News for the UK

[Jandars_Hope]

I recently emailed hasbro to ask them whether they had any info on release dates for the next sets, but unfortunately they dont have anything planned for release this year! So we're stuck with full priced master sets and wave 1! ENJOY!

[Euryon]

Bollocks to Hasbro.

Im pretty much about to give it up and sell it all off due to the absolutel lack of bother theyve shown to us loyal brits.

They promise, promise, promise, and fail, fail, fail.

[RichardD]

I'm not going to quit just because HasbroUK are a bunch of plonkers. They always have been, and always will be - but that doesn't stop me from buying the occasional gem that is published by HasbroUSA or HasbroGermany. And although I would love to see the game getting some attention (after all, Games Workshop made a fortune by selling a product that appeals to a similar target audience, so we know that the market is there), I have more than enough Heroscape stuff to keep me happy for a while. There's already far more variety in the game than there was in games like Talisman.

Ultimately I don't need to like what the company has done with the game (nothing) in order to play and enjoy it myself.

[Jandars_Hope]

Keep The Faith! Don't Give Up!

[DEATHWALKER 1970]

Denmark is even worse than Uk when it comes to geting Heroscape!
I ordered my Mallidon´s Prophesy from England, (second sets from danish postorder company) but other stuff I have had to get from the states... Ouch to the shipping prices!!!
Utgar´s Rage is out in Germany now, and the european version of Mallidon had cards in both german and english, so I wonder if they won´t be out in UK too in the nearest future. But then again they might have gone for an all german version.
If you need to see for yourself, check out www.spielaktuell.de

Edit: I just mailed Spielaktuell to find out about languages/cards and will post here when they reply!

[Jandars_Hope]

I know how you feel about the shipping prices from the states...i got most of my sets from there, and lets just say it wasnt cheap!

[DEATHWALKER 1970]

Yep!
You can´t help feeling a teensy-weensy bit cheated when shipping costs are MORE than the price of the items ordered...

[caravaggio]

Yep!
You can´t help feeling a teensy-weensy bit cheated when shipping costs are MORE than the price of the items ordered...

when i lived in italy, or in my experiences shipping overseas, i found that the "shipping" charges aren't much higher than shipping within the united states (well, maybe double) but its the stupid import taxes that make it so prohibitively expensive! do you agree or am i wrong?

and cant you kind of get around those by claiming the contents to be candy from your american grandmother?

[DEATHWALKER 1970]

You can lower the prices for shipping, by having it sailed across the Atlantic, but then you´d have to wait forever!!!
Airmail is on the pricey side, but getting your goods within a week of ordering is nice.
I haven´t had any problems with import taxes though...

[RichardD]

Ho ho - done the "surface mail" thing recently with two wargames from GMT. One never turned up, the second took 4 months. Stuff that.

Import taxes are a bit of a lottery, but if you get charged, it's 17.5% VAT PLUS about 5% import duty PLUS the carrier's "handling charge" (typically a tenner), and those percentages are applied to the cost of goods INCLUDING shipping. So a $20 that costs $20 to ship will incur an extra £10 handling and about £7 in taxes - all of a sudden, a £12 item has cost you over £40!!

You know that with most couriers (cough *FEDEX* cough) you will ALWAYS get stung for these taxes; if an item is sent airmail, and has a handwritten shipping note from an individual (rather than a printed one from a business), you are much less likely to get walloped. Having someone misdescribe the item as "a gift from Grandma" is naughty; chosing a vendor whose parcels look like they might actually be from someone's grandma and letting the customs officials make an incorrect assumption is not, so long as you correct their mistake later on.

This is because you remain under a legal obligation to pay tax on any import worth over £18; but as each individual expansion is *under* that figure, my conscience is mostly clear (almost totally clear, in fact - thanks to Funagain always using Fedex my first HS order got taxed to the hilt; my second batch of stuff - and all future HS stuff - came via Sandra without a hitch).

[TheRealQ]

You guys have my sympathies. Until reading this thread I had no idea how dire your situation.

I had a nephew in Iraq, he's back now, and I had to ship him some game stuff. The weight didn't affect shipping cost as much as the volume. I ripped open the packages and packed 8 expansion packs into a box no bigger than a brick. I then used puffed wheat as a filler. Admittedly, I was worried that some type of vermin would attack the package while in transit, but he assured me it arrived safely. I can't remember the exact shipping cost but it was minimal for what how much I shipped.

Admittedly, if you are buying through a store or eBay they are not going to be as accommodating with the shipping. But if you know someone within the states they could go pay Walmart prices and ship it to you cheap. If you don't know anyone here perhaps you can find someone at this site that would be willing to work with you. I know that I would but I have all my credit and funds tied up right now. Several of us can just go down to a store and pick up all but the latest wave, it is just that available.

Lastly, if any of you English chaps can get your hands on Advanced HeroQuest materials I would not be surprised if you can talk Rodriguez into a deal or two.

[Jandars_Hope]

Yeah, i heard some people said that they have asked the person selling the item to just remove figures or cut down packaging so it would be cheaper...but i like to keep the packaging just in case i have to store the pieces! And i agree with DEATHWALKER 1970, getting ur set within a week is awesome. i remember ordering raknars vision and tundra as soon as housemousegames had them and i got them almost straight away!!!!

[Jandars_Hope]

Yeah, i heard some people said that they have asked the person selling the item to just remove figures or cut down packaging so it would be cheaper...but i like to keep the packaging just in case i have to store the pieces! And i agree with DEATHWALKER 1970, getting ur set within a week is awesome. i remember ordering raknars vision and tundra as soon as housemousegames had them and i got them almost straight away!!!!

[dra(gon)]

mondy i will visit oúr tru store and get wave two.
hopfuly they will have it in the other senario a store have some of my noney from not devivert itens maybe i could exchange them.

btw this shop seems deliver in the uk, but i dont know if the store do it i gave Euryon the adress he said he had ordered but if the iten arived i never know.

http://www.delayedreactions.de/index.html?lang=de&target=d111.html

[RichardD]

They only seem to ship via DHL. For just one or two boosters, no cheaper than HMG, although there's no chance of getting stung for import taxes from Germany. They'd have to be a LOT cheaper before I could justify trying to order with my scant knowledge of German.

I *have* ordered games from PlayMe in Germany before - they are reliable enough to get the seal of approval. They've got some Heroscape boosters, and are used to dealing with English-speaking customers from time to time. But you're playing the price in Euros that we would pay in dollars from the States - so a £7 booster costs £9 plus shipping.
http://vnh2.hsk-net.de/cgi-bin/playme.storefront/

In theory, with shorter shipping distances and no import taxes, it ought to work out cheaper buying from Germany; in practice, I can't see myself doing that (because the exchange rates favour buying from the US, and I want Wave 5 not Wave 2).

[dra(gon)]

yep in germany is no option to ship with other services, because the post (dhl) is the only supremmer, ups and co are not use often.

but the shop aczept paypal what is not often in germany.
the price is an other question.

[Jandars_Hope]

Thats good news about paypal, cos i prefer to pay that way!

[dra(gon)]

btw yo can cange the sit in , englich and french.. top left

"wählen sie ihre sprache"


Heroscape alle 4 Booster der neuen Reihe
A16356 52,53 €

[narayannis]

Dear friends,
since you've began this discussion about shipping costs, customs, etc, maybe I should share with you my little tragedy: When Zanafor's Discovery was about to be released, I placed a pre-order with FunAgain. They shipped it as soon as the expansion was released, using FedEx. What happened? My package (1 display), worth roughly 45 Euros (+ FedEx shipping) and relatively small in size, was stopped at customs for inspection and taxes. They asked me to pay taxes of 137 Euros for it!!! Of course I couldn't pay such a sum, so I declined and lost the package (the "funny" thing is that I couldn't even get a refund, since Funagain couldn't get it back either! Their representative told me that it would cost them more than the item's value to get it back...).

That was the day I desided to stop buying stuff from the USA. What did I do? A friend of mine suggested that I should go to www.ludibay.net , a French site which has almost everything Heroscapish, with one flaw: they're VERY expansive (21 Euros each set, 40 Euros the big sets). But at least I know I'll get my package without paying outrageous customs fees...

As for labeling a package as a gift or spare parts, it CAN'T be done when you buy from a store. I've asked numerous sellers (online stores, ebay stores, official sites), and most of them don't do it (fear of IRS, I guess...).

Cheers
John
from Athens, Greece

[dra(gon)]

wow that was a lot of money.

in germany you got the same problem the shipping cost exampel 49$ Zanafor's Discovery + 25$ shipping cost.

i had luck the zoll did not opend the packerif the germans do that them must i pay german tax 17% from 49 extra..

but how grek thake so manny money?

[narayannis]

Because Greeks are thiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeves!!!

Ahem... sorry... I got carried away...

Well, the system here is ridiculous. The customs officer (as I've heard) inspects the contents, gives them a characterisation (most times something expensive: my brother in law bought a dog leash with a beeper, and it was given the title "high tech cell phone beeping device thingy" or something...) and starts adding taxes: tax for inspection, tax for warehouse expenses (???), value tax, and other untranslatable stuff...

-sigh-

In other words, at least for us Greeks, it's very dangerous to buy stuff from the US. The only solution is friends (in my case LilNewbie, God bless him) who can buy the stuff for you, and send them in anonymous packages with low item value in the customs forms. But how many times can you do that?

Cheers
John

[DEATHWALKER 1970]

I just heard from german game store SPIELAKTUELL, and they said that the sets from Utgar´s rage only have the cards in german, bummer!
So it´s back to ordering from the states. I find it mysterious that you guys from other european countries have to gamble with those extra taxes, as I have had no problem here in Denmark... With everything else being standardized in Europe, you´d think import taxes would be the same as well!

[RichardD]

I thought that with the EU, the taxes by and large WERE standardised - but what won't be is the frequency with which they get applied to small parcels coming in as opposed to containerloads.

I'm surprised to hear that wave 2 has cards in german only - but then, I see the pack titles for wave 1 were in English and wave 2 has them in German on Playme.de, so you're probably right. Shame - and it just goes to show that although Hasbro Germany are slightly more reliable than Hasbro UK, they can still behave like a bull-headed and blinkered corporation given half a chance.

[dra(gon)]

you can now order the new expansions, fortst and the other big expansion on amazon.de (15.06)
forest
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FXULAG/qid=1149192219/sr=1-17/ref=sr_1_11_17/028-9423907-1734102
heros of laur
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FXSLCG/qid=1149192260/sr=1-16/ref=sr_1_11_16/028-9423907-1734102

all what you can order

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=toys-de&field-keywords=heroscape/ref=xs_ap_l_xgl/028-9423907-1734102

[RichardD]

Interesting. I got an email from Hasbro UK today - I'd asked about whether we were likely to see any expansions apart from the first 4 in the UK - their response was to send me to their Hasbro shop, from which I can buy ... the first four expansions. :evil:

And idiots like that are in charge of getting HS to the people. I despair.

[Fallen Templar]

Euryon I thought you were moving to the states

[RichardD]

Got another email from Hasbro UK when I pointed out that I was asking about the OTHER waves. They said "We have no idea - we'll have to ask someone in Marketing and get back to you." That was 5 days ago - Marketing have been in the pub all week getting drunk, I guess.

[Euryon]

I am, in Oct/Nov time. Its is a bad plan that cannot be altered ;)

[Revdyer]

Got another email from Hasbro UK when I pointed out that I was asking about the OTHER waves. They said "We have no idea - we'll have to ask someone in Marketing and get back to you." That was 5 days ago - Marketing have been in the pub all week getting drunk, I guess.

They're all in Munich.

[Teamski]

Got another email from Hasbro UK when I pointed out that I was asking about the OTHER waves. They said "We have no idea - we'll have to ask someone in Marketing and get back to you." That was 5 days ago - Marketing have been in the pub all week getting drunk, I guess.

You think they are worrying about Heroscape during the World Cup?? C'mon now! Your pubs are filled with drunken football fans from Landsend to Cromer!

-Ski

[Fallen Templar]

I am, in Oct/Nov time. Its is a bad plan that cannot be altered ;) Well ya win some ya lose some

[Nickydude]

Being new to Heroscape AND living in the UK I see I'm going to struggle getting expansion sets, especially terrain. :?

Sorry for bumping an old thread.

[Fencerjared]

Being new to Heroscape AND living in the UK I see I'm going to struggle getting expansion sets, especially terrain. :?

Sorry for bumping an old thread.


It's going to be harder since the game is officially cancelled; from what I understand, there weren't many places in Europe that sold it in the first place, and all they will have now are backstock.

[RichardD]

The last couple of waves can be bought from specialist games shops that were (eventually) able to carry the game. In order to get decent amounts of terrain, you want to hunt down more copies of the first Master Set, Return of the Valkyrie. The good news there is that it was once carried by Argos, who couldn't make it sell at full RRP so cut the price savagely (to a fiver IIRC) - a move that got the game noticed. So a lot of sets did get bought by games playing types. As a result, you need to scour car bot sales and bring & buy tables at gaming events, because copies do turn up from time to time.