Bitzbox suspends shipping to EU

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

Bitzbox is a well known British on-line shop, specialised in miniature bits and other hobby supplies. They put this message in their official Twitter account this week:

"Due to the incoming GPSR regulations we will be suspending shipping to the EU and Northern Ireland on the 7th December"

 

After asking, this suspension also affects countries in the EEA area, like Linchestein, Iceland,Norway, Northern Ireland,...

 

Probably this is because the increase costs and paperwork that companies must face. The small ones can't afford such new costs.

 

A sad news, indeed.

[MARK0SIAN]

It’s sad if people can’t get what they want but in my experience bitzbox is always out of stock of everything I want anyway. eBay tends to be a much more reliable source of bitz. 

[Pacific81]

Basically all small British hobby companies are going through this at the moment, there is a lot of chatter (and despair) on social media. Companies looking for ways to sell, and a lot of the time these are small one or two man operations that don't have the capacity to get around it.

 

Now going to be losing a good portion of their trade to their EU customers, all a result of the massive self-own the UK inflicted on itself and which we must not mention..

[Evil Eye]

I have a lot to say but I'll keep it shut as it's outside the remit of this forum, so all I'll say is we were not given what we asked for and keep it at that.

[Harrowmaster]

Well that's not ideal but I believe Bitzarium is EU based for anyone looking for an alternative.

[Robbienw]

Surely what will happen here is agencies/companies in the EU will start offering collective representative services for this to small non-EU companies for modest fees?

 

The products modelling and bits companies sell will largely already meet EU specifications. 

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

It's sad and frustrating that those within the EU will have one fewer bitz supplier to choose from.

 

Also, just a reminder that the merits or demerits of the UK's relationship with the EU (or changes to it) are outside the scope of this forum.   

Edited November 29 by Firedrake Cordova

[MoriyaSchism]

Can't say it's much of a loss. The last three times I've bought from them they sent less than I actually ordered and simply refused to reply to any email I've sent them.

[No Foes Remain]

Archie's Forge has gone through the same thing, but they are going to be shipping. Mr Archie himself has said on the discord that he's needed to provide a 2 page document for each item they sell, which is nearly a thousand. As well as pay a grand or two in fees to keep shipping to the EU.

 

If Bitzbox had to do two pages for each item they sell then... that's a lot of bloody pages....

[Firedrake Cordova]

=][= Polite reminder that the B&C is not the place to talk about politics (including political organisations) =][=

[Alby the Slayer]

I'll of course avoid the political problem. We all know why we are in this situation.

 

What really irritate me is GW and their attitude about bits and sprue.

 

As some of the Fraters/Sisters here I come from an era when GW would sent to you bits and sprue of anything and let me tell you this, it was so great to search in our catalogues (I know I'm old xD) and call the mail order to get what we wanted. As an hobbyst and collector it was heaven. I still keep those catalogues, they are much dear to me.

And GW can do that now, no problem. 

But they prefer to force to buy an entire box for some little bits you need...

[ZeroWolf]

14 minutes ago, Alby the Slayer said:

I'll of course avoid the political problem. We all know why we are in this situation.

 

What really irritate me is GW and their attitude about bits and sprue.

 

As some of the Fraters/Sisters here I come from an era when GW would sent to you bits and sprue of anything and let me tell you this, it was so great to search in our catalogues (I know I'm old xD) and call the mail order to get what we wanted. As an hobbyst and collector it was heaven. I still keep those catalogues, they are much dear to me.

And GW can do that now, no problem. 

But they prefer to force to buy an entire box for some little bits you need...

I reckon it was storage costs that they wanted to save on when they axed mail order bitz.

[MARK0SIAN]

1 hour ago, Alby the Slayer said:

I'll of course avoid the political problem. We all know why we are in this situation.

 

What really irritate me is GW and their attitude about bits and sprue.

 

As some of the Fraters/Sisters here I come from an era when GW would sent to you bits and sprue of anything and let me tell you this, it was so great to search in our catalogues (I know I'm old xD) and call the mail order to get what we wanted. As an hobbyst and collector it was heaven. I still keep those catalogues, they are much dear to me.

And GW can do that now, no problem. 

But they prefer to force to buy an entire box for some little bits you need...

I don’t think GW could do that easily now. The hobby, the player base and the range of kits has grown significantly since those days. The demand on a bitz service would likely be considerable and they’d need to employ new staff to deal with the orders which, if you’re buying individual bits, would likely have a very small or non-existent profit margin for them. 

There’s also the fact that their production can’t even keep pace with the demand for full kits. Dedicating a significant amount of production time to sprues that would then have to be broken up and sold piecemeal (possibly for no profit when you factor in the staff costs) is not something they could realistically do. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

1 hour ago, ZeroWolf said:

I reckon it was storage costs that they wanted to save on when they axed mail order bitz.

I seem to remember being told by a store staffer that Mail Order had about the same revenue as a single stored.

 

It was definitely a shame - I made fair use of the service to order individual models (it was a time of randomised blisters and wanting to avoid duplicates or get that last remaining different model) and parts ("I'll have a Chaplain's Crozius arm and an eagle's left wing, please!" ), and the staff were great to talk to (phone ordering being a thing). *nostalgic sniff*

Edited November 30 by Firedrake Cordova

[Robbienw]

2 hours ago, Alby the Slayer said:

I'll of course avoid the political problem. We all know why we are in this situation.

 

What really irritate me is GW and their attitude about bits and sprue.

 

As some of the Fraters/Sisters here I come from an era when GW would sent to you bits and sprue of anything and let me tell you this, it was so great to search in our catalogues (I know I'm old xD) and call the mail order to get what we wanted. As an hobbyst and collector it was heaven. I still keep those catalogues, they are much dear to me.

And GW can do that now, no problem. 

But they prefer to force to buy an entire box for some little bits you need...

They couldn’t really do that now because of the nature of the plastic sprues and the fact it would be worth the time and logistical effort to them.

 

The metal parts of kits could be cast in differing numbers, you can’t do that with plastic sprues.

[Firedrake Cordova]

With modern sprue arrangement, it'd be difficult, yes. Although it'd be nice to be able to order single sprues - half a Necromunda gang box, etc. In the past you could order sub-sprues, so one Space Marine (when each Space Marine was in their own sub-sprue, connected to a main spar so they were easy to separate), although I imagine GW have no appetite for that due to the staff time and manufacturing capacity required.

Edited November 30 by Firedrake Cordova

[Lord_Ikka]

=][= Locked due to continual off-topic posts. If you have further information about Bitzbox and shipping, PM a mod so that we can unlock/add the information to the topic. =][=