Legend Story Studios announced changes in their support for retailers, essentially blocking online-only retailer (OLGS) from selling sealed products and forcing them to focus only on singles.
This new policy means that I will not be able to take any pre-orders for Monarch, since I’m an OLGS.
The funny thing is that online retailers who were active sellers of FAB products before the date of October 1st 2020 will be allowed to still sell sealed products. Coincidentally this will block out most online retailers in Europe, because official European distribution did not start before October 3rd, thet date that I got an announcement from BlackFire about pre-ordering FAB products.
I’m not sure what LSS is trying to accomplish here. If this is to support Brick&Mortar stores, they are making this decision at an incredibly unfortunate time since they are all closed due to corona. On the other hand, the B&M stores are allowed to sell sealed products online..so maybe it’s just their way to support them.
I can imagine LSS wanting to support the B&M stores, since they are the ones who are supposed to organise tournaments or other events once the corona problem is solved.
On the other hand I do not believe it is fair at this time to essentially be handing a monopoly position to a handfull of store owners.
Second point they are putting in their new policy, which is illegal in the EU so they’re limiting it to the US, is that it is not allowed to sell below MAP (20% below MSRP). Why? Why are they trying to limit stores in selling products to potential new players? Wouldn’t it be better if they would place an upper limit to the selling price of products? I can really not think of a logical explanation for the reasoning behind this decision.