Topic: By any RM online or at hobby store?

[shnar]

I'm considering buying some RMC books, but I want to help ICE as much as possible, so I was wondering, is it better for me to pester my local gaming store to buy it for me, or should I buy it directly online? I know with other companies (mainly Hero) they highly recommend going through a distributor instead of online for various reasons. What would ICE prefer I do?

-shnar

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Going through stores is usually better, especially if you can get them to stock ICE's products as that gives those products more exposure overall. If you cannot get your local store to stock or order ICE products, then go online....

[shnar]

I just checked with my local shop, their distributor only had the 3 RM Classic books, no RME, and none of them were available. They weren't able to tell me if it was because they were out of stock, or because they just won't ever have them :/

Looks like I'll have to stick with the online store then.

-shnar

[GoblynByte]

I just checked with my local shop, their distributor only had the 3 RM Classic books, no RME, and none of them were available. They weren't able to tell me if it was because they were out of stock, or because they just won't ever have them :/

Looks like I'll have to stick with the online store then.

-shnar

I have repeatedly found getting ANY ICE product "off the shelf" to be extremely problamatic at best.  At one store I hear is "our distributor doesn't carry it" and another I hear "we don't keep it in stock because it doesn't sell."  I think the former is a bunch of crap (I just think they're too lazy to make the effort to really look) and the former is a contradiction in sales.  I understand they have limited shelf space, which they choose to pack full with enough d20 materials to choke a goat, but I refuse to believe that a small section of that shelf space can't be give up to ICE products.  It's a big store!  But I digress.

At any rate, ICE products are hard to find around here as well.  I order from ICE directly because quite often even the stock held by other internet shops is pretty thin.  They might hold the core products, but the support products are not available.  In many cases they can't even confirm that the products exist.  It's frustrating.

[Fenrhyl Wulfson]

Ironically, i was a customer in a shop in Bordeaux that had each and very rolemaster product they could find.

The owner of this place was adamant in proposing everything that was brilliant and did not try to strangle his customer with random D20 <insert profanity here>. Alas, the french RPG market is dying out and he had to close his shop.

As far as i am concerned, what goblybyte describes is a sheer lack of "trader spirit". If your customers don't buy something, try harder to sell it. If they don't know about it, have them try.

Since i left Bordeaux for Paris, i had to use the online store. The shops i visited are cracking apart from the sheer load of WoTC stuff they pile up. No wonder people are losing interest at rpg when the retaliers are not trying to have people discover other games.
Maybe i should go there every week and ask for ICE products until it rings a bell in their mind.

[shnar]

I finally found a place that could order RMC (I don't think they could get any RMEs in). They had a bunch of RM:FRP books, in fact a lot that used to be hard to find (like 10 Foot Pole, Mentalism Companion, even the Construct Companion), so I'm going to let him order it for me and hopefully he'll pick up a couple other copies and get some of his regulars playing...

-shnar

[shnar]

Crap, I just got a call from my game shop that thought they could get it, and their distributor said that the Rolemaster Express is only available as a PDF and that the other books are only available as preorders.

I showed him the website showing that the books were available, but his distributor basically said that ICE didn't have them, so basically said I should just buy them online Is this a problem from ICE not communicating with distributors?

-shnar

[markc]

I can not speak for ICE but in general, communication or lack of is allways a problem.
MDC

[Arioch]

Ironically, i was a customer in a shop in Bordeaux that had each and very rolemaster product they could find.

The owner of this place was adamant in proposing everything that was brilliant and did not try to strangle his customer with random D20 <insert profanity here>.

Wow! I'd really like to have sellers like that in Italy! Last time I went to a shop I asked the owner the RM master screen and he tried to sell me a d20 manual, saying that it was a simpler game!!!  Really!

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Note that in another thread Bruce has been mentioning some minor printer and shipping issues with books. It IS possible that said distributor does not have them YET. In fact, I think Bruce even said something to the effect of inventory levels being high enough to start shipping certain products to distributors.