(KICKSTARTER) Dwarven Forge

[Too Bo Coo]

Hoi Mates, Just saw on Dwarven Forge's FB page that Stefan announced the KS starts Wednesday at 11am EST.

[Elbows]

For those wondering --- he's referring to the SECOND Dwarven Forge kickstarter which will be Caverns instead of the standard dungeon pieces. 

So, yes the Caverns kickstarter begins on Wednesday.  I'll be sitting this one out (after discovering I have A- tons of DF stuff, and B- found an unopened cavern set amongst my boxes!).  I will however likely pick up some stuff later after the stuff arrives on the shore.  I've actually been meaning to swing by and grab up some expansion sets for additional furniture/doors/stairs.

[Too Bo Coo]

FUNDED!  That took all of 9 minutes!

[Timbor]

A nice set, but I will pass as I did on the first... shipping outside the US is just too much.  It seems like the latest USPS price hikes have made the US even worse than Canada for shipping outside the country.  Never thought I would see that... 

[Too Bo Coo]

I hear you!  There is some big benefit to being an expat, I can buy these now, send them to my parents house and pick them up for X-mas and avoid the shipping and customs expense.  I had a Jansport backpack filled to the gills with DF stuff!

[Elbows]

Yep, and I feel the pain from a US perspective - as I can't afford to ship anything outside of the U.S.  It's rather ridiculous. Here we're in trouble because:

1) our postal service is obnoxiously expensive
2) private carrier alternatives have no interest in the public market and only ship for businesses (and quite economically I might add).  If you walk into a FedEx or UPS store the prices are equally obnoxious.

Sooo...yep.

[Timbor]

It has only become so expensive in the past few years though.  I think almost as little as 3 years ago (maybe 5) I could get a small parcel shipped to me, in Ontario, Canada, from the southern US for like $5-6 (untracked).  For me to send the same parcel in Canada to the next city over would be $8-10 (all in-country packages have tracking).  Now the same package costs about $15 while the Canadian price has not really changed much.

Though Canadian overseas postage is silly.  I cannot have tracking unless I pay like $70-80 for expedited shipping, and a package of like 500-1000 grams costs over $30 for regular airmail. 

At least its still reasonably cheap to ship small packages from the UK to Canada. 

But back on topic...

[Spooktalker]

Stefan's video is crazy good. I said it on the kickstarter, I haven't seen a pitch so good since I first saw Lou Zocchi pitching Game Science dice on YouTube (after which I never went back to crappy tumble smooth dice again)! 

The caverns aren't bad as well. They aren't my dream, though. Since I already have a lot of water caverns what I really want are frickin ROUGH HEWN. Still, the warmer paintjob shows makes them seeme different enough and gives them a slightly drier feel, and it's nice to have variety.

.. a US perspective - ...

1) our postal service is obnoxiously expensive

I really disagree. Just recently it came up a bit but compared to elsewhere our shipping is very reasonable. It used to be nutty cheap, the way our gas still is. It's only now our postage is starting to be a reflection of the actual world we live in, where the oil bubble is bursting. And in the US you have to consider state to state is further than in the EU country to country most of the time. Compare to Canada as Too Bo Coo says. I pity canadian miniatures sellers on ebay, because their prices are pushed down because bidders factor in the crazy high shipping costs to get stuff here to the US.

[Too Bo Coo]

Stefan's video is crazy good. I said it on the kickstarter, I haven't seen a pitch so good since I first saw Lou Zocchi pitching Game Science dice on YouTube (after which I never went back to crappy tumble smooth dice again)! 

The caverns aren't bad as well. They aren't my dream, though. Since I already have a lot of water caverns what I really want are frickin ROUGH HEWN. Still, the warmer paintjob shows makes them seeme different enough and gives them a slightly drier feel, and it's nice to have variety.

I really disagree. Just recently it came up a bit but compared to elsewhere our shipping is very reasonable. It used to be nutty cheap, the way our gas still is. It's only now our postage is starting to be a reflection of the actual world we live in, where the oil bubble is bursting. And in the US you have to consider state to state is further than in the EU country to country most of the time. Compare to Canada as Too Bo Coo says. I pity canadian miniatures sellers on ebay, because their prices are pushed down because bidders factor in the crazy high shipping costs to get stuff here to the US.

Agreed, USPS is pretty affordable, most likely because it's still Public.  I live in the Netherlands with TNT, a private company.  The very mediocre service is VERY expensive.  When people talk about how bad the USPS is, they really dont know how good they have it.

[Elbows]

Let me put it this way though....international shipping is absurd.  I think our standard shipping is fine.  Our international letters are fine...but anything remotely heavy costs an arm and a leg.  Oddly when it gets heavy enough international priority mail kicks in and is okay.

As a whole though, it's pretty bad for international shipping.  Has anyone tried the ebay international shipping center?

[Timbor]

I think I had one package sent to me in Canada via the Ebay international shipping service thing.  It wasn't any better as it forced me to pay duties upfront.  With regular shipping, I am charged duties less than 5% of the time, so being forced to pay it upfront is lame.

[Too Bo Coo]

I think I had one package sent to me in Canada via the Ebay international shipping service thing.  It wasn't any better as it forced me to pay duties upfront.  With regular shipping, I am charged duties less than 5% of the time, so being forced to pay it upfront is lame.

That was my take as well....

[Too Bo Coo]

BTW DF KS is at 750,000 in less than 24 hours!

[zemjw]

The four pledges at $3000 each have gone, as have 105 pledges at $875

Mad, they're all mad I tell you

[Timbor]

Them folks like their caverns, I guess