(11-07-2012, 06:09 PM)vince hughes Wrote: I also had a couple more thoughts on this matter (as originally posed by the watery one):
By not selling to retailers, none of these new laser cut products are going overseas. Not sure what amount of AP sales used to be to Europe and Asia, but without a US conduit, I would not be willing to pay the postage on games sent one at a time. Instead, I have to group them at my secret base deep in the N.American continent (a bored out caisson in a huge tree in an un-named National Park) before having them sent en masse !
Secondly, lets be honest. As much as we are glad that AP are getting product out the factory and into the streets, the fact remains that for most people ('most' derived from forum posters on CSW and some I have played). that the laser-cut counters are not really up to the standard of the die-cuts. Fortunately, the Kursk SS are used seperate to other SS produce, but the Russian mix does not stand too attractively next to their old die-cut counter-parts (no pun intended with the 'counter' 'part' of that word ).
At present, AP is more like a niche 'mail-order catalogue' company as opposed to a High-Street 'Biggie' in the wargames World. That alone will kerb sales as their offerings may fail to get past the more hard-core, in-the-know buyers and to the more general 'browsing' customer.
Agreed, APL has PG as its cash cow right now, albeit a bit limited.
