Dealing with the Big Boys.

Our two main suppliers for hobby product, are as you might expect, are Games Workshop and Warlord Games. And I am pleased to say on the whole we have good working relationships with both.

There are however some problems they cause us, which can affect us getting product to you.

GAMES WORKSHOP

Games workshop are our main featured supplier, the company we stock the most product for and the brand that generates the most sales for us. No surprises there.

For the most part, they work very well for us, and do a lot of things right... the big thing being there are no freight costs or customs fees applied to our main weekly Trade orders, so prices remain predictably stable for us. This allows us to set their product to be orderable by you, even when we have no stock. So long as they have stock, we know we can order in for you and the price will be the same.

They also assist us with resources to help provide prize support to events we help sponsor.

But it's not all a bed of roses, and the main problem we have with them is how they deal with, and force us handle, their New Releases.

Since these occur on a just about a weekly basis, they are a continual cause of angst to us.

Here follows an explanation, which will hopefully, let you understand the difficulties we face, and will hopefully help you to help us, to get the stock you want in a timely manner.

GW New releases:

Please note the following, for how we try and handle GW New Releases and their "Timing"... and the hoops we have to jump through to try and get it right.
Sunday - "New Next Week Post" hits the Warhammer Community website.
Monday - we receive official Disclosure from GW about new products and prices BUT we are not allowed to divulge this information to customers nor put products on our website, until Saturday in 5 days time. ... Still on Monday I am invited to place reservations for what new release items I would like to add to my Trade order this week, which is normally placed Thursday.
Since I am not allowed to divulge information to our customer base... I have to Guess how many to order...
IF I guess too high, we can be stuck with stock that may not sell.
IF I guess too low, then we may well receive more online orders, than we initially place stock reservations for, once our web listing is allowed to go live for Pre-Orders.
I then need to try and order more product the following week, or be forced to wait until the week after that, to try and satisfy those extra orders received, AND HOPE THAT ITS NOT A LIMITED RELEASE THAT GW KNOWS THEY WILL SELL OUT OF. ... if this is the case I am stuck with the situation of then having to refund a bunch of orders I was unable to get the stock for.****** This is great for generating "Customer Good Will" - that's sarcasm if you haven't already guessed ;)
Thursday I submit my order to my GW rep.
Saturday I am now allowed to add New Product to our website to generate Pre-Order sales and allowed to discuss product with customers. (This is now AFTER I have had to GUESS how many to order)
The following Thursday: GW staffing and no problems with courier chain allowing... our order arrives, hopefully in time for launch day sales on Saturday...
Saturday, now 12 days after receiving Disclosure, we are allowed to supply product to customer.
***** - So, if you absolutely MUST have that new release, then order from GW and pay full RRP. If you are prepared for us possibly not getting enough stock, but if we can, giving it to you at a better price and with loyalty rewards too, then place your order with us. If we can't supply for some reason, we will refund the transaction.
HOW you can help us and avoid disappointment:
If you want a new release, particularly if you want it for Launch day, then please advise us by Wednesday, after you see the Warhammer community post. This will give us an indication of likely numbers of product we need to order... BUT to secure your product you STILL need to get your Pre-Order in early on the Saturday morning our pre-orders go live on our website. This is because we will fulfill these pre-order with stock, once we have it, in the chronological sequence those pre-orders are received.
Please do not ask us to reserve an item for you so you can come into the store and pick it up and pay for it then. That causes us no end of problems, ... when we were just starting off we were not too busy and could handle this kind of thing... the 'personal touch'... now we are simply too busy to handle this sort of request. So if you want it, pre-order via website.
Thanks for your attention.
WARLORD GAMES
Warlord Games are probably second only to GW in term of product we stock and sales their brand generates for us.
For the most part, they operate like GW... have a main TRADE range that I place orders to my rep to, and also a web direct range that we also have access to, with a trade discount.
The main problem we have with their product, is their books, and the FREE MINIATURE that comes with them.
We only receive a free miniature with their books when we order a minimum of 6 of the same book from them, at once.
In all honestly there is rarely that much demand locally for their books.
But we sometimes order this many when its a new release as that's when the interest will be highest.
Our subsequent restock orders are usual 1-2 of a books at a time, which means we don't get free miniatures thereafter.
So the best I can say is FREE MINIATURES will be supplied by us on a 'while stocks last' basis.
If you desperately want that free miniature, then place your order directly with Warlord. 
You are welcome to contact us to see if we have any appropriate free miniature available for a given book, before placing your order with us.
Thanks for your attention.