November 10, 2024: The Reality Of Tariffs In Tabletop Gaming

[NocTempre]

Originally Posted by andreww

How anyone can believe that anyone other than the consumer is paying the tariffs I don't know. Would you pay to go to work?

Money is pretty fungible so pointing to one variable is probably going to be an oversimplification. I don't know, but it seems like high freight yet lack of competitive local manufacturing points to something not working correctly already. A lot of proponents of tariffs claim they protect against an unfair race to the bottom.

SJG has put out a couple political posts this past week, and in my opinion, they weren't particularly presenting nor inviting sophisticated takes. That worries me a lot more than news of a necessary price hike. If it came to that, it doesn't seem like SJG would be uniquely affected, so they could move forward unburdened by what has been the status quo.

[Meredith]

Originally Posted by NocTempre

SJG has put out a couple political posts this past week, and in my opinion, they weren't particularly presenting nor inviting sophisticated takes. That worries me a lot more than news of a necessary price hike. If it came to that, it doesn't seem like SJG would be uniquely affected, so they could move forward unburdened by what has been the status quo.

Oh, how I wish that were the case. Remember, our biggest leaders are our board games - and the reality is that there are very few options for making board game components (especially plastics) at a competitive cost in the United States.

Books? Absolutely. Cards can be printed easily in the US as well. Since I became CEO, I've shifted quite a few of our book prints to US manufacturers. I'm actually a big fan of Made in America when and where I can.

We don't use a lot of plastic components in our games. Ogre and Car Wars are the two main ones that come to mind. But get this: a 2-part injection mold (which is the standard mold for the types of plastics we use in the gaming industry) usually starts at $90,000 and can run up to $250,000 for one mold here in the US. Overseas? $10,000-$15,000. (I do a lot of plastics with some of my other companies.)

The other real concern is if across-the-board tariffs are put into place. That means an extra tax on top of everything imported to the US - be it a finished product or the materials to make a product. The US is the second largest importer of paper (and paperboard). The cost of the paper our US manufacturers use to make our books here in the US will go up. Sure, it will have less impact than a broad tax on a finished item, but it's still an increase we have to bear the burden of.

Another thing I haven't seen many people talk about is just how long it takes to bring a factory online. Or where do we get the resources to manufacture an item if the core materials aren't even produced in the number we need stateside?

I've been planning for this potential eventuality for the last year. But my more considerable fear, outside of increasing the price of our games, is the expendable income the average American family will have to buy games when the cost of everything else goes up. That is more than just a problem for SJGames. It's a problem for the game industry at large.

However, as the CEO of SJGames, it was still my duty to inform you, our most ardent supporters, of the reality of the situation we collectively face.

[SSlemmons]

Originally Posted by Meredith

However, as the CEO of SJGames, it was still my duty to inform you, our most ardent supporters, of the reality of the situation we collectively face.

I am happy that y'all are making the difficult plans for the excessively uncertain future post-January. I'm hoping to make some purchases before then, though I doubt I'll be able to sustain y'all single-handedly. (I'd put a whole bunch of heart emojis here if I could figure out how to use heart emojis...)

[MEGACHAD]

This post sounds rather alarmist. Maybe it is time to look at other east asian countries? Why are you doing business with a country who uses slave labor anyway? Maybe you would make more money doing it yourself, and even more by printing game pieces for other companies as well? It can't be ONLY Steve Jackson Games having this problem.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by MEGACHAD

Maybe it is time to look at other east asian countries?

Tariffs were promised for all imports to the USA.

Originally Posted by MEGACHAD

Maybe you would make more money doing it yourself, and even more by printing game pieces for other companies as well?

See post #10 above: printing in the USA is workable, but prices charged for the steel molds needed for making plastic game pieces in the USA are six to 25 times higher than in China.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by MEGACHAD

Maybe it is time to look at other east asian countries? Why are you doing business with a country who uses slave labor anyway?

Why would other Asian countries suddenly be able to offer cheap plastics manufacture?

Given the price difference quoted between Chinese and American plastics work, I’d have to guess that China has a large, efficient base in the sector with major economies of scale. (I can’t imagine that lower labour costs have much to do with this specific issue, though I’m open to correction.) Nobody else, east or west, is going to be able to match that from a standing start in less than years, if ever.

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Why would other Asian countries suddenly be able to offer cheap plastics manufacture?

Given the price difference quoted between Chinese and American plastics work, I’d have to guess that China has a large, efficient base in the sector with major economies of scale. (I can’t imagine that lower labour costs have much to do with this specific issue, though I’m open to correction.) Nobody else, east or west, is going to be able to match that from a standing start in less than years, if ever.

You might find this article interesting: https://www.industryweek.com/the-eco...-china-cheaper

tl;dr it’s not just lower labor costs, but the other factors don’t exactly endear one to the Chinese gov’t.

[DeadParrot]

I have always liked how SJG is fairly open about their operations and the various things both good and bad that impact sales and prices.

The US spent several decades getting into this addiction to low cost China stuff and it will take a while to reverse it. In many cases, we are discovering that we don't even have the factories capable of making the stuff needed to build factories. So to build a factory to replace Made In China stuff, we have to buy the factory parts from .... China.

Also, shipping costs are probably not going to get lower. The recent contract with the longshoreman unions on the US east coast for example. And the pollution agreements on bunker fuel that mostly eliminated the use of cheap high sulfur dregs from refineries and requires low sulfur fuel that costs a lot more. Seems that clean air has a cost. Not a complaint, I like clean air. (Oddly as a bizarre aside, it seems that the elimination of sulfur from shipping fuel has increased planet temps as sulfur dioxide is a cooling gas. https://www.livescience.com/planet-e...study-suggests )

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by NocTempre

SJG has put out a couple political posts this past week, and in my opinion, they weren't particularly presenting nor inviting sophisticated takes. That worries me a lot more than news of a necessary price hike.

Don’t fret yourself. SJGames will figure some way to keep selling us games. And the political posts are harmless.

Originally Posted by NocTempre

If it came to that, it doesn't seem like SJG would be uniquely affected, so they could move forward unburdened by what has been the status quo.

Exactly. (And, I see what you did there. 🙂)

[WayneV]

Sounds like an ideal opportunity to move GURPS into the modern era and make it fully electronic, with support for VTTs and having the ability to integrate the system into the online world.

I'm in Australia, so it's already too expensive to import hard copies here.