Re: Fleet Book Availability?

Ground Zero Games <jon@gzero.dungeon.com> wrote:

[snippage]

>I really don't know what the heck is going on with the US distribution
>system. GeoHex have had copies since the beginning of June, and they
wasted
>no time (AFAIK) in shipping them out to distributors.
>Distributors who tell stores it is unavailable either don't know what
they
>are talking about, or simply can't be bothered.
>I would strongly recommend that if you think you have given your store
a
>fair chance to get it for you, and they've failed, you should order
direct
>from GeoHex.

Berkeley Top Line (aka Berkeley Game Distributors) has their copies, and
has been shipping it for at least a couple of weeks now. If your local
store wants to contact them, the number is 800.424.4263. I used to be
the
sales manager there, and the main buyer told me that my enthusiasm alone
increased sales on the whole GZG line. (Can you say zealot?)
Unfortunately,
I'm not there to push it now.

In defense of distributors, however, it helps to understand how they
work
with regards to new product. They solicit orders from their customers
roughly two to three months prior to the release date. If they don't
find
out about the product till one week prior to it becoming "available,"
they
still need that lead time to get the numbers (and very few will get a
couple of copies to sell while this goes on).

I personally went into BTL (BGD) and told them about the Fleet Book when
I
heard about it from this group so they would have the necessary lead
time.
I don't mean to bag on KR, because he's a very busy guy, but they hadn't
even heard of it two months out. When I received my copy, I took it in
so
they could scan graphics for their pre-order form. Products with
graphics
sell much better than those with only a description.

Anyway, if other distributors only had a month to play with...

Schoon