After seven different tariff pricing adjustments over the course of three months, Gloomhaven 2nd Edition is on the move at last.
The last three months have been an absolute nightmare for Gloomhaven maker Cephalofair Games. Amid the turmoil brought about by the Trump tariffs, thousands of boxes of games already bought and paid for by crowdfunding backers, already manufactured long before the tariffs were announced, or the election had even begun, were frozen in a warehouse in China. This was in the face of a 145% tariff that would charge Cephalofair an additional $14.50 for every $10 spent on making a product.
Now, with the Trump tariffs taking a temporary reduction. They’re dropping down to 30% for 90 days until August 10th. It’s anyone’s guess as to what happens next. Cephalofair Games joins a host of others, rushing to get their goods “customs-declared” by the August 10th deadline, which means starting the shipping process now.
Unfortunately, that also means passing along a “tariff surcharge” to customers. Because, even though a 30% tariff is less than a 145% tariff, that’s still higher than the industry has seen in well over a decade. As Cephalofair Games COO Price Johnson explained in a Backerkit update.
Gloomhaven 2nd Edition Tarred By Tariff Turmoil
First, the good news. As soon as the tariff reduction dropped to 30%, Cephalofair Games booked the freight bound for the US. This means Gloomhaven 2nd Edition is coming to customers stateside. With the volatility of the current administration, it’s anyone’s guess where the tariffs will be in 90 days. Previously, Trump has mentioned 80% “seems right,” a sentiment not backed by evidence or economic theory.
Unfortunately that means paying a cost that is “higher than [the] industry has seen in over a decade, and more than [Cephalofair Games] collected from U.S. Backers,” as Johnson explains.
The end result is that all US orders now cost an additional 30% to produce. As a direct result of these tariff costs, there will be an additional surcharge for backers in the United States.
“There is one thing repeated by each of our industry vendors that remains a throughline: this is an unprecedented and impossible trade policy to navigate in terms of freight, accounting, manufacturing, etc.
Our goal is [for US Backers to be impacted] as little as possible, but that will be assessed more confidently when product is secured on boats and our tariff rate is “locked in” (pending any unexpected changes this week). The reality is this is really no different than import/sales VAT/GST we collect for international backer orders so we’d need to for U.S. rders as well now that tariffs aply. As this is calculated on “cost of goods” rather than your purchase price, this will NOT be +30% more than you paid, but much less.
Even with a U.S. tariff surcharge, the reality is Cephalofair is still anticipating subsidizing several price increases inflicted by tariffs (as well as operating on delayed/loss revenue due to the disruption). These include, but are not limited to: increased freight costs, port congestion fees/forced yard storage fees, broker fees, extended warehousing fees, etc.”
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What does it all mean? Well, for one, if you’re a backer in the US, you can expect a new “tax line” with the updated listing after the final impact has been figured out. It should be a flat fee, but it will change based on sales tax which is applicable to tariff surcharges. Backerscan expect at least a one, if not two, week notice of the updated surcharge once the amount has been “locked in” but before the card on-file is charged.
Sadly, this means that if you’re waiting on an order, you’ll have to pay the Trump tariff surcharge before your order can be fulfilled.
“Any pledges with outstanding balances on shipping, taxes, and/or tariff surcharges will be held until outstanding amounts are resolved. At that point your order will be cleared for shipping with our fulfillment warehouse once it is in their possession.”
This will apply to Gloomhaven 2nd Edition, the Upgrade Kits, as well as FoldedSpace Inserts and the FoldedSpace Map Tile Organizers. It really is a difficult time in the tabletop industry. That said, Cephalofair has a prety generous refund policy – you pay a 10% restocking fee, and that’s it. However, Johnson remains hopeful that, with Cephalofair eating as much of the increased cost as it can, the tariff surcharge will be close to, if not less than, the 10% refund fee.
And if you were a Kickstarter backer, you might want to wait. Because, even once all this is settled, I imagine you’ll see price increases on MSRPs across the board. Though again that all depends on things proceeding exactly as they have. But they needn’t be this way.
As a reminder, the Trump tariffs were enacted with limited authority delegated to the President decades ago. The US Constitution puts tariff power solely in the hands of Congress; they could step in and stop the Trump tariffs any moment they so choose.
It is never a bad day to contact your representatives!
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