"Why is Noble Knight Games selling our rules?" Topic

A long-time customer sent this link to us today.

link

It seems Noble Knight Games is selling/has sold some of our rules via their website and at a much-higher price than we offer them at our site. I'm confused about this; is Noble Knight selling "Used Rules" and who are they?

I wanted to get some background on this before we contact them to make sure I'm not missing anything. Remember I'm still recovering from a two months-long, high powered pain-med regimen due to my fall and things can still be fuzzy sometimes.

Thanks for any feed-back.

Lori
Sergeants 3

Maybe they think they're out of print and/or collectable?

They re-sell a lot of used rules and miniatures? It's not like they are saying they are new.

They buy and sell wargaming figures, books, rules, etc. The are a well established on-line business. They probably purchased a collection or lot, and the rules were part of the lot.

Noble Knight specializes in used gaming materials. Someone apparently traded these in for something else.

….they also specialize in asking high prices for alot of their used items. Their used fig prices are ridiculous.

Their pricing caught my attention first. The rules are listed as $9 USD more than a new copy from us; go figure.

I used to sell a lot of stuff on ebay. Sometimes people would bid more for stuff than they could buy it for from the manufacturer. No telling …

Pan +1

+1 79th PA

I deal with them quite a bit. Honest and upright people, they just like to get a good price on used merch.

Extra- I have to say I too have ordered from them. Fast delivery.
I do not understand their sales philosophy. They have groups of "AWI" figs (old school, ugly, look to be 7YW) they have reposted them on Ebay at silly prices for over a year. No takers.

It's that old problem of selling second hand books, the original author does not get royalties from those transactions.

I can't speak to Aron's pricing, but when Ken "Whit" Whitman sold him the Spinward Traveller models from his Kickstarter rather than delivering them to the backers. When Aron found out about it, he did his best to make the backers whole.
link

Wyatt

I've sold stuff to them more than once, and have always been dealt with honestly. But I think they're stronger on fantasy and SF and on hot new stuff than on old established rules. And, truthfully, if someone offers you old rules, assuming they're out of print is a REALLY good bet.

I'd figure the rules came in a mixed lot, and they took a guess at what they might go for. I'd expect they get takers sometimes, too. Soldiers Three has no presence in the big conventions, and I thought TSATF was out of print myself a few years ago. Things mostly are.

And let's be fair, sillypoint. The original author got paid the first time. Is it a "problem" that when you sell a used car, no one sends a check to Ford?

Robert: perhaps sillypoint intended to make the non-silly point that when a purchaser has the option of buying a book new or used at about the same price (e.g, TSATF new from Sergeants Three or used from Noble Knight Games), the purchaser should at least consider buying the new copy so the author might profit on the sale. On the other hand, I'm not sure it's common for Wargames rules authors to get royalties or a percentage of sales unless the author is also the publisher-like Sergeants Three or Sam Mustafa.

Well, it's always a good idea to look around to see if it's cheaper elsewhere than impulse buy…

Darn straight Zephyr1. Although I buy a lot from NK (my primary source for purchasing) I don't buy items from them I can get cheaper elsewhere.

Caveat emptor.

"And let's be fair, (…). The original author got paid the first time. Is it a "problem" that when you sell a used car, no one sends a check to Ford?"

Because Ford (and other car companies) collect it on all the OEM replacement parts you need… ;-)

My intention was never to question lack of royalty payments or someone working us over. One of the reasons we sell the rules directly, with Castaway Arts being our only distributor, is it allows us to maintain more control over our rules. It was simply that I did not know the "back-story" on Noble Knight Games. They are doing nothing wrong in selling used copies of any of our rules; I was just amazed at the mark-up. But as a dear friend who was a master-salesman once told me, "My dear, whatever the market will bear."

Several years ago, when Dad was still alive, he found out that someone from a large hobby/game store had purchased 8 copies of TSATF (using several friends so as not to be suspicious) at Historicon. Then the rules showed up in the guy's shop at over double what he had paid for them. "Caveat emptor" is certainly correct; when buying books on Amazon, it's very easy to check prices and go from there. And I thought wargamers had a reputation for being cheap………..

Thanks again to everyone for their comments.

Who necessarily buys OEM replacement parts???

Quite a few after market companies out there that actually turn out parts of equal or superior quality for less than OEM.

AS to NK and the OP, always check around before any purchase.

I see quite a few sellers on Ebay selling 'OOP' miniatures that are still in production (TTG, Asgard for example) by other firms for more than the new firm charges.