trying to get it exchanged, make sure to let customer service know so they can help you out!
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Chief Technical Officer
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Sometimes I get the idea that a chimpanzee is in charge of RPG books at Amazon, and he just randomly sets the dates.I know this has been slapped around a bit on the boards, but could someone explain to me why UM had an original date on Amazon of the 18th, but has jumped to July 12th?! I'm just wondering ...Amazon just plain makes up their own release dates for our stuff, and as far as I can see, the dates they make up appear to have very little relationship to the date that they actually expect to have product, expect to ship product, or actually ship product.It might be more intelligent them it seems, they know how many copies they have ordered from Paizo, so maybe when the release date changes from X to X + 2 months that they have sold their entire initial order and need to reorder. So anyone who ordered before the change will still get their copy on or near the release date they thought, new people won't be bamboozled by an unfulfillabley early release date. They probably just need a better way to communicate to those who have ordered that their own release date hasn't changed.
Or am I too optimistic about their intelligence?
"Not having enough to cover preorders" is not the same as "delayed release date," though.
Chris Self provided a really good explanation of what really happens here.
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I think I got my copy of Bestiary 2 in October last year but stuff like that I preorder.
Bestiary 2 didn't make it out until December. Got my subscription copy shipping from Pazio December 10th. which was an October shipping. Only reason I remember this one is I was promoting Pazio and Pathfinder hard then it got pushed back (twice, once to November then to December)so looked foolish. Or rather felt foolish. Not sure if the folks thought I was or not.
So if you got the Bestiary 2 in October it was before general release.
The first Bestiary I got my subscription copy shipping from Pazio October 26th. Which originally was a September release looking at adds in the books and online.
Sean
Can anyone tell me whether there are any new oracle-only spells in the Spells chapter? Thanks!
Can someone refresh my memory on Paizo's policy/schedule for shipping subscription items vs. street date for those items? As a "local" (non-international) subscriber I think it's reasonable to expect that I receive my copies of Pathfinder products before the stores in my area do, but it's not always the case.
My Subscriptions tells me that Ultimate Magic and the Rival Guide were shipped on Friday (the 13th, so maybe that's the problem) but they haven't arrived yet. Meantime, the local game shops had them available for sale on Monday or Tuesday.
I got my PDF, of course, so I was able to skim through it over the weekend. It's just a bit annoying to feel that subscribers are the last served rather than the first, so I wanted to ask again about the intended timing of these releases.
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My Subscriptions tells me that Ultimate Magic and the Rival Guide were shipped on Friday (the 13th, so maybe that's the problem) but they haven't arrived yet. Meantime, the local game shops had them available for sale on Monday or Tuesday.
It may have to do with how you want it shipped. I have my AP sent USPS. Sometimes it takes up to 3 weeks for it to get to me. Paizo has no control over speed of shipping.
It may have to do with how you want it shipped. I have my AP sent USPS. Sometimes it takes up to 3 weeks for it to get to me. Paizo has no control over speed of shipping.
Understood, and I use the "standard postal delivery" option. Paizo does have control over when they ship and what "street release" date they set, though. If they shipped to subscribers on Friday and made the book available to retail sellers on Monday, I'm not sure that's a realistic lead time (assuming subscribers are intended to have a jump on retailers.)
Now, in my case I also use the "hold for monthly shipment" option. If that meant that my subscription order went out later than other subscribers' orders, that's fine. My question is regarding the intended default schedule: is there a planned gap between subscripment shipment and street release date, with the intention of allowing subscribers time to get their books ahead of the game shops?
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CEO
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My question is regarding the intended default schedule: is there a planned gap between subscripment shipment and street release date, with the intention of allowing subscribers time to get their books ahead of the game shops?
Our goal in general is to get subscriber copies out the door so that they arrive close to the street date. Subscribers get the PDF of the book earlier than the street date, but we try to get the print copies to arrive right around the street date. Now, because of factors that are out of our control, some folks will get their copies earlier than the street date. Others will get it after the street date. There is one guy I saw who had an estimate of 7 to 10 days in Europe and his book arrived in 2 days. To Europe. The next book could take 30 days to Europe. It is a bit of a crap shoot. We take the estimate that the shipper provides and try to get the books to arrive close to the street date. But at least, as a subscriber, you know that you will have the PDF earlier than the street date. That is the only thing that we can promise.
I hope this helps to explain things.
-Lisa
It may have to do with how you want it shipped. I have my AP sent USPS. Sometimes it takes up to 3 weeks for it to get to me. Paizo has no control over speed of shipping.Understood, and I use the "standard postal delivery" option. Paizo does have control over when they ship and what "street release" date they set, though. If they shipped to subscribers on Friday and made the book available to retail sellers on Monday, I'm not sure that's a realistic lead time (assuming subscribers are intended to have a jump on retailers.)
Now, in my case I also use the "hold for monthly shipment" option. If that meant that my subscription order went out later than other subscribers' orders, that's fine. My question is regarding the intended default schedule: is there a planned gap between subscripment shipment and street release date, with the intention of allowing subscribers time to get their books ahead of the game shops?
They started shipping on May 9th, and the release date was the 18th, so there is definitely some gap time between when subscribers can get it and when it is released to everyone else. However, Paizo also ships to distribution at the same time they ship to subscribers, so it is possible for some game stores to get the book before it arrives to a subscriber. In addition, when they start shipping there is the magic formula to determine whose shipment goes out first (something to do with quantity of the same items and shipping method).
Our goal in general is to get subscriber copies out the door so that they arrive close to the street date.
That answers my question. The goal is to supply the subscribers and retailers at about the same time, so that's working, to the extent it possibly can given the vagaries of carriers' shipping times, subscriber's locations and such.
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Can someone refresh my memory on Paizo's policy/schedule for shipping subscription items vs. street date for those items? As a "local" (non-international) subscriber I think it's reasonable to expect that I receive my copies of Pathfinder products before the stores in my area do, but it's not always the case.
My Subscriptions tells me that Ultimate Magic and the Rival Guide were shipped on Friday (the 13th, so maybe that's the problem) but they haven't arrived yet. Meantime, the local game shops had them available for sale on Monday or Tuesday.
I got my PDF, of course, so I was able to skim through it over the weekend. It's just a bit annoying to feel that subscribers are the last served rather than the first, so I wanted to ask again about the intended timing of these releases.
As most of your questions were answered already. I thought that I would address the one thing that was not by Lisa. Stores should not be putting their orders out before the release dates that Paizo wants them too. But as Paizo truly has no control over that the Stores will put their books out earlier then they are supposed to. It is a shame though.
I hope my copy gets shipped soon. I fixed the problem and am now a little anxious to see the books ship so I can look them over.
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As most of your questions were answered already. I thought that I would address the one thing that was not by Lisa. Stores should not be putting their orders out before the release dates that Paizo wants them too. But as Paizo truly has no control over that the Stores will put their books out earlier then they are supposed to. It is a shame though.Can someone refresh my memory on Paizo's policy/schedule for shipping subscription items vs. street date for those items? As a "local" (non-international) subscriber I think it's reasonable to expect that I receive my copies of Pathfinder products before the stores in my area do, but it's not always the case.
My Subscriptions tells me that Ultimate Magic and the Rival Guide were shipped on Friday (the 13th, so maybe that's the problem) but they haven't arrived yet. Meantime, the local game shops had them available for sale on Monday or Tuesday.
I got my PDF, of course, so I was able to skim through it over the weekend. It's just a bit annoying to feel that subscribers are the last served rather than the first, so I wanted to ask again about the intended timing of these releases.
+1! I thought it strange no one else was picking up on this as well, Especially Lisa :O). If it was Tuesday it was one day before street date, and if Monday it was two.
I believe if the name of the store is provided Pazio would like to contact them. Or at least in the past they have said that.
Sean
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+1! I thought it strange no one else was picking up on this as well, Especially Lisa :O). If it was Tuesday it was one day before street date, and if Monday it was two.
I believe if the name of the store is provided Pazio would like to contact them. Or at least in the past they have said that.
Sean
from what I remember, they do not have an issue with stores putting out stuff before the street date, what they want to know from those stores is their supplier to see if the supplier shipped them out before they were supposed to.
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Can someone refresh my memory on Paizo's policy/schedule for shipping subscription items vs. street date for those items? As a "local" (non-international) subscriber I think it's reasonable to expect that I receive my copies of Pathfinder products before the stores in my area do, but it's not always the case.
My Subscriptions tells me that Ultimate Magic and the Rival Guide were shipped on Friday (the 13th, so maybe that's the problem) but they haven't arrived yet. Meantime, the local game shops had them available for sale on Monday or Tuesday.
I got my PDF, of course, so I was able to skim through it over the weekend. It's just a bit annoying to feel that subscribers are the last served rather than the first, so I wanted to ask again about the intended timing of these releases.
It really depends on where your at as well.
I don't work for USPS but I do work for a company who USPS uses their planes to get some of their mail up to Alaska. I have seen a cart or pallet full of USPS Priority Mail just sit for over a week in their warehouse. I finally unpacked it my self and put it on the belt. I would of been totally frustrated if my package had been on the pallet.
I am sure that Anchorage, Alaska isn't the only place it happens either. WHo knows if another warehouse / sort facility like the one I deliver too doesn't have another person who would just do a little extra work and put it on the belt.
They have people who come and pick up the carts and pallets supposedly but as far as I can tell, I am usually there an hour and a half as we unload the 11 or so ULD's (cans) that are full of USPS onto a belt, don't have any pattern to picking the carts up that are left by other airlines.
So short story is I have seen pallets of mail sitting there for a week if not more. Hopefully your package isn't on a similar pallet where you live.
Sean
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CEO
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from what I remember, they do not have an issue with stores putting out stuff before the street date, what they want to know from those stores is their supplier to see if the supplier shipped them out before they were supposed to.+1! I thought it strange no one else was picking up on this as well, Especially Lisa :O). If it was Tuesday it was one day before street date, and if Monday it was two.
I believe if the name of the store is provided Pazio would like to contact them. Or at least in the past they have said that.
Sean
No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
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No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
Do you put notes in the shipment asking the store owners not to put the products on the shelf until x date? Other then that I am not sure how you can control this at the store level.
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CEO
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Do you put notes in the shipment asking the store owners not to put the products on the shelf until x date? Other then that I am not sure how you can control this at the store level.No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
We put it on the boxes we send to distribution and in turn, they are supposed to mark the boxes sent to retail. I know that when we get stuff from Alliance for the online store that has a street date, it is marked on the box AND on the invoice.
-Lisa
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Do you put notes in the shipment asking the store owners not to put the products on the shelf until x date? Other then that I am not sure how you can control this at the store level.No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
Store level control is done by distributors. If a store repeatedly puts things ahead of date, the distributor will likely have "the talk" with store manager about conditions of further cooperation.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Do you put notes in the shipment asking the store owners not to put the products on the shelf until x date? Other then that I am not sure how you can control this at the store level.No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
We don't create the individual retailer shipments, the distributors do. (And keep in mind that a retailer's shipment consists of more than just our new releases—it will also contain whatever else they're ordering from their distributor at the same time.) How each distributor notifies the retailer of the release date is up to them.
Basically, if somebody breaks street date, we want to know about it, because it's really a two-part problem. First, the retailer shouldn't be releasing the product before the street date, but second, the distributor shouldn't be shipping the product so early that the retailer gets it several days before the street date in the first place. We want them to ship it so that it hits stores just one or two days before the release date. If we know it's happening, we can work to fix it.
Do you put notes in the shipment asking the store owners not to put the products on the shelf until x date? Other then that I am not sure how you can control this at the store level.No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
We don't create the individual retailer shipments, the distributors do. (And keep in mind that a retailer's shipment consists of more than just our new releases—it will also contain whatever else they're ordering from their distributor at the same time.) How each distributor notifies the retailer of the release date is up to them.
Basically, if somebody breaks street date, we want to know about it, because it's really a two-part problem. First, the retailer shouldn't be releasing the product before the street date, but second, the distributor shouldn't be shipping the product so early that the retailer gets it several days before the street date in the first place. We want them to ship it so that it hits stores just one or two days before the release date. If we know it's happening, we can work to fix it.
I used to work in a big book store and we would get boxes of books with a big, green sticker on the side of the box that read "Street Date xx/xx/xxxx". That way you knew the stuff in the boxes wasn't to be put on display until that date. Tuesday was always the biggest lay-down date. Also, that smug jerk, Robert Patterson always had his own personal lay-down dates when nothing else was released.
I called Amazon today and actually got some great customer service. I told them I could just go down to my local shop and pick up the book instead of wait 2 months. They cancelled my order for me and gave me a $15 credit toward my next purchase ($15 being the difference between what I was going to pay at my local store and what I should have been paying at Amazon). Probably putting that credit toward Ultimate Combat in August :)
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No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
Purely out of curiosity - what consequences occur for Paizo, if a store puts a book out one or two days before the street date? The only thing I can think of is that if one store violates this agreement regularly, then customers will catch wind of it and flock to that store to the detriment of competitors (including Paizo, which releases products on the street date on Paizo.com).
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Purely out of curiosity - what consequences occur for Paizo, if a store puts a book out one or two days before the street date? The only thing I can think of is that if one store violates this agreement regularly, then customers will catch wind of it and flock to that store to the detriment of competitors (including Paizo, which releases products on the street date on Paizo.com).No, we do have a problem with stores putting stuff out before the street date. We try to work with our distributors to make sure the retailers get it in time to release on the street date, but it requires a lot of trust along the chain for everyone to abide by the rules and release it on the street date.
-Lisa
Then that stores competition will complain saying the store releasing early is getting an unfair advantage.
Then....it can be many consequences.
