Dear UK miniature makers

[mrtnParticipant 470xp 3]

Yeah, you do wonder when the European complaints will trickle down into British brains.

The handling fees are a killer, and ruined my latest kickstarter (well the price increased with about 50%), regardless of if the VAT only increased the price with a few pounds.

If I can’t find it in the EU I’ll just not buy it. I just hope that enough companies realise that having a reseller in the UK is just as useless as having one in Australia, as far as I am concerned.

[beccasParticipant 1146xp 2]

It’s not Brexit.  The problem is shipping container shortages worldwide.  Ever since that big giant container ship got stuck in the Suez.  Doesn’t matter where you order from now, postage is ridiculous.  Especially from the United States.  Companies are having to bid on containers to get their product shipped.  Since Warlord Games moved Australian mail orders to their US webstore, I honestly cannot justify buying any product from them.  I used to buy all my bases and tokens from Litko.  Now they want $US95 just to post them.  So no more buying from Litko either.  The world is greedy and mad.

[danlee 22429xp 3]

It has been a case of a perfect storm affecting prices, but to say Brexit has nothing to do with it is ignoring a major factor.

 

In the case of Kickstarter deliveries from China, and restocking international distribution hubs, then yes the rise in price of shipping containers is having an impact. But individual customer deliveries between the UK and EU countries don’t use shipping containers. They use courier companies that operate vans, lorries, and cargo planes for these “medium range” journeys. The price of a shipping container won’t have an affect. It all comes down to customs and admin charges (with perhaps an effect of rising fuel prices as well).

 

I’m in the UK and have seen first hand the fuel shortages in recent weeks (mainly triggered by mass-panic rather than by a true shortage in supply) and have also seen the rolling stock shortages in supermarkets. What I mean by this is you can go into the shop and buy bread, but your preferred brand could be out of stock for several days as they cannot restock it as fast as usual. Our politicians tell us these issues are affecting the entire EU, yet when I hear reports direct from the EU no-one is experiencing them.

 

Perhaps some of our EU based members could fill us in. Is the rest of Europe suffering from a fuel and logistics crisis, or is it just the UK?

[letsthrowpaintaroundParticipant 165xp 4]

The only people saying Brexit has nothing to do with it are the racists that voted for it. Cheers for outting yourselves.

[maledrakhParticipant 11996xp 5]

Not in the EU, but Norway.

From our viewpoint, the UK is in dire straits right now due to so many of the menial workers such as lorry drivers and farmhands leaving to go back to the EU, which means food productuion is lower than it should be and a lot of the goods that are available are stuck in warehouses as there is not nearly enough lorry drivers to actually move things to where they are needed.

The current logistics crisis with empty shop shelves and fuel hoarding seems to be purely a UK thing.

The import/export thing, however, is more of a general problem, but mostly the UK are the ones suffering from it.

[sundancer 42882xp 4]

Perhaps some of our EU based members could fill us in. Is the rest of Europe suffering from a fuel and logistics crisis, or is it just the UK?

@danlee can’t speak for the EU but in Germany there is no noticeable shortage on anything but electric components from Asia. Bread, fuel, toilet paper. All fully stocked.

[avernosKeymaster 33946xp 5]

Ireland is grand as well bar the housing crisis but that’s more to do with landlords being a shower of cute whores

[warcoloursParticipant 438xp 4]

Perhaps some of our EU based members could fill us in. Is the rest of Europe suffering from a fuel and logistics crisis, or is it just the UK?

In Italy we are not experiencing any kind of shortage or logistics problem

[beccasParticipant 1146xp 1]

@letsthrowpaintaround are you for real?

[lonkelo 3195xp 1]

Perhaps some of our EU based members could fill us in. Is the rest of Europe suffering from a fuel and logistics crisis, or is it just the UK?

In the Netherlands: nope, not really, apart from shipping from the UK taking ages ._.

We are looking at a shortage of gass (as in real gass, not American gass, i.e. fuel) to heat our homes. The price of gass is soaring at the moment, but that has more to do with us using up our reserves during this cold summer and us stopping drilling for it on land (it led to sinking houses…).

[jamescutts 6905xp 5]

Very much feel for the issues you are having @sundancer, and I think it’s useful to raise the topic and as you state it’s a great shame and equally worrying

The global shipping container issues don’t directly apply to the issue Sundancer has raised which is UK-EU sales, that being UK-based miniature companies which for the majority actually produce goods in the UK, although for those of your world wide I do feel for you with the increased shipping costs. In sundancers case these are shipped from the UK to Europe, almost all of this is transported via HGV either via courier or postal services via ferry to France/Germany/Holland, or maybe airmail if you’re lucky, theres been some increase in raw postage costs due to demand but the majority of cost has come from additional paperwork and the handling fees charged by the couriers and brokers who have to deal with it.

This issue is certainly related to the clusterf*** that is shipping between the UK and EU under Brexit, I don’t want to get into a political rant, but if you don’t think it is you are in denial (or your in NI with Gerr and having a good time carrying on almost as normal).

What worries me is this is going to start hurting businesses in our hobby and ones in the UK much more than in the EU, sales are going to start decreasing exactly for the reasons stated, getting hammered by a confusing VAT system on top of handling fees and taking a gamble every time you purchase something as to what the final cost will be on top of it costing more isn’t friendly to consumers.

Unfortunately, this probably isn’t going to improve much, certainly in the short term, just look at Footsores issue with the EU orders for Barrons war Kickstarter where the shipping company just hasn’t set up the right systems even now and even then I suspect if the VAT is handled your still playing handling fee lottery.

There is some hope, large companies can get the systems in place to make this transparent to some extent, I still buy some things from the EU and have generally had everything handled if its a large operator, equally I used to buy a lot of German made tools, and I’ve seen prices for those increase 25% or more, even from UK stores. Opening EU warehouses is another option, but again unrealistic unless your G’Wulla in our hobby. Unfortunately, a lot of our hobbies companies are small and don’t have the time to invest into working out these details or have the profit margins to handle some of this cost or the volumes large couriers care about.

[scribbs 14506xp 3]

Part of the issue is that the UK is longer dealing with a single entity for customs; there has to individual custom arrangements made between the UK and each country within the EU. It is difficult for small companies to understand this landscape, and the guidance is not exactly clear. Some couriers are helpful in working out these complexities, others apparently don’t care.

(For context, my work has been having some very expensive issues with shipping items to the EU for return (i.e. equipment servicing and repair). This is more complex than moving sales goods in one direction, but some of the problems are the same. There’s a lack of understanding at borders as to how to handle certain items coming from the UK, resulting in situations like one identical parcel making it through whilst the other does not).

[mrtnParticipant 470xp 3]

To reiterate, for Europeans the problem is Brexit. If you’re American or Australian, you’re just not in the loop. Shipping containers are irrelevant for metal minis cast in the UK and shipped to the EU.

If you’re American, imagine if Florida seceded, and now every time you want a glass of orange juice it costs $14 and takes three weeks to arrive. You’d switch over to coffee after a while, wouldn’t you?

What we need would be for a company like North Star to emerge within the EU. If it’s “North Star EU” or some Germans I don’t care, I just want someone to carry most of the model lines I like, including the weird small metal ones. I don’t have a problem getting Warlord or Perry plastic boxes, it’s the metal stuff, like Dixon or Great Escape Games for example.

[wurzzelParticipant 2734xp 0]

It’s really simple, the UK decided to leave the EU and the EU didn’t like that, so decided to make an example of the UK. Whilst this was happening all right minded people in the UK were cowering in their homes and all the citizens of the EU member states were rubbing their hands with glee. Now all the nerds are crying when they could have petitioned their representatives to give a better deal. Before accusations fly my way I’m in NI so I get the worst of both worlds.

[avernosKeymaster 33946xp 3]

EU didn’t make an example of the UK, why the fuck should people in the EU petition their representatives. NI is literally sitting pretty don’t know what the fuck you think is wrong being in NI unless you use sausages for all your gaming.

 

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