And just like that, you're overpaying thousands, and you don’t even know it. Because the people who could tell you the truth—don’t. And the people who would tell you the truth—get banned from board game groups and cancelled from the industry for wrongthink.
This would be absolutely karmic. The wokeness infecting the board game industry leading to its collapse all because everyone involved with it fired, banned, and censored the business-savvy people who actually knew how tariffs worked and could have informed them when they dropped. Whether that be the right-wing guys on their payrolls, or the regular users on BGG.
"Diversity is strength" is true...but only in terms of skills and knowledge, which the people who preach that useless platitude never practice.
It's a forgone conclusion we've already seen with comics, movies, and now video games. Board games was well ahead with its wokeness, this was always coming when the people who took over kicked out everyone with competence.
At their own stated production cost of $20 per unit, that’s $6.4 million in manufacturing costs. At $150 MSRP? That’s $48 million in potential retail value.
It's wild to me that the company behind Gloomhaven, a product sold with 650% markup, cannot stay in business.
What's that leftists always like to say? "The company would do anything, except the right thing." Suddenly they bark like seals because the company would do anything other than crack open a business directory and find someone to print their stuff here because that might cut into that massive fat ball of profit.
It's dweeb D&D. It has the click clack, but isn't as nerdy or cool as the bigger names. Everyone I know who plays the game is a science teacher in highschool or works at a chemist shop. Definitely I to the subject, but not as much as others.
That fucking stings because my brother is literally a highschool teacher and he's huge on that fantasy board game shit. He's a walking stereotype and I didn't even know because that's not my hobby group. I've learned something new.
Most of these companies are woke feminist trash. They have been skating by via USAID and/or Blackrock / Vanguard ESG funding. Now they have to do actual work their DEI hires can't handle it.
I hope they burn to the ground and never find work ever again.
Summation: boardgames are only tariffed at ~20% and not the 245% they are claiming. It’s only due to incompetence in filing tariff codes that companies doing business in China are getting bent over.
It’s also piss poor management when a multi million dollar company can’t absorb the small cost of additional tariffs when their kickstarter backers essentially funded the entire production run.
There are always three financial books for a company, the one they shows the public, the one they show the president and specific investors, and the actual one. Google has been living off of outside funding for decades.
Doubling down on saying dumb shit isn't all that convincing. Google literally has a monopoly on the biggest ad network in the world and controls what everyone sees on the internet with its Search monopoly, directing everyone to those ads. It takes in so much money from this alone, everything else is moot. Quit being a dipshit and join reality with the rest of us.
I've been a board game aficionado for over 20 years, and I stopped buying new games entirely around 10 years ago because everything was being funded by Kickstarter.
Just like avoiding video game pre-orders, I refuse to absorb a corporation's production costs up front. The fact that the retail version of the game almost always does not include a bunch of content exclusive to Kickstarter backers just makes me not want to buy it either.
Shifting all the risk onto your customers is an insane business model, and it's completely unsurprising to me that even when they're spending other people's money these assclowns can't succeed.
I got into KS very early on and KS creators who've done this for a long time remember a period where they got screwed on delivery costs. I can't remember why but there was a time when freight costs increased a lot and lots of KS creators came out whining that they couldn't afford to ship product. Much like now.
As a result of that people started charging shipping usually closer to the delivery date and not at the end of the KS.
People in all industries genuinely suck at dealing with shipping costs, they ignore it until it's too late, figure they'll get it sorted later, expect it to be comped, don't budget for it. It's a constant pain in my ass.
Even if you have a contract with a shipping company like Maersk for a fixed rate, they can alter it as they wish. I witnessed it multiple times during the last 4 years
I've had stuff on the water change shipping price 4 times before it actually landed. Shits a nightmare. Are the tariffs annoying me personaly? Yes, but fuck if they dont give me leverage with my team to not ship from Asia which I will gladly take
That's the real beauty of these tariffs. We've watched for years as everything we love gets destroyed in the name of woke by these corporations, big and small. I cheer their destruction, I want more tariffs to clean out the rot. Bankrupt em all for all I care, I already don't have any money and have zero to lose. Time everyone else gets to catch up. Burn this shit to the ground for fucking good.
I play magic the gathering at a local game shop every week and there is some insufferable dude who helps create board games and is currently between jobs. The amount of bitching I heard this guy do was next level. He was like chicken little, waving his hands in the air explaining how the tariffs were going to end the board game industry and the modern world with it. It gave me a little bit of enjoyment, to be honest.
Nice to see some reasoning to back up the gut reaction a lot of these tariff whinging blog posts produce. They tend to fall into two categories, from what I've seen. Either they offer no numbers or the numbers don't entirely make sense. Bonus if someone is in the comments with a reminder of skeevy or illegal practices the company has engaged in previously.
I think it was Catalyst that had a breakdown along the lines of: Chinese paperboard and plastic costs a few bucks per unit, the overwhelming majority of the cost goes to paying for IP and R&D in America/Europe, with a decent chunk of costs going to shipping and logistics. So you see, the cost of plastic is tripling, so we have to triple what we charge. Completely glossing over the fact that the majority of costs have not changed.
This would be absolutely karmic. The wokeness infecting the board game industry leading to its collapse all because everyone involved with it fired, banned, and censored the business-savvy people who actually knew how tariffs worked and could have informed them when they dropped. Whether that be the right-wing guys on their payrolls, or the regular users on BGG.
"Diversity is strength" is true...but only in terms of skills and knowledge, which the people who preach that useless platitude never practice.
It's a forgone conclusion we've already seen with comics, movies, and now video games. Board games was well ahead with its wokeness, this was always coming when the people who took over kicked out everyone with competence.
Nice article.
It's wild to me that the company behind Gloomhaven, a product sold with 650% markup, cannot stay in business.
What's that leftists always like to say? "The company would do anything, except the right thing." Suddenly they bark like seals because the company would do anything other than crack open a business directory and find someone to print their stuff here because that might cut into that massive fat ball of profit.
$20 is overinflated too. The writer said it was actually about half that. For a game that easily cost well over $120. That’s insane markup.
Here’s what amuses me most. The creator of Gloomhaven, works or worked in the county I live in which has a board game manufacturing facility.
Pisses me off too because it’s one of my favorite board games.
It's dweeb D&D. It has the click clack, but isn't as nerdy or cool as the bigger names. Everyone I know who plays the game is a science teacher in highschool or works at a chemist shop. Definitely I to the subject, but not as much as others.
That fucking stings because my brother is literally a highschool teacher and he's huge on that fantasy board game shit. He's a walking stereotype and I didn't even know because that's not my hobby group. I've learned something new.
At no point have I thought I'll of people who played it. They're aware of the other stuff, but only want to go so far into it.
I don't think ill merely more playing it. He keeps seven board games in his trunk in lieu of a flat tire changing kit.
Yeah, that sounds fairly accurate. Good for him.
Most of these companies are woke feminist trash. They have been skating by via USAID and/or Blackrock / Vanguard ESG funding. Now they have to do actual work their DEI hires can't handle it.
I hope they burn to the ground and never find work ever again.
Don’t forget saving a buck by shipping production to China. There was a reason why it’s called the Chinese Finger Trap.
Summation: boardgames are only tariffed at ~20% and not the 245% they are claiming. It’s only due to incompetence in filing tariff codes that companies doing business in China are getting bent over.
It’s also piss poor management when a multi million dollar company can’t absorb the small cost of additional tariffs when their kickstarter backers essentially funded the entire production run.
TL:DR: Greed and incompetence.
That's the real kicker isn't it. These fucking idiots are playing with free money and still can't turn a profit.
Google has never turned a profit....
Are you retarded? It turned a profit for the first time in fucking 2001. It made more net profit than Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft last year.
There are always three financial books for a company, the one they shows the public, the one they show the president and specific investors, and the actual one. Google has been living off of outside funding for decades.
Doubling down on saying dumb shit isn't all that convincing. Google literally has a monopoly on the biggest ad network in the world and controls what everyone sees on the internet with its Search monopoly, directing everyone to those ads. It takes in so much money from this alone, everything else is moot. Quit being a dipshit and join reality with the rest of us.
And the comments don't like him.
Remember:
Half of all internet traffic is bots.
As was pointed out in the other thread, traffic is not synonymous with posting. Most of that traffic is web crawlers or similar services.
The article itself is a GPT output and scrolling a few comments down, I already see a GPT rebuttal. Horrific.
Until they relocate their operations to domestic, I don't give a fuck.
I've been a board game aficionado for over 20 years, and I stopped buying new games entirely around 10 years ago because everything was being funded by Kickstarter.
Just like avoiding video game pre-orders, I refuse to absorb a corporation's production costs up front. The fact that the retail version of the game almost always does not include a bunch of content exclusive to Kickstarter backers just makes me not want to buy it either.
Shifting all the risk onto your customers is an insane business model, and it's completely unsurprising to me that even when they're spending other people's money these assclowns can't succeed.
I got into KS very early on and KS creators who've done this for a long time remember a period where they got screwed on delivery costs. I can't remember why but there was a time when freight costs increased a lot and lots of KS creators came out whining that they couldn't afford to ship product. Much like now.
As a result of that people started charging shipping usually closer to the delivery date and not at the end of the KS.
People in all industries genuinely suck at dealing with shipping costs, they ignore it until it's too late, figure they'll get it sorted later, expect it to be comped, don't budget for it. It's a constant pain in my ass.
Even if you have a contract with a shipping company like Maersk for a fixed rate, they can alter it as they wish. I witnessed it multiple times during the last 4 years
I've had stuff on the water change shipping price 4 times before it actually landed. Shits a nightmare. Are the tariffs annoying me personaly? Yes, but fuck if they dont give me leverage with my team to not ship from Asia which I will gladly take
That's the real beauty of these tariffs. We've watched for years as everything we love gets destroyed in the name of woke by these corporations, big and small. I cheer their destruction, I want more tariffs to clean out the rot. Bankrupt em all for all I care, I already don't have any money and have zero to lose. Time everyone else gets to catch up. Burn this shit to the ground for fucking good.
I play magic the gathering at a local game shop every week and there is some insufferable dude who helps create board games and is currently between jobs. The amount of bitching I heard this guy do was next level. He was like chicken little, waving his hands in the air explaining how the tariffs were going to end the board game industry and the modern world with it. It gave me a little bit of enjoyment, to be honest.
Nice to see some reasoning to back up the gut reaction a lot of these tariff whinging blog posts produce. They tend to fall into two categories, from what I've seen. Either they offer no numbers or the numbers don't entirely make sense. Bonus if someone is in the comments with a reminder of skeevy or illegal practices the company has engaged in previously.
I think it was Catalyst that had a breakdown along the lines of: Chinese paperboard and plastic costs a few bucks per unit, the overwhelming majority of the cost goes to paying for IP and R&D in America/Europe, with a decent chunk of costs going to shipping and logistics. So you see, the cost of plastic is tripling, so we have to triple what we charge. Completely glossing over the fact that the majority of costs have not changed.