To what extent do you expect the tariffs affect the new edition? How much comes from China?
Other crowdfunded books I have coming are not impacted because bound books are apparently excluded from tariffs into the US.
I’d expect anything else to be impacted on import.
For international shipping, the impact is going to vary by country based on the terms of their retaliatory tariffs.
Plus, everything keeps changing daily, so I suspect that they’re going to have to wait until things are close to shipping to give some or all info.
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Hi - we are paying close attention to the situation, which is changing frequently. Tariffs are certainly going to have an effect, since we intend to print in China, but on us rather than the backers of AMDE. During the Backerkit campaign we knew that tariffs were a likelihood. We assumed, for example, that the Definitive Edition itself would ship separately from all other rewards.
It's too soon for us to make final plans, but we have several contingency arrangements. We have many international backers. We have two paths to getting those backers their Definitive Editions without ever clearing US customs or paying the US taxes that may apply (and it's not clear right now if they apply, or how much, to books).
- One is to work with a non-US fulfillment partner. We would ship goods from China to that partner, and they would fulfill all of our international orders.
- The other option is to use the Foreign Trade Zone here in Duluth. Goods in the FTZ can be re-exported without US customs entry, thus avoiding duties and taxes. We are still waiting for word about the details of this and whether the paperwork etc. makes it feasible for small package consumer shipments.
Given the choice, I'd prefer to use the FTZ, because it means bringing all the goods to a physical location within a few miles of our warehouse, which gives us better control and ability to react to changing circumstances.
For domestic US Backerkit and pre-order customers, where the tax can't be avoided, Atlas Games expects to eat the cost.
The biggest impact has to do with the extent to which we make the game available beyond fulfilling the crowdfunding pledges and pre-orders. As we warned during the campaign, after Trump won, we may not offer the game to general distribution, at least not in this print run. Depending on how the FTZ deals work out, we may be able to offer the game to international wholesalers, but if it does get a 145% (or more?) tax on import to the USA, I don't think that's viable for domestic retail release when it's already an expensive luxury. Probably we would have a limited quantity left after fulfilling rewards, which we might offer direct-to-consumer from our website with a Trump Tax addition to the MSRP to recover whatever we have to pay when it goes through customs entry.
So...for us, in terms of business planning, things are very much up in the air in terms of questions like how many we should print (beyond what we need for BK pledges + pre-orders). But for our backers and folks who have placed pre-orders, I don't think you need to worry. You can just feel good about locking in your price before hyperinflation hits us. 
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I think I speak for a lot of your customers when I say that we would rather pay a bit more than get this one product and watch you go under. You have been very supportive of us. You can turn to us when you need to.
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You're very kind. I have to say that I think our customers have been wildly supportive already with the success of the ArMDE campaign. Having a stash of cash in the bank from it makes us a lot more relaxed about riding these turbulent waves. Consider, too that we have a lot of digital orders for Deluxe Edition, which are not at risk of being tariffed. So our risk is basically whatever tax we'll have to pay on physical copies for US backers. And, well, who really knows what will happen between now and when the book is done?
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They are not encompassed by current (or currently proposed) tariffs, but USA digital goods and services are a fat easy target for retaliatory counter-tariffs given the ample trade surplus USA has on those with most other countries. It is true that they are much easier to charge at the payment than at the delivery stage, so cash already collected should be safe. But ...
Note the subtle psychological ploy to pressure Atlas into getting stuff out as soon as possible
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Heh...no pressure needed there. I'd love to have everything wrapped up yesterday.
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I really appreciate the communication here, John.
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Appreciate everything y'all are doing. If it matters I'd rather pay more than see you take the loss.
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