At only $20 over the normal book, this seems like a no-brainer if you want a dead-tree copy.The $50 shipping cost to Europe is also a consideration :-(
But wouldn't you have to pay that anyway for the normal edition? Or would you just be able to pick that up locally?
I can indeed get the normal book locally
I can indeed get the normal book locally
Got it. Well, you're absolutely right...that complicates matters.
Even here in the U.S., I've been considering ordering the Starfinder Core Rulebook Pawn Collection directly from Paizo, but so far I have balked at the > $10 shipping cost. That's a bit hard to swallow on a $25 product which I can readily pick it up locally. It's also a bit odd, because I thought pure print material (no bases) can be shipped fairly cheaply.
Chief Technical Officer
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...I thought print material (which I thought this was, because no bases) can be shipped fairly cheaply.
You're probably thinking of the Bound Printed Matter rate, which applies only to printed matter that is "securely bound by permanent fastenings such as staples, spiral binding, glue, or stitching." So it doesn't apply to tokens, Flip-Mats, or Map Packs—basically just books.
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...I thought print material (which I thought this was, because no bases) can be shipped fairly cheaply.You're probably thinking of a special rate for Bound Printed Matter, which applies only to printed matter that is "securely bound by permanent fastenings such as staples, spiral binding, glue, or stitching." So it doesn't apply to tokens, Flip-Mats, or Map Packs.
You're absolutely correct; I was. Thank you for the explanation.
Have you considered binding the sheets together? ;-)
Stuff locally is mostly a 1 on 1 conversion from dollar to euro, at least here in the Netherlands.
Not entirely sure how our FLGS handle the shipping costs, but I guess that's why they use a retailer in between them and Paizo.
Nitpick: The intermediate party is called the distributor; only the party selling to the consumer is called the retailer. Obviously in some disinter-mediated cases (Amazon), one party serves as both.
But you're right...in some form or another, distribution costs are split between the publisher, distributor(s), and the retailer. Wholesale pricing helps in that regard. :-)
P.S. I do not work for Paizo, or even in the game industry. I do work for a publisher, though, for whatever that's worth. For all I know, the hobby world might be its own thing entirely.
I am putting this out here to give others insight into my decision making process. This is in no means a statement about the price of the limited edition or an opinion about others who decide to order it.
Important bits
I am set up for the subscription AP anyway. That will cost me USD 9 in shipping. It will also increase an order of limited edition plus AP above USD 100 and therefore Paizo would pay USD 10 towards shipping
Cost of standard edition
Local price for the Standard Rulebook seems to be set at EUR 60. With my 10% discount at my FLGS, that is EUR 54 or USD 62.
Cost of limited edition
The limited edition is USD 80 + shipping cost USD 50 = USD 130.
I save USD 19 in shipping since I do not have to pay for shipping the AP and Paizo refunds USD 10 for an order above USD 100. Total cost for the Limited edition: 80+50-10-9= USD 111 or EUR 96 (excluding any import taxes)
Conclusion
The limited edition would thus cost me around EUR 40 / USD 50 / 80% over the cost of the standard edition. Given that I would still use this limited edition for gaming I won't order it, especially since import tax and the accompanying administration fee can be very harsh and is not taken into account. I will try not to envy Damanta when he shows up at my SFS table with the limited edition ;-)
Interesting...thank you for sharing. That shipping cost is certainly nothing to sneeze at!
Personally, I'm leaning toward buying most of my Starfinder stuff at my FLGS (which I suspect Paizo is just fine with, as long as I buy it somewhere). Since I'm principally interested in things which support face-to-face play -- maps, pawns, etc. -- PDF copies don't really interest me all that much.
But to be clear, I probably wouldn't be buying any of it if the Core Rulebook PDF weren't priced so well. Selling the core rules in PDF cheaply as a "gateway drug" is inspired.
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Chief Technical Officer
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You're right that distributors are the party in between publishers and retailers, but Amazon is not a distributor for us—they're a retailer.
And in our industry, the way that shipping costs are generally split is this:
• When we ship to distributors, as long as their order is over a minimum dollar amount, we ship it for free within the US. (International distributors usually have US locations that package up shipments from multiple publishers to ship to the home country—the costs of that are on them.)
• Most distributors ship to retailers for free if they're over some preset minimum.
So in general, retailers don't pay shipping. Publishers do, and distributors do (and international distributors REALLY do).
But this is getting pretty far away from the product discussion. If you guys want to follow up on this, it's probably best to start a new thread in the Paizo General Discussion forum.
Hello Everyone,
GenCon pickup is only for subscription items and this is not a subscription item. Pre orders for the Limited Edition cannot be set for GenCon pickup.
As for whether we will have them available for purchase at the show, that depends on pre order sales. So, subject to availability.
If you do have them available to pick up at Gen Con, will we be able to cancel our preorder at that time?
If it's not available at Gen Con, it's a shame you can't pick up your preorder at the con. I just want to get my limited edition signed and don't want to wait until 2018 to do so.
Edit: Just realized this ships late July (or early August, as my preorder indicates). I chose 4-8 day shipping, hopefully it gets to me before I leave for Gen Con.
I was serious.
Ah well, can't have everything I guess.Edit: to clarify, I hoped it'd be a bit like the comics, which have different fronts. I like the clean dark look with silver logo a lot more, even if it's for the PDF :).
It's not unheard of, actually, The new Star Trek Adventures game does indeed have a different PDF for the Collector's Edition of their rulebook, even if only the cover is different.
I want this version rather than the standard. If I cancel my starfinder RPG sub then resubscribe once the core rule book ships do I actually lose any benefits?
Since you already have the Pathfinder advantage from the Pathfinder AP subscription and don't have the Starfinder Charter/Superscriber tag, the only thing you would be missing out on is the free PDF version you get for being a subscriber.
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The free (and early) PDF was the dealbreaker for me ;_;
You are a brave and noble eldritch kitty.
Yeah I suspect I'll bite the bullet and get both.
That is what I am doing...multiple copies of the SFCR will probably be useful anyway.
I went for two as well, as I couldn't just pass this up and I like to have more than one copy as well. I need the PDF so there was never any question I was keeping the Sub. Now just hoping I get my copy before GenCon.
Hopeful more come available:/ so want this haha.
Hopeful more come available:/ so want this haha.
I see that it is currently available here (there is an "Add to Cart" button rather than a notice that it is "Unavailable"). Perhaps you posted to the wrong product thread?
When I read this thread earlier, the product was listed as unavailable. That seems to have changed some time in the last five or so hours.
There was a very limited amount initially, maybe another batch made it to the warehouse. Not sure.
Customer Service Manager
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Now that we are beginning to ship these and we determined the quantity we are taking to Gen Con, we were able to put in a more finalized inventory number for paizo.com. If you want this book though, I would highly recommend ordering it as soon as possible or show up at our Gen Con booth for it first thing on Thursday morning.
Whelp, not pending any more!
Well, it's really pretty. The only way this would have been better is with a silk bookmark woven into it.
I agree. I think a few of these should be standard in any "special edition" books. I suspect they are surprisingly costly, given it's quite common to omit them.
Keep an eye on the page. There's usually a few kept back from direct sale at first to allow for replacements for things like transit damage or lost packages, which may come up for sale some time time in the future if they aren't needed.
If there's any left after Gencon they probably will be for sale here too, but I doubt that will happen, judging by how fast they seem to have gone from the websales.
I know several people have seen their order shipped and received last week... just waiting on mine to change from "Pending". Here's to hoping it'll happen soon!
Mine is "in transit" and in the hands of the mail gods now.
Now we play the waiting game...
Nooooooo... I recently moved (so of course AFTER I did the initial order). So my billing address didn't match when they just tried to run my purchase, so of course it was declined! All fixed....must....try....again!!!!
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Nooooooo... I recently moved (so of course AFTER I did the initial order). So my billing address didn't match when they just tried to run my purchase, so of course it was declined! All fixed....must....try....again!!!!
If you haven't already done so, you might want to make a thread in the customer service forum referencing your order number, or send them an email, or call the customer service phone number. They are never going to see a post here to resolve your order.
Got my shipping notification, and went to look for the PDF. Elemental Master's Handbook is there, but... here I am, just now realizing that this didn't come with a PDF copy. Well, humbug.
So has anybody got it yet?
How Deluxe is it?
Is it worth the extra $20?
I can't even begin to state my displeasure that this book doesn't come with a PDF. Feels rather like stiffing your most loyal customers to me.
I can't even begin to state my displeasure that this book doesn't come with a PDF. Feels rather like stiffing your most loyal customers to me.
Don't really see how a limited edition is stiffing "loyal" customers.
They've stated multiple times in multiple places that this book would not net you a free PDF.
its very nice. I got mine today and don't regret the purchase in the slightest. its just an extra thing to collect but I love that sort of thing. The cover is embossed and feels great. If your into limited editions you wont be disappointed.
... still waiting....
Not disappointed in lack of PDF (figure that if I really need it down the road I can pick it up) but am disappointed in the way shipping is done (even though I think I understand the why of it).
This is my first UPS MI experience and I must say that if given the chance to use it in the future I probably will just pony up the extra few dollars for regular UPS shipping. (My local USPS place "accepted" the package from MI yesterday afternoon, and yet the status has not changed from that at all since... not like I am in a huge city either.)
Straight USPS or UPS would definately have been here by now... sad panda face. Hopefully it gets here tomorrow.
I can't even begin to state my displeasure that this book doesn't come with a PDF. Feels rather like stiffing your most loyal customers to me.Don't really see how a limited edition is stiffing "loyal" customers.
They've stated multiple times in multiple places that this book would not net you a free PDF.
Those of us who paid the premium price for an aesthetic upgrade out of brand loyalty are currently unable to read or play the game and will apparently have to pay a further premium for the PDF, while everyone who pre-ordered the standard edition now have their free PDFs in hand. What part of this are you not understanding?
They may or may not have said, "multiple times in multiple places" that this book wouldn't come with a PDF included by now, but they certainly had not when I ordered mine the day it was listed on the store.
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Those of us who paid the premium price for an aesthetic upgrade out of brand loyalty are currently unable to read or play the game and will apparently have to pay a further premium for the PDF, while everyone who pre-ordered the standard edition now have their free PDFs in hand.
Preordering the standard edition didn't give you access to the PDF. (I'm not disputing your opinion, I'm just clarifying).
Paizo use free PDFs to incentivise subscriptions - that's their main attraction, for many subscribers. That means they can't offer them in other situations without reducing the value of a subscription.
Again - not challenging your right to a different view, just clarifying the difference between a subscription and preorder from Paizo, since there's a lot of new people around and it is causing some confusion.