Ordering books from Europe

[MisterGuy]

Hope this is the right place to ask :)
A while ago the Giant posted that ordering books from Ookoodook to Europe would have more affordable shipping prices.

To quote: "Ookoodook has made a pair of deals with local companies in both Canada and Europe to offer reduced postage prices for any order shipping to those regions that includes a pre-order for one or both products. In some cases, this is as low as $11, as opposed to the rates that were higher than the book themselves that we were stuck with before."
I tried to look at a few books today, and the prices were still very high for shipping, e.g $ 58.66 for Utterly Dwarfed.

Any idea if the postal prices might go down, or another cheaper way to order the books from Europe?
Will just add that after reading this webcomic for 14(!) years, I have managed to hook my son as well, and would love to buy him some of the prequels.
Thanks
Guy (a.k.a Mister Guy)

[snowblizz]

Wasn't that specifically in connection with the original book order though?

And not an ongoing thing.

I.e. the reason there was a reduction was that they could bulk ship books to a service provider in Europe who would then repackage and send Euro-internally.


I would suggest looking at local (on-line) booksellers. I've also found OOTS books at wargaming/RPG/CCG shops that stock a variety of sci-fi and fantasy connected stuff, and sometimes they can order it for you as they ahve conenctions to wholesalers, and it usually doesn't come with exorbiant postage.. I got No Good Deed Unpunished from a Scandinavian online bookseller. Unfortunately not seen the new book there.

This probably does not cover anything that was/is Ookoodook exclusive though.

[Rawhide]

Like The Giant himself, I am not responsible for the sale of books at Ookoodook.

I would love to take credit for the reduction in postage and say that I made it happen in response to feedback from customers, but the truth is that I didn't have control over the prices before and I didn't have control over lowering them, either. The people at Ookoodook were able to make these deals by continuing to look for options after we had launched

However, I can hazard a guess that this was a one time deal based on a guaranteed quantity of books all shipping at a specific time in bulk.

and their job was made easier by the fact that they had a certain number of orders in hand for each region. So if you ordered at the higher price, you helped us lower the price for everyone. Thank you!

It should also be noted that it specifically mentions that you need to be pre-ordering at least one of two products (which have now shipped).

Ookoodook has made a pair of deals with local companies in both Canada and Europe to offer reduced postage prices for any order shipping to those regions that includes a pre-order for one or both products.

It is also worth noting here that this offer is over a year old, and pre-COVID, which has had an incredible impact on shipping.

2019-08-26

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Now, as for solutions...

Every one of the books, except The Order of the Stick Coloring Book and the now sold out Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales can be purchased elsewhere. You should try asking your Friendly Local Gaming Store if they have any in stock or can order them in for you. You could also try looking at online book retailers.

I personally have looked into how much it would cost to send a single book from the US, and I can tell you that these rates are pretty close to what I discovered. Certain large online retailers are able to ship at lower rates because they are constantly moving products in bulk, much like the once-off pre-order offer. If you have a lot of products to ship to you from the US from different companies in bulk, you could look into one of those re-shipping companies, and have them combine and re-box your products.

If you are unable to find anywhere local or able to ship to you at affordable rates, all of those books (plus some digital exclusive mini-books) can be purchased from Gumroad digitally.

You can get a better list of what's available and where on the shop page.

[MisterGuy]

Thanks, this is very helpful, will try to look at local gaming shops.
I assumed the lower prices to Europe was an ongoing thing but it seems I was wrong.
Cheers
Guy



Like The Giant himself, I am not responsible for the sale of books at Ookoodook.



However, I can hazard a guess that this was a one time deal based on a guaranteed quantity of books all shipping at a specific time in bulk.



It should also be noted that it specifically mentions that you need to be pre-ordering at least one of two products (which have now shipped).



It is also worth noting here that this offer is over a year old, and pre-COVID, which has had an incredible impact on shipping.



---

Now, as for solutions...

Every one of the books, except The Order of the Stick Coloring Book and the now sold out Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales can be purchased elsewhere. You should try asking your Friendly Local Gaming Store if they have any in stock or can order them in for you. You could also try looking at online book retailers.

[farothel]

I'm not sure where you're based, but I've bought most books (except the last, which I don't have yet) at the Ork's Nest in London. They just had them on display when I was there (might not always be the case) and I don't think I paid an exorbitant price for them.

Of course, with the current COVID and Brexit situations, it might be difficult to get to London. I hope to be able to go in 2022 and have another look around at that time. Might ask at my local comic book store before if I can't wait that long.

[Vinyadan]

Searching your local (European) versions of Amazon, Ebay, Abebooks, etc also should show some lower prices, when the books are already in Europe.

[Khedrac]

I'm not sure where you're based, but I've bought most books (except the last, which I don't have yet) at the Ork's Nest in London. They just had them on display when I was there (might not always be the case) and I don't think I paid an exorbitant price for them.

Of course, with the current COVID and Brexit situations, it might be difficult to get to London. I hope to be able to go in 2022 and have another look around at that time. Might ask at my local comic book store before if I can't wait that long.

I have been using the Orc's Nest website to order gaming books for postal delivery (costs a few £s so combine orders to save on postage). I also got the latest OotS Book there once it finally came into stock.