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Post by whiskeybrewer on Feb 12, 2020 13:15:58 GMT
Environmentally, it's more about the waste generated during production rather than the consumption. Then you have the carbon miles accumulating from delivery - especially for those of us on the other side of the world. The state of media is an interesting one. I'm a huge fan of books: I spend roughly a week's wages over the course of a year on Folio Society editions of books but I'm also a fan of Golden Age Sf, a lot of which can really only be found in e-book editions these days so I think the market can support physical and digital artifacts but it's going to be a few more years before it settles in a way that people will be able to make accurate predictions about what the market for one particular thing over another might be... and then the Next Big Thing will come around and change things appreciably again. The fact that we can get our stuff in so many different formats is, quite frankly, just a damned miracle to me. Oh, I have a story in that vein. A friend of mine used to work in one of the more prominent bookstores in the city. Freshly minted bestsellers could usually be found there. What they tended to do after a certain point with the books that didn't sell after a certain number of days was that they'd take them off the shelves, out of their boxes and rip them in half. That was company policy. From spine to page number. De-covered and mangled. Hundreds upon hundreds of copies. So, they couldn't be picked up by a competitor or sold on as secondhand stock. It's an absurdly common practice apparently and it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. It's little wonder that storefronts are disappearing with a policy like that enshrined in their commerce. The waste is appalling. As an avid Book reader and Physical product lover That F*****g Terrifies Me
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2020 13:47:03 GMT
Oh, I have a story in that vein. A friend of mine used to work in one of the more prominent bookstores in the city. Freshly minted bestsellers could usually be found there. What they tended to do after a certain point with the books that didn't sell after a certain number of days was that they'd take them off the shelves, out of their boxes and rip them in half. That was company policy. From spine to page number. De-covered and mangled. Hundreds upon hundreds of copies. So, they couldn't be picked up by a competitor or sold on as secondhand stock. It's an absurdly common practice apparently and it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. It's little wonder that storefronts are disappearing with a policy like that enshrined in their commerce. The waste is appalling. As an avid Book reader and Physical product lover That F*****g Terrifies Me 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 Dear god...I now know what my first question will be the next time I walk into my local branch of Waterstones...and Heffers (Blackwells)...
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Post by Whovitt on Feb 12, 2020 14:32:37 GMT
Environmentally, it's more about the waste generated during production rather than the consumption. Then you have the carbon miles accumulating from delivery - especially for those of us on the other side of the world. The state of media is an interesting one. I'm a huge fan of books: I spend roughly a week's wages over the course of a year on Folio Society editions of books but I'm also a fan of Golden Age Sf, a lot of which can really only be found in e-book editions these days so I think the market can support physical and digital artifacts but it's going to be a few more years before it settles in a way that people will be able to make accurate predictions about what the market for one particular thing over another might be... and then the Next Big Thing will come around and change things appreciably again. The fact that we can get our stuff in so many different formats is, quite frankly, just a damned miracle to me. Oh, I have a story in that vein. A friend of mine used to work in one of the more prominent bookstores in the city. Freshly minted bestsellers could usually be found there. What they tended to do after a certain point with the books that didn't sell after a certain number of days was that they'd take them off the shelves, out of their boxes and rip them in half. That was company policy. From spine to page number. De-covered and mangled. Hundreds upon hundreds of copies. So, they couldn't be picked up by a competitor or sold on as secondhand stock. It's an absurdly common practice apparently and it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. It's little wonder that storefronts are disappearing with a policy like that enshrined in their commerce. The waste is appalling. I have a sad confession to make: I once worked at quite a large retail store that sold books among other things. Every now and then it was my job to tear the covers off of the books so they could be returned to the supplier and refunded (no, I have no idea why that was the policy). Every time I tore one up it felt like I was tearing up a piece of my soul with it
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Post by polly on Feb 12, 2020 21:33:06 GMT
I so think the environmental argument that Nick has raised recently is slightly spurious to be blunt. The majority of people who buy CDs are going to keep them, it's not going to be added to any rubbish or waste. The poll on BFs FB page recently asked CD or download. And it was 54% in favour of CD. I don't think the CD releases are going anywhere soon, especially when you consider they have previously orders up to 2023. Call me a cynic, but I'm inclined to agree. There is definitely waste produced in manufacturing a physical item, but I honestly think that argument is spin on BF's part. I think more than likely any decision about CDs will be determined by the accountants and the environmental benefit will just be good PR on top. Oh, I have a story in that vein. A friend of mine used to work in one of the more prominent bookstores in the city. Freshly minted bestsellers could usually be found there. What they tended to do after a certain point with the books that didn't sell after a certain number of days was that they'd take them off the shelves, out of their boxes and rip them in half. That was company policy. From spine to page number. De-covered and mangled. Hundreds upon hundreds of copies. So, they couldn't be picked up by a competitor or sold on as secondhand stock. It's an absurdly common practice apparently and it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. It's little wonder that storefronts are disappearing with a policy like that enshrined in their commerce. The waste is appalling. This on the other hand drives me crazy. I've been well aware of this ever since a friend of mine worked at a game store and told me that for unsold stock, they had to snip the discs in half and then bin them. There's no reason to throw away perfectly usable items like that other than spiteful greed.
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Post by frisby78 on Feb 12, 2020 21:43:09 GMT
I so think the environmental argument that Nick has raised recently is slightly spurious to be blunt. The majority of people who buy CDs are going to keep them, it's not going to be added to any rubbish or waste. The poll on BFs FB page recently asked CD or download. And it was 54% in favour of CD. I don't think the CD releases are going anywhere soon, especially when you consider they have previously orders up to 2023. Call me a cynic, but I'm inclined to agree. There is definitely waste produced in manufacturing a physical item, but I honestly think that argument is spin on BF's part. I think more than likely any decision about CDs will be determined by the accountants and the environmental benefit will just be good PR on top. Oh, I have a story in that vein. A friend of mine used to work in one of the more prominent bookstores in the city. Freshly minted bestsellers could usually be found there. What they tended to do after a certain point with the books that didn't sell after a certain number of days was that they'd take them off the shelves, out of their boxes and rip them in half. That was company policy. From spine to page number. De-covered and mangled. Hundreds upon hundreds of copies. So, they couldn't be picked up by a competitor or sold on as secondhand stock. It's an absurdly common practice apparently and it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. It's little wonder that storefronts are disappearing with a policy like that enshrined in their commerce. The waste is appalling. This on the other hand drives me crazy. I've been well aware of this ever since a friend of mine worked at a game store and told me that for unsold stock, they had to snip the discs in half and then bin them. There's no reason to throw away perfectly usable items like that other than spiteful greed. The accountants will have to be careful, I know of quite a few people who would just stop buying BF if there was no physical option. I think Jason said about 35% were physical buyers. If say just 20% of them stopped buying that's would be a massive loss to them.
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Post by muckypup on Feb 12, 2020 22:25:39 GMT
But jason also said that he has to pay tens of thousands in tax just to hold the physical stock each year........
Reduction in that goes some way to offSet the potential loss from Buyers
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Feb 12, 2020 22:27:00 GMT
But jason also said that he has to pay tens of thousands in tax just to hold the physical stock each year........ Reduction in that goes some way to offSet the potential loss from Buyers I wonder if the tax is pro rata'd to the amount of physical stock? If so 1 option is to cut down the amounts printed maybe (?).
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Post by muckypup on Feb 12, 2020 22:53:38 GMT
But jason also said that he has to pay tens of thousands in tax just to hold the physical stock each year........ Reduction in that goes some way to offSet the potential loss from Buyers I wonder if the tax is pro rata'd to the amount of physical stock? If so 1 option is to cut down the amounts printed maybe (?). yeah sort of he said he pays something like 15p for each item they hold in stock, each year in tax he said about deliver, manufacture and falling demand year on year brought about that they would only hold stuff on physical release for approx a year.... said it with a bunch of other stuff like less artwork, different cd cases, smaller cd runs
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2020 0:28:25 GMT
I wonder if the tax is pro-rated to the amount of physical stock? If so 1 option is to cut down the amounts printed maybe (?). They said they'd start doing that but haven't really, which is strange. How long ago did they announce more explicitly-limited, numbered print runs and other releases only guaranteed to be in stock for a year? The only releases I can think of recently with explicitly-limited print runs are 10DAs, Class and Legacy of Time. (Am I missing anything?) As for a year, how many CDs from 2018, even 2017, are out of stock?
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Post by frisby78 on Feb 13, 2020 0:32:39 GMT
I wonder if the tax is pro-rated to the amount of physical stock? If so 1 option is to cut down the amounts printed maybe (?). They said they'd start doing that but haven't really, which is strange. How long ago did they announce more explicitly-limited, numbered print runs and other releases only guaranteed to be in stock for a year? The only releases I can think of recently with explicitly-limited print runs are 10DAs, Class and Legacy of Time. (Am I missing anything?) As for a year, how many CDs from 2018, even 2017, are out of stock? Yes, you would have though if they have done this with Class you thought they would have done it with potentially lesser selling ranges like Timeslip.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2020 0:35:53 GMT
But jason also said that he has to pay tens of thousands in tax just to hold the physical stock each year........ Reduction in that goes some way to offset the potential loss from buyers. On the other hand, you have to make losses on some (many?) products to have a high market-share. (I guess to be big enough that the general audience trusts you as reputable?) I'm not disagreeing, just raising that as an idea (point?). I'll let someone with more expertise than me expand on the economics of it.
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Post by mark687 on Feb 20, 2020 12:14:56 GMT
Surviving DW MR 101-150 Titles added to Last Chance on CD Page (at Full Price)
Regards
mark687
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Feb 20, 2020 13:56:51 GMT
Surviving DW MR 101-150 Titles added to Last Chance on CD Page (at Full Price) Regards mark687 Surprised that Haven't Permanently dropped the prices
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Feb 20, 2020 14:17:58 GMT
Call me a cynic, but I'm inclined to agree. There is definitely waste produced in manufacturing a physical item, but I honestly think that argument is spin on BF's part. I think more than likely any decision about CDs will be determined by the accountants and the environmental benefit will just be good PR on top. This on the other hand drives me crazy. I've been well aware of this ever since a friend of mine worked at a game store and told me that for unsold stock, they had to snip the discs in half and then bin them. There's no reason to throw away perfectly usable items like that other than spiteful greed. The accountants will have to be careful, I know of quite a few people who would just stop buying BF if there was no physical option. I think Jason said about 35% were physical buyers. If say just 20% of them stopped buying that's would be a massive loss to them. In defence of the accountancy profession, I suspect BF don't involve accountants when making their decisions - that might explain some of their decisions
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Feb 20, 2020 14:20:53 GMT
I wonder if the tax is pro rata'd to the amount of physical stock? If so 1 option is to cut down the amounts printed maybe (?). yeah sort of he said he pays something like 15p for each item they hold in stock, each year in taxhe said about deliver, manufacture and falling demand year on year brought about that they would only hold stuff on physical release for approx a year.... said it with a bunch of other stuff like less artwork, different cd cases, smaller cd runs That simply can't be true, the UK corporation tax system doesn't work like that. Year 1's closing stock is year 2's opening stock, higher stock at the end of year 1 increases taxable profits in year 1, but there is a corresponding decrease in year 2 taxable profits. So you are only moving timing of when tax is paid, not increasing or decreasing your actual tax liability.
It possibly means BF pay an extra 15p a year sooner.
Interestingly enough, given that the UK corporation tax rate is 19% that would, all other things being equal, imply a CD is valued at 79p. 79p would be the lower of cost or net realisable value and it is clearly not the net realisable value so it must be the cost.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2020 14:51:50 GMT
Surviving DW MR 101-150 Titles added to Last Chance on CD Page (at Full Price) Regards mark687 Ah...I've wondered when these were going to eventually drop in at the Last Chance saloon. I mean, it's only been ...*checks notes*...10 days since the sale ended.... There is one notable absentee from the recent sale however - Series 5 of The Confessions of Dorian Gray...again! I'm starting to suspect that this title has somehow achieved sentience and developed an aversion to going out of print...🤔😋
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Post by mark687 on Feb 23, 2020 11:46:32 GMT
Blakes 7 Liberator Chronicles Vols 1-6 added to Last Chance on CD Page (Currently also reduced until 27th February 11:59PM UK Time)
Regards
mark687
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Post by Whovitt on Feb 23, 2020 12:41:22 GMT
Blakes 7 Liberator Chronicles Vols 1-6 added to Last Chance on CD Page (Currently also reduced until 27th February 11:59PM UK Time) Regards mark687 Haven't they been on the going out of print list for a couple of years now? Had they just not moved them to the Last Chance page yet?
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Post by mark687 on Feb 23, 2020 13:04:35 GMT
Blakes 7 Liberator Chronicles Vols 1-6 added to Last Chance on CD Page (Currently also reduced until 27th February 11:59PM UK Time) Regards mark687 Haven't they been on the going out of print list for a couple of years now? Had they just not moved them to the Last Chance page yet? Well they were Permanently reduced to £15 certainly Regards mark687
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Post by Whovitt on Feb 23, 2020 13:05:44 GMT
Haven't they been on the going out of print list for a couple of years now? Had they just not moved them to the Last Chance page yet? Well they were Permanently reduced to £15 certainly Regards mark687 Ah, that might have been it. It was a while ago so maybe that's where I got confused
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