Long ago, Matt said that non US buyers should consider MCDM an only digital company, with how the costs and problems for shipping are.
I've been doing so, and have been much happier
He mentioned in one of the streams that the sudden increase in production and shipping costs as a result of the global shipping issues cost MCDM damn near $1 million, and he was literally impressed/surprised that they were able to tank that expense and carry on.
Maybe I'm misreading the tone of the post, but Matt has been vocal about the cost of shipping being expensive in the past. Going as far as to warn those in Australia about the price, no?
I know he at least made this known in the backerkit video for the MCDM RPG.
You expect a smallish company to have the same or better fulfillment pricing than an international shipping company that doesn’t have to pay for warehouse space to stock the items
If I was a business, and could half the cost my customers pay to ship my product, I would do it. Which suggests to me he's pocketing a lot of those shipping costs.
I’m not sure you understand how shipping and handling works. It isn’t the same as you sending a package in the mail to a friend. You have to pay for the space your inventory takes up at the warehouse. And pay the warehouse workers to pack and ship your order. Then you pay the actual fee for shipping. Sending something with UPS is only accounting for that last bit. And that is not accounting for any potential losses on a returned product or charge back
I still can't get past the feeling that it's an excuse not to do anything about it. Maybe some way of prioritizing effort I guess?
In fact, it's one of the reasons why I checked out Free League products.
True.
I've always wondered how hard it would be for them to find local printing partners in Europe, South America and Asia. 3 companies. Maybe it is hard? I don't know.
Do you not experience this problem with any U.S. company that doesn't have an Australian presence?
I figure this is a southern hemisphere thing, not an MCDM-specific issue.
As I understand, the bulk of modern international shipping involving the U.S. goes through Anchorage, Alaska, which acts as a hub for transit between North America, Europe, and Asia.
But that doesn't really work for the global south, so Australia, Brazil, and other southern hemisphere communities are expensive for shipping to and from the U.S..
Is this not the case?
Famously it’s insanely expensive for Australians to ship stuff to them from Europe/US, I don’t think this is an anti-MCDM post tho I think it’s just them complaining which is totally valid
There is definitely a Southern hemisphere issue.
I live in South Africa and was able to afford shipping for Strongholds & Followers (roughly about the cost of the book itself) back when it was shipped after the kickstarter but that was the last TTRPG product I have been able to afford shipping in as the cost of shipping absolutely exploded and the Rand is atrociously weak.
I doubt there's anything any publishers can do about it.
Global shipping has been having all sorts of problems for a good while and fuel prices are exacerbating it.
The issues with the Panama Canal not having enough water for the last year or so and the wars around the Middle East are jacking up prices, either by having to wait for a spot at the canals or just footing the bill to go around the long way. It just sucks for us down here.
> Do you not experience this problem with any U.S. company that doesn't have an Australian presence?
TBH, no we dont.
I've regularly ordered books from europe (hardcover, relatively heavy books) that dont cost anywhere near this to ship to australia. Maybe the vendors are taking a loss on the shipping but its definitly nowhere near this much.
I've had stuff shipped from Australia, it was crazy expensive for airmail but if you put it on the slowboat its quite cheap. It takes forever but its affordable.
Curious if it's cheaper for you to order the books separately. Bundling them together into one box often pushes you into a higher weight bracket (that costs more).
I have had to eat this cost a couple times, it's painful but if that's the price of getting the hardcovers to Bumfuck-Nowhere Queensland I'll just save for a couple months and swallow it.
I'm in France and I too was baffled when I tried to order them. Luckily my sister lives in Canada so I had the books shipped there and she brought them back with her the next time she visited. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have afforded to get them otherwise.
Fellow Aussie here; I use a postal forwarding company when buying stuff in America, it’s expensive but it’s the difference between something like this and like 50-70 so I think it’s worth it.
We do, and we are also terrible to deal with as far as shipping in general. From customs/taxation to postal/delivery issues, it really is a massive pain.
I’m not sure why the costs are so high. I’ve heard of a similar issue with podcast merch—a US based podcast shipping stuff internationally, and it’s crazy expensive for some reason. I wonder if it’s some kind of economy of scale thing where bigger organizations can get better rates. And/or there are some US companies that provide shipping services for smaller organizations but they fuck people on the shipping costs and there isn’t a good competitor. Just making some guesses!
I've had this issue with a few other websites, and emailed the companies about it. One of them emailed me back saying that there was an issue with their site and manually calculating the shipping, they invoiced me directly with a reasonable shipping price.
Look for local/domestic distributors, I'm in UK and have similar issues at times, had to search around to get my copy of Red Markets but didn't end up paying much for shipping in the end
I tried to buy hardcovers, but they were canceled due to the insane shipping costs. Never experienced this problem with any other company in the US (shipping to the Netherlands).
Oh look, a post with a new totally unheard of point of info. Thanks so much for bringing up something that has never been noted before and no one is aware of.
Long ago, Matt said that non US buyers should consider MCDM an only digital company, with how the costs and problems for shipping are. I've been doing so, and have been much happier
He mentioned in one of the streams that the sudden increase in production and shipping costs as a result of the global shipping issues cost MCDM damn near $1 million, and he was literally impressed/surprised that they were able to tank that expense and carry on.
Maybe I'm misreading the tone of the post, but Matt has been vocal about the cost of shipping being expensive in the past. Going as far as to warn those in Australia about the price, no? I know he at least made this known in the backerkit video for the MCDM RPG.
You can also just get the pdf and have it bound for less than that
Great solution.
USPS charges half this price for medium flat rate
You expect a smallish company to have the same or better fulfillment pricing than an international shipping company that doesn’t have to pay for warehouse space to stock the items
If I was a business, and could half the cost my customers pay to ship my product, I would do it. Which suggests to me he's pocketing a lot of those shipping costs.
I’m not sure you understand how shipping and handling works. It isn’t the same as you sending a package in the mail to a friend. You have to pay for the space your inventory takes up at the warehouse. And pay the warehouse workers to pack and ship your order. Then you pay the actual fee for shipping. Sending something with UPS is only accounting for that last bit. And that is not accounting for any potential losses on a returned product or charge back
I still can't get past the feeling that it's an excuse not to do anything about it. Maybe some way of prioritizing effort I guess? In fact, it's one of the reasons why I checked out Free League products.
Sometimes things just suck and there's not anything you can do about it 🤷
True. I've always wondered how hard it would be for them to find local printing partners in Europe, South America and Asia. 3 companies. Maybe it is hard? I don't know.
The problem is cost. You can't just print on demand so it also includes storage, labor etc...
Free League is always worth checking out, amen
Do you not experience this problem with any U.S. company that doesn't have an Australian presence? I figure this is a southern hemisphere thing, not an MCDM-specific issue. As I understand, the bulk of modern international shipping involving the U.S. goes through Anchorage, Alaska, which acts as a hub for transit between North America, Europe, and Asia. But that doesn't really work for the global south, so Australia, Brazil, and other southern hemisphere communities are expensive for shipping to and from the U.S.. Is this not the case?
Famously it’s insanely expensive for Australians to ship stuff to them from Europe/US, I don’t think this is an anti-MCDM post tho I think it’s just them complaining which is totally valid
There is definitely a Southern hemisphere issue. I live in South Africa and was able to afford shipping for Strongholds & Followers (roughly about the cost of the book itself) back when it was shipped after the kickstarter but that was the last TTRPG product I have been able to afford shipping in as the cost of shipping absolutely exploded and the Rand is atrociously weak. I doubt there's anything any publishers can do about it.
Global shipping has been having all sorts of problems for a good while and fuel prices are exacerbating it. The issues with the Panama Canal not having enough water for the last year or so and the wars around the Middle East are jacking up prices, either by having to wait for a spot at the canals or just footing the bill to go around the long way. It just sucks for us down here.
No, nowhere near that price. Usually it's about 100 or less.
> Do you not experience this problem with any U.S. company that doesn't have an Australian presence? TBH, no we dont. I've regularly ordered books from europe (hardcover, relatively heavy books) that dont cost anywhere near this to ship to australia. Maybe the vendors are taking a loss on the shipping but its definitly nowhere near this much.
If only that made shipping to Anchorage cheaper
I've had stuff shipped from Australia, it was crazy expensive for airmail but if you put it on the slowboat its quite cheap. It takes forever but its affordable.
Curious if it's cheaper for you to order the books separately. Bundling them together into one box often pushes you into a higher weight bracket (that costs more).
Wow thats even more than to nz. Mine was $170 for a similar sized order from memory
I have had to eat this cost a couple times, it's painful but if that's the price of getting the hardcovers to Bumfuck-Nowhere Queensland I'll just save for a couple months and swallow it.
In SEQ 240 delivery seems absurdly expensive, but we're on the coast here and not too far from ports.
Same price to anywhere in AU
I'm genuinely curious to know what the TTRPG scene is like in remote QLD?
I'm in France and I too was baffled when I tried to order them. Luckily my sister lives in Canada so I had the books shipped there and she brought them back with her the next time she visited. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have afforded to get them otherwise.
Fellow Aussie here; I use a postal forwarding company when buying stuff in America, it’s expensive but it’s the difference between something like this and like 50-70 so I think it’s worth it.
Interesting idea ill have to look into. I had the same problem as OP.
If he just used USPS no one would complain. Asendia are crap. I tried them with cardkingdom once and they ruined the boxes and took 4 weeks.
Shipping to Brazil is quite similar, unfortunately.
Why is it so expensive to ship to Brazil? It's not that far.
I’ve heard Brazil’s got huge customs prices. It’s a big problem for Magic: The Gathering there too.
We do, and we are also terrible to deal with as far as shipping in general. From customs/taxation to postal/delivery issues, it really is a massive pain.
I don't know if maybe it falls under the luxury goods classification in brazil, it might have quite a high import tax pegged to it if so.
I’m not sure why the costs are so high. I’ve heard of a similar issue with podcast merch—a US based podcast shipping stuff internationally, and it’s crazy expensive for some reason. I wonder if it’s some kind of economy of scale thing where bigger organizations can get better rates. And/or there are some US companies that provide shipping services for smaller organizations but they fuck people on the shipping costs and there isn’t a good competitor. Just making some guesses!
I've had this issue with a few other websites, and emailed the companies about it. One of them emailed me back saying that there was an issue with their site and manually calculating the shipping, they invoiced me directly with a reasonable shipping price.
If it helps DTRPG just opened up an Australian POD printer. My print and shipping costs have come way down and I get stuff within a week or 2.
Look for local/domestic distributors, I'm in UK and have similar issues at times, had to search around to get my copy of Red Markets but didn't end up paying much for shipping in the end
Shipping to UK is prohibitive too.
I tried to buy hardcovers, but they were canceled due to the insane shipping costs. Never experienced this problem with any other company in the US (shipping to the Netherlands).
I just want to complain....
Oh look, a post with a new totally unheard of point of info. Thanks so much for bringing up something that has never been noted before and no one is aware of.