Anyone in Australia found Destiny's Way yet? - Yes, it is OUT!!

I have just been told that due to a Delayed Shipment that Collins in Victoria will not be getting DW until the 25th and probably won't be on shelf until a few days after that date. IMO i think the American docks dispute may have had a hand in the delay.

 

I should have it sometime next week -- I just ordered it today from my local store.

 

I don't think so. If Australia's supply of Destiny's Way was coming in by sea, we'd be waiting a lot longer for it, and it would have been available for sale in America two or three months ago. Our supplies will likely be printed locally, as was the case with Traitor, or airfreighted in sufficient quantities to warrant the expense.

 

Here's a question for anyone with insider's information.

Rather than expensive and far distance shipments, wouldn't the local publisher print the local book copies here?

Yes, SW is American, so the state or national division in Aust would print their local copies.

What are the pros vs cons of imports over local production?

 

It's easy enough to find out. Look at the publisher and copyright info on one the first pages. That'll tell you where the book is published. My copy of Traitor was published here in good ol' Oz.

 

Hmmm. That being the case, locally printed copies would be cheaper over their imported counterparts.

 

They ought to be cheaper, yeah. Some have been done here. I would imagine the publishers do some maths and make a decision.

Well, anyway, now the boring bit, and hopefully the last you'll be wanting to hear from me for one lifetime. Here?s my data, based on all SW hardcovers on our stock file shown as released since late 1999:

(All local prices are assumed to be publisher?s RRP)

TITLE/RELEASE/US PRICE where pertinent/(Import Shelf Price) local RRP

Approaching Storm/Feb02/US$26.00/($62.05) $39.95
AOTC/Apr02/$39.95 (local only)
Balance Point/Nov00/$38.25 (local only)
Cloak Of Deception/Jun01/$26.00/US$25.95/($62.05) $40.00
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter/Apr01/$44.95 (local only)
Rogue Planet/May00/$38.45 (local only by available history, but earlier import is possible)
Star By Star/Nov01/US$26.00/(?) $39.90 (remaining import history line shows $39.90, suggesting there was leftover import stock to be price-adjusted to RRP at the time of general local release. I can safely surmise by a post elsewhere in this thread that SBS imports did indeed retail at approx. $60)
(Edit: Oops no I can't. I mis-read the post concerned. Well I don't have anything to indicate it wasn't $60-ish, anyway, just for the record.. there are titles well on either side that support this as likely)
Vector Prime/Oct99/$35 (same detail as for ROGUE PLANET)

I find it strange, that DW is $60, when previously no SW hardback on sale at Minotaur was over $50. There could be all sorts of factors that have effects on prices, but surely a $10 rise in the last little while is peculiar

Hey, I honestly thought I remembered $45 import hardcovers, too. But what I?m finding with the data is imported books in the same publisher?s price bracket, from the same source, to have been fairly consistently priced over the last two to three years. i.e. around $60 for a US$25-$26. Not that this is a huge sample slice by any means, but it?s as big as I have.

(Ironically, there is technically more variation to be found at RRP level, since DARTH MAUL SHADOW HUNTER was still US$26 but ended up $45. But we didn?t make up that one, the publisher here did).

So what can I infer from these figures? On the face of it, just that everyone (myself included) has probably been mixing up memories of book prices with different pedigrees. Obviously comparing an import to a local copy is going to mislead.

Look at AOTC. We didn?t get that from o/s to begin with. I guess the local one was released quickly enough for imports to be pointless (or under the Copyright Act, even illegal). So you could point out that it is US$26, and so is DW, and we sold you AOTC for $40 dollars, and right now DW is $60. Of course, you folk can?t know about all this, you understandably take it at face value, and fair enough. This has been a good exercise for me too. Hopefully I?ve at least demonstrated that while $60 may not be ?good?, it is at least not a mean-spirited rip-off. Well, not our $60 anyway.

Having said that, if anybody has a title I?ve left out with a marked price they think blows my conclusions outa the water, please let me know. Our database does get edited for space reasons occasionally ? though since it still contains an apparently defunct release called - DARK SWORD? ? as well as hardcovers back into the early 90s, I?m assuming the SW section is still very intact?

BTW, Excellence, you said you didn?t know us before, and besides we only ever sold AOTC for $39.95. So where?d you get your $45 one, may I ask? Just curious because that price seems neither fish nor fowl? it could be an overpriced local, or a pretty cheap import, or ?. ?

I know from my experience, that if consumers find that a book is unreasonably priced (which from the uninformed consumer POV, it is) and that same book will be available for significantly less a week or two later, very few copies will be sold and if Minotaur has actually paid the moon to get the books in, it could well come up short.

Right. Can?t fault any of that.

 

Fanboy_Holocaust, in response to your question about where I get these $45 SW hardcover prices, from a variety of local booksellers.

More specifically, Dymocks, Angus & Robinson, K-mart and David Jones. The former two are proper book stores, the latter pair major department names. All located in the Bondi Junction surburb; some branches in the city centre.

$45 would reflect current prices where I am. Some of your quotes of $40 and $35 reflect what hardback prices were up to approx two years back---and pre-GST.

As far as I know, Destiny's Way hasn't materialised in my locale yet; could be a couple months more. I also don't have AOTC as I think you thought. I'll have to wait a year for paperback.

All this has certainly been informative, Fanboy. Great to know insider's info, to give us consumers an idea of the procurement process.

 

Cool, that was just how I interpreted your comment

I'd still like to see how a SW hardbck a few months ago, like Attack of the Clones, was $45 for me

but I see what you were saying.

BTW you're right about old prices and GST of course, which only pleases me more because the figures also show the total prices have remained pretty stable in spite of GST and inflation over time. Which is what the ATO said should happen, but with so many goods hasn't. We rock !!!

I'll anticipate any wiseacre who says it just shows we were overcharging two years ago. Ha-ha, in advance.

 

Don't forget, my prices were from my local area. Different cities in Aust, as I have now learned, will have different prices based on demand vs supply. I can't speak for anything outta Sydney.

 

Excellence, if you're paying an average of $45 for a SW hardcover, all I can say is you're being ripped off. The last book I can remember seeing at an RRP of $45 was Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. I've bought every one of the NJO hardcovers at an average price of $33, and not paid more than $39.95 for any hardcover book.

As a sidenote, I buy most of my books from Angus & Robinson, so, if you're buying from A&R and paying $45, I'd suggest a complaint to head office or the ACCC. I can't comment on Dymocks, since the only book I'm in the process of acquiring there is an imported SW book and was never available locally.

 

General Cargin, sir, as my above posts state, I have never paid $45 for a SW hardcover.

I dutifully and very impatiently waited a full year for the cheaper paperback equivalent. That means I waited an extra year for Cloak of Deception, Star By Star and Shadow Hunter. It will be another year before I can get Destiny's Way, The Approachign Storm, AOTC and Tatooine Ghost. If Zhan's upcoming duology is hardback, add another year of waiting.

Which means I'll be waiting a year to get The Unifying Force after everyone else has it. Regrettably, I'll say farewell to the boards at that time. I don't want to be forewarned!

So bugger to everyone who can!!

 

I just get the hardcover, pass it on to a friend when the paperback comes out, and get the paperback. I have only done that with SbS and will only do it if the paperback versions have printed copies of e-books in them.

ie Recovery in Star by Star

and

Ylesia in Destiny's Way.

 

Fanboy_Holocaust

Dude, sorry to kick up such a fuss about the price of DW and Minotaur.

Just like to add that Minotaur is still my fave book store and I'll continue to shop there... or manipulate my beautiful, gorgeous, intelligent, sexy girlfriend into buying them for me.

For those of you who are familiar with my style of postings you'll probably be able to tell that I am not actually typing this, my girlfriend is and is ad-libbing as she pleases!

 

That is A-OK. Nothing wrong with keeping us on our toes! I'm just gratified to establish (not least for my own peace of mind) that nothing seems amiss here. To be honest I would probably have stayed out of it but m'man Excellence convinced me there at one point that I had better speak up or face an angry mob. But, to borrow a line from an old LOST IN SPACE episode, it's been "Good - we know each other better now".

BTW, not a plug, really not, but lest anyone discover this for themselves in due course and say A-HA!, the store has made a follow-up order to the US for 5 more copies. Maybe because the local ones, from what you folk have been saying here, may not be as close as at first thought. Yes I guess these will be $60. At least now you know why!

 

I hope I didn't give the impression I was an angry mob. Quite the contrary!

$60 hardbacks never infuriated me, it was just disappointing to have to wait a year for cheaper conventional paperbacks.

I catch public transport. Whether I wait for annoying late buses or another year . . . what's the difference?

 

Naw. Just holding a torch at the front of one. Heh.

(I think I watch too many Universal monster movies).

 

I don't mind either. Just so long as the mob isn't going to an old fashioned book burning.

 

Excellence, just to quote you,
"$60 hardbacks never infuriated me..."

...weren't you the one who cried bloody murder over the price and recommended that they report Minotaur to the ACCC? Correct me if I'm wrong here.

 

That was before I received retailer info that shifted my stance, my Wookie friend. That comment was also a very initial impression. I can be reasonable. At the times I'm not, I would say:

"Smithers," Burns smiled coldy, "release the hounds . . ."

 

Then to paraphrase Otto Preminger in STALAG 17: "Ve are all friends again..... and to celebrate, viss Christmas coming on, I vill haff you all deloused for der holidays. You vill like that, I think..."

 

Has anyone else got any updates on the current availability of Destiny's Way in Australia? I'm still awaiting my copy, but I have to go to school camp for three nights, so I'll update when I get back.

 

Still being given the run-around. Basically we have to wait and keep looking, since it seems that everyone has no idea when they'll be in, or why they are not already here given that they were listed as an early October release here in Australia.

 

Can't speak for the rest of the country but in WA-the news is not good..

Dymocks(Perth and Midland)have it on order-but can't get it. And even worse-Supernova which normally gets everything before anyone else can only give a delay date of "end of the month" and that's from the owner-who by previous record is up front.

Whole thing sucks when the books are printed in Sydney......No-one seems to be able to discuss what the delay is.

Any West Aussie who finds the book-pls post and let me know where-THANKS.

 

Reporting from Sydney, no shops seem to have it here.

Just to give a rough idea how these things works, The Approaching Storm hardback bothered to turn up a full three months after the USA release. AOTC hardback came out instantly, but for obvious reasons.

Only paperbacks come out at least a few weeks, maybe a whole month, in conjunction with USA dates. Hardbacks are the long waits.