The War Within Alpha - Press Kit and Collector's Edition

[Eazy]

200€ + 40-99€ for shipping

Ridiculous lmao

[Just Passing through]

200€ + 40-99€ for shipping

Ridiculous lmao

Absolutely. It is worse than I thought. And this is me, who falls probably in the Blizzard Fanboy / White Knight category.

But hey..I drew the line at 129€ + shipping for Dragonflight (BoA was 99€ and free shipping from Amazon) - so...yeah...signing finally on the "greedy corporation" line - or if you like softer language: "capitalism asks for the price that the market is willing to pay"

I know there is a statue included...tell you what...I soften my opinion if..like for the 10th anniversary, customers who never skipped a monthly sub also get a statue this time around.

[loras]

Okay i absolutely love the vibes i'm getting from this, i just hope they don't overuse the humanised nerubians.

Seriously their tendency to overhumanise as seen in Legion's demons and Cata's faceless still somewhat disappoints me.

[morph4037]

As much as I'd love the statue, $214 (total with S&H) is a bit more than I'd like to spend.

[ChairmanKaga]

Oof $180. I've bought every CE (except the original) to get the artbooks this is a hard pill to swallow. I guess I can sell the statue after because I have no interest in it.

[Luthorite]

180 dollars for an Artbook, a statue and a pin... yikes.

[Relapses]

Not a fan of the initial price tag but that statue will likely be worth 10x its current price in a decade or so. /shrug

[rrayy]

Can't but wonder why they stopped using third party retailers.

Because they keep all the money for themselves. NO need to pay a middleman.

[Tech614]

Because they keep all the money for themselves. NO need to pay a middleman.

The real answer is physical retailers don't even want to stock this shit anymore. They make small margins on it. Funny you think there isn't a middle man when they have to pay some factory to make them and shipping partners to move them from the shit hole country they're made in to their warehouses in NA. All of which is far larger cuts than retailers ever made from these which is usually $10 at most.

[Graeham]

God the new allied race looks soo bad, like sooo bad. Why are we getting reskinned dwarves AGAIN?!?!

Yeah, they look so unappealing. At best they're an extreme niche.

[Black Horizon]

That's annoying that's the way it is handled, though I can understand why both sides feel the way they do.

In a perfect world I think your order confirmation email including an activation link for those digital bonuses that can be used now is the most consumer friendly option. Or better yet give people an option to purchase the physical collector's edition directly through the battlenet store client instead of through their gear/merchandise website so it's tied directly to you account from the second you hit confirm purchase.

I would definitely prefer keeping them separated instead of the current setup though if blizz isn't willing to consider the above

I never post on here, but I came across your concern and have provided the details around my Dragonflight purchase and delivery experience below:

Pre-Order placed: June 21st, 2022
Delivered: November 7th, 2022 (via FedEx Ground - standard shipping)
Dragonflight release date: November 28th, 2022

As noted above, I paid for standard shipping for Dragonflight and I did the same thing for The War Within. I had the same concern you did which lead me to look up the details of my Dragonflight purchase prior to the TWW purchase. I really didn't feel like paying $50 shipping for expedited shipping which may not have made a difference anyhow. Three weeks in advance was plenty early to receive the DF Collector's Edition. I have no reason to believe this one will be any different. Given these dates, hoping for a mid-September release personally.

[rrayy]

The real answer is physical retailers don't even want to stock this shit anymore. They make small margins on it. Funny you think there isn't a middle man when they have to pay some factory to make them and shipping partners to move them from the shit hole country they're made in to their warehouses in NA. All of which is far larger cuts than retailers ever made from these which is usually $10 at most.

With all non collector editions? There is no middleman since it is digital only. Not to mention they no longer have to dispose of unsold copies because the colectors edition aren't going to go unsold with its limited quantity.

[YlandreiaYorick]

I have always bought the CEs starting with the original game release from 2004 up to and including DF.
Living rural and with a poor internet connection the first time I felt let down was when they started to leave off a physical edition of the game with the release of BFS - that now meant looong download times vs simply putting in a disc and installing from there (and maybe later apply a smaller download patch).
At that point they also did no longer include behind-the scenes videos, making-ofs and so on. Those were so much fun to watch back in the day. Including a disc with the original soundtrack for the game? Nope. Digital only. I understand that physical media is not for everyone these days but for me it added real value vs a file I had on my computer somewhere.
As it is the actual included content of the boxes became poorer while at the same time prices were increasing.
With the decision to stop offering the actual product to order via retailers like amazon or another marektplace of your preferrence it now also meant that apart from the steep price increse for the ever poorer product I got I now also was reliant on whatever shipping costs arose from the only platform that had the product for sell: the Blizz store. And as others have already mentioned that meant some hefty money on top here in Europe.
So as much as it hurts me as a true collector I just have to be reasonable at this point and draw a line here. 200 Euros for a box with a statue I don't particularly like and some pins I wouldn't need is just too much. It's a shame to miss out on the artbook and to know that my collection will be incomplete from now on but I guess this is just how it is.
Maybe this will then be a good time to question myself if I really need the other CEs to be around here if they only remind me of how things have developed. It might be time to sell these off together with the Diablo boxes and so on via ebay and re-use the space that will be gained for something fresh.