Dear UK miniature makers

[mrtnParticipant 470xp 6]

Heh. The only “example” made out of the UK was “if you don’t want to be in the EU, you won’t be in the EU”. Of course you can’t reap all the benefits from a club if you’re not a member.

[wurzzelParticipant 2734xp 0]

The NI bit was sarcasm as we have plenty of full shelves but no custom charges, and of course the EU made an example of the UK, I know it was a few years back so old people might not remember. At the time there was a surge in right wing support all across Europe with various countries parties suggesting leaving the EU. The EU making an example of the UK  reinforces that membership of the EU is best (it is by the way)

The EU only has one land border with the UK yet they managed to put the responsibility on the UK when the UK could have just said no. Of course the crap UK politicians area as much to blame. But back to my original point if you are majorly invested in product’s from the UK perhaps you should have got your political representation to have allowed custom free movement.

Edit: @avernos you’re use of an expletive to back up an argument shows a lack of intelligence and or vocabulary.

[jamescutts 6929xp 0]

Hey at least you lot in NI still have Tayto’s! I haven’t seen those on the shelves in a while.

I think the bottom line is, political and global issues aside because I like this place as it’s focused for the best part on the hobby which is great escapism, is that the current issues in the initial topic are pretty crappy for our hobby especially if your in an EU country (but also around the world to a lesser extent) and hopefully we are all agreed on that 🙂

[avernosKeymaster 33949xp 5]

I have plenty to back up my arguments, but I’m getting massively fucked off with cunts in NI trying to stir up trouble.

So let’s take it from the top. For custom free movement of good the UK had to align with the EU, it was offered and rejected twice by the UK parliament, it was part of May’s agreement initially.

As far as the one border with the EU yes, there is only one and as per the Belfast Agreement it can’t be a land border since the UK decided they had to become a 3rd country there had to be checks somewhere to protect the single market. As it is the EU are essentially allowing the UK to police both sides of the border which shows a massive amount trust that is frankly unwarranted given the UK’s inability to adhere to any of the deal that they have made to date.

[wurzzelParticipant 2734xp 1]

@jamescutts you are inevitably right. Me and @avernos in reality are probably singing from the same hymn sheet (although from different ends)

 

[limburger 21728xp 1]

like the forced conversion to Euro … the only ones that gained anything from that where the big boys and their lawyers.
Little people got screwed over like they always do.
Brexit is more of the same.

And yeah … ordering from the UK is now no different than ordering from the USA.
More money needed to pay for paperwork just to do the same thing we were doing pre-brexit.
The new rules aren’t doing anything to add control, but they do add more costs and confusing paperwork that only ever helps the kind of people that weren’t adding value to products to begin with.

And it really shows that the EU is far from the single entity it pretends to be when our politicians claim to want ‘more EU’ to solve problems we wouldn’t have if they did their ff-ing job.
Heck … the simple fact that we can’t even agree on the location for these fuckwits to hold their meetings is why this is a bigger shit show than it needed to be.

[lonkelo 3195xp 7]

Judging from this discussion, May and Johnson clearly missed an opportunity in their negotiations with the EU: they could have used the fact that so many miniature manufacturers are based in the UK to put more pressure on the EU. Fishing rights are nothing compared to the amount of frustration and bitterness in this discussion!

[ced1106Participant 6224xp 0]

Unfortunately, increased shipping and other fees has and will be around, hurting small businesses of all kinds. In the USA, frex, states wanted to impose a sales tax on all online transactions, which would cost small businesses both time and money. Imagine being a one or two-person shop and spending your hours on government regulations, rather than a hobby you want to share with others.

Anyway, the VAT issue is also appearing on KS, for miniatures and boardgames, and backers have clearly said that VAT has caused them to not back overseas projects. Higher overseas shipping costs certainly deterred me from backing non-domestic projects that I was on the fence about.

Hopefully, 3D printers will become more accessible to hobbyists, so we won’t have to deal with shipping issues, any more than email lets us avoid waiting for a letter to arrive. Certainly on KS, I’m seeing more 3d files for miniatures, avoiding not just shipping headaches, but also allowing custom miniatures to be made. Me, I have a huge pile of metal, resin, and plastic, and really should cut back…

[somegeezer 18431xp 1]

I’ve not been in any of the proper Irish pubs round here lately (nor the improper ones for that matter) and I’ll be sad if there are no NI Tayto to be had. Hardly the worst Brexit outcome I know but still Tayto.

[limburger 21728xp 0]

@ced1106 you still need a shipment of resin and/or fillament.
and you can bet that they will (try to) introduce a tax on digital goods, because of ‘reasons’.
We’re currently taxed extra on any storage device (anything with a harddisk) because it could be used to store music and movies …

I don’t blame small shops who simply decide not to ship to the EU as a result of the extra misery the politicians created.
And I’m pretty sure that if OTT were to act as a hub for small UK manufacturers that (even if the workload was manageable) there’d soon be laws against that sort of thing. We can’t have poor people evade taxation like the rich.

 

[greyhunter88 1654xp 2]

I have to shamefully admit that I’m getting a twinge of schadenfreude from this whole discussion.

Being in Canada, all of these woes people are lamenting have been the reality of the hobby for the 20+ years I’ve been in it. We have all of one hobby manufacturer that I can think of (Creature Caster), and shipping rates, customs and ‘handling fees’ have always been part of the absurd costs to participate in this hobby.

Just recently, we Canadians got slapped with an absurd last-minute UPS fee on the Bones 5 Kickstarter, which not only counteracted the ‘discount’ of Kickstarting, but actually made it cost more than retail.
I had an order of 6 Arena Rex miniatures cost me $60 in customs and UPS charges, and I had to give up on trying the Monument Hobby paints because shipping any number of them cost over $80.

I sympathize with people here, but if we Canadians can survive in the hobby, I think you will all be able to figure it out as well.

[mrtnParticipant 470xp 0]

Umm, @greyhunter88, wouldn’t you be better off hoping for a trade agreement thingy with the US? Climb up, instead of dragging us down? 🙂

Oh, and what happened to NAFTA anyway, wasn’t that supposed to be an american EU?

[phaidknott 7023xp 0]

Sorry chaps, but this is all starting to sound more like the kind of thread you get on TMP (The Miniatures Page). Time to lock this one down perhaps?

[sundancer 43003xp 1]

@phaidknott Lock down one of the most active threads in this forums for years? You mad?! 😉

But you have a point. All is said I think and we all don’t want political discussions flame up. I said what I wanted to say and I didn’t think it would find such resonance.

Thanks to all you shared their views. Now go visit some other threads, start a new one! 😉

[bvandewalkerParticipant 2078xp 0]

Well, here in the US its always tended been a bit pricey to order from both UK and EU (I blame human fear of nuclear power, since nuclear powered cargo ships, which is what we should have as the standard by now, would cut fuel costs down in the long run), and to be honest I normally try to buy second hand or retail, particularly after the EU based KS’s I have backed, and I have generally avoided buying from the UK like the plague which is too bad since there are some pretty cool mini maker there.

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