The Taproom

Another thought. :rolleyes:
The change in the quality of the metal can´t be proof of the price increase. If we analyze the weight of the figure of the new serie-m (taking into account an average size of the single human race) and compared with previous series, we can see that has remained virtually the last editions.
The Rangers of Ithilien

The almost double the price of individual figures can not be justified by the change in the alloy.
Indeed, one might ask, for example, why a pirate of Umbar weighs more twice than a ranger of Ithilien ….. Do they also have been winning with shipping ?…. Sorry for my comment, but I am quite surprised. Hopefully I’m wrong, but it could be that Mithril is economically quite worse than we imagine …..

It is as I thought… I received an answer from Chris Tubb (and it is not often that the Man answers THAT quickly after a mail because he is rather busy)
He is (and was) not aware of Mithril “politics” and pricings and he is trying to contact Lars Edman about this but so far he has not managed to get hold on him… He will re-contact me as soon as he has an answer to this “crisis” … he feels very concerned too about this problem… He was clearly not consulted on this case…

(when I tell you that Chris has not his word or vision on what’s going on at Mithril enterprise…)

More to come, I hope…

It’s not taxes – there are some movements to increase Irish taxes, which got parlously low during the “tiger” years – they had things like regional hospitals closing due to lack of funding. They have been talking about some sort of tax increase, but that would not typically involve 100% price markups.

And no, the EU hasn’t punished Ireland for voting No. Not yet at any rate. They wouldn’t even punish Ireland – just be slower to dole out goodies to Ireland.

So that’s not it either. Likely its something to do with the economy though. The Irish economy tanked. Iceland, Ireland and Spain are Europe’s basket cases right now. If I were to speculate wildly, I’d say that Mithril got its operating credit from maybe Allied Irish Bank (I seem to remember that being the branch mentioned) and AIB is highly screwed. AIB cannot provide cheap credit for small businesses anymore –> sudden increase in operating costs for small businesses –> increase in price.

Also, possibly far simpler, Mithril used to make 5000 copies of every M model. They made 2500 copies of the LR models. They make 200 or so copies of an MS model. I bet Mithril are only making 1000-1500 copies of these M models and are charging accordingly.

I am not sure what to say about all of this, so I will remain silent for now.

I just hope this situation gets rectified.

But hopefully Mithril does not have any problems, they only became greedy.
Everything is ok then.

Huooommmrhuoomm … all this nearly left me speechless. I just officially supported the boycot Master Gildor suggested on the GF-board and of course I will support anything else to make clear that this price policy to me is abolutely INACCEPTABLE.
Rhuoomm … and believe me that I’m more than angry because of two reasons:

First I think it is an absolutely miserable behaviour NOT to inform those people who have that ‘autoshipment’ in time about such a radical explosion of prices (unfortunately it was me who years ago successfully suggested that idea).

Second, I tried to support the company, maybe more than some others, because I do LIKE what The Man does. I supported the MX-Frumgar financially, then I submissioned the MX-Imrahil on my own, and at the moment there’s even another MX I submissioned on its way. A rather massive one, by the way. (Of that one not a single piece will be sold if I transfer the rise in costs we witnessed to such an MX.)

This makes me more than angry, believe me ….. rrrrrrrhoooommm!

Huoommm … as at the moment I’m in contact with The Man, I will try to point out our concerns to him …. as Master Gildor already did …. huom.

Well, it seems Mithril has responded to Gildor’s message somewhat. I am not sure what will still be the outcome of all of this.
Please, Master Tree, let me know when you start marching so I can mount my horse and charge with you!

Wow! You are bold! Well I hope it does something.

I won’t suggest or vote for this month either.

I suspect, too, Master Caster, that the reason they don’t just hack down prices and get the cash flowing is that…we are it. We are the market. We are the core customer base. We are what marketters would call alpha consumers. We are the hardcore collectors who buy pretty much everything they put out (well, eventually). This means that a cost cutting measure may not generate the sort of cash flow they might like.

The answer, obviously, is that Mithril needs to increase its marketting visibility. I keep coming across people who say “mithril? didn’t they go out of business in 1995?” Or think they make unlicensed fakes. Or something. With such visibility, Mithril could probably sell their product for less.

But they need the visibility and that visibility needs to translate to customers buying things.

Hmmm,

2 new newsletters this day and no word about price increase. That’s no good..