As a side project I have been working on gallery site for all brands of pre-painted miniatures. It is still a work in progress, but now seems as good of time as any to start promoting it: (www.minisgallery.com)
Looks like a great start. One thing, the Mage Knight: Resurrection section link seems broken.
I hope this has no overall effect on pathfinder battles minis or paizo itself..
on a side note, some people commented on wotc's new story arc, and how its a re-hash of other stuff... thats a popular MO for wotc/hasbro/etc.. re-hash the same thing from 5 yrs previous in a new format... hopefully the "new" launch of "dnd next" will be something new for all
ps.. oh.. and hopefully it has no negative effects on pathfinder ( which i love )
Strangely enough, Miniature Market is offering a D&D case (with promo figure) for $40 less than a case with promo of Reign of Winter.My fear is that this will lead to a pricing strategy in order to undercut the Pathfinder Battles line. If I were a competitor that's how I would be thinking.From the solicitation that we got from our distributor, the D&D minis are going to cost around $15 more per brick than Pathfinder Battles minis. At list price. Of course, retailers are free to price them how they see fit.
-Lisa
I found this worth replying too. I bought Miniature Market once. They have terrible customer service. Near as I could figure after the fact, they take the pre-orders and do order the cases, but use the initial money to break them open and sell the singles for more money. You eventually get your order, but mine was nearly two months late and only after contacting them dozens upon dozens of times (every time I got a response, it was a 'we're working on it or soon' to try deflect it). Never again.
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You know, I've been thinking off and on about what Wizards has been doing wrong, and I've come to the conclusion that the intellectual property they're sitting on is in some ways a curse. They feel like they have to use it, because, hey! It's classic stuff, and it's valuable! How can you *not* use it? But it's also stuff we've seen before and done before, and that's not what brought us to the game in the first place. Playing the classic adventures in the classic campaign worlds was so exciting the first time around because it was *new*, and felt like really uncovering new territory. But how many times can you run the Tomb of Horrors, even if you use a new ruleset each time? It's fun to introduce new players to it, but there's nothing quite like discovering a completely new game world, both for the players and for the DM. Wizards seemed to understand that when they ran the contest that generated Eberron, and I bet Paizo will eventually work up a new campaign world as well if they keep enjoying long-term success. But I really think that it was beneficial in the long run for Paizo to *have* to work up a new campaign world of their own, and I think it's a big source of the excitement they've continued to generate. But the more big campaigns like WotR answers the big mysteries that have haunted the setting, the more it's going to feel like we've been there and done that. Campaign settings like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, much as I love them, are already well into their dotage. At this point, they're holding Wizards back. Drizz't again? Really? Kind of sad.
I think you're close, but not quite there. After all, the first Paizo AP was Greyhawk-lite, while the second and third were firmly rooted on Oerth. Those last two especially upped the homages quite a bit: Dragotha; The Tomb of Horrors; The Isle of Dread. So Paizo started out playing in the same sandbox that WotC now has all to itself.
So, why is it that Paizo created stuff in that world that was fun and interesting, while Wizards is still struggling? I think the problem there is that the Dungeon APs had kisses with the past while telling their own stories, while Wizards' first party stuff tends to be a rehashing. You can only do "Return to..." so many times before you realize you've gone back to that well too many times. In the Paizo cases, you didn't really return to the Tomb, you just popped in, grabbed something, and left. Exploring the Isle of Dread wasn't the entirety of Savage Tide, but it did have a sizable role in the campaign as a whole. While you were fighting against the dread Dragotha in Age of Worms, you didn't spend the entire time in the area around White Plume Mountain.
That's the big issue - rather than creating new content, it feels like WotC just wants to keep making the same thing over and over again. There's nothing new and exciting on their end.
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Let's hope they raise the bar on quality and lower it on price. Competition is good for the consumer.
I agree that competition is good for the consumer, but I'm not sure that lines from competing licensors by the same licensee is exactly competition, though it's not exactly not competition either.
As a side project I have been working on gallery site for all brands of pre-painted miniatures. It is still a work in progress, but now seems as good of time as any to start promoting it: (www.minisgallery.com)Looks like a great start. One thing, the Mage Knight: Resurrection section link seems broken.
Well, it seems old age really is starting to set in. I could swear that I formatted all those pictures and added them to the gallery. It looks like I have a project to do tonight :)
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I found this worth replying too. I bought Miniature Market once. They have terrible customer service. Near as I could figure after the fact, they take the pre-orders and do order the cases, but use the initial money to break them open and sell the singles for more money. You eventually get your order, but mine was nearly two months late and only after contacting them dozens upon dozens of times (every time I got a response, it was a 'we're working on it or soon' to try deflect it). Never again.
Sorry to hear about your experience.
I've preordered two cases from Miniature Market (two different sets) and both times they arrived quickly and in good order. They actually arrived before my Paizo subscription case(s).
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I found this worth replying too. I bought Miniature Market once. They have terrible customer service. Near as I could figure after the fact, they take the pre-orders and do order the cases, but use the initial money to break them open and sell the singles for more money. You eventually get your order, but mine was nearly two months late and only after contacting them dozens upon dozens of times (every time I got a response, it was a 'we're working on it or soon' to try deflect it). Never again.
Sorry to hear about your experience.
I've preordered two cases from Miniature Market (two different sets) and both times they arrived quickly and in good order. They actually arrived before my Paizo subscription case(s).
Same here. I've ordered 3 sets from MM, as well as the smaller sets and they've all shipped and arrived within days of the publicized release date. My experiences with them have been completely positive.
-Skeld
Same here. I've ordered 3 sets from MM, as well as the smaller sets and they've all shipped and arrived within days of the publicized release date. My experiences with them have been completely positive.
-Skeld
I've never purchased cases from MM, just singles, but they were always prompt and fairly priced with those. YMMV.
I'm glad some people spoke up for Miniature Market (assuming they deserve it) because I am semi-planning to preorder from them. I've placed several non-preorders from them and have always been happy with the service, but I am always a little gun shy about preorders anyway.
I too have ordered from Miniature Market both preorder and non. Any time I've talked with their customer service its been an excellent experience (mainly asking questions and the one time I accidentally combined pre-orders instead of shipping separately.) All my Pathfinder Battles cases have come from them as well as several of the other sets.
I can't recommend Miniature Market more highly, either. I've dealt with them for years with super-complicated orders that they've never messed up, and their prices are awesome.
Agreed on the miniature market thing, nothing but stellar in my dealings with them, which have been extensive.
I know I commented on Miniature Market already, but wanted to add that I actually will be going through them for my PFB needs from now on.
Not that I have had any issues with Paizo’s customer service, they always have been great. However, it just comes down to price. I can preorder a case (with promo) cheaper than through my subscription at Paizo, and shipping is free on top of that. I’m saving in the area of $40 or more per case.
And on top of that, I’ve always received my cases quickly, more quickly than I’ve received my subscription case(s). I understand why it can take longer with Paizo, but it's something I also need to look at.
Sorry Paizo, I still support you with Pathfinder RPG book line, but I just need to start shaving off some of my costs per month.
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Yep, my RoW Encounter set shipped from MM yesterday and should take 2-3 days to arrive.
From a price standpoint, I haven't seen anyone that beats PopularCollections.com on price, especially if they are having a pre-order sale of some sort. However, they don't get orders (even pre-orders) shipped quickly and their CS can be very unresponsive (OTOH, I think I paid $315 for RoW case + dragon, so the price is really good).
-Skeld
Oh wow, that IS really cheap. I just preordered Reign of Winter (with promo) earlier today for $380.
What is shipping like for Popular Collections? Although it sounds like you are outside the US, Skeld. I know with MM, any order over $99 and within the continental US, the shipping charge is free.
Edit: Did you have some kind of discount for your RoW, Skeld? That, or the price has gone up a bit, the website now says $335 for a booster case and promo.
But even still, a lot cheaper than $380.
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PC includes a minimum order value (used to be only 150 or 200) and considers itself a wholesaler, which is why their prices are so low. depending on who you deal with as a rep, if they are zealots about the wholesaler thing, they've been known to ask for retailer IDs in the past and refuse to process the order without one (this was like 6 years ago, but still worth mentioning).
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Oh wow, that IS really cheap. I just preordered Reign of Winter (with promo) earlier today for $380.
What is shipping like for Popular Collections? Although it sounds like you are outside the US, Skeld. I know with MM, any order over $99 and within the continental US, the shipping charge is free.
Edit: Did you have some kind of discount for your RoW, Skeld? That, or the price has gone up a bit, the website now says $335 for a booster case and promo.
But even still, a lot cheaper than $380.
I do live in the US. They shipped my WotR case UPSGround and my Deskari and Red Dragons came USPS Priority. When I preordered RoW, the were running a 10% off and free shipping promo. I got RoW (+ dragon) for $310.49 (it was listed at $344.99 when I ordered).
Their website says they have free shipping on orders over $99, but that only applies in the US and on singles.
Like I said though, their CS stinks. I ordered the Red Dragon set at the same time I ordered WotR. I got my case, but they didn't send my Red Dragons. Over the course of a week, I had to email them a couple times, leave a post on Facebook, and call them before they caught on and shipped it.
-Skeld
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PC includes a minimum order value (used to be only 150 or 200) and considers itself a wholesaler, which is why their prices are so low. depending on who you deal with as a rep, if they are zealots about the wholesaler thing, they've been known to ask for retailer IDs in the past and refuse to process the order without one (this was like 6 years ago, but still worth mentioning).
That interesting because none of the info is on their website. At least, nothing I could find. I've placed 3 orders through their webstore so far and no one's asked for IDs or anything else really.
-Skeld
Chief Technical Officer
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Let's hope they raise the bar on quality and lower it on price.
Competition is good for the consumer.
You probably missed this post:
From the solicitation that we got from our distributor, the D&D minis are going to cost around $15 more per brick than Pathfinder Battles minis. At list price. Of course, retailers are free to price them how they see fit.
-Lisa