RE: Shipping Cost from the UK

>Thank you very much for all the *prompt* replies. I think that I can
say
>without a doubt that my next purchase will be direct to GZG with these
costs
>and turn-around times...
>
>Having worked on the retail side for a number of years (but no more and
now
>sadly without the discount :-( ) I can state for the record that many
of the
>retailers are just as frustrated with the situation. Many suppliers
within
>the states are very difficult to work with (though I will have to say
that
>KR was among the easiest and most pleasant BTW) and the turn-around
time is
>generally pretty bad, no matter if you were buying $100 or $1000 worth
of
>product. What I am curious is if there is a similar situation in the UK
of
>middle-tier distributors in between the shop and the company? Is there
more
>direct purchase via email/snailmail by consumers?

The UK situation is generally very different from the US one. Though we
have a few distributors for things like RPG books and larger lines, most
of
the small companies like ourselves sell either direct to retailers, or
simply direct to customers via mailorder and conventions. Bear in mind
that
almost any weekend there is a convention on somewhere that is reachable
with only a few hours driving, if you really want to buy stuff over the
counter. There are also now very few independant (ie: non-GW) games
stores
over here, and those that do exist usually only carry a few figure lines
from the larger compaines. By far the majority of UK figure sales are
direct from the manufacturer to the consumer, and thus most small UK
companies are probably more mailorder-orientated than many US ones.

Jon (GZG)
>
>Just curious.
>
>Thanks again!
>
>David Rodemaker
>
><<SNIP>>
>> When people order by credit card, we work out the postage charge
based on
>> the weight of the final package (plus a small surcharge for
>> packing costs);
>> if you're ordering just metal, then often it runs to only between 10%
and
>> 20% of the order value, only a little more than internal UK postage.
It's
>> resin models and other heavy stuff that push the postage charges up,
for
>> such orders you can be looking at the 30-50% mark.
>> For example we despatched a small order to Canada today worth
>> about 25 UKP,
>> and the post/packing charge was only 3 UKP.
>> For those few people who can only pay by money order or similar,
>> we have to
>> quote the higher rates to ensure we get sent enough to cover the cost
if
>> the order turns out to be a heavy one.
><<SNIP>>
>> I think we've sometimes had orders arrive at destinations in the US
within
>> about 3 to 4 days of them being posted over here - and as we can
>> often turn
>> round an emailed order within 24 hours that means you shouldn't have
to
>> wait much more than a week in many cases.
>>
>> Jon (GZG)