In theory, as a UK citizen ordering from (say) France is now the same as ordering from the US.  I used to order from the US all the time (numerous kickstarters) until the US hiked postal costs and it was no problem.  Occasionally I got clobbered by import duties, occasionally I did not.  It wasn’t bureaucratic and wasn’t necessarily any more expensive than ordering from the UK depending on what I was buying and what the exchange rate was doing at the time, and of course I saved US sales tax in comparison to a US citizen buying the same goods, which was compensated by my having to pay import duties in the UK.  There is absolutely no sensible reason on this good green earth why ordering from France, Germany or Poland need be any more complex than buying stuff from the US always has been, but it seems to be, because reasons.  Once everyone has worked out what’s going on in theory it should settle down.

Needless to say as a UK citizen I won’t be buying from the EU if its more expensive and more hassle and my money will be spent instead within UK .  If everyone feels the same way across the economy, UK firms will benefit as they stand to gain more from UK sales than they lose in EU ones because the UK used to spend more in the EU than the EU did in the UK.  EU firms will lose out because they imported less from the UK than they exported so the money will go in the opposite direction.

Of course within our hobby it may be that the UK exported more to the EU did to the UK so “UK Plc” will lose out on the aggregate of the hobby market, or maybe not if “Euro board games” are included, but hey, it could be worse.  We could be fishermen…

I’m sure this will all come out in the wash and once the EU have got bored with confiscating truck drivers’ ham sandwiches and insisting they have had an inaccurate and pointless covid lateral flow testthings will settle down to a new equilibrium.

I fully expect in the longer term “EU distributors” for UK firms and”UK distributors” for EU firms will get set up so that the process becomes more efficient, much like currently happens with US trade.  I would imagine a Warlord Games or similar have already considered the possibility of setting up “Warlord Games (EU)” with an office and a couple of folks in Paris, Berlin, or Warsaw who can take delivery of bulk orders from Nottingham very efficiently and then ship them out in smaller parcels to EU addresses to prevent unecessary hassle for EU customers>  If they also extended the offer to share the trade with Mantic, and North Star or and other smaller companies then karma will smile gently upon them I am sure.

Back in the day I think John Stallard did that very same thing in the US for GW – setting up their US distribution hub?  And Ronnie Renton also was heavily involved in overseas distribution for GW I seem to recall, so there is plenty of expertise out there.  I would advise any tiddler companies to reach out to one of those guys with the hand of friendship and maybe a decent bottle of scotch and see what happens?