I was asked at the recent Winter War game convention why there were no Paizo miniatures being sold at the convention. I did not know about other dealers, but I know that my local store (Armored Gopher) has not really carried them. I then attended our staff dinner after the convention ended, and found out the real reason why has to do with the way that the products are distributed. Paizo's miniatures first go to the pre-orders and subscribers first, then go into the general distribution channels. I personally would have liked to have seen more Paizo miniatures at the convention as I know that there would have been some sales of those products there (players and GMs as well).
|
Going through normal distribution channels, stores received product a week ago (on the east coast, furthest from the wizkids warehouse, we got them in Tuesday before noon) Official release date was last Wednesday, 2 days before Winter War started. If the retailers at the convention had planned correctly and preordered the miniatures before the wholesaler's deadline, they could have gotten them just before leaving, and had them at the convention. Even if they hadn't preordered, if they had told their wholesaler rep that it was for a convention, they would have made sure they got it in time. It seems it was the retailers decision not to have them in supply. Like I said, our store received our minis on Tuesday, most subscribers didn't receive them for 2-3 days later. Plus there were 2 earlier sets; were those not available either?
Chief Technical Officer
|
Paizo's miniatures first go to the pre-orders and subscribers first, then go into the general distribution channels.
This is inaccurate.
WizKids manufactures the minis in China, and separate shipments come to the US for Paizo and for Alliance, WizKids' exclusive hobby distributor. WizKids sets a worldwide release date, and Alliance ships to retailers with a goal of getting product to stores shortly before the release date, while we ship subscriber orders and customer preorders with a goal of getting product to them right around that same time. In practice, some packages arrive a couple days earlier, and some a couple days later (especially international packages).
In short, our distribution and retail distribution are throughly disconnected—Paizo has noting to do with the latter, and Alliance has nothing to do with the former—but they do operate with similar goals.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
Going through normal distribution channels, stores received product a week ago (on the east coast, furthest from the wizkids warehouse, we got them in Tuesday before noon)
WizKids doesn't warehouse them—retailers get them from one of Alliance's four warehouses across the country: Maryland, Indiana, Texas, and California.