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

[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.

[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.

[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 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.

From what Meredith said, books are not the major problem. I’d guess there are competent, affordable printers in any large country, and Meredith says she’s shifted a lot of that to the States already. It’s the games with plastic components that have the most serious problems.

Of course, Munchkin is the company’s biggest cash cow, and that doesn’t use much plastic, so that’s good. But if paper costs rise significantly, things may get hairy.

[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 )

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Of course, Munchkin is the company’s biggest cash cow, and that doesn’t use much plastic, so that’s good. But if paper costs rise significantly, things may get hairy.

Card printing is very specialised. As far as I recall there's one plant in the US that can do it in quantity and to a workable standard, and since it was bought by Asmodée it doesn't take jobs from anyone else. One in Belgium. And a whole bunch in China and Korea. There are some eastern Europeans trying to get up to speed, but they aren't there yet and that doesn't help the US anyway.