From: owner-the-edge-digest@ (The Edge Digested) To: the-edge-digest@robin-nvh.bvsd.k12.co.us Subject: The Edge Digested V1 #32 Reply-To: the-edge@robin-nvh.bvsd.k12.co.us Sender: owner-the-edge-digest@ Errors-To: owner-the-edge-digest@ Precedence: bulk The Edge Digested Wednesday, March 11 1998 Volume 01 : Number 032 Today's subjects from The Edge: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 Re: [The Edge] Forgotten Lives? Out of Print? Re: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 Re: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 Re: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 [The Edge] The WotC Threat to All Freedom-Loving People ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 18:23:15 EST From: AtlasGames Subject: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 In a message dated 3/10/98 4:27:52 PM, you wrote: >I've been harassing my local comic store for what seems like the last 2 >months, trying to get them to special order a copy of Forgotten Lives >for me. They've told me that none of their distributors, including >those on Atlas's distributor list carry the book, and that the >distributors say the book is out of print. Is this so? If not, does >anyone know of any distributor/retailer whence I could order this book? > It's getting to the point where I'm willing to pay for a used copy, so >if you have a copy of the book and are willing to let go of it for >unmarked U.S. currency, also drop me a line. Thanks. Whoo-boy. Forgotten Lives was only released in December, and it's most certainly still in print. In fact, I've been surprised by how many reorders there have been. Just yesterday I personally packed it in orders going to Chessex Southwest and Greenfield Hobby Distributors, for example. Please ask the store to call our sales manager, Link Martineau, at 612-638-0077, and to let him know which distributors say it's out of print. ("Out of print" probably means "we sold the copies we had, which was exactly the number that stores had pre-ordered, and we've already wiped it out of our computer and can't be troubled to give our customers any SERVICE.") We will supply the store directly, if necessary, or at least call the distributors in question and bitch them out. (I can't tell you how frustrated I am with distributors these days -- this weekend I was at PlatteCon in Platteville, Wisc., and all the dealers there confirmed the general word on the street, namely, that they're lucky if they get 50% of the items they order from any distributor these days. One of the stores was delighted to fork over cash for the display of Lunch Money I had left at the end of the show, since he had been unable to order it from Chessex - -- this is our best-selling item we're talking about -- and he had tried three times.) As I say, we are ready to sell direct to a store, if that's what it takes to get our games to the consumer. Likewise, as a last resort you can always mail order, either direct from us or from The Source (missum@winternet.com/tel. 612-645-0386), who are just down the street and keep everything we make in stock. We'd rather that you support your local retailer, of course, but these days it often seems like the extra shipping & handling charge is worth the time it saves you in trying to get a specific title through the traditional channels. Not to be a downer, but to judge from the initial numbers that I've seen on CLOAKS, it looks like it will be at least as hard to get the newest OTE book as the last one. The numbers look like the distributors are only ordering as many as they had advance orders for, meaning if your store didn't place an order several months ago (when the solicitation for the book went out), they may never get it. The situation just keeps getting worse. I might worry that our games are just not selling...but then I keep meeting all these retailers and consumers who WANT the products and just can't get them, and I keep finding that so many of our distributors don't have so many of our products in stock, which means they sold the ones they had. Grrrrrrrrrr. It makes you wonder if there are people out there intentionally trying to kill this hobby, or at least everyone besides WotC/TSR. - -John Nephew President, Atlas Games [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 18:30:57 -0600 From: "Carl L. Congdon" Subject: Re: [The Edge] Forgotten Lives? Out of Print? Lars Casteen wrote: > > I've been harassing my local comic store for what seems like the last 2 > months, trying to get them to special order a copy of Forgotten Lives > for me. They've told me that none of their distributors, including > those on Atlas's distributor list carry the book, and that the > distributors say the book is out of print. I've had about the same luck trying to get Weather the Cuckoo Likes. What gives? [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 17:03:17 -0800 (PST) From: Michael Bowman Subject: Re: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, AtlasGames wrote: > The situation just keeps getting worse. I might worry that our games are just > not selling...but then I keep meeting all these retailers and consumers who > WANT the products and just can't get them, and I keep finding that so many of > our distributors don't have so many of our products in stock, which means they > sold the ones they had. I picked up my copy of Forgotten Lives up in Mission BC at Mission Games because no one here in Portland had a copy and two stores couldn't get it for me. However, it's not only Atlas Games titles I've had problems with: the last Feng Shui supplement before Daedalus went under, new Conspiracy X books, Unspeakable Oath. These are the ones that come to mind. Michael Bowman bvmi@odin.cc.pdx.edu [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 08:28:59 -0500 (EST) From: Tammy Tayman Subject: Re: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, AtlasGames wrote: > Grrrrrrrrrr. It makes you wonder if there are people out there intentionally > trying to kill this hobby, or at least everyone besides WotC/TSR. > > -John Nephew > President, Atlas Games Sounds like WotC/TSR is a prime candidate for an anti-Monopoly suit. They are beginning to get to be like Microsoft. Then again, it _could_ all be a secret conspiracy, masterminded by some strange broad who lives on an island in the Mediteranian... T1 [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 09:20:19 -0600 (CST) From: David Ebrey Subject: Re: [The Edge] Re: The Edge Digested V1 #31 At 08:28 AM 3/11/98 -0500, you wrote: >On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, AtlasGames wrote: > >> Grrrrrrrrrr. It makes you wonder if there are people out there intentionally >> trying to kill this hobby, or at least everyone besides WotC/TSR. >> >> -John Nephew >> President, Atlas Games > >Sounds like WotC/TSR is a prime candidate for an anti-Monopoly suit. >They are beginning to get to be like Microsoft. What are they going to do, make Ravenloft a seperate company from Dark Sun? Portal seperate from Magic? WotC/TSR is no where near monopoly; it is just in a position that distributers focus all of their attention on them, which truly is sad. I wonder what precentage of the gaming market is now controled by WotC. Does anyone know? It is sad about not being able to get OTE to the masses (i.e. the distributer trouble). I thought that the popularity of Lunch Money and Ars Magica would help remind game store owners to order from Atlas Games. On a semi-related note, I think it is great how you Atlas Games people have been putting articles in Shadis; not only does it make the already great deal even more worth my money, it seems like a nice way to spread the word (works better than an ad, IMO). On the same note, I hope you can continue to afford to put ads in Shadis. Meanwhile, I will try to get my remaining two players to buy the Player's Survival Guide :) David - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Now I assert that every being who cannot act except under the Idea of freedom is by this alone--from a practical point of view--really free.... --Immanuel Kant [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 01:19:03 -0500 From: Brandon Blackmoor Subject: [The Edge] The WotC Threat to All Freedom-Loving People - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 08:28 3/11/98 -0500, Tammy Tayman wrote: >Sounds like WotC/TSR is a prime candidate for an anti-Monopoly >suit. Maybe the Game Police should storm WotC headquarers and make them stop selling to distributors. Or maybe they should kick in the door at the local game store, and confiscate, say, 50% of the AD&D sourcebooks. Or perhaps a cap on how many Magic cards WotC is allowed to sell (and you thought the speculation was bad *before*!), and if they sell any more than Our Wise Leaders think we the poor, stupid consumers should buy, WotC gets stuck with a huge fine. I guess we *could* send the Game Enforcement Agency's armed goons around to all distributors and *force* them to carry, say, at least one copy of every book published. Yeah, that would be fair. ======================================= Brandon Blackmoor Black Gate Publishing Abuse of power comes as no surprise. -- Jenny Holzer ==================================== - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: cp850 iQCVAgUBNQd+LCV2E2252X/xAQF9CAP+JcWLSPjfyGWPV2jZjzwXFnD/qgF84FTy NjlbLiRU0Rrr7RiGW3MY6PdTKTja0GLy9mti/ZokVheMETPy7DW/d6zGlRAO9z+u 9HoKeje/vSenpxXlzBRMEZPieWyfCseLuI8NyzafCXhWujiYa6AHELyt9yNu+3yL IypD/HhMezE= =EbVJ - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- For Blackmoor's public PGP key, Key fingerprint = 9A EB 73 FA 64 50 C2 F8 13 76 6D 41 68 F4 DE D3 [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ End of The Edge Digested V1 #32 ******************************* [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge-digest [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge-digest To get off digest, subscribe the-edge [O] To post a message, send it to the-edge@robin.ml.org