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This article on games in general made me wonder how bad things are going to get for the TTRPG industry in general and Paizo in particular.
When you combine this with consumer boycotts of American products (at least Paizo is in a blue district of a blue state) the situation looks pretty grim.
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I don't expect manufacturers/published to absorb these taxes...so, prices are going to go up (especially for those of us here in the US).
There may be some relief on books (only) as there has been commentary suggesting that they are tax exempt, but all other products (cards/maps/minis/etc) will be likely subject to tariffs which, in turn, will be pass on to us (the consumer). The more owner a publisher has of their distribution channel (ie ability to sell/deliver direct), the better they will be as they can (choose to) minimize how the taxes get passed on to the end consumer.
The business model of your FLGS is going to be challenged...it really depends on how much the local market will be willing to pay for the products they're looking to buy. There have been some interesting articles focused on the comic book industry that I expect will translate to the TTRPG space.
Of course, all of the above with the caveat "in my humble opinion" ;)
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I got a message from my FLG one of the things they talk about is how they will be handing preorders that get hit by this
"Unfortunately, this situation also affects pre-orders. While we understand the frustration this may cause, we want to be clear: pre-orders will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, depending on what pricing we receive from our distributors. If distributor pricing increases, some pre-orders may be subject to adjustments.
That said, we want to be equally clear about our commitment to you:
We will not raise prices one penny beyond what is passed on to us.
We will always provide proof and explanation for any increases.
We will provide timely information and updates. As soon as we have it, you will have it too."
I'm hoping we get some statement like this from Piazo soon, especially on preorders. This is really bad timing with Starfinder 2e about to launch in a few months. Sounds like the tariffs might not affect books as much but the new adventure box set and Infinity Deck could get hit hard.
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Especially with the China tariffs going up pretty much every day right now as the US and China just keep reacting to each other.
Note - NOT trying to make any kind of political statement. Doesn't matter for the sake of this discussion who is right. The reality is that the tariffs are going up a LOT frequently with no stop in sight
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I don't expect manufacturers/published to absorb these taxes...so, prices are going to go up (especially for those of us here in the US).
Actually even more for us abroad, since Paizo will need to raise their book prices for everybody and then our own customs will tax the more expensive books even more. On the more expensive months (i.e. the ones with two hardcovers), I usually already had to pay an extra 30 Euros in import taxes on the books, this will now go up even more, depending on how Paizo handles the whole thing.
Of course the situation is still in basically daily fluctuation, but at some point Paizo will need to ship their monthly stuff. I think they are holding off for the moment in hopes that the tariffs may be suspended for another few months, but we'll have to see.
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Make no mistake - unless things change drastically, it will have absolutely dire consequences for the entire TTRPG industry.
looking back at my first thread about tariffs from November 8th
Unless cooler heads prevail, it’s definitely going to get really bad …
looking back really bad seems optimistic now...
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I don't expect manufacturers/published to absorb these taxes...so, prices are going to go up (especially for those of us here in the US).Actually even more for us abroad, since Paizo will need to raise their book prices for everybody and then our own customs will tax the more expensive books even more. On the more expensive months (i.e. the ones with two hardcovers), I usually already had to pay an extra 30 Euros in import taxes on the books, this will now go up even more, depending on how Paizo handles the whole thing.
Of course the situation is still in basically daily fluctuation, but at some point Paizo will need to ship their monthly stuff. I think they are holding off for the moment in hopes that the tariffs may be suspended for another few months, but we'll have to see.
Why would they need to raise the price for everyone? They can just ship from China to somewhere in EU for shipping and fulfilment. It's just the US which would suffer higher prices once they adjust their operations.
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Why would they need to raise the price for everyone? They can just ship from China to somewhere in EU for shipping and fulfilment. It's just the US which would suffer higher prices once they adjust their operations.I don't expect manufacturers/published to absorb these taxes...so, prices are going to go up (especially for those of us here in the US).Actually even more for us abroad, since Paizo will need to raise their book prices for everybody and then our own customs will tax the more expensive books even more. On the more expensive months (i.e. the ones with two hardcovers), I usually already had to pay an extra 30 Euros in import taxes on the books, this will now go up even more, depending on how Paizo handles the whole thing.
Of course the situation is still in basically daily fluctuation, but at some point Paizo will need to ship their monthly stuff. I think they are holding off for the moment in hopes that the tariffs may be suspended for another few months, but we'll have to see.
I think they would need warehouses in the EU for that, which is a thing which they don't have at this point, which was addressed in the comments of the rebuild of their webpage blog entry.
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I think they would need warehouses in the EU for that, which is a thing which they don't have at this point, which was addressed in the comments of the rebuild of their webpage blog entry.Why would they need to raise the price for everyone? They can just ship from China to somewhere in EU for shipping and fulfilment. It's just the US which would suffer higher prices once they adjust their operations.I don't expect manufacturers/published to absorb these taxes...so, prices are going to go up (especially for those of us here in the US).Actually even more for us abroad, since Paizo will need to raise their book prices for everybody and then our own customs will tax the more expensive books even more. On the more expensive months (i.e. the ones with two hardcovers), I usually already had to pay an extra 30 Euros in import taxes on the books, this will now go up even more, depending on how Paizo handles the whole thing.
Of course the situation is still in basically daily fluctuation, but at some point Paizo will need to ship their monthly stuff. I think they are holding off for the moment in hopes that the tariffs may be suspended for another few months, but we'll have to see.
Extremely likely.
And, in any case, they would need to rewire their supply/distribution chain completely. Not an easy, cheap nor fast thing to do.
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Of course, one of the big issues is that it takes time and money to shift the supply chain. And, by the time its shifted, who knows what the tariff situation in the US will be at that point?
Its going to be bad for Paizo and the industry. I expect some smaller companies will go pure electronic format and some will just not survive.
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I think the bigger question will be the non-book releases. It currently looks like books will avoid a lot of the tariff increases, but boxed sets, cards, maps, etc likely will not. Cards (maybe maps) can likely be relocated to NA for printing, but boxed sets, board games…that infrastructure appears to be weak (at best). I would not be surprised to see those releases delayed, canceled and/or shifted to direct-sale only.
As well…what about Pathfinder Battles…while not a Paizo product, those minis are likely going to see massive increases. WizKids may be able to avoid RoW increases by shipping direct, but its going to be a missive hit on their business model.
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Smaller companies do it with 3P warehouse and distribution. While that may not have made sense in the past for Paizo, with >100% tariffs, it is a no brainer.
It's interesting.
The proposal is to shift shipping and storage for non-US customers to a non-US facility. Labour and money that would have been enjoyed by US employees of Paizo would be shifted to non-US workers.
This will also make shipping easier for many destinations - for the customer. Which again means at least some of the first-mile shipping that would have gone through US courier employees' hands would no longer.
In this scenario Paizo has split logistics, having to handle multiple locations and supply-chains. Costs go up in many ways.
Manufacturing of the actual product in the US has been - I recall - looked at many times and has been impractical due to pricing being astronomically higher in the US. Given inflation and increased costs all around, it's highly unlikely that US manufacture will suddenly become cheaper than it is today. Tariffs on Chinese print runs make them more expensive, not US print runs cheaper.
I don't know how this whole thing works out better for anyone except - maybe - non-US customers.
As a Canadian and someone who maintained subscriptions for a long, long time until the PF2 cutoff, I'd just like to wish Paizo, it's staff, and its freelance contributors the best in this turbulent time.
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I'd be sad to have to lose my charter tag after all this time, especially because of something external in nature. Already dropped my Starfinder subs because of cost increases; to have to drop my Pathfinder subs as a result of political shenanigans would break my heart.
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PLEASE remember …
The only real thing we as individuals can do to try and get this tariff debacle ended is to contact your senators and representatives.
Seriously - if enough folks let them know how much we do not want these crippling tariffs, and how catastrophic they will be to the economy, they may push back on the Administration enough to get them ended for good.
Remember, it’s easy to just vent and complain about it, it takes more effort to actually reach out and let your Congress people know what you think, but reaching out to your Congress people is the only way we can hope to fix this …
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As far as I can tell there has yet to be any price increase at the Paizo store due to the current tariffs. That could mean nothing has reached a port in the US since the tariffs started, but it also could mean that Roll For Combat was right that books are only at a 7% tariff. So keeping an eye on not books products might be the best way to tell. Also, the tariffs change daily already some of the China tariffs have been removed or delayed again.
From the recent tech update blog we already know the new store website is getting closer to being ready, and that Paizo likely wouldn't even be in a position to even consider expanding until that's done. By then the trade war could be over, or it could be much worse if the US leaves NATO or invades Greenland, the EU could even stop trading with the US over that. That's the whole problem with the current situation no one can predict what will happen. I don't think Paizo is going to be willing to make such a big business commitment with that level of uncertainty.
Worst case scenario can Paizo survive just selling PDFs and will players be willing to give up physical books until this settles down?
I live in the US I'm boycotting the entire US economy except for food and necessities. I sold all my 401k weeks before the big crash. Paizo is the only company I still buy things from, because I need something to keep me sane during this madness, and boycotting Paizo does nothing to influence the person causing all of this. If you look at the tariffs Canada has put on the US they are targeted for maximum impact to hurt areas and industries that can influence change.
It's up to us to influence change, if Paizo tries to they will become a target.
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PLEASE remember …
The only real thing we as individuals can do to try and get this tariff debacle ended is to contact your senators and representatives.
A storied, proud and sometime successful history of civil disobedience would beg to differ.
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A storied, proud and sometime successful history of civil disobedience would beg to differ.PLEASE remember …
The only real thing we as individuals can do to try and get this tariff debacle ended is to contact your senators and representatives.
The "sometimes successful" part tends to almost only happen when combined with longer-term actions. The civil rights movment would have never lasted as long if people like John Lewis hadn't also run for Congress and got in. Not saying it's not a good thing to try but it's only a start.
As for contacting your senators and representatives, that only works if your senators and representatives don't believe space lasers are used to start forest fires.
Hard to know what will work when you are living in an Earth-wide live play of an AP that is a mix of Signal of Screams and twelvefold conspiracy.