Upcoming BL Stuff - 2023

[Ubiquitous1984]

3 minutes ago, Krelious said:

I wonder how many of the scalpers are people of certain ethnicities who dont speak english and have no idea what warhammer 40k is beyond knowing limited edition books are valuable and they can sell it to nerds they hate.

In my experience the scalpers are 40K fans, who like the hobby enough to realise what the popular releases are, but have no qualms whatsoever about ripping off fellow fans. 

[System Sound]

53 minutes ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

In my experience the scalpers are 40K fans, who like the hobby enough to realise what the popular releases are, but have no qualms whatsoever about ripping off fellow fans. 

Gotta pay for those models somehow... Especially with annual price hikes now.

[Roomsky]

Wasn't home at 10, by 10:30 the Canada Stock of Angel's of Darkness and Skarsnik were gone along with the LEs. Absolutely silly for general product.

[theSpirea]

1 hour ago, Krelious said:

I wonder how many of the scalpers are people of certain ethnicities who dont speak english and have no idea what warhammer 40k is beyond knowing limited edition books are valuable and they can sell it to nerds they hate.

Ehm, no idea what you're trying to imply here...

All you need to do is check the profiles of those scalpers on eBay or join Black Library Sale group on FB, or similar, and you will see most of these scalpers are actually big WH fans, and English natives (still no idea what that has to do with it). They just see it as quick and easy cash.

 

I'm also joining the ranks of those who missed out. The site crashed on me on check out and when it loaded again, the book was out of stock.

[chevalierdulys]

1 hour ago, theSpirea said:

Ehm, no idea what you're trying to imply here...

All you need to do is check the profiles of those scalpers on eBay or join Black Library Sale group on FB, or similar, and you will see most of these scalpers are actually big WH fans, and English natives (still no idea what that has to do with it). They just see it as quick and easy cash.

 

I'm also joining the ranks of those who missed out. The site crashed on me on check out and when it loaded again, the book was out of stock.

Maybe he meant that this is another way of getting a quick buck and there are several groups doing that in the hobby - and they may not even be 40k fans for that matter. This is a business. Imagine buying 10 LE like Angron, this one and so on, then sell for at least double the price. There is always people buying. So yeah it's a quick way to make money. Imagine that you have a 600€. Purchase 10 LE's then sell them at 100€. Bang 400€ profit. Now with one 1000 do the same and so on. I've been checking ebay for some months always trying to find a honest deal and you got the same names every time. They sometimes even show piles of the same book... My question is, WHY GW is saying they are keen on taking this down but they are always there? More, why BL didn't find a way to block transactions for the same street but different users? Man, their database could easily do that... I highly doubt they don't have the means to export to excel file and see the addresses... GW & BL are just talk. They do the bare minimum. Yeah you can only buy one....

Edited February 19, 2023 by chevalierdulys

[DarkChaplain]

1 hour ago, theSpirea said:

Ehm, no idea what you're trying to imply here...

All you need to do is check the profiles of those scalpers on eBay or join Black Library Sale group on FB, or similar, and you will see most of these scalpers are actually big WH fans, and English natives (still no idea what that has to do with it). They just see it as quick and easy cash.

 

I'm also joining the ranks of those who missed out. The site crashed on me on check out and when it loaded again, the book was out of stock.

 

I figured he was referring to stuff like those major scam circles. There's an insane level of organized criminal bs going on in some corners of the world, usually low-income regions. There've been numerous cases of entire callcenters being run for the purpose of placing scam calls to other parts of the world. Recently, there's even been some scumbags in Poland who would scam old people in Germany out of thousands by pretending their children/grandchildren were hurt in accidents and needed surgery. Heck, even I had calls from "Microsoft" last year, which I hung up on laughing. I also recall various limited edition / collectible book scams making the rounds last year over here. It's ludicrous how sophisticated those scams can be, with "experts" whetting appetites and then leading their victims to ebay auctions.

 

It's a sad state of affairs, but in some regions it's drastically more lucrative to scam and scalp for a living than lead an honest life - especially with currency exchange rates involved. And it's easy to forget that you're hurting other people when you're just acting through the web, buying and selling.

 

At least this was my takeaway from that post. I can't say if that's what he was actually trying to point out.

[aa.logan]

8 hours ago, Krelious said:

I wonder how many of the scalpers are people of certain ethnicities who dont speak english…. nerds they hate.

Who do you mean? Italian jocks? Maltese people who can’t get over the destruction of the World-That-Was? Basques with inexplicable grudges?
 

some pretty odd dog-whistley language there.

Edited February 19, 2023 by aa.logan

[Ubiquitous1984]

Across this group and the BL facebook groups that I visit, it’s notable how many veteran collectors missed out yesterday.  People who know exactly how to get their LE’s, and know all of the ‘hacks’ like being on the website at 954 ready for it to tick over to 955, pre-loading vouchers to cut down checkout times etc.  

 

What’s really sad is that these are some of BL’s best fans, and should be protected, not thrown to the wolves when the scalpers and bots come to feast on a major release. 

 

These people have invested huge resource and time into amassing their collections.  I’ve already seen a couple of them ‘rage quit’ and throw their LE SoT collections up for sale due to missing out yesterday.  That’s not good for the hobby - BL need to encourage and delight these fans, not piss them off (on a “celebration” day, no less) to the extent that they justifiably want to leave the hobby.  

 

What are BL and GW going to do about this?  Acknowledging the problem would be a great start.  Upping the LE print runs for these huge releases just seems like a no-brainier to me, and is surely a win-win for GW as well due to the extra revenue it would generate.  

 

If BL aren’t careful then they’ll end up driving away their most passionate fans.  I’m not convinced that BL has enough fans to step up and fill the void if the collectors bugger off.  The print runs are already tiny for even the most basic hardback release.  Is there even a ‘next generation’ of BL fan who isn’t primarily consuming their books via audible or ebook?  

 

 

[Felix Antipodes]

41 minutes ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

Across this group and the BL facebook groups that I visit, it’s notable how many veteran collectors missed out yesterday.  People who know exactly how to get their LE’s, and know all of the ‘hacks’ like being on the website at 954 ready for it to tick over to 955, pre-loading vouchers to cut down checkout times etc.  

 

What’s really sad is that these are some of BL’s best fans, and should be protected, not thrown to the wolves when the scalpers and bots come to feast on a major release. 

 

These people have invested huge resource and time into amassing their collections.  I’ve already seen a couple of them ‘rage quit’ and throw their LE SoT collections up for sale due to missing out yesterday.  That’s not good for the hobby - BL need to encourage and delight these fans, not piss them off (on a “celebration” day, no less) to the extent that they justifiably want to leave the hobby.  

 

What are BL and GW going to do about this?  Acknowledging the problem would be a great start.  Upping the LE print runs for these huge releases just seems like a no-brainier to me, and is surely a win-win for GW as well due to the extra revenue it would generate.  

 

If BL aren’t careful then they’ll end up driving away their most passionate fans.  I’m not convinced that BL has enough fans to step up and fill the void if the collectors bugger off.  The print runs are already tiny for even the most basic hardback release.  Is there even a ‘next generation’ of BL fan who isn’t primarily consuming their books via audible or ebook?  

 

 

Which is exactly how GW want us to consume their product.  Cheaper production costs and higher profit margins 

[Nagashsnee]

BL and GW dont care, its not a new issue, its not a new problem. Their books sold out too fast, for them anything after sold out is pointless.

 

They will only care when it affects sales. Or if they can profit more off it ( maybe re realease them all in 5 years).

 

Maybe certain staff care and would like to implement change, but any large company needs more then that to get the gears going. And going to upper management with this is likely a no go u till you can PROVE it affects sales.

 

Now why they dint make more le for the SIEGE OF TERRA to start with...i dont know. 

 

[skylerboodie]

48 minutes ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

If BL aren’t careful then they’ll end up driving away their most passionate fans.  I’m not convinced that BL has enough fans to step up and fill the void if the collectors bugger off. 

The cynic in me feels like they are already trying to kill off the Black Library fanbase with all their existing marketing, editorial, and publishing decisions already, as everything seems designed to piss fans off!

 

Ridiculously low print runs,  awful website (you think GW's is bad, try BL's itself!), lack of any useful or passionate marketing / info ahead of releases, the list goes on. Sadly. 

[Felix Antipodes]

I could accept the argument that these are limited editions, hence the lowish print runs, if the normal print runs in HB and MMPB were of an industry acceptable number allowing all who wanted the books a chance to acquire them.  Main (non-LE) runs in LE numbers show that GW is not invested in spreading their PR via the Black Library.

 

As for the standard of the BL website; I take that as another sign that there is a limited future for the line.  Otherwise it would have updated and incorporated into the main GW site like FW was.  Just my 2c

Edited February 19, 2023 by Felix Antipodes

[chevalierdulys]

Is this forum is there a place to trade books?  or is it frown upon?

Edited February 19, 2023 by chevalierdulys

[darkhorse0607]

21 hours ago, Preliminary Bombardment said:

While I'm glad I got mine, it's annoying we have to do this all over again for the final 

 

 

Yeah, I was luckily enough to get one here in the US because my partner and I both went at it. I had it in cart at 12:55, hit checkout, crashed and couldn't get back in. She was able to get on after that on her phone, somehow get one in the cart and get it purchased even though that whole process took 15 minutes because the website was so slow.

 

We were talking after and she mentioned "well at least we got one, it's over now" but I had to break it to her that this was just the warmup and I assume Vol 2 is going to be even worse. Which, you would hope GW would take some extra steps next time to make sure the website doesn't crash seeing as we all know this is going to happen, just like it does every time, but we know they probably won't do anything just like they always do.

 

 

[System Sound]

Another Sunday, another empty preview for Saturday's pre orders. Because they definitely couldn't have shifted a couple of books from the fiasco that was yesterday to next Saturday...

[Bobss]

Normally I don't care about these things, but it's pretty telling when the absolute most diehard fans of special editions on this forum are walking away emptyhanded. What makes this even worse is that the Solar War. special edition dropped 4 (four) FOUR years ago, and people had the same problems then - which haven't been fixed and if anything, have been made worse

 

At the end of the day GW are selling a premium product that probably isn't worth the sum of its parts, but is desired by and aimed at a very specific and proud type of superfan. And these exact same fans are missing out, despite their hardest efforts. Something isn't working here - and the dual release with the vanilla hardback edition, imo, is probably more aimed at retaining potential buyers who would be otherwise turned off after reading an extensive spoilers dump on Reddit

Edited February 19, 2023 by Bobss

[Knockagh]

7 hours ago, chevalierdulys said:

Is this forum is there a place to trade books?  or is it frown upon?

Not sure but if there was I would happily sell some. I hate eBay and would rather sell some off to genuine lovers of BL fiction. I don’t read as much BL as I used to and could do with clearing out some shelves 

[chevalierdulys]

I would get be very interesting but yeah don't really know if this place allows it , didn't see anything regarding on the FAQS

[Taliesin]

3 hours ago, Bobss said:

Normally I don't care about these things, but it's pretty telling when the absolute most diehard fans of special editions on this forum are walking away emptyhanded. What makes this even worse is that the Solar War. special edition dropped 4 (four) FOUR years ago, and people had the same problems then - which haven't been fixed and if anything, have been made worse

 

At the end of the day GW are selling a premium product that probably isn't worth the sum of its parts, but is desired by and aimed at a very specific and proud type of superfan. And these exact same fans are missing out, despite their hardest efforts. Something isn't working here - and the dual release with the vanilla hardback edition, imo, is probably more aimed at retaining potential buyers who would be otherwise turned off after reading an extensive spoilers dump on Reddit

 

Yup. The simultaneous release is obviously a very good thing so thumbs up for that very welcome change.

But it obviously hasnt changed the fact that the popularity and scalper influence on the LE's is so huge that many, many people are missing out due to the very limited LE print run.

You now have a ton of people who have several or most LE's of the series but are missing out on the last few volumes, and its gonna be harder still for books 9 and 10.

 

14 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

 

What’s really sad is that these are some of BL’s best fans, and should be protected, not thrown to the wolves when the scalpers and bots come to feast on a major release. 

 

These people have invested huge resource and time into amassing their collections.  I’ve already seen a couple of them ‘rage quit’ and throw their LE SoT collections up for sale due to missing out yesterday.  That’s not good for the hobby - BL need to encourage and delight these fans, not piss them off (on a “celebration” day, no less) to the extent that they justifiably want to leave the hobby.  

 

What are BL and GW going to do about this?  Acknowledging the problem would be a great start.  Upping the LE print runs for these huge releases just seems like a no-brainier to me, and is surely a win-win for GW as well due to the extra revenue it would generate.  

 

If BL aren’t careful then they’ll end up driving away their most passionate fans.  I’m not convinced that BL has enough fans to step up and fill the void if the collectors bugger off.  The print runs are already tiny for even the most basic hardback release.  Is there even a ‘next generation’ of BL fan who isn’t primarily consuming their books via audible or ebook?  

 

 

As cynical as it sounds, I do think BL/GW dont give a toss about diehard fans being disappointed.

What counts for them is selling the copies, the money, and they fly out the door. It does really suck for those who had 7 volumes but even for those who now got book 8....there is going to be 2 more books in this series it looks like, and you will need to be very lucky to obtain those.

 

I think the whole " BL Celebration"  is a bit of farce as well, in the sense that, how is this a celebration? Not just the many fans who miss out on a Siege of Terra 8 LE, but also, how has this been a celebration? I mean, I like that they have released a few nice books and I bought 2 of them. But some videos about why this is a BL Celebration would have been nice right, some fan engagement? I see this in the same light as I see the cancelled BL Weekender event and the BL Live events they used to do in June. I hope these come back but if they dont even come back this year ( when you cannot possibly point to Covid anymore as the reason) it would indicate they just pulled the plug.

[Kelborn]

15 hours ago, chevalierdulys said:

Is this forum is there a place to trade books?  or is it frown upon?

 

This forum was/ is/ will not/never meant to be a sales platform. 

 

 

 

 

[Kelborn]

Sorry for double post but one thing that occurred to me now:

 

The BL Celebration 23 changes depending on where you order from.

There's a different line-up for English and French/German orders which is weird.

Didn't mind to translate new stories or what's going on there?

 

Also, will those be deployed across the stores, too? Or are they just a gimmick for successfully getting your order through, which was based on pure luck but we had that discussion already?

[Ubiquitous1984]

20 hours ago, chevalierdulys said:

Is this forum is there a place to trade books?  or is it frown upon?

As this website does not cater for this.  Consider joining the Black Library Nutters facebook group.  They deal with book sales and have an anti-scalper policy.

[Guest Triszin]

Tried to get end and death I, but having vouchers on my account crashed my checkout.....

 

 

So I have to spend my vouchers before the next le I want goes up

[Ubiquitous1984]

Just a heads up - two people on the BL nutters group reported that the LE briefly went back on sale around lunchtime today, but sold out again almost immediately.

 

So it's worth keeping an eye on the order page if you missed out, on the off chance it's briefly relisted.

 

[theSpirea]

Someone already touched on the topic "BL Celebration". Something I've been asking myself for years. What does it even mean? There's no celebration here, there's zero engagement with the community. BL Celebration = multiple LEs on pre-order at the same time.

I've been saying for years, any social media kid would do a way better job than the current WH Community team. One post on their official BL Instagram page this year and no mention of BL Celebration. 

 

Here's a nice summary by, as always, the excellent Track of Words: https://www.trackofwords.com/2023/02/19/black-library-celebrations/