I was surprised there was a Collector's Edition at all, I was definitely not expecting to see one. The price does seem steep at first, but all things considered I think it's realistic. Of course it's still up to each person to determine how much money $150 (or $175) is when considering their own circumstances. It's not a fair and equal world out there, after all.
As for me, I'm not exaggerating when I say Baldur's Gate is one of the most important things to me. I don't at all mind overspending on it if I'm lucky enough to be able to do so.
For european customers, will this be sent from within the EU (UK or something)? I really want the collector's edition, to sit in the shelf with BG and BG II boxes, but if it's sent from the US the customs costs could make it too expensive.
For european customers, will this be sent from within the EU (UK or something)? I really want the collector's edition, to sit in the shelf with BG and BG II boxes, but if it's sent from the US the customs costs could make it too expensive.
@Amber_Scott might be able to shed some light on this one
@Amber_Scott My wallet is still shuddering in fright at the cost of the Collector's Edition (especially as I only want it for the hard copy of the game) but before I give my bank manager a heart attack I need to know: a) If I have the DVD, will I be able to install and run the game without access to the internet? b) Will the DVD be compatible with my existing hard copies of BG1&2EE that I bought from Amazon UK (and currently play the game on)?
@lunea like all our Beamdog games, if you buy through our store you can also request a Steam key through support@beamdog.com.
@Amber_Scott , what does Beamdog providing a Steam key look financially on your end? I had wanted to purchase SOD directly, since I have a bit more disposable income than I had previously and wanted to support y'all, but I bought BGEE through Steam. Does Beamdog "make more money" if I buy from you and then request a Steam key, or does it end up the same if I had just bought it through Steam?
Beamdog doesn't own Steam, so naturally for Steam to make money they're going to get a portion of any sale of a Beamdog title. So in a very general way, buying from Beamdog.com is better for Beamdog. You can always contact support@beamdog.com and we'll get you a Steam key, if that's the route you want to.
@Dee thank you for the response, but I guess more simply I was just asking if Beamdog makes more money if I purchase through Beamdog and ask for a Steam key, or is it the same as if I had just purchased directly from Steam?
With two small children I lovingly refer to as "the new destroyers" it wouldn't be fair to the CE box. It...it wouldn't stand a chance no matter where I'd display it, which means it will be in the attic with the other CE's..."what do you mean they are in the attic!?!?!?!"
Who's gonna get taxed for and estimated $270. I live in England, and just don't want any additional costs not making it onto the system, which results in my game getting lobbed into the bottomless pit box at customs. Which is similiar to what happened to my Pillars Of Eternity CE box set.
I'm not sure how it would work in the UK, but the user over on GameBanshee at least shouldn't be facing the fees they've described, since the declared value of the item being purchased (the Collector's Edition, excluding shipping) is less than the $170 threshold.
If the UK operates similarly, you should be okay. But I don't know what the UK does for items like this.
I'm not sure how it would work in the UK, but the user over on GameBanshee at least shouldn't be facing the fees they've described, since the declared value of the item being purchased (the Collector's Edition, excluding shipping) is less than the $170 threshold.
If the UK operates similarly, you should be okay. But I don't know what the UK does for items like this.
That would be me. And the information i gathered would be for the Netherlands. From what i gathered yes if the purchase cost of the imported parcel is below 150 Euro's (shipping cost should not be included in this calculation) which i believe is indeed around 160 to 170 USD currently you just pay the local uh Tax that you pay for purchased goods (name differs depending on country, Dutch is BTW) which differs per country but generally is between 20 and 30% i believe. You will also have to pay a administrative cost for going through customs, the price differs a little depending on what company does the shipping but the common price in my country seems to be about 13 euro's. In my experience you generally pay these costs and taxes when you recieve the parcel of when you pick it up at a post office or such.
I could naturally be wrong as im no expert on Importing stuff at all (only imported a bunch of t_shirts a few times from the US) and stuff might be different depending on your country.
Collector's Editions take a huge amount of effort to get off the ground and by the limited production numbers, costs are high and shipping is difficult. Amber and her group really worked hard to put it together and I'm really looking forward to getting Collectors Editions into the hands of our community.
Thanks. I was ok for Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity (I think it was $20 or so), but was wondering if they had lowered the fee due to it being a Kickstarter. In any case, I wasn't contacted for more money when the item got to a certain point and the amount I paid covered the total shipping cost.
@dunbar One of the reasons for the timeline shipping out the Collectors Edition is to ensure we have good code on the DVD's. With that said, we plan on continuing our updates going forward, so if you can connect to the internet to update I think there will be good value there. Now we've paid the high technical debt of 64 bit support and the new UI system we should be able to do more frequent updates.
I was really waiting for this edition... but 45$ for shipment plus around 45$ to 80$ for Customs. Depends if they take into consideration only the game or also the shipment, but my experience with customs on Spain is that they usually take into consideration everything. Either way, it goes over 200$, which right now I think is way too much money...
Isn't there an easier (and hopefully cheaper) way to make the collector's edition available to European customers?
Collector's Editions take a huge amount of effort to get off the ground and by the limited production numbers, costs are high and shipping is difficult. Amber and her group really worked hard to put it together and I'm really looking forward to getting Collectors Editions into the hands of our community.
It's great that you did this collector's edition, and I really hope it succeeds and you do something like this for Baldur's Gate 2 as well, but it's quite costly to purchase it outside the US. I don't know how much the shipment over the US is, but right now, shipment to Europe + customs and everything cost almost as much as the game itself, so it's like paying for it twice.
I'll probably regret it, but unless there is a different way to make it available to people outside the US I'll have to forget about this edition.
If I had to pay Beamdog for all the hours of enjoyment I've received from their games I'd owe them 10's of thousands of dollars with even my most conservative rates. Seriously I couldn't be happier to pay a few hundred to them for their efforts on such a fantastic game. Please continue to make amazing things like this as you absolutely have many fans who are thrilled to support your work and have the disposable income as adults to do so responsibly.
As a small appeal to those of you on the fence about purchasing this - please do so. Think of the money you spend on day to day crap that means nothing. There are so many overpriced, terrible ways to spend your money in this world. THIS right here is the kind of thing you should spend money on. Remember when you bought those shoes you've worn like twice and they are too small for you anyways.... you spent MORE money on that crap!
In general guys - these game companies do what they can with the resources we give them. More resources means they can do more things for us - which includes patches, updates, additional content, and even forum replies. The current system we have for compensating them is broken and needs a systematic revision in order for the market to reward them efficiently - the least we can do is try to help the situation by supporting their product when it does appear.
Okay I'm done ranting - as a rabid fan of this whole project, I really want to see this company be successful and stay with us as long as possible. This is your chance to really show your support.
@Tredvolt I agree about supporting your favorite devs, but I'm not sure their profit margin on the CE is that much greater than on the lesser editions. I think most of that $130 goes to producing the physical goodies that you receive in the mail. If you decide to get the CE, I think you do it for you, first and foremost.
Ironically, I'm not interested in the goodie bag that goes with the CE, I just want the game on a disc and it looks like this is the only way I can get it - and that will only be if I can save up enough money before they run out of stock (which at the moment is looking highly unlikely).
Edit: It would have been nice if they'd said some time ago "Yes, there will be hard copies available but only in limited numbers and they will cost you an arm and a leg". That way I could have started saving ahead of time and been able to pre-order now.
@Tredvolt, I don't mind paying Beamdog for the collection's edition at all, but the main issue is that to get it I'll also have to pay the shipment and the customs. I was going to pay the 45$ for the shipment but adding also the customs is way too much money. So in the end, almost half of what I have to pay won't go to beamdog at all.
Also, regarding what you said about the "money people spends on day crap that means nothing", take into consideration that some people don't have big salarys. In my particular case, just paying rent and paying for the food for my family I spend almost all my month's pay. I do have enough to buy a few things, and I certainly have enough right now to pay for the game, the shipment and customs, but sadly I'm not willing to pay that much money on taxes.
As said, I will regret not having this edition, but being an adult doesn't mean you can buy anything you want, it means that sometimes you have to do sacrifices and not get everything you want. I suppose I'll end buying the game on GoG when it's available there. I certainly would have prefered the physical copy instead.
It's really expensive for a collectors edition :-/ If anyone from Europe is interested in combined shipping I would be up to it. I don't know how much shipping is for 2-3 games but we could probably save some bucks if we share the cost. It's also worth noticing that I usually don't have to pay for import taxes to Austria. It can't be 100% guaranteed but i never had to pay import taxes as of yet and I recieved many (50+) shipments from all over the world (usa, china, japan) during the last years.
It's really expensive for a collectors edition :-/ If anyone from Europe is interested in combined shipping I would be up to it. I don't know how much shipping is for 2-3 games but we could probably save some bucks if we share the cost. It's also worth noticing that I usually don't have to pay for import taxes to Austria. It can't be 100% guaranteed but i never had to pay import taxes as of yet and I recieved many (50+) shipments from all over the world (usa, china, japan) during the last years.
It depends from country to country, but when you get things that don't go over certain prices, if you are lucky you won't pay customs at all.
I do buy things from Japan and I haven't paid customs for that in years since I take care on how much I bought at a time, and what kind of shipment is best suited for it to come here without getting any extra taxes.
Again, depending on the country, you may have to pay the taxes if you exceed a certain price. Combining a shipment with 3 games could potentially go over that amount and you may have to pay the customs for the 3 games. However, I don't know how things work on Austria, so you may be on the safe side there.
The official limit is 20€. Most of my orders are in the range of 50-100€. Of course the higher the price the more likely it might become that taxes are charged.
So many complaining from me and in the end I bought it anyway... I'm weak... damn you Beamdog for tempting me with a Collector's Edition.
I really really hope that somehow I don't have to pay for customs. If I'm lucky and they don't take into consideration the shipment price I'll be on the safe side.
On my defense I will say that my fiancee, being an RPG fan herself, insisted that I'll buy it. She also wants to test if customs includes the shipment or just the game itself on their taxes.
I must admit that I will have prefered it included Baldur's Gate II as well. Which brings me to my next question... Any plans/chance on doing a Collector's Edition of Baldur's Gate 2? Please say yes and WHEN you do it, please provide a better distribution overseas or make the price a bit lower (!00$ for it or so) so that people can buy it without so many problems.
This was our first try at a Collector's Edition and we learned a lot of lessons (mostly the hard way). Now that we have a process in place, we'd like to do more CE's in the future.
Comments
As for me, I'm not exaggerating when I say Baldur's Gate is one of the most important things to me. I don't at all mind overspending on it if I'm lucky enough to be able to do so.
Thanks Beamdog!
which is more than $200 ... too much
With two small children I lovingly refer to as "the new destroyers" it wouldn't be fair to the CE box. It...it wouldn't stand a chance no matter where I'd display it, which means it will be in the attic with the other CE's..."what do you mean they are in the attic!?!?!?!"
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/116884-baldur-s-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-release-date-announced-gets-physical-collector-s-edition.html
Who's gonna get taxed for and estimated $270. I live in England, and just don't want any additional costs not making it onto the system, which results in my game getting lobbed into the bottomless pit box at customs. Which is similiar to what happened to my Pillars Of Eternity CE box set.
I'm not sure how it would work in the UK, but the user over on GameBanshee at least shouldn't be facing the fees they've described, since the declared value of the item being purchased (the Collector's Edition, excluding shipping) is less than the $170 threshold.
If the UK operates similarly, you should be okay. But I don't know what the UK does for items like this.
I could naturally be wrong as im no expert on Importing stuff at all (only imported a bunch of t_shirts a few times from the US) and stuff might be different depending on your country.
Isn't there an easier (and hopefully cheaper) way to make the collector's edition available to European customers?
I'll probably regret it, but unless there is a different way to make it available to people outside the US I'll have to forget about this edition.
As a small appeal to those of you on the fence about purchasing this - please do so. Think of the money you spend on day to day crap that means nothing. There are so many overpriced, terrible ways to spend your money in this world. THIS right here is the kind of thing you should spend money on. Remember when you bought those shoes you've worn like twice and they are too small for you anyways.... you spent MORE money on that crap!
In general guys - these game companies do what they can with the resources we give them. More resources means they can do more things for us - which includes patches, updates, additional content, and even forum replies. The current system we have for compensating them is broken and needs a systematic revision in order for the market to reward them efficiently - the least we can do is try to help the situation by supporting their product when it does appear.
Okay I'm done ranting - as a rabid fan of this whole project, I really want to see this company be successful and stay with us as long as possible. This is your chance to really show your support.
Edit: It would have been nice if they'd said some time ago "Yes, there will be hard copies available but only in limited numbers and they will cost you an arm and a leg". That way I could have started saving ahead of time and been able to pre-order now.
Also, regarding what you said about the "money people spends on day crap that means nothing", take into consideration that some people don't have big salarys. In my particular case, just paying rent and paying for the food for my family I spend almost all my month's pay. I do have enough to buy a few things, and I certainly have enough right now to pay for the game, the shipment and customs, but sadly I'm not willing to pay that much money on taxes.
As said, I will regret not having this edition, but being an adult doesn't mean you can buy anything you want, it means that sometimes you have to do sacrifices and not get everything you want. I suppose I'll end buying the game on GoG when it's available there. I certainly would have prefered the physical copy instead.
I do buy things from Japan and I haven't paid customs for that in years since I take care on how much I bought at a time, and what kind of shipment is best suited for it to come here without getting any extra taxes.
Again, depending on the country, you may have to pay the taxes if you exceed a certain price. Combining a shipment with 3 games could potentially go over that amount and you may have to pay the customs for the 3 games. However, I don't know how things work on Austria, so you may be on the safe side there.
@Dee Thanks for your concern. It's appreciated.
I really really hope that somehow I don't have to pay for customs. If I'm lucky and they don't take into consideration the shipment price I'll be on the safe side.
On my defense I will say that my fiancee, being an RPG fan herself, insisted that I'll buy it. She also wants to test if customs includes the shipment or just the game itself on their taxes.
I must admit that I will have prefered it included Baldur's Gate II as well. Which brings me to my next question... Any plans/chance on doing a Collector's Edition of Baldur's Gate 2? Please say yes and WHEN you do it, please provide a better distribution overseas or make the price a bit lower (!00$ for it or so) so that people can buy it without so many problems.