I wrote about the Tome of Horrors Complete for Swords and Wizardry here.
I tried to provide a balanced review (even though Frog God wasn't willing to help a guy out North of the border regarding shipping and duty (esp. the latter)). As I said at the time, they have to do what they have to do, and so do I.
I decided to buy the .pdf instead and take it to a local bookbinder who actually does the theses and dissertations for my university. I didn't choose high end binding options, just enough to do the job. My wife has access to a great printer at work (with great quality paper), so that didn't cost me anything to print it off.
So, if I bought the hardcover from Frog God I would have paid $99.00, plus $30+ shipping, plus $30+ duty. So a total price in excess of $160+
I ended up buying the .pdf at $29.99, plus the book-binding $50.00, for a total of 79.99. The best part is that I stuck it to the government by only paying $5 in HST (Harmonized Sales Tax).
Why do I care so much? I really don't like getting bent over for shipping on gaming stuff just because I live in Southern Ontario. It pisses me off. It's also the main reason why hard copies of Barrowmaze (when ready) will be on RPGnow rather than lulu - fair shipping prices. As an aside, and by way of example, I recently ordered a gaming tshirt from the US. They told me it would be $12 shipping for one shirt or $28 for two. That's the kind of bullshit I'm talking about. Canadians and Americans share one of the longest undefended borders in the history of the world - we need to get this figured out.
I must say, they did a nce job with the book there. All you are missing is the snazy cover. Well done ;)
ReplyDeleteI'll see what I can do about shipping rates to Canada if you can help me out with cheaper ice skates and hockey sticks. My kid is taking up hockey and I'm having to rent out the family dog in order to get him geared up.
ReplyDeleteNow all you need is a custom book jacket and you're set!
ReplyDeleteSadly, hockey equipment is very expensive here too.
ReplyDeleteGive him/her a football and send them out in the yard.
The advantage is that there's no 6am winter practices :)
I hear you. Living in Ontario really sucks when trying to get anything from the states like that
ReplyDeleteHmm, I wasn't charges duty on the TOHC; in fact I've never been charged duty on any of my cross-border rpg book purchases.
ReplyDeleteI know it's complete B.S. The British Commonwealth has much better shipping to the US. I can order a game from the UK, shipping is like $4-5 US, and I get the bloody thing before stuff shipping from inside the US; usually 3 days.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't wait for Barrowmaze!
Did you ship with UPS? They are the only shipper who consistently adds unnecessary "brokerage" fees for cross-border packages. For some reason it always ends up about $30... and is complete BS.
ReplyDeleteUse USPS next time and you'll get your package the old fashioned way.