Dracula's Curse™ - A Bloodthirsty Board Game

We were advised to get a warehouse in both the US and Netherlands in order to make international shipping as affordable as possible. We've been discussing these two warehouse locations since shortly after the Kickstarter itself went live (and we had a better sense of our backer numbers in different regions) - We are so sorry for any stress or frustration potential high taxes and fees may be causing. 

Shipping the games to our two separate warehouses across the ocean, and all other associated fees for fulfilling from two separate locations came at a great monetary cost. However, we went through with it to ensure we did everything in our power to try and support our backers in the same way they had supported us - even though based on the number of backers in each region it didn't make business sense to have an NL warehouse. Still, we were told this warehouse would make a huge difference for backers around the world.

Last week, it was discovered that some international backers would be facing high shipping costs, usually due to extra taxes and government fees. We've been back and forth with EasyShip to confirm these figures, as the taxes from some countries seem outlandish. In most cases, the shipping cost itself is around €30, and the extra import tax charges and various fees charged by that country are making that sum MUCH larger.

After much deliberation on how to best take care of our backers, we decided to contribute $20.00 to EVERY single UK, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian backer across the board. This was to show up as a line item called "Retro Plus Games - Shipping Credit" on the EasyShip survey. There's no smoke and mirrors with this, it literally is coming directly out of our pockets to help lower shipping costs for those people.

We have done absolutely everything we can to keep the costs low, even in the face of unexpected circumstances (we also "ate", a much nicer term than the experience, the entirety of the tariff costs - a staggering sum). Politics sucks, man.

There is nothing more important in the world than fulfilling the game, in the best manner possible, to each and every backer. If the high costs or extra taxes and things you're seeing within EasyShip are untenable for your location, we will continue to fight like hell and work on alternative solutions to get the games to your country in an affordable manner. The extra $20 we are contributing out of pocket to backers is coming at a great personal and professional cost, but I understand even that (at least, from what you're currently seeing for your locale) may not be making a large enough difference.

Here's what we can promise/guarantee to backers facing high costs (even after the $20 out of pocket contribution from us) - If you choose to hold off on shipping now, we will honor your pledge for up to one year (and will determine an exact date, which we'll be discussing in a formal update soon). This will require us to store the games at the warehouses beyond our contract or move them to another warehouse, a cost we will again "eat" to ensure we do everything in our power to show love to our backers.

If you're in a region impacted by high government taxes and fees and are willing to wait to receive your game, email us at [email protected] and we'll make sure your pledge is secured. This conversation will be ongoing and we're so incredibly grateful for your support and patience as we explore what the solutions are both short term and long term!