The Brexit Alternative: trying out various european mainland retailers

 Well, Brexit... 

It sucks gigantically for us mainland wargamers, as overnight everything became a lot more expensive.

Whose right, whose wrong, that's a discussion I don't get into, as only time will tell, and I`m not a UK citizen, nor was I there to vote, comment or hear campaigns.  But I do know that the current result (heck, it might change if agreements get made) is nefast for my wallet and collection drive (okay, Noshi does`t agree on the wallet part).  Import duties, customs costs, Belgium being already a high taxing country... we are looking at about 30% on top of our order total (including shipping costs!!!) for our lovely little parcels from the UK now.

Granted, there are some ways around it, like having GW delivered straight to their stores, but you lose the benefits of the UK retailers luke Wayland, Element or Firestorm, and it actually now comes out MORE expensive then ordering from GW itself (simple math, 15 or 20% reduction vs 30% added) and store picking up.

Not to mention the very, very difficult, or expensive, way we now need to get our smaller brand fixes like Oathsworn (for my Burrows and Badgers) and about everything 6mm apart from the company in Poland that makes ACW and Napoleonics (I have an army for the first, and no intrest in the latter period)... so yeah, hard times it are.

So with this irregular feature on the blog, I`ll be looking and trying out various online retailers I found on the web, mostly located in either Spain or in Germany.  

 

The selection criteria I used where pretty simple: 

 

1. Carry a gazillion ranges (fantasy and sci-fi), preferably NOT only the large brands (Games Workshop, Warlord Games, Flames of War,...) but also smaller, not per se obscure lines.

2. Like the above mentioned retailers, offer reductions across the whole board so it is actually cheaper then RRP

3. If possible, have some long forgotten treasures in there, usually at large discounts, of flopped or discontinued lines, but still usuable "for something".  Which in this last points case is often fantasy to be used in either T9A or DnD.

So I made my first order today at one of those retailers, Turol Games from Spain, and I will keep you all updated on how it went once the order has arrived.  I also on purpose went for something that ticked all three boxes above.

Hopefully until soon for the first reporting back on this matter!