Web store Non-UK Sales Currently Suspended

Newt

Rune Priest
Due to Covid-19 and the United Kingdom’s leaving the EU (aka Brexit), I have temporarily suspended web store sales outside of the UK. I will review the situation on March 1st when I hope the new regulations regarding sales to the EU are clearer, and the postage delays due to Covid-19 are no longer an issue.

In the meantime, you can still get our games in print and pdf via DriveThruRpg.com.

For UK Customers you can still use the web store, for both print and pdf and buy directly from me, but be aware that I will only be posting once per week, usually Wednesday or Thursday.

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Add in the vast cost of postage in and out of the USA and frankly, we had better revert to using sailing boats again.. cue Ian Duncan Smith...

“What prospects lie ahead for our young people now: to be out there, buccaneering, trading, dominating the world again”, said the man who clearly thinks he is living on a Treasure Island ride.
 
“What prospects lie ahead for our young people now: to be out there, buccaneering, trading, dominating the world again”, said the man who clearly thinks he is living on a Treasure Island ride.

I feel obliged to point out the amazing irony that in the very last paragraphs of Treasure Island (arguably the most famous training manual for young imperialists and adventurers) young Master Hawkins reveals that having tried the buccaneering life he's decided that he'd much rather stay at home and be an accountant.

Something of a lesson in there for us all, I feel.
 
I hate Brexit.
However I am also a logistics dude.
This will be sorted.

It'll be a very steep learning curve, a mountain of preparation for those who have to audit the country of origin of their products, being careful about importing and exporting.
Then it'll be a continuous red tape overhead, a continuous pause at borders, and a low level cost burden that will be difficult in a logistics industry that operates on 2% margins.
However logisticians are GREAT, and they will fix this, and third party companies are popping up everywhere to do the admin in exchange for a fee, and supply chains will be reconfigured.
I am sure Royal Mail will write a handy booklet for customs declarations, but I would advise that you look at what paperwork you may be required to keep, analyse and present to HMRC.

None of this constitutes advice and you should always check that you are in compliance with the law and regulations on tax and customs matters.

I can see people having problems at first in our hobby proving 40% UK added value in a product not made in the UK, but remember that it is the full input that matters including the thinking bits.

I can see companies rerouting supply chains directly from EU to Ireland and not through the UK as now, and as such I could see NI increasingly receiving all EU sourced product from an ROI distribution centre. The Irish have been building lots of new deep water infrastructure on the south coast since the Brexit vote. I see Eire as becoming less integrated with the UK logistically and Ulster going with it.
 
Three personal examples.

My wife ordered me a PinePhone for Christmas, delivery due this month. A week ago she got an email saying that due to the new import rules, the Polish distributer wasn't going to ship any phones to the UK. Choices were cancelling or getting it shipped from the Hong Kong distributer instead.

I built a 'log cabin' (aka chunky shed) in December, and wanted to buy some more tins of wood treatment from the manufacturer. They are in the Netherlands, and they have a notice on their site saying "Unfortunately all couriers are unable to ship our parcels to UK, as a result of Customs problems after Brexit."

At work, we needed to send a PC card (that we make) from our Cambridge office to the Belfast office. It was returned by the courier because we hadn't thought to provide a commercial invoice.
 
I think the problem is being compounded by the UK overhauling it's e-commerce VAT trading rules on the same day as Brexit. Not strictly Brexit related as the EU is following suite from mid-year but the timing isn't exactly great. What this effectively does is force small traders to account for VAT in the destination country of sale, making them either register for VAT in the country of sale or sign up to Online Market Places - great for Amazons, terrible for small traders.

What's going to sting a lot of UK businesses is that the Free Trade deal is a lot more limited than they realise. It's only free trade if it originates in the country of sale. So if you say design a Boardgame get it printed in China, then imported back to the UK, you'll pay import duties/VAT when it gets to UK. (as before)

Previously you could then forward it on to the EU and not worry about customs duties. Now you're going to have to check the small print of the FTA to see if it classifies as originating in the UK, or your EU customers on going to have to pay customs duties again.

Or for a crazy example, you design a boardgame, then get it printed in Germany, shipped to the UK. You'd think you'd be okay shipping that to Irish customers with zero tariffs? Nope, the boardgame doesn't originate in the UK, i.e. doesn't originate in the UK when sold from the UK so there's potentially tariffs when sending it to Ireland. from the UK.
 
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