Leyline Press
CREATOR
about 1 month ago
Project Update: Salvage Union Starter Set April Update - Tariffs & Pledge manager
Hello Salvagers,
We hope you're all well and enjoying the spring.
We're still on track with the creative on the project, with an aim to have PDF's finished by July/August, ready for final proofing and then to be sent to production to hit our fulfilment goal of November.
Split Shipping
We are still offering split shipping on all pledges of the Salvage Union Core Book, and the 3 adventure modules (We Were Here First!, Rainmaker, and False Flag). We had initially planned to do this via pledge manager however this has been delayed, you can read on below for more information.
If you wish to have your order split shipped please get in touch with us via [email protected] or BackerKit and we can arrange it for you. You will need to pay an additional shipping cost to cover it, but we'll be able to ship as soon as we receive payment.
Tariffs, Pledge manager and Pre-Orders.
The elephant in the room is the unfolding US tariff situation which unfortunately does affect this project as the Salvage Union Starter Set is currently set to be produced in China.
Backers outside of the US wont be directly affected by this as we can have the required Starter Sets shipped from China to the UK to distribute to the EU, Canada and Rest of World, however US backers make up the majority of backers on this campaign, and means we can't as a result proceed until we have the best idea of the overall shipping and manufacturing cost of the project, which the tariffs do heavily impact.
We've received production quotes from our current manufacturing partner at Panda Games in China, and normally we'd be getting ready to send the pledge manager out now to collect shipping, as well as getting pre-orders up for those who missed the campaign.
However the current 145% tariff on goods sent from China to the US means an approximate $12,000 - $13,000 tariff fee for the project based on the production quotes and the amount we need to send to only cover all backers in the campaign.
This is only shipping the bare minimum to cover, meaning we would have no stock in the US for any follow up pre-order, direct or retail sales. We'd effectively be out of stock immediately in the US. If we wanted to ship an amount of Starter Sets to cover follow up sales, the tariff fee would be closer to $25,000.
Whilst we can bare some of these cost, this is such a drastic increase that we'd realistically need to pass some of it on, as result if we were to send out the pledge manager now, US backers would need to pay significantly more in shipping costs to cover tariffs, potentially up to 2-3x our current estimates to cover tariffs, which we feel realistically is going to be untenable for the majority of backers and something we very much want to avoid.
This would have a further impact on pre-order and our follow up retail sales plans as pre-order backers in the US would also need to pay the additional tariff costs, and we'd have to increase the RRP of the Starter Set by around 2-3x to cover the tariff cost, and it's unlikely as a result anyone is going to be interested in buying a $80+ Starter Set. This effectively kills any of our follow up sales, and means nobody will be able to pick up the Starter Set who didn't back the campaign in the US, which is bad for the overall health of the game as we wanted the Starter Set to help onboard new players.
The fluctuating and unpredictable nature of the tariffs also means that these numbers are very hard to predict, even if we were to significantly increase shipping costs for US backers to cover current tariffs, and then when we went to ship, the Trump administration could decide to increase Tariffs to say 250%, then we simply wouldn't have the money to fulfil the project and we'd either need to ask backers for more money, or just leave the stock in China until the situation changes. Meaning we can only safely launch pledge manager as close as possible to shipping to mitigate any risk of another price increase.
What we're doing.
The good news is that the Starter Set has not been sent to production yet, and we are using that to look at other potential manufacturers with our partners in Europe, who may be able to produce the Starter Set instead, whilst this will reduce the impact of the tariffs, it may still have an impact in regards to increased cost and delays in production, as well as potentially certain add ons to the campaign no longer being produced. One reason most tabletop games, especially box sets with multiple components, are produced in China is because they are capable of offering a wide range of services which other manufacturers aren't able to do as they don't have the tooling, supply lines, and expertise in place. We are hoping this won't be the case of course but won't know until we can get more accurate quotes from other manufacturers.
We also have some time to monitor the situation, tariffs may also decrease in which case we'd continue as planned though, we'd need to collect shipping as close as possible to shipping the project to mitigate any potential tariff increases.
We are also looking into further options beyond that to mitigate the impact of the tariffs and discussing solutions with other creators in the industry, though it's unfortunately a very difficult situation with no perfect solution, which we're sure many of you know is causing widespread issues across the entire tabletop industry.
In the short term this means the pledge manager and pre-orders are going to be delayed until we can have the clearest idea possible of the cost of the project, and what we need to charge for shipping, in the long term this may lead to production delays and increased shipping costs, especially if we need to work with a different manufacturer, however we are doing everything we can to mitigate the impact of this on you.
Our main priority is ultimately to fulfil the project for all backers, at the most affordable cost possible for backers, whilst staying afloat ourselves as a small, indie TTRPG company. We'll keep you updated on the situation and hope to resolve it as best as possible.
We are of course sorry for the impact that this has had, and if you have any questions we're happy to discuss them. Feel free to comment here, send us an e-mail, or join the Discord where we're happy to chat directly with you.
Thankyou for all our support.
Happy Salvaging.
Panny & Aled
Leyline Press
Contact and Social Media
We hope you're all well and enjoying the spring.
We're still on track with the creative on the project, with an aim to have PDF's finished by July/August, ready for final proofing and then to be sent to production to hit our fulfilment goal of November.
Split Shipping
We are still offering split shipping on all pledges of the Salvage Union Core Book, and the 3 adventure modules (We Were Here First!, Rainmaker, and False Flag). We had initially planned to do this via pledge manager however this has been delayed, you can read on below for more information.
If you wish to have your order split shipped please get in touch with us via [email protected] or BackerKit and we can arrange it for you. You will need to pay an additional shipping cost to cover it, but we'll be able to ship as soon as we receive payment.
Tariffs, Pledge manager and Pre-Orders.
The elephant in the room is the unfolding US tariff situation which unfortunately does affect this project as the Salvage Union Starter Set is currently set to be produced in China.
Backers outside of the US wont be directly affected by this as we can have the required Starter Sets shipped from China to the UK to distribute to the EU, Canada and Rest of World, however US backers make up the majority of backers on this campaign, and means we can't as a result proceed until we have the best idea of the overall shipping and manufacturing cost of the project, which the tariffs do heavily impact.
We've received production quotes from our current manufacturing partner at Panda Games in China, and normally we'd be getting ready to send the pledge manager out now to collect shipping, as well as getting pre-orders up for those who missed the campaign.
However the current 145% tariff on goods sent from China to the US means an approximate $12,000 - $13,000 tariff fee for the project based on the production quotes and the amount we need to send to only cover all backers in the campaign.
This is only shipping the bare minimum to cover, meaning we would have no stock in the US for any follow up pre-order, direct or retail sales. We'd effectively be out of stock immediately in the US. If we wanted to ship an amount of Starter Sets to cover follow up sales, the tariff fee would be closer to $25,000.
Whilst we can bare some of these cost, this is such a drastic increase that we'd realistically need to pass some of it on, as result if we were to send out the pledge manager now, US backers would need to pay significantly more in shipping costs to cover tariffs, potentially up to 2-3x our current estimates to cover tariffs, which we feel realistically is going to be untenable for the majority of backers and something we very much want to avoid.
This would have a further impact on pre-order and our follow up retail sales plans as pre-order backers in the US would also need to pay the additional tariff costs, and we'd have to increase the RRP of the Starter Set by around 2-3x to cover the tariff cost, and it's unlikely as a result anyone is going to be interested in buying a $80+ Starter Set. This effectively kills any of our follow up sales, and means nobody will be able to pick up the Starter Set who didn't back the campaign in the US, which is bad for the overall health of the game as we wanted the Starter Set to help onboard new players.
The fluctuating and unpredictable nature of the tariffs also means that these numbers are very hard to predict, even if we were to significantly increase shipping costs for US backers to cover current tariffs, and then when we went to ship, the Trump administration could decide to increase Tariffs to say 250%, then we simply wouldn't have the money to fulfil the project and we'd either need to ask backers for more money, or just leave the stock in China until the situation changes. Meaning we can only safely launch pledge manager as close as possible to shipping to mitigate any risk of another price increase.
What we're doing.
The good news is that the Starter Set has not been sent to production yet, and we are using that to look at other potential manufacturers with our partners in Europe, who may be able to produce the Starter Set instead, whilst this will reduce the impact of the tariffs, it may still have an impact in regards to increased cost and delays in production, as well as potentially certain add ons to the campaign no longer being produced. One reason most tabletop games, especially box sets with multiple components, are produced in China is because they are capable of offering a wide range of services which other manufacturers aren't able to do as they don't have the tooling, supply lines, and expertise in place. We are hoping this won't be the case of course but won't know until we can get more accurate quotes from other manufacturers.
We also have some time to monitor the situation, tariffs may also decrease in which case we'd continue as planned though, we'd need to collect shipping as close as possible to shipping the project to mitigate any potential tariff increases.
We are also looking into further options beyond that to mitigate the impact of the tariffs and discussing solutions with other creators in the industry, though it's unfortunately a very difficult situation with no perfect solution, which we're sure many of you know is causing widespread issues across the entire tabletop industry.
In the short term this means the pledge manager and pre-orders are going to be delayed until we can have the clearest idea possible of the cost of the project, and what we need to charge for shipping, in the long term this may lead to production delays and increased shipping costs, especially if we need to work with a different manufacturer, however we are doing everything we can to mitigate the impact of this on you.
Our main priority is ultimately to fulfil the project for all backers, at the most affordable cost possible for backers, whilst staying afloat ourselves as a small, indie TTRPG company. We'll keep you updated on the situation and hope to resolve it as best as possible.
We are of course sorry for the impact that this has had, and if you have any questions we're happy to discuss them. Feel free to comment here, send us an e-mail, or join the Discord where we're happy to chat directly with you.
Thankyou for all our support.
Happy Salvaging.
Panny & Aled
Leyline Press
Contact and Social Media
Email: [email protected]
Salvage Union Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/salvageunion/
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