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Website already pretty non-responsive at 10:50, managed to get it into my cart but the entire websites crashed around 11:00, came back at 11:20 but it's already sold out, gg. Guess it's time to sell my other SoT books, done with this.

I'm glad I wasn't after any of the SoT books - just trying to get that First Founding book, as it looked cool.

Sorry you've had that bad an experience, though.

At this point i think they'd need to consider some sort of serious intervention to stop this scalping bulls**t. Allow a week of registration and then draw randomly from all people that registered, or something like that. The 'first past the post' system simply isn't fair and causes ill will and bad feelings all around.

Tsagualsa wrote:
At this point i think they'd need to consider some sort of serious intervention to stop this scalping bulls**t. Allow a week of registration and then draw randomly from all people that registered, or something like that. The 'first past the post' system simply isn't fair and causes ill will and bad feelings all around.

Sadly its a problem a lot of retailers are suffering from and its very hard to avoid online. Every time a company comes up with a new method, the scalpers find new ways around it. Heck at least it isn't as bad as major football and music event tickets where they can sell out in seconds to scalpers.

I managed to order the Dawn of Fire special edition at 11:35 here in the Netherlands after more than half an hour of an unresponsive website and a dozen error screens, and when i checked out five minutes later it had sold out. I also manged to get the hardback SoT book, I wasn't going to bother with the limited edition and that seemingly was a good choice. Finally I got two Cadian upgrade sprues and interestingly, they were limited to a maximum of three per order.

 Overread wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:
At this point i think they'd need to consider some sort of serious intervention to stop this scalping bulls**t. Allow a week of registration and then draw randomly from all people that registered, or something like that. The 'first past the post' system simply isn't fair and causes ill will and bad feelings all around.

Sadly its a problem a lot of retailers are suffering from and its very hard to avoid online. Every time a company comes up with a new method, the scalpers find new ways around it. Heck at least it isn't as bad as major football and music event tickets where they can sell out in seconds to scalpers.

Yeah i know. The fundamental problem is that any version of restricted access online is about as likely to keep out legit customers, and it is conversely trivially easy to make/have an arbitrary number of fake accounts and sockpuppets. Still, their current method of 'do nothing and don't talk about it' is not satisfactory.

I missed this one too. Surprisingly I don’t think I even care anymore. I’m just done with their limited editions now.

 ImAGeek wrote:
I missed this one too. Surprisingly I don’t think I even care anymore. I’m just done with their limited editions now.

Apparently the first one went up on ebay at 10:12, for a slender 400 pound...

At this point i think GW needs to manually track that stuff and cancel these orders. It would not solve the scalper problem, but it would send a signal.

Tsagualsa wrote:

 ImAGeek wrote:
I missed this one too. Surprisingly I don’t think I even care anymore. I’m just done with their limited editions now.

Apparently the first one went up on ebay at 10:12, for a slender 400 pound...

At this point i think GW needs to manually track that stuff and cancel these orders. It would not solve the scalper problem, but it would send a signal.

How will they even know who bought it? Even if only 1 person ordered the book in the same registered town/area as listed on the ebay account it doesn't mean its the same person. The ebay account could be registered by a friend/family member in one region whilst the person making the purchase could be in another. Or the shipment address for one of their many scalper stores is dotted around the country so, again, the book might go to region A whilst the store might be registered in region B.

Heck I've regularly had mail sent to the family home instead of uni digs/rentals/away from home etc....

Managed to get an order for the End and the Death limited edition.

Took 5+ minutes just to get through the pages and the site crashed right after I placed the order, but it worked.

Utterly absurd seeing them listed on Ebay for £300 - 400 just minutes after being made available on the GW site, but even more absurd that people are buying them at those price already. Several dozen listed and sold On Ebay UK already, before anyone even has the book to sell.

 Overread wrote:

How will they even know who bought it? Even if only 1 person ordered the book in the same registered town/area as listed on the ebay account it doesn't mean its the same person. The ebay account could be registered by a friend/family member in one region whilst the person making the purchase could be in another. Or the shipment address for one of their many scalper stores is dotted around the country so, again, the book might go to region A whilst the store might be registered in region B.

Heck I've regularly had mail sent to the family home instead of uni digs/rentals/away from home etc....

Sure, you might have had that stuff done--but they can always track specific storefronts on eBay. They can purchase the items from them and get shipper details that way.

Etc etc etc

Seems costly.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Overread wrote:

How will they even know who bought it? Even if only 1 person ordered the book in the same registered town/area as listed on the ebay account it doesn't mean its the same person. The ebay account could be registered by a friend/family member in one region whilst the person making the purchase could be in another. Or the shipment address for one of their many scalper stores is dotted around the country so, again, the book might go to region A whilst the store might be registered in region B.

Heck I've regularly had mail sent to the family home instead of uni digs/rentals/away from home etc....

Sure, you might have had that stuff done--but they can always track specific storefronts on eBay. They can purchase the items from them and get shipper details that way.

Etc etc etc

Aren't the collector's editions all furnished with a certificate and a serial number? You could absolutely track these, and e.g. lifetime-ban scalpers. Of course that can be avoided too, but as i said, it's as much about sending a message as it is about any actual effect.

Who benefits from empty PR?

Tsagualsa wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Overread wrote:

How will they even know who bought it? Even if only 1 person ordered the book in the same registered town/area as listed on the ebay account it doesn't mean its the same person. The ebay account could be registered by a friend/family member in one region whilst the person making the purchase could be in another. Or the shipment address for one of their many scalper stores is dotted around the country so, again, the book might go to region A whilst the store might be registered in region B.

Heck I've regularly had mail sent to the family home instead of uni digs/rentals/away from home etc....

Sure, you might have had that stuff done--but they can always track specific storefronts on eBay. They can purchase the items from them and get shipper details that way.

Etc etc etc

Aren't the collector's editions all furnished with a certificate and a serial number? You could absolutely track these, and e.g. lifetime-ban scalpers. Of course that can be avoided too, but as i said, it's as much about sending a message as it is about any actual effect.

I mean, are you seriously going to spend man-power and hours trawling ebay, facebook and god knows what else to find these? And even then, how do you know it's not someone who perhaps bought it for themselves but then decided to sell it later? I don't care for scalping, but that seems unreasonable.

Honestly rather they spent the money just making more copies!

 Overread wrote:
Honestly rather they spent the money just making more copies!

Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong sort of thing elsewhere but 1500+ copies already seems like quite a substantial number for a limited edition signed book.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

I mean, are you seriously going to spend man-power and hours trawling ebay, facebook and god knows what else to find these?

They already have people doing this kind of stuff. It just mostly is more for IP enforcement.

And even then, how do you know it's not someone who perhaps bought it for themselves but then decided to sell it later? I don't care for scalping, but that seems unreasonable.

You get that the scalpers are the ones selling it right off the bat, day of preorders yeah, and usually multiple copies of said item?

Timing is an important context to this. Right now the GW-US page is running fairly slow because of this nonsense.

wait did these sell out early? They haven't even been on sale yet as far as I can tell on the US store

There should be a separate stock for the Americas.

Personally, I got my standard hardback edition of Siege of Terra through my local discounter (along with the other new Guard stuff), but did wind up ordering the three MTO Ghost novels from GW, but at the end of the day, after work, so when the rush finally died down.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

I mean, are you seriously going to spend man-power and hours trawling ebay, facebook and god knows what else to find these?

They already have people doing this kind of stuff. It just mostly is more for IP enforcement.

And even then, how do you know it's not someone who perhaps bought it for themselves but then decided to sell it later? I don't care for scalping, but that seems unreasonable.

You get that the scalpers are the ones selling it right off the bat, day of preorders yeah, and usually multiple copies of said item?

Timing is an important context to this. Right now the GW-US page is running fairly slow because of this nonsense.

Yeah, it's kind of what a substantial part of any brand's legal team usually does: scouring the various platforms for people that overstep what is allowed in advertising, as well as hunting for counterfeiters or in this case recasters. Depending on the specific terms&conditions of purchases and the legal situation in the relevant country, going after scalpers is part of their mission scope, although that is usually more of a thing with event tickets and the like.

Of course they could try to 'solve' the issue by printing 10.000s of 'limited' copies, but that is kind of contrary to the point of a limited edition.

I'm not saying that hunting scalpers would be a wise investment, but the current situation is on a trajectory that is actually damaging to the brand. If limited editions become practically un-obtainable through the official channels and you have to rely on scalpers that demand a premium of several 100% that's bound to piss a lot of people off permanently.

Tsagualsa wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

I mean, are you seriously going to spend man-power and hours trawling ebay, facebook and god knows what else to find these?

They already have people doing this kind of stuff. It just mostly is more for IP enforcement.

And even then, how do you know it's not someone who perhaps bought it for themselves but then decided to sell it later? I don't care for scalping, but that seems unreasonable.

You get that the scalpers are the ones selling it right off the bat, day of preorders yeah, and usually multiple copies of said item?

Timing is an important context to this. Right now the GW-US page is running fairly slow because of this nonsense.

Yeah, it's kind of what a substantial part of any brand's legal team usually does: scouring the various platforms for people that overstep what is allowed in advertising, as well as hunting for counterfeiters or in this case recasters. Depending on the specific terms&conditions of purchases and the legal situation in the relevant country, going after scalpers is part of their mission scope, although that is usually more of a thing with event tickets and the like.

Of course they could try to 'solve' the issue by printing 10.000s of 'limited' copies, but that is kind of contrary to the point of a limited edition.

I'm not saying that hunting scalpers would be a wise investment, but the current situation is on a trajectory that is actually damaging to the brand. If limited editions become practically un-obtainable through the official channels and you have to rely on scalpers that demand a premium of several 100% that's bound to piss a lot of people off permanently.

Takes 30 seconds to view Ebay complete listings. A staffer can then inform the GW board how much price gouging they gave away to predatory scalpers.

Then we can all await new LE pricing.

I’m a bit relieved. I spent 20 minutes waiting at the cart screen to checkout…which never came. Eventually my screen reloaded with “item out of stock.” So I’ve spent meaningful time in my life pursuing the previous LEs of the books and novellas (some while I was on vacation). I was going to also get the First Founding. Now it’s a no. They don’t respect my time or interest, and I’ve spent far too much time chasing nonsense LEs. I’ll list the previous SoT LEs on eBay over the next week, and make lemonade out of lemons. And never, ever worry about a GW LE again. And possibly BL as a whole. I’ve been a fan of this particular lore since the original RoC: Lost and the Damned hardcover in the early 90s. Bill King will continue to suffice.

 dienekes96 wrote:
I’m a bit relieved. I spent 20 minutes waiting at the cart screen to checkout…which never came. Eventually my screen reloaded with “item out of stock.” So I’ve spent meaningful time in my life pursuing the previous LEs of the books and novellas (some while I was on vacation). I was going to also get the First Founding. Now it’s a no. They don’t respect my time or interest, and I’ve spent far too much time chasing nonsense LEs. I’ll list the previous SoT LEs on eBay over the next week, and make lemonade out of lemons. And never, ever worry about a GW LE again. And possibly BL as a whole. I’ve been a fan of this particular lore since the original RoC: Lost and the Damned hardcover in the early 90s. Bill King will continue to suffice.

It's not GW greedily buying all the stock in order to sell it at much higher prices. So just how is it them not respecting your time and interest rather than the people doing it being the problem?

 dienekes96 wrote:
I’m a bit relieved. I spent 20 minutes waiting at the cart screen to checkout…which never came. Eventually my screen reloaded with “item out of stock.” So I’ve spent meaningful time in my life pursuing the previous LEs of the books and novellas (some while I was on vacation). I was going to also get the First Founding. Now it’s a no. They don’t respect my time or interest, and I’ve spent far too much time chasing nonsense LEs. I’ll list the previous SoT LEs on eBay over the next week, and make lemonade out of lemons. And never, ever worry about a GW LE again. And possibly BL as a whole. I’ve been a fan of this particular lore since the original RoC: Lost and the Damned hardcover in the early 90s. Bill King will continue to suffice.

Yeah I might ebay mine as well. If this is what it's going to be like indefinitely, I may as well make well over a grand (closer to two!) on what I've got.

I'm curious - GW has/had a queue system that they use (or have used) on certain releases to a, help keep the site stable; and b, partially deal with the scalper issue.

Can anyone remember when they last used it? Seems like SoT LE releases would be a good time to deploy it if it is still around.

And, for that matter, did people think it helped when it was used?

It very much helps over the site simply crashing or not processing orders or otherwise being totally unworkable and leaving you unknowing if your order really has been processed or ending up processing more than one etc..

That said for a product with only 1.5K copies I think it would cause a lot of irate people who would complain that they couldn't make an order because the site locked them out formally; as opposed to the informal "its just being buggy" approach that you get without the waiting system

 Dysartes wrote:
Can anyone remember when they last used it? Seems like SoT LE releases would be a good time to deploy it if it is still around.

And, for that matter, did people think it helped when it was used?

The last AoS starter, I think? Hard to tell if it worked, given we have no data on momentary supply and demand.

Personally I don't see the hype over those limited edition siege books. I appreciate a nice aesthetic, but paying mental money for some pleather bound books? Not for me. Don't enable them, gw or the resellers.

 Mentlegen324 wrote:

 dienekes96 wrote:
I’m a bit relieved. I spent 20 minutes waiting at the cart screen to checkout…which never came. Eventually my screen reloaded with “item out of stock.” So I’ve spent meaningful time in my life pursuing the previous LEs of the books and novellas (some while I was on vacation). I was going to also get the First Founding. Now it’s a no. They don’t respect my time or interest, and I’ve spent far too much time chasing nonsense LEs. I’ll list the previous SoT LEs on eBay over the next week, and make lemonade out of lemons. And never, ever worry about a GW LE again. And possibly BL as a whole. I’ve been a fan of this particular lore since the original RoC: Lost and the Damned hardcover in the early 90s. Bill King will continue to suffice.

It's not GW greedily buying all the stock in order to sell it at much higher prices. So just how is it them not respecting your time and interest rather than the people doing it being the problem?

This entire LE edition is due to GW’s greed. Back when BL started the Horus Heresy, and while the HH books were hitting the bestseller list, there were no LE products. (The closest you had were the different printings having different foil colors.). Everyone who wanted a book could get one at the same time. People could discuss the books while they were fresh. Then GW started the LE nonsense, and killed the discussion, fell off the bestseller list, and made following their series a burden. There would be no scalpers if GW had not become greedy and started trying to milk the fanbase extra hard.